As others see us

[hq1hitchin]

A long way to go yet, sadly

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/co ... 83903.html

[StoneRoad]

well, he certainly got out of the bed on the wrong side before writing that drivel......

[A3 Spearmint]

Is he related to Beaching?

[strang steel]

He has a point, though.

To people like myself who dont travel by train a great deal, but used to do much more frequently in the past, the irritations he describes are very noticeable. I'm sure it is considered only right to defend modern day rail travel as the pinnacle of progress, especially by those who are employed therein, but if I was to consider my ideal way to travel by rail, my top three would not include anything currently in TOC service.

Leaving aside Pullmans, I would choose a Mk2 corridor first as my favourite, and dinner in the open first next to the restaurant car. Three courses and waiter served - marvellous.

I dont want to sit for hours with a whining engine under the floor, revving up and down at ever more annoying rates. That in itself rules out about 70 percent of modern stock. The endless PA announcements just add to the misery and rule out most of the others. I was almost driven to distraction by a trip from Waterloo to Winnersh a few years ago where the automatic announcement gave out the name of every single station the train was calling at before, during and immediately after each station stop. If people cant read the signs on the platforms then they should think twice about travelling by train alone.

[rob237]

...before writing that drivel...

Howard Jacobson, one the leading prize winning authors over the last 20 years...hardly the writer of 'drivel'.
I'd consider many of his observations to be exceedingly valid.

Cheers
Robt P.

[kudu]

Howard Jacobson, one the leading prize winning authors over the last 20 years...hardly the writer of 'drivel'.
I'd consider many of his observations to be exceedingly valid.

Being a leading fiction author is no guarantee of drivel-free content, merely that any drivel will be well-written drivel.

I find it hard to believe his encounters with on-board staff were quite as bad as portrayed but he travels more than me.

It's difficult to know how to get the balance right on on-board announcements - you can't please everybody. One thing that irritates me is the announcement of the arrival time of the final destination on trains where this can be of interest to very few passengers. Do they announce the final arrival time as the train leaves Aberdeen for Penzance?

And the other source of annoyance is the reluctance of designers to align windows and seats.

Kudu

[Rlangham]

Sounds like he's suffering from cranky middle aged man syndrome. It's easy to find annoyance in anything if you try for it hard enough

[coachmann]

I read it and had a good laugh. Any kind of public transport sucks today.

[Autocar Publicity]

Howard Jacobson, one the leading prize winning authors over the last 20 years...hardly the writer of 'drivel'.
I'd consider many of his observations to be exceedingly valid.

Being a leading fiction author is no guarantee of drivel-free content, merely that any drivel will be well-written drivel.

Kudu

Award winning drivel? I'll settle for a good story written by an unknown.

The author's obviously been rubbed up the wrong way, if he reports accurately his experiences, and I have a nasty feeling he might, then you don't have to be a grumpy old man to take offence. Bean counting accountants one, passengers (aka mobile revenue units) nil. If train staff were polite and there was no cause for resentment at the 'service' given, there wouldn't be any need for the signs saying [we will not tolerate abuse of our staff] - if TOCs didn't treat passengers as they do, would there be any need for such signs?

And the other source of annoyance is the reluctance of designers to align windows and seats.

That just smacks either of carelessness or gross indifference to passengers - "sorry" , 'customers', I don't know which is more worrying.

[PinzaC55]

I think it would be fair to say that most of the things he whines about are down to privatisation. I'd love to know what he said in the run up TO privatisation. I bet it was something like "No announcements, curly edged sandwiches, surly staff, tickets too complicated". Hoist by his own petard.

[A3 Spearmint]

Most of what he says is true of todays railways, I was on the train the other day going to North Berwick and the person doing the announcing said "we are now approaching Berwick Upon Tweed our final stop" I could'nt breathe for laughing, he had alot of explaining to do as some people had'nt been to North Berwick before and really thought they were further south!
And to add to that someone was locked in the toilet the whole journey, wonder if he made it out