TRAIN IN VAIN

23-07-2006

So my little one gets a treat from her dad - her first trip on the train.

We walk to our local station and get on board for Birmingham, just 15 minutes away.

Good job we're not going north of New Street though.

Even though it's Saturday, the busiest leisure day of the week, there are apparently “engineering works”. Again.

So the cross city line isn't crossing the city at all - travellers to the north side have to catch a replacment bus instead.

Still, we're alright Jack and enjoy a smooth early morning trip into town.

So far, so good.

It's only when we try coming back that the problems start.

The 11.24 is mysteriously cancelled. No explanation, no apology.

Never mind, it's only ten minutes until the next one, so we head to the advertised platform.

Rather baffling this though, because the 11.42 to Bristol is already waiting there.

Unless our 11.34 gets involved in a spot of railway argy bargy and shunts its rival out of the way, there's no way our train can get in.

I point this out to a couple of station staffon the platform, who insist the Bristol train isn't really the 11.42 but an earlier one that's tuned up late.

The platform announcer immediately gives the lie to this over the tannoy.

Then to the surprise of no one but those two dozy officials, we are told the 11.34 has been cancelled too.

Once more, there's no explanation and as Elton John once said: “Sorry seems to be the hardest word.”

Now bear in mind that I've got a delightful but hungry two-year old alongside me eager to enjoy her return rail journey home - but hungry for dinner too.

So I hurry upstairs to the enquiries desk. What's going on?

“We're not sure” one harrassed woman tells me. “They haven't told us anything.”

But “they” are “you” I think to myself. So I press her for more information.

Can you tell us what's gone wrong? And will the next train at 11.45 be running?

Harrassed official harrumphs and rings a colleague.

“There's been problems with the points,” she tells me.

“But the 11.45 will definitely be there.”

Suffice to say it wasn't.

At 11.45 we discovered that all trains had been suspended indefinitely because of a points failure.

Now this is just one little tale of a leisure trip gone wrong - a minor irritation in the grand scheme of things.

Yet it's an all too common tale for those who use the trains frequently whether for work or pleasure.

I've used trains as a commuter in London, and as a night owl in the West Midlands.

Two very diffrent places, two very different travel needs - in both cases, same old story.

After all those promises in the years since since BR was broken up, at times it seems as though nothing has changed.

When the railways were privatised we were promised a “customer facing” operation that wouldn't require vast subsidies.

Now it can look as though we have the worst of both worlds - millions of pounds spent lining the pockets of privatised rail companies, but a business that shows no greater awareness of the needs of the public than before.

This week, new Tory leader David Cameron acknowledged that his party had made mistakes in privatising the railways.

About sixteen years too late, but welcome nonetheless.

Equally foolish though was Labour's refusal to take Railtrack back into public ownership as soon as it was elected in 1997.

I'm not unduly nostalgic for the days of BR, but it might have saved dozens of lives at Hatfield and ensured a railway run for the benefit of the people - not shareholders.

Who knows, it might also have saved me a frustrating and pointless half an hour wait at New Street station yesterday as well.

Fortunately my two-year old was just as excited at the prospect of catching the bus as a train and after fighting our way through the crowds of shoppers we had a great ride home.

So great in fact, thatwe both know which form of transport we'll be taking for our next expedition to the big city.

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