TRAIN PAIN AGAIN

The Stirrer's blog for Thursday

31-08-2006

California's governor Arnie Schwarzenegger is planning tough new laws to combat climate change and the Tories are proposing green taxes, so why is it such a strain catching the train in Birmingham?

Yesterday, I raced onto the platform at my local station on my way to a meeting in the city centre.

I could have gone by car, but decided I could live without the cost of parking and the hassle of dealing with the traffic.

My conscience twinged as well - my motto is to use the motor when I have to, but public transport when I can.

When the train pulled up I hadn't managed to get cash out of my pocket to buy a ticket from the machine on the platform, so asked the guard - as I have done several times before - if I could buy one from him.

He harrumphed, and said he supposed so, but clearly didn't much like the idea.

I hopped on anyway, because the train was about to leave, and went to pay my fare.

It was here that Mr Grumpy Jobsworth had his revenge.

The cost of my regular £1.80 return ticket had mysteriously swollen to £3.

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Well," he said, "It's because you've bought it on the train."

I could see I was dealing with a master of zen logic, but proceeded to have the argument anyway.

"Why should it cost more just because I'm buying it from you?" I pressed.

"You should have bought it on the platform. That's why we provide a ticket machine," he answered.

"Yes, but then I would have missed the train."

"Well you could have caught the next one. They are every ten minutes you know"

"But then I might have been late formy meeting. On past experience I know the next train might have been delayed or cancelled, so I wasn't willing to take the risk."

"Well it's an offence to travel without a ticket" he said firmly

"But I want to buy a ticket" I snapped back. "And I also want to use public transport. But if I'm going to have to pay a penalty of 66% extra just for buying on the train, next time I'll think about going by car instead."

And there the conversation ended.

It may be that Mr G J was simply following orders laid down by his bosses.

If so, here are a few thoughts for them.

Firstly, why not simply allow passengers to buy tickets at regular prices from the guard.

It would be far simpler than queuing at the ticket office or dealing with slow machines.

Or if that's deemed a security risk to guards, why not allow customers to buy pre-paid tickets, with scratch off dates, possibly at a discount.

That would mean semi-regular travellers like myself who wouldn't get value from a season ticket, could at least plan ahead for our journeys and might be inclined to use the train more regularly.

This isn't such a revolutionary idea - similar cards are used on public transport systems around the world, and used to be available in the West Midlands until they were withdrawn a few years ago.

And finally, Central Trains, encourage your staff to get with the programme; if we've got Republicans in California and Conservatives in Britain talking about global warming, everyone working on our public transport needs to understand their role in fighting climate change too.

Making passengers feel welcome would be a wonderful start.