How to beat the pain of train travel
In todays Metro on page 14 there is a small piece titled "How to beat the pain of train travel". Basically a researcher, Jonathon Houdmont, is suggesting that the rail companies market rail travel in the same way that cut price airlines market their flights. Let me quote from the article:
Although overcrowding contributes to stress, it is also caused by commuters feeling out of control, said the institute of Work, Health and Organisations at Nottingham University. So if passengers - like those on cheap airlines - are told it's going to be busy but they will arrive on time, they are more likely to tolerate the conditions, added the report.
Erm - not me mate. The conditions I travel to work in are worse than is legally allowed to transport livestock to the slaughterhouse. If you tell me its going to be busy I'm going to say "no shit Sherlock!" and I am going to be rather upset that you think I am stupid. You want to lower my expectations then you lower the price of my ticket. Full bloody stop.
The cheap airlines offer an alternative and you get a cheaper price. I have an alternative for getting to work - the bus. It's a lot cheaper and would take me 2 hours to get to work as opposed to the 50 minutes it takes on the train and tube. I can't drive (the equivalent of a personal jet) so that not an option and cycling (the equivalent of a hang-glider) is too dangerous and will take as long as the bus. So I am already on the premium method of transport available to me. If BA announced to its passengers that the plane is very busy so they were going to make you stand all the way - you might get a tad upset but you would not lower your expectations as you paid for a safe seated journey.
Houdmont goes onto state:
You are stuck on a crowded train and you have been seriously delayed. You are late for work, your tired and in a bad mood. It means you may be less likely to perform well at work and, if this is happening to enough people, it has implications for the economy.
Well Houdmont - you cannot prop an economy up by hoodwinking the workers into thinking that their journey is tolerable. It don't wash. We don't fly bucket class 10 times a week - we do that twice a year perhaps and there is a big reward at the end of the flight not just a daily grind.
Perhaps the researchers in the green pastures of Nottingham should try commuting into London for a few weeks.
Who are these idiot researchers anyway?
(Actually Jonathon Houdmont is a Research Fellow - I think he's a silly fellow myself.)