Ranting makes for loads of words. I figured that if I struggle to write some days I could just pick something from every day life that is tripping me up. I could probably write at least a hundred words on British public transport every day. That might become boring eventually but, for today, I'll start with that.
Why is public transport such a difficult thing to get right? It is not like it is impossible. There are countries that actually manage to have buses and trains that run and run on time.
It takes me about 90 minutes to get to work. Either
I drive 5 minutes to where I get the bus or walk there which would take
me 20 minutes. Then I get the bus, if it shows up (but never on time),
which takes sixty to seventy minutes and then I have a 10 minute walk to
the office.
Towards the end of 2023 the Go North East bus
company's employees went on strike. After weeks of being sardined into
the, one and only, bus that ran on my route to work, people completely
lost sympathy for the union that was still rejecting a 10+% increase in
salaries. I was considering the train but despite the fact that I live
on a massive estate just outside the city, I have no reasonable way to
get to the station. I could get the Arriva bus to the station but that
only runs every 30 minutes and is not synchronised with any trains.
Well, you can't really synchronise any one thing, in England, with any
other thing because none of the things are ever on time. I could take
the car to the station but the parking fee would exceed most people's
mortgage payments. I was just about to consider the cycling scheme to
buy a folding electric bike to the station when the Go North East strike
ended and the trains went on strike. I decided to put the cycling
scheme of to the summer.
A couple of weeks ago I make all the reservations for trains and hotels to attend the FOSDEM conference in Belgium. I was so pleased with myself. Everything is organised and done and dusted. I can relax, get a taxi to the station on the day and in the meantime look forward to FOSDEM. Then, last night, I have to read about more train strikes again. So I had to re-reserve a different train and cancel my existing reservation.
My get-up-and-go just got-up-and-went. I would SO like to live in a first world country! And not just one that looks like first world when you compare it to the third world but one that actually shows how things can be done.
Word count: 458
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