I choose the train
I took seven different trains today. This was not because I love trains, although I have had a soft spot for them since I was a child. I had a business meeting in Essex, which meant that I had to get into London, across London, and then out from London into the wilds of Essex.
Three trains to get there and four back because I made an extra journey closer to my house on the return trip.
Yes, I could have driven and sampled the joys of the M25. But I don’t choose to drive when I can take the train.
On the train I can:
- Read;
- Look out the window;
- Doze off;
- Get irritated by loud music seeping from poor quality headphones;
- Make notes.
The good outweighs the bad, clearly.
The longest I had to wait for a train in all my separate journeys was eight minutes. I calculate it took me about the same time to get to my meeting and back that it would have taken had I driven — and with the roads clear.
That’s it. A simple hooray for trains. Public transport works — even if much of it would work more cheaply were it still in public ownership. But that’s a gripe for another day.
