Commuters
Posted: Thu 31 August, 2006 Filed under: Thoughts, Travel, Weirdness 2 Comments »One thing I do find really amusing while commuting to London is the other people on the trains, and on the Underground.
I have to admit, I just really don’t understand the drive and rush that surrounds these people. On the way home last night there was one guy who was about two points short of a coronary (or stroke) on the Tube – OK, he’d obviously got a train to catch, but at every stop he was swearing, sighing, checking his watch, swearing, sighing, checking his watch, and once the train got moving it’d always be “About fucking time too”. To me, it was very, very funny. To him it was obviously some kind of “life or death” thing to get on the train. And when we got to Waterloo, he shoved his way through the people, ran up the stairs, ran up the escalators. And still missed his train.
I know, because I was on the same one he got on – a whole ten minutes later, going to the same place as the one he’d just missed.
So I have to ask, “Was it worth it?“. No, I didn’t ask him – obviously it was all a bit stressful, the poor dear. But what’s the point of getting so stressed and apoplectic about that kind of thing?
Admittedly, I’m on the other end of the scale, and truly don’t give a shit what time I get in to the office. So I can stroll through the platforms and tunnels etc. of the Underground, and it’s no problem. (Although I should point out too that my “stroll” still ends up overtaking most people) But I just can’t be arsed to get stressed about missing a train – and definitely not about missing a tube train, as they run every couple of minutes anyway.
I just don’t get the entire “rush everywhere, every second is important, time-is-money” crap that so many of these people seem to spout.
Like Bueller said, “Sometimes you just have to slow down and look around“. It’s much more fun.
Like rats down a drainpipe ….. thats my experience of the tube in London – that lot dont know they were born, seriously. Up norf, well round ere, the trains run every half an hour, not every two or three minutes.
Even funnier tho, people who run up escalators, sod that, it’s designed to take the strain off your legs!
I decided in 1989 that I would never rush in my commute. I figured I had about forty years of this and I needed to be laid back for my own sanity. If I’m late I’m late. Either spectacularly late eg 1 hour; that’s why I have a phone. Or five minutes late, which everyone knows is par for the course. If it’s really important I will allow extra time.
In May I was coming out of the Tube and was barged into heavily by a man running at full pelt for the Victoria Line. I felt as if I had been assaulted and ended up in tears in the station controller’s office. I am still a bit angry because it was all so unnecessary, as well as being thoughtless and reckless. Victoria Line trains run every minute or two; if he missed the one I got off there would be another along before he had chance to catch his breath.
Be thankful those people aren’t driving; imagine the carnage they would cause…