Right. This is the first entry in the blog. It might be followed by
something else later this evening if I have time. More likely it will
remain the only entry in the blog as I forget totally about and go
onto new and more exciting things, or just go play SimCity4 for a few
hours.

Now then, what to talk about. I guess this is just
random opinionated drivel like you get from particularly vociferous
cab drivers.
I’ll start with a rant about trains. I commute into
London on a daily basis as those of you who already know me will know.
I occasionally get on a train that both departs and arrives on time.
However I have been doing this for over 2 weeks now and it’s only
happened once, so I guess that doesn’t even count as occasionally, let
alone set any kind of standard. Still at least I have the reassurance
that South Central trains run on time 99.3% of the time. It says so
on their posters so it must be true. They wouldn’t just lie to try
and persuade the less cynical members of the public that in fact they
aren’t just sucking up the millions of pounds they take in fares and
giving it out their management as bonuses for not spending it. See if it was me running it then big cheap car parks would be the
way forward. Make more money in the long run than having little or no
parking priced at the extreme end of what they can get away with. In
addition to this I would put massive screens up all over the place
with clear helpful information and invest in PA systems that you can
hear and understand all over the station. None of these things are
expensive but would really help the passengers fell better while they
waited for their delayed trains. I would do something about making
the platforms a bit more pleasant to wait on too. Something like
putting up shelters to protect you form the wind would be favourite.
It’s bloody freezing out there on any normal day. They could put up
TVs showing news channels and stuff too that would be good. As far as
the trains go, obviously they have to sort out this issue of them
always being late. It’s pathetic that they can’t even be slightly
reliable. They also need to be more of them in the rush hour. I
would be putting 12 coach express trains through my local mainline
interchange every 10 minutes between 7.00 and 9.00am. You’ve got
enough people to fill them convincingly, and at least we’d all get
seats that way.
They could put TVs up in the trains too. Doesn’t
have to be LCD displays in the back of the headrests, but TVs mounted
to the ceiling every few seats like in the older aircraft would be
lovely. You could just put a normal headphone jack in the seat arm,
and everyone could watch TV on the way to work. Put BBC News 24 on
it. Beats staring at people’s back gardens, or reading someone else’s
newspaper over their shoulder. With more trains running you would be
able to get up and down the aisle easier, allowing them to run a
service trolley. Another thing that would turn a better profit if
priced reasonably, but again no-one sees that. What I think would
work would be a library system. They could charge for it, and carry a
selection of popular novels and biographies, and a few classics.
Stick them all on a trolley like the drinks and you could easy carry
hundreds of titles. I bet loads of commuters would pay 50p to borrow
a book. Easy to return, just bring it on the train with you next time
or stick it in a drop bin at any station. You could have a swipe card
to id yourself, and they could charge fines for late returns, damage
etc.

Well I’m a genius if I do say so myself. I’m going to
watch a film this evening rather than surf the net all evening so
that’s it for now. I’ll stick some more stuff up when I feel like it.
I might even write a review of whatever film I watch.

Posted by akaDruid on 18 Feb 2003 at 07:02 pm
Posted in General with 0 Comments (Visited 1222 times)