Strikes on the London Underground took place in September, disrupting thousands of commuters’ journeys into work. Since further strikes are planned to take place on 3rd October, the 2nd November and 28th November, this poses the question, is the public transport system in London still worth using?
We all know the sinking feeling – your train is cancelled and another one won’t come for another half hour – and then that one fails to appear. Imagine that happening on a regular basis, with no real viable alternative to getting to your destination. This could be the reality of the current public transport climate, especially since no settlement between bosses and the union can yet be sighted on the horizon.
But it’s not only tubes that are causing problems, overground trains are being rerouted and a direct train journey is known to have been replaced by two separate trains. My own train journey to school used to be a direct train up until summer 2010, and was then scrapped forcing me to take two trains and change halfway. This shaved a mere three minutes off my journey, hardly a significant amount of time to compensate me for having to wait on an open platform, in the sometimes biting frostiness of winter air. Further, I was made to pay an extra £10.00 for a 6 week ticket for the same journey, which would have previously cost in the perfectly reasonably region of £35.00.
Although it is highly unlikely that there will ever be a let up in the inconvenience caused to your everyday commuter, many customers have no other choice – driving into Central London costs an arm and a leg, and for others, myself included, there is, quite frankly, no other way to get to their destination. Many of us will simply grimace and continue to wait for that train that we know will not appear.
