I have a feeling this is going to become too common a topic. To get to work from my new home by the sea involves a 2 hour door to door car/train/tube journey. The car bit so far has been fine – 7 minutes and then just a few minutes to find somewhere to park (although this is getting more and more difficult it seems). The train is the brand spanking new high speed service which stops at just 4 stations en route. On a good day I should be sat at my desk by 9.10. However, despite being shiny and new, the trains seem to have no end of problems. Lack of carriages, no platform to come into, collisions, no power, faulty doors, previous cancelled services; the list of excuses just seem to be more and more creative. But at the end of the day, the high speed service just isn’t doing what it claims to. And to add insult to injury, when I get to my home station in the evening, there are posters everywhere promoting the service with a woman in a suit running to hug her toddler, and the strapline “Don’t miss the most important meetings”. Well, thanks to the dreadful service, I am lucky if I get 15 minutes with my baby (aka The Frog Princess or TFP from now on) before she goes to bed at night. I sent off my complaint yesterday and of the 40 trains I caught last month, 11 of them suffered delays or cancellations. 11!!! Then last night the train was cancelled and this morning delayed.
I was so furious this morning that one of my colleagues bought me chocolate to calm me down. I’d got up extra early to catch the earlier train as there were some important meetings starting at 9am and I’d wanted to be in to prepare for them beforehand. That train gets in 40 mins earlier. Except today it was 15 minutes late and then the tubes were down, the trains weren’t stopping at my destination station and I ended up catching a bus. I got into work at 9.15 having left my house at 6.40. I was close to tears by the time I got here.
I don’t want to be here really, spending a quarter of my salary on a useless train service but I’m stuck for 6 months or have to pay my enhanced maternity pay back – money I simply don’t have. So I’m a prisoner to the job and to Southeastern High Speed and their constant announcements of gratitude “Thank you for choosing Southeastern High Speed for your journey today. Please report anything suspicious to a member of staff”. Does that include a train running on time?
Anyway, the travel misery is really adding to the way I’m feeling at the moment. Being back at work, seeing my baby for barely 20 minutes a day, fighting with DP constantly, serious lack of sleep, money worries for the first time in years, wrist and elbow pain and constant train delays. Just a miserable existence right now.
