Statistically, a third of Southern train services are late and some 15% are cancelled. “Chaos Rail” was one phrase summarising the meltdown. And yet, recently, a member of staff at Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) – the owners of Southern trains – proposed that the solution to their problems was to axe 341 daily services. Even worse, the executives at GTR thought this was a great idea, and from the 11th of July it’ll be implemented.
People are rightly angry that they miss their child’s bath-time every day. GTR and the short-sleeved-shirt wearing drivers deserve all the abuse they’re getting. However, I do sympathise with them slightly.
London is overcrowded. There are over eight million souls living within it and, by 2024, that’s expected to reach nearly 10 million.
I suspect many of these individuals will be commuters. Yes, economically that means an ever increasing demand for rail travel but, the companies, like GTR, must get extremely sweaty when seeing these figures.
Why? Well, whichever way you look at it, they just can’t put on more services. London is already awash with train lines and undergrounds and stations. They’ve got their backs against the wall. But, my commuter friends, deciding to strike in anger is not the answer to our sorrow. And, GTR, neither is cancelling services.
The foundation of all commuting woe is overcrowding because, even if your train to London does turn up on time, you’re carriage will almost certainly host less space than the Auschwitz Express.
It’s always horrible, sweaty, warm and, because we’re english, we suffer silently as more and more suited and booted travellers board for the kind of nightmare only J.G. Ballard could dream of. Eventually, we arrive at our destinations, slave away at work, and then do it all again 7 hours later – not forgetting we pay money to do this.
This to me is where the madness lies and it’s where my solution stems: how come commuters travelling for longer on the busy hot boxes from hell pay more than the flash tosser’s that can afford a home closer to the city?
It makes no sense to me. I moved from zone 2 outward to zone 6. The only reason was that rent and house prices literally drove me away. I admit, it’s cheaper in zone 6, and there are less murders. However, I’m not any better off because, whereas before it was a 30 minute journey, I’m now travelling 90 minutes to work, at the whim of rail companies, and spending lots of pounds each month for the pleasure of it.
The oligarchs that can afford homes in zone 2 pay much less. Obviously, they have shorter journey’s and it makes sense to charge by distance. But, this point only makes sense when you want to be at your final destination. As an example; Australia is much nicer, warmer and further away than Southend-on-sea, so, I’d expect to pay much more to go there. Whereas I don’t commute to London everyday for leisure. I’ve got a job. I’m not a tourist, yet I’m charged like one?
Environmentalists should agree with me. Soon polar bears won’t exist anymore and Norfolk will be all gone. To prevent it, we’ve all got to be greener. Therefore, surely spending longer on a train is much more economical than getting on for 5 minutes? Plus, surely if we reduced the number of times a train stopped on its way to central London, we could have more ‘express’ journeys from the green belt, which would provide better fuel consumption – and that’s a good thing. Further still, if there was an incentive for more people to live outside London, surely they’d also be happier? There’s no denying that the countryside has a considerable positive impact on mental health.
I thus want to propose a new London rail price system. Let’s flip it around. Let’s charge the hedge-fund-twots more money to travel from Brixton than the working parents from Tonbridge. Let’s create an incentive for living outside the city.
It will be a disaster at first, but eventually, more people will move out of central London to live further down the lines – where houses are affordable. And, there will be more fast services that miss out stations within London central zones. This means you’re journey is more precise, probably quieter and you’ll more than likely get a seat to read the Metro too.
It may be “chaos rail” now but, my fellow commuters, there is an alternative way. Getting home to kiss your children goodnight is doable as a London commuter, we just need to flip the scales.
By G.Ripley
The Lighthouse Digest 