Arriva trains always seem to have old rail stock and dirty carrages which always seem to over filled to the gunnells and I generally keep my train going experiences to the occassional virgin long haul services that provide excellent service and rather nice coffee.
A certain proportion of passengers that frequent the arriva service are what I call ( and I won't apologise for this) the "great unwashed" They seem to be the lager swilling, track suit wearing, baseball cap wearing dispossessed that criss cross the coast between the inner city areas of the North West and the deprived ex holiday towns in Wales.
There always seems a kind of lawlessness about them, a kind of anger and lack of respect which can be rather intimidating, and I wonder why I notice their presence as much as I do, given the fact I once lived within a great Northern city that had it's own share of the "anti social" (which strangely I never really felt intimidated by)
I do not think I am wrong in my assessment...my friend Nigel who lives in Manchester and who is as objective as King Solomon always comments just how the coast trains resemble a scene out of a cheap Western.......if you don't believe me readers...just catch the 11.05 between Shotton and Rhyl.....you'll see!
Anyhow I digress....... before I pop up to my brother's for the day I will leave you with a Welsh train story!
Now I know I have been banging on about the yobbish underclass that frequent the system......many of which seem to hop on and hop off the trains without paying..... but at least this guy bought the bloody pony a ticket from the vending machine!!!
Whoa! I am the first to leave a comment but I have nothing to say except Rhubarb! Rhubarb! Rhubarb!
ReplyDeleteI too miss British Rail - at least we had one company to blame for the late, dirty trains, who also owned the tracks they ran on. I have to say that I hate public transport for all the reasons you mention John, and I only use it when going to London, then get straight into taxis. At least I am now eligible for half-price, 1st class tickets, so I can share the carriage with a better sort of riff-raff.
ReplyDeleteHello John:
ReplyDeleteWe are so pleased to read that 'the great unwashed' are being accommodated so beautifully by Arriva in Wales. In this way, Eurostar can be enjoyed without fear of anything more serious than a breakdown in the tunnel or a lack of chilled champagne.
And, do tell, John, did the pony travel first or second class?!!
Saw this as a video on tonights' (Thursday) news and immediately thought of you - hoped you were not trying to sneak a pony home under Chris's nose! LOL!
ReplyDeletejane and lance
ReplyDeleteI know I sound snobby
and I do not apologise for it..
I hate the dumbing down of things here in the UK...this immediate, celebrity cultured, self obsessed, non community minded "underclass"
angers me
can you tell?
It would cost you more than a pony (£25) to even step on a train these days.
ReplyDeleteYes John - that chap and his pony feature in the Times today - fame indeed.
ReplyDeleteDid they actually allow him to stay on with the beast?
ReplyDeletePony express springs to mind !
ReplyDeleteI always wonder if the train seats ever get cleaned - the floors do but does the job stop there - my pet hate is folks stuffing their faces and leaving half the food on the seat !
I'm with you on the great unwashed. I spend my working life surrounded by them and thoroughly resent the vast amount of tax payers dosh being spent on trying to keep them in check whilst I have to work ever longer before I can draw my measly state pension or get my bus pass.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we're snobs - just fed up with working flat out for the priviledge of having to step off the pavement to avoid being elbowed out of the way, verbally abused or otherwise intimidated.
saw this on the news in Israel so funny
ReplyDeleteI've just seen this on the BBC local news site:
ReplyDelete"More images have emerged of places visited by a mystery man and his pony, including a hospital A&E department and a pub.
The animal was caught on CCTV waiting in line at the reception desk at Wrexham Maelor Hospital's emergency department.
Meanwhile, shoppers have also snapped pictures as the animal was led into a pub in Wrexham."
What a wonderful capture!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. We have Obama care which will be as useless as teats on a boar hog.
When I last visited the U.K. after an absence of some twenty years the change in the train service astonished and delighted me...though this was in the South East.
ReplyDeleteAfter the French train service it was relatively inexpensive and the trains were clean...not to speak of being able to step into the carriage from the platform without a mountain climbing exercise...but I now see I was deprived...
No ponies on my trains!
I had some of my weirdest experiences on trains from Charing Cross to Lee Green, Kent as a young woman. I will not go into details, but they did involve a lot of unwashed exposures. So I have yacky impressions of British Rail or whoever they were that ran that line.--Inger
ReplyDeleteI saw this and thought of you...not really a cheap western, but...
ReplyDeleteEnjoy!
For a really cheap western, I think this is much more "you"...
Enjoy even more!
Nx
Seems like quite a nice pony to me, I would rather ride a train with it than with obnoxious people. And I really don't mind those folks except it's social custom here to just be nice and ignore them when they're doing something wrong. I can't do that. If someone spits on the floor near my foot, I'm gonna pull out my six-gun and blast them away. That's just how it is here in the west.
ReplyDeleteHere here on the unwashed. People simply don't try hard enough and have enough personal pride in themselves or their home.
ReplyDeleteInteresting you should write about regional rail as I was traveling home today by train. I'm surprised by how different the experience can be on different regional rail lines. Here in Scotland, First Scotrail aren't bad.. middling I suppose. The best I've run across so far is London Midland. Their trains are new and clean and they seem to have excellent polite staff. Take a lesson other rail companies.
From what you have described in this post and in past post, I think I'd much prefer the pony's company. Definitely nicer/more polite and he might just even smell better!
ReplyDelete:)
Made me laugh. Only in Wales I reckon.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the last kind remarks about your chicken. Wanted to tell you that the man + horse story made the morning news shows here north of Los Angeles. We're all sisters and brothers in the weird dept.
ReplyDeleteCheeers
Ruth from Oxnard
Folks, I'd settle for a train service rather than our three times daily bus shuttle to Canberra!
ReplyDeleteFunny – I saw this on ‘Have I got news for you’ this very evening. The Pony Express to Horesham and so on. What a hoof. Fancy getting saddled with one of those in your first class compartment. He should have tried to board at a Maine line station – blend in with the crowds. Funny thing is, the conductor was more than happy to let the pony on. It was the ‘Great Unwashed’ varmint of an owner he refused boarding to. Ha Ha Ha!!
ReplyDeleteThey eliminated the passenger train service that used to run through Boise a decade ago and now it's either drive or fly. Perhaps there were getting to be too many great unwashed riding Amtrak, too.
ReplyDelete:-)