Travelled to Birmingham on Saturday for Unite’s United Left’s AGM. That’s the three-hour meeting which if we’re lucky we’ll get to Agenda Item 2.1.1 out of 10 items on the bill. Walk away from it slapping each other on the back for another good day’s work done.
Anyway, I digress as this Blog is more to do with the journey than the dreaded destination.
We boarded the 10-summink to New Street, Birmingham, stopping at what sounded like hghcjhjhjhgykhv and xeeawrkjiob, or it could have even been pjkjjtrgchfh or mpkjhfrehhuifd such was the lucidity of the Virgin PA system.
Of course, this being a train journey that I was embarking upon we were confronted with the first obstruction. A buggy the size of a small tractor was occupying the space designated for wheelchair users. After traversing the carriage my PA confronted the owner of the four-wheel-drive all-terrain buggy and explained that her baby vehicle was incorrectly parked.
Down the aisle charges middle-class mummy. She looks at me, looks in at the tiny little baby occupying this monstrous truck of a buggy, and with all the grace of someone who’s not used to being questioned yet alone challenged, moves the buggy to the space by the door.
“Are you satisfied?” she asks barely able to contain her pissedoffedness.
“Well, no I’m not actually.” I reply. “Look at the sign down there. It clearly states that the space you’re now occupying must be left clear to allow………”
“So, what do you expect me to do?” the mum haughtily challenges.
My PA, being her usual diplomatic calm-the-situation down type, suggested that the woman fold the vehicle, even offering to help. To which I, naturally, concurred.
“It doesn’t fold-up. It’s a such and such make,” (I failed to catch the name) obviously a luxury brand that went for style over practicality.
“So why did you buy what is undoubtedly a top-of-the-range perambulator and expect to use it on public transport?” I asked her at the same time as I pressed the button to summon the train manager.
A minute or so later the manager came along, agreed with me and helped the woman into another carriage with her totally inappropriate child carrying conveyance.
You won’t believe this, but I had almost the same issue on the return journey. A parent boarded the carriage. Again, parked what looked like another complicated fixed-frame buggy blocking the space needed for me to manoeuvre in and out of the carriage. Once more I had to explain why she shouldn’t park her buggy in the space. And of course, she objected. Telling me that I could ask her to move the buggy if I needed to leave the carriage.
By now seriously pissed-off I told her that I wasn’t willing to be put in a position where I needed her permission to leave the carriage…
Why can’t Virgin Trains use bigger signs? Why can’t people when somebody reasonably explains a situation have a bit of fucking respect for the position of others?
Looks like it’s back to the car for me, at least until parents who use buggies on public transport can have the good sense to purchase a machine that collapses; or Virgin Trains begin making trains that can carry passengers with varied needs and understand that people when travelling often travel with luggage.
