Public transport horror
Dear Felix,
Why is public transport so bad? My parents live in a hilly little place not so far from Manchester. Ordinarily I would get the wonderful Virgin pendolino train from Euston (which makes me feel less bad about the price of the ticket), but the main line was closed this weekend, to my dismay. The National Rail website told me to get a train to Nottingham (or Sheffield) from St. Pancras. This doubled my journey time from a bearable 2 hours to more than 4.
The last step of the journey involved me using (gasp) a bus. Growing up in Saddleworth has prepared me well for the terrible bus service, but it has since worsened. It takes another two hours to travel the 12 miles from Manchester, and these buses run just once an hour.
Returning to London always makes me think how much better things are here, and it amazes me that the government (initially) refused funding for Manchester's Metrolink. I wonder whether the people sitting in Westminster know what lies beyond the limits of Greater London.
Daniel
