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Harrowing Wealdstone

by Lisa 

Posted: 24 August 2003
Word Count: 441
Summary: Anyone who's ever used Silverlink will know...


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Hurry, hurry, quick now – squint: three minutes!

__________The next train to arrive on platform four will be the fifteen fifty-seven to London Euston; calling at: Berkhamsted, Hemel Hempstead, Watford Junction, Harrow and Wealdstone and London Euston.

Fumble, fumble, click – lights! How much? Note! Phew.

__________Customers on platform four awaiting the fifteen fifty-seven to London Euston; calling at: Berkhamsted, Hemel Hempstead, Watford Junction, Harrow and Wealdstone and London Euston, we regret to inform you that this service is currently running seven minutes late.

A twenty! Smooth, smooth – ease it in there: whirr! Yes! No? It’s come back out!

___________Customers on platform four awaiting the fifteen fifty-seven to London Euston; calling at: Berkhamsted, Hemel Hempstead, Watford Junction, Harrow and Wealdstone and London Euston, we have just been informed that this service arrived at Bletchley nineteen minutes late.

Smooth, smooth, tease out that dog eared corner – ease it in there. Yes! No? Exact fare only?

__________Customers on platform four awaiting the fifteen fifty-seven to London Euston; calling at: Berkhamsted, Hemel Hempstead, Watford Junction, Harrow and Wealdstone and London Euston, this service has just arrived at Cheddington and is expected at sixteen twenty-nine.

Fumble, jingle, slot: coin, coin, coin, coin, coin, coin, coin, coin coin!

Yes!
Oh…
Coin, coin coin, coin, clunk? Ah, a Euro… coin, coin, coin. Whirr – result!

_________Customers on platform four awaiting the fifteen fifty-seven to London Euston; calling at: Berkhamsted, Hemel Hempstead, Watford Junction, Harrow and Wealdstone and London Euston, this a platform alteration: please make your way to platform one for the late running fifteen fifty-seven to London Euston; calling at: Berkhamsted, Hemel Hempstead, Watford Junction, Harrow and Wealdstone and London Euston.

Beep, bip, bip, bip. Hi Dave! Delayed, yes. No, not really, Will be a little late – don’t go without me! Sure. The station? Harrow and Wealdstone. Five minutes walk to your place. No problem. Uh-huh. Click.

_________Customers on platform one awaiting the fifteen fifty-seven to London Euston; calling at: Berkhamsted, Hemel Hempstead, Watford Junction, Harrow and Wealdstone and London Euston, this a platform alteration: please make your way to platform four for the delayed fifteen fifty-seven to London Euston; calling at: Berkhamsted, Hemel Hempstead, Watford Junction, Harrow and Wealdstone and London Euston. This service will be arriving in four mintues time.

Beep, bip, bip, bip – hi Dave! No, worse. Shouldn’t be too long, You will wait for me? Great! See you soon. Click.

...


...



_____________The next train to arrive on platform four will be the seventeen fifty-seven to London Euston; calling at: Berkhamsted, Hemel Hempstead, Watford Junction and London Euston only.

Beep, bip, bip bip. Hi Dave! Dave? Dave?
Click.













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Comments by other Members



Anna Reynolds at 12:28 on 25 August 2003  Report this post
Yes, this is horribly familiar... probably goes for all rail services nowadays. I like the sense of panic running through the narrator's exchanges with the machine/phone; I wondered if you might think about going further with the train announcements. I heard one the other day that said; 'The 14.54 service for Hemel Hempstead, Bletchlet, and Milton keynes Central will not be stopping at this station although it was supposed to.' The train then whizzed through the station. 'The driver appears to have forgotten.' That was it- not more explanation. It made me wonder about how anarchic you could get with this material?

Lisa at 21:00 on 25 August 2003  Report this post
Fantastic! I wish Tring had an announcer as comical as that! We're lucky to get any announcements at all here - in fact I think the chap has been in the ticket box on his own so long he's gone a bit perculiar!

Lisa

olebut at 21:26 on 25 August 2003  Report this post
Strangely enough when I travelled form both hemel hemstead and bletchley in the days of British Rail the only times the trains were late was on the evening trip home ( strange that) and that was usually when there had been an accident.
Although I do remember a morning where a guy tried to get on to the train by leaping off of Leighton Buzzard bridge he missed.

But I can equate to the sentiment and the humour frustration and almost resigned despair.

david

Lisa at 15:59 on 26 August 2003  Report this post
David, "resigned despair" is such a great way to describe our current railway system. They should use it in their next advertising campaign!

Lisa

olebut at 16:39 on 26 August 2003  Report this post
Lisa

I was so taken with your enthusiasm of resigned despair i replied with a poem sadly or perhaps happily my link went down and i lost the poem/ reply oh well Ill have to try and rewrite it but doubt it will owrk as well

take care

david

Lisa at 12:24 on 27 August 2003  Report this post
Do post it again, David!

Lisa

olebut at 13:09 on 27 August 2003  Report this post
Lisa with resigned despair ( not really) i pander to your whim.

Each day I wait with resigned despair
for a train that isn’t there,
It’s non-appearance explained away
with lame excuses every day.
The snow that has been sent is wrong
for the platform, the train’s too long,
the driver has just done a bunk,
the guard has gone off in a funk,
leaves from autumn on the line,
the train never got back right on time.

When the train arrives at last
we are implored to get on fast
pushing shoving through the door
past those who sit on the floor
for the seats have all been taken
and hope in travellers faces is forsaken,
grunts and nods a timely greeting
because you know you’ll miss your meeting.

Children who will be late for school
think late trains are really cool
disruption in a class is funny,
commuters moan at the money
they are charged for sardine travel
and to be treated like a rabble.

Is there a place in Waterloo
where making excuses is all they do?
In days of old when Steam was king
punctuality was the thing.
Coaches and the engines gleaming
as you raced through the country steaming
bridges and stations flying by
the loco’s whistle seemed to cry,
get out the way we must be on time
as we raced down the line.

Once the pride of the world,
our railways now appear absurd
late and dirty old and dying
I can hear old railwaymen crying
as they listen from the grave
too the dying industry they fought to save.

Looky Loo at 03:44 on 30 August 2003  Report this post
Let the pictures in your head...

Form the words that will be read...

Upside, downtown, inside out...

Scream and holler and leap about...

Pour the pages from your mind...

Till the scribbled scraps freely unwind...

Hunt and peck and rack your brain...

March your visions in sweet refrain...

Relentless rapture, ceaseless flow...

Reject and never, ever embrace a "no"...

The spark in you dwells in us all...

Write your heart, your soul, and heed your call...


Spontaneous Blurb

Looky Loo




chinamummy at 19:12 on 23 September 2003  Report this post
Good grief! I'm so glad I gave up London and the rat race of commuting for the joys of grumpy Yorkshire folk, Arriva Northern Trains being on strike for the past 18 months and buses that smell of old chips (covered with gravy of course)wet dog and pee.
Loved the piece - it brought back many memories of my time 'down south'!

Lisa at 19:41 on 23 September 2003  Report this post
Thanks Chinamummy! I may have to add a second part to this now that I have just moved to South East London - Connex Metro is surprisingly reliable but I've never seen so much grafitti, muck, overcrowding and general stinkiness in my life!

Ah - the Great British rail system that made us the forunnners of the industrial revolution. What went wrong?!?!?!?

Lisa


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