I always felt that Chris Rea was on dodgy ground when he complained about the M25 in his 1989 tune ‘The Road To Hell’. Having driven on that wretched motorway on more occasions that is good for anyone, I share his dislike of it of it. The problem is that, like me, Rea is the problem. “This ain’t no upwardly mobile freeway,” burbles the great man. “This is the road to hell.” Yeah, and then what?
I spend much of my life complaining about other motorists, driving alone in their cars, going to work. Just like me, in fact. I force myself to believe that they should seek some alternative type of transport, like the bus, whilst leaving the road empty for people like me. But then, trains are not for ordinary people, are they?
We’ve just driven, the four of us, to Bury St Edmunds and back this weekend at a cost of around £40 in diesel. We were able to leave when we wanted, with no concerns about running late or early. It was hard work, but we made it. For a mere £280, by far the cheapest railway tickets a month in advance, we could have got there even more slowly. We’d have been restricted to specific trains with no room for manoeuvre. When you add in the cost of getting across London, buying snacks and refreshments en route (we took a cool bag) and buses/taxis at the other end, you’ll be looking at well over £300. Thanks, but no thanks.
If travelling by train was a pleasant experience, you might, occasionally, think it would be worth doing, but generally it isn’t. The local Sprinters are noisy and uncomfortable, the High Speed Trains are 40 years old and use seating arrangements that would put Ryan Air to shame.
Even Margaret Thatcher thought privatising the railways was a step to far, but John Major thought it a cracking wheeze. And now it’s the Tory ideal: making vast sums of money for private operators from the better off who are the only people who can afford to travel by train.
To be honest, we never thought for a split second that we’d travel to Bury St Edmunds by public transport and neither did anyone else. It was never an option, something we couldn’t afford and don’t really care that we couldn’t. But that’s why this is the road to hell.
The M25 today, a Sunday for goodness sake, was rammed. Many thousands of people obviously felt the way we did – they either couldn’t afford to take the train or regarded the services as crap. Anyway, it’s much more fun to drive.
I used to think that public transport, run as a public service, was the way forward, but now I know that will never happen. We’ve allowed the politicians to sell off the family silver and there’s no way back now. “This ain’t no technological breakdown. Oh no, this is the road to hell.”
