Leaves on the Line
Submitted on 15 / November / 2007Recently, my life seems to be beset with delays on the railways. In the past few days I have missed more trains than usual – seeing them pulling out of the station just as I arrive. Then, just when I am fortunate to catch a train, the journey is disrupted by slippery rails, or changes to station stops. I think my best was 2½ hours to get from Brentford to Sutton – normal time 1 hour.
Apart from my dislike of all things Network Rail, my life has been generally quiet with only a few public appearances and no major work issues. The weather, however, is singularly depressing and a ghastly foretaste of the winter stretching ahead of us.
I think we all breathed a sigh of relief when the flooding predicted for 9th November along the East coast failed to materialise to any extent. Having said that, I am sure not half as relieved as the local inhabitants of that area. Whilst I am not totally convinced by all the climate change theories, I am quite certain that as a profession we are seeing more severe weather-related losses than in the past, certainly in the UK.