The Post, the free local paper that gets shoved through my letter box every week, contains an article about a rail users group who want the local train services to run with tube-like frequency. They seem to have overlooked the fact that most tube lines have very few branches and junctions whilst many different rail lines join together and use the same tracks in South London. The train operators showed admirable restraint when they said “it is difficult to say whether their demands are reasonable or unreasonable until we sit down and look at the timetable.”
Elsewhere in the article there was a survey of “almost 200 commuters” which found that:
- ninety-five per cent of them used the service four or five days a week
They’re commuters, of course they use the service four or five days a week!
- sixty-four per cent were dissatisfied with the service
- 98 per cent thought it was unreliable
In the spirit of Josh from The West Wing, taken literally that means that 34% think that the service is unreliable but are still satisfied with it.