Train travel

Most Americans don't have a clue what it's like traveling by train as the norm. There is certainly lots to love and lots to hate about it.

The good things: it's fast and saves tons of time as opposed to driving; it gives you time to read or sleep or do something productive other than putting up with road rage (either your own or someone else's); it's a LOT more environmentally friendly than driving.

The not-so-good things: cancelled or delayed trains; overcrowded trains; other people can be a big nuisance! Nothing irritates me more than people who use the train to conduct their daily phone calls, or eat their meals, or talk so loudly with fellow passengers that it disturbs everyone else around them. Frankly I think food and phones should be banned from trains.

But there is worse. Drunks, people with horrible BO or those who fart, or trouble-makers who make you fear for your life. And let's not forget the over-zealous train drivers who eagerly announce every station for those passengers who have never been on the journey before. It can certainly get irritating. Thank God for iPods (except for those assholes who crank theirs high enough for everyone to hear).

Paul and I are fortunate though. By catching the 6.25am train into London (and returning to Hertford before 5pm), we are able to avoid all of the crowds and enjoy relatively empty carriages. Except when we travel on the weekends. I have never understood why the train company can run a service every 5 minutes to London on the weekday with trains that are 6 carriages long, yet run weekend services just twice an hour with just 3 carriages. Shit, by the time we get to London, people are crammed like sardines. But then that's not as bad as having to endure loud children and babies crying, which is at least something you rarely get during weekday journeys.

It still beats driving....