From the NY Times yesterday, the English are going against type and rebelling against deplorable train service — specifically, sky-high fares and jam-packed cars. Unable to get on the train, much less get a seat, would-be riders protested by showing fake tickets to the guard (if I remember correctly, it’s something of an honor system on the British rails; show your ticket when you enter, and hope they don’t ask for it when you exit. It’s very conducive for poor students seeing Europe on a few bucks a day.).

About those high prices, a London to Bath round trip (or “return”, in Brit-speak) runs $238. A comparable 90-minute each way trip in the U.S. — say, Redding, CT to Grand Central — runs $28 for a peak ticket.

And a mere hint of snow brings trains to a standstill.

This passage, dare I say, actually made me appreciate Metro North:

“People having a bad trip can at least be thankful that they were not on the 1:05 a.m.
Waterloo-to-Southampton train, via the middle of nowhere, on a frosty morning
recently.

The train got as far as Woking, just outside London, where track work forced the passengers onto a bus.

Soon afterward, the bus broke down.

The train’s employees then took a taxi, leaving the passengers behind to make their own arrangements.”

 A-pawl-ing.