A train of thought

You might have already known that - a few people have trotted it out in the Bexhill Observer before. However, a day of train travel last Thursday really drove the point home with me.

Let me explain. I had spent a few days staying with a friend in the Northampton area. I decided to get the 8.15am train in to London so I could spend the day in the capital with another friend before returning to Bexhill about tea time.

Still with me? Good. Here comes the moan. The journey from Kettering to St Pancras was far quicker than my trip home from the capital.

I'm sure people with a basic knowledge of the geography of the UK can work out Kettering is further away from London than Bexhill - just to illustrate the point though, a little tool I found online lists the distance between Kettering and St Pancras as over 65 miles. The distance from Victoria to Bexhill is a shade over 50 miles.

However my trip to London from the Midlands took just over an hour. My train ride to Bexhill from Victoria took two.

So, the journey that's around 15 miles less took an hour more to complete. Makes perfect sense.

Actually, I've noticed and had a grumble about the discrepancy before when the company packs me off on courses in Northampton. It just so happens a column gives one the opportunity to vent to a wider audience.

People talk about the regeneration of the South East, but until the appalling transport links are improved it renders much of the work being done pointless.

I know some hardy souls commute to London each morning. Hats off to them, because I certainly couldn't do it. I think a two-hour plus journey would tire me out before I even got to work.

The point is though, with a decent train link, it wouldn't have to be like that. In this day and age, a 50 or 60 mile trip is really nothing. A fast transport link would open up a world of employment opportunities and perhaps young professionals wouldn't have to leave the town and take their disposable income with them.

It won't happen of course. Such a move would be dangerously like common sense.

And at least the long journey home gave me time to have a nice sleep. Every cloud and all that ...