Strangulation on Platform Six

Strangulation - to compress or constrict so as to suppress function.

Perhaps not the cheeriest of topics for the first working day of 2008 but my thoughts could not help but turn to more morbid areas as I returned to commuting with a packed train and an increased rail fare to contend with. The First Rail lady even looked embarrassed as she charged me my return ticket to Edinburgh from Stirling this morning.

Thankfully commuting will be very much a short-term experience for me but I could not help but think that being strangled must be how it feels for many commuters out there.

(1) City centre house prices rocket so living outside the city for young professionals becomes a necessity.

(2) Petrol prices go through the roof so running a car on top of servicing a mortgage that has crept up incrementally over the past year is just no longer possible. Even if you are flush enough to operate a car, one would need the patience of an angel to happily sit in any one of the morning queues up and down the UK.

(3) Therefore the would-be triviality of just getting to work becomes an arduous ordeal as we run the gauntlet that is public transport. Crammed carriages and ever-increasing rail fares become par for the course. Not to mention the delays that make a mockery of a successful work-life balance.

I pity the poor Londoners who feel the cold hands around their necks most tightly.

Maybe the deadened stare of your average Tube passenger says it all: Resistance is futile.