Friday 16 November 2012

Faces on the Train

A young couple run to get on the train as the doors are about to close, they have a pram, he pushes it into the space for bikes/wheelchairs/prams/people who don't want to sit on an ordinary seat with such force that it slams into the emergency alarm. He doesn't notice. 

He is furious about something, she says nothing. The driver comes through the door to reset the alarm the furious man is oblivious to. He asks him to move the pram, he shoves it so hard into the woman's legs I'm surprised she doesn't explode at him (I would). The alarm won't reset. The guard walks through the carriages and stands, scratching his head, unable to reset the alarm. The power is switched off. The furious man is getting more and more angry. I am getting later and later for work. He drinks the child's juice. He huffs a bit, he puffs a bit, then he huffs and puffs more. There are phone calls being made from inside the driver's cab (is that the right word?), he's tried resetting it, he's tried switching the power off, no that's not worked. They try to attract my attention, they want me to call them a taxi from my phone, I don't respond, I can't call, I don't have signal. The furious man stands up and bellows to the rest of the carriage, they don't seem to answer him.

There is an announcement, the train is broken, all passengers must alight. The furious man huffs even more, then he puffs even more. Everyone files off the train. The furious man still trying to get people to call him a taxi. We wait for the next train, everybody late for work, 15 minutes added onto their morning commute.

They have run the length of the platform to get on at the driver end of the train, they could've got on at the end where the guard sits, they wouldn't have had to hurry so much. Maybe if they'd thought of that the train wouldn't have been cancelled.