THE UK is offhandedly accepting frequent rail service closures as if they had been putting up with them as long as they remember.
An RMT strike means almost no trains are running today, which Britons have shrugged off as if a non-functioning rail network had been part of their daily lives for decades.
Nathan Muir of Hitchin said: “No trains? No biggie. I’ll have to drive to London. What is it, engineering works, leaves on the line, or just no reason at all?
“Strikes? Retro. Why are they doing those? What, it’s meant to inconvenience me that the trains aren’t working? They’re lucky I even noticed.”
Commuter Helen Archer said: “These strikes are great. Imagine finding out your train’s cancelled not when you arrive at the station but days in advance.
“Normally I turn up at 7am and spend two hours on an overcrowded platform only to be stuffed onto a train that unexpectedly skips my station. Compared to that these strikes are an old-fashioned courtesy. The staff deserve a pay rise for being polite.”
Roy Hobbs of Manchester agreed: “It’s like I’ve always said: no train at all is immeasurably superior to a rail-replacement bus.”
