HEALTH AND SANITY:EAST COAST EXPRESS

Meeting the youngest daughter off the 1738 at Berwick we were greeted by a station announcement. The next train at Platform 1 (not the 1738, fortunately) is not stopping at this station. For your safety and for the sanity of our driver please keep back from the platform edge'

Apparently even the toughest and most laid back of that elite corps of train drivers employed in the East Coast Line are upset if they strike a waiting passenger as they roar through Berwick. One confirmed kill and they are off work on trauma leave for at least a month, rising by months in multiples of two. So many trains don't stop in Berwick that it must be a place that they whiz through at 100 mph with fingers crossed. Alnmouth will be the most dangerous place on the ECL as the trains stop about once a day but presumably a measure of compensation will be afforded by so few trains few prospective passengers.

Train spotters don't count. Occupational hazard.

Drivers may even get a bonus in these cases.

(The image is of a National Express East Coast crossing the Borders Bridge-wholly within England-preparatory to stopping at Berwick. Or Not; as the whim takes it)

Labels: Insane drivers, National Express

  ¶ 2:35 PM