Reading Roars!

Reading Station escalators have been closed for 3 months (3 months!!) for an “essential” upgrade.  Funny - I remember one of the escalators closed for repair work fairly recently.

Furthermore, as many of us know already, First Great Western have put up theirs fares.  We shouldn’t be surprised.  The 2008 announcement was as predictable as the yawn-inducing “A Levels getting easier” headlines we seem to get every August.  FGW are clearly in the profit business and feel entitled to charge us more.

Of course, this isn’t fair on customers.  We have no choice but to use FGW, enduring severe overcrowding, delays and all (my train this evening trundled into Reading Station 20 minutes late).  Services simply don’t seem to be getting any better.  This may sound strong, but I don’t believe that our national rail system is befitting of a leading (it still is, though we should probably be keeping a watchful eye on Albania) 21st century economy.

So what do we do about it?  This is a recession year.  Do we grumble and accept it, or do we act?