I've been thinking... says Colin Raynor

As we enter the third month of the year I recall those words from Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, ‘beware the Ides of March’. Although it was used by the Bard to warn Caesar of his death, it was really the Roman way of saying March 15th is coming, just as British Rail made me aware that my Senior Rail Card is due for renewal on that day!

I am aware that train journeys cause many thousands of people much distress in their working life and at an ever increasing cost. It seems to people that the rail service in this country is getting worse as time goes on, yet when it works properly, it is still surely the best way of travelling up and down this country at speed and in comfort. We are never going to have the swift trains of Japan or the trains of Switzerland, which are always on time. Britain just wants clean and reliable trains at a reasonable cost to the daily commuter. For people who have to rely on trains on a daily basis it is a constant problem, but for a person like myself who has been retired for many years I am content to stand by that wonderful slogan ‘let the train take the strain’ and use them more than my car.

My wife and I, and many of our friends, can also laugh at some of the incidents that we have experienced using our Senior Rail Cards. Consider the two coaches that rolled ever so slowly into the station - you just knew that this old rolling stock was at the end of the line. After half an hour of failing to close the doors the driver declared he could not take his train any further and everyone had to alight and wait for a replacement. British folk are good at waiting.

I must now take this opportunity to thank a wonderful lady who came to our rescue a few weeks ago and enabled us to catch our train when the bus did not turn up to get us to the station in Hull.

We knew that our advanced ticket could only be used at the stated time and it did not seem possible for us to get there. We decided to get on a bus going to Beverley and find a taxi. The bus driver told us to wait a bit longer, as there would be a bus in the next few minutes. We went back to the bus stop across the road but this lady came after us to tell us the bus driver was wrong, there wouldn’t be a bus. She had told the bus to stay where he was (and he did) and she gave us the number of a local taxi firm, she then went back to the bus and carried on to town. The taxi arrived and we got to our train.

Thank you once again to this wonderful person who went out of her way to help us. I do hope she reads ‘Just Beverley’.