Wednesday, June 25, 2008

"Sort it out when you get off"

Interesting. I was on a train today going from Maidstone East up to London, when two youths got on and sat behind me - I couldn't see them, and could only hear their voices.

They spoke in faux Caribbean accents, and - stretched out across the seats - were playing rap music full blast from their mobile phone, making suggestive calls to girls, and swearing profusely when the line cut off.

A ticket inspector came down the carriage and when neither of them were able to show their tickets, they asked to buy two children's single tickets from Otford to Bromley South.

"£4.39" said the ticket inspector, and one of the boys produced a credit card - perhaps the inspector should have queried why a 'child' had a credit card?. Running it through the swipe, this was declined. "Alright, you'd better sort it out when you get off" said the inspector, walking away.

My point is, how can we expect young people to have any respect for rules when they're not enforced anyway? And how many times has that happened, pushing up the already over-inflated price of journeys for the rest of us?

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