Appendix by Valerie Evans

Introduction by Joe Sinclair

Time was when travelling by train was not merely a pleasant experience but a reliable one.  You studied the timetable, chose your train, booked your ticket, arrived at the railway station, checked the departure board to make sure your train was on time (and it was a rare occurrence to learn that it was not), took your seat, and relaxed for a hassle-free trip to your destination. 

Time was . . . 

Alas, time no longer is.  First it was the closure of all those lines which some chap named Beeching decreed, on behalf of the Government, were uneconomical to operate.  That was the first step on the slippery downward slope towards total transport disaster that reached its climax when the service was first privatised, then farmed out to a series of different operating companies, with a completely different company responsible for the tracking. 

Here is a description of a typical recent journey made by my solicitor friend, Val Evans ("solicitor" in the legal sense – and I hope she forgives me for the cartoon!).

Locos drive a locum loco

Valerie’s story:

The incidents recounted here seem to occur in one form or another every time I have to use the train service in south London from Balham to Forest Hill on the Southern Network service.

Doing a locum stint to cover the two-week holiday period of a colleague, I set off on a Tuesday in July.  As the train approached Sydenham, where it was due to stop, it suddenly speeded up and went right past the station.  At the next station  - my station Forest Hill - it just kept going.

All the efforts of passengers to raise the alarm or to contact the driver, such as shouting out of the window and waving their arms about, or reaching the driver or a guard via the corridor, met with no success.

One female passenger was meanwhile having a panic attack and going frantic at being unable to get to work and wondering if it was ever going to stop.  As messages are normally broadcast on the train when there are problems, and as there was no response at all from the driver, she pulled the communication cord in desperation.  Only then did the train stop. 

We wondered if there had been an attack of vandalism, a not uncommon occurrence. I had been on the train home sometimes when bricks were thrown through the windows and we had to run for cover.  In those days, however, there had at least been a guard telling people to avoid the glass and use another carriage. Nowadays it would seem that not only is there no way to communicate with the driver but they have even dispensed with the guard.

As soon as the train stopped there was a broadcast announcement, telling us that the stop was due to a passenger pulling the emergency cord.  Surprise, surprise.  But then, and only then, there followed some sort of explanation of why the train had not stopped earlier.  The excuse – utterly unbelievable - was that a train on the line at Sydenham had been blocking the way.  But no explanation as to how or why our driver had chosen to speed up and pass two stations.

The announcer finally said that we would be moving off and stopping at New Cross where we would be able to get off and get a train back. Nothing further was heard about the line being blocked at Sydenham.  A real mystery, particularly since the train that took us back from New Cross managed to stop at all the stations the earlier train had passed.

It was 30 minutes later before I got to Forest Hill. 

The following Monday was even worse.  

I try to avoid queuing for my ticket in the morning by buying it on the Sunday evening.  On this occasion the ticket office was closed in the evening.  I had no option but to join the long queue on the Monday morning.  In fact I got there really early to make sure I wouldn’t miss my train.

I need not have bothered.  The departure board showed a series of delayed departures.  This is something that always arouses my suspicions, as it usually precedes a notice of cancellation, so I started planning an alternative route.  While I was doing so, a broadcast announced that the delays were caused by a passenger being attacked at Clapham Junction.  There were also delays to trains on the alternative route.

In fact the total system was chaotic with announcements that trains would be arriving or departing from quite different platforms from those shown on the boards.  Ultimately I was able to get a train to Clapham Junction, change onto a train to Redhill (which stops at East Croydon), and at East Croydon I spotted a train about to depart for Forest Hill, which I just failed to catch at the cost of a bruised hand, and left me with a wait of another 30 minutes.  I finally got to work at 10.30 am, one hour later than even the normal time of 9.30.

All in all, a journey which takes 15 minutes by car had taken me almost three hours by train!!

Here’s another gripe!

These days I find that publishers are very sloppy with the professional journals to which I subscribe.

Gee Publishing used to publish the Lawyers Factbook.  They then got taken over by the bigger publishers, Thomson Sweet & Maxwell,  since when, the check lists following the loose leaf filing of updates have constantly been full of errors and I regularly send in requests for missing pages.

Inevitably, when I send those requests, they do not respond, so I have to keep chasing them up by phone and get asked to send my request by fax.  But since I do not always have access to a fax machine, this is not always possible.

Even when I have faxed them, it can take months before the missing pages finally turn up. 

Naturally, however, the subscription rate keeps increasing.

One final moan

Dealing with the Department of Social Security when handling probate is another headache.  They do not believe in replying to letters and requests for you to know if there is any overpayment they have made to the deceased, be it pension, attendance allowance or other benefits.  Or, conversely, if there are any underpayments. 

Until this information can be procured, the estate cannot be valued.  So an accurate assessment cannot be made of how much tax is payable, as debts (overpayments) have to be deducted or unpaid income included in order to get the correct figure.  That makes more work in corrective accounts for the Capital Taxes Office in cases where tax is due. 

For income tax, even if the decedent's estate is miniscule, you still are unable to finalise the income tax return up to death and claim any repayment of tax overpaid, or know if any more tax is due to them.  It makes no difference if the deceased left a will or not, even paupers with insufficient funds to bury them still have to deal with these dreadful inefficient bureaucrats. Or rather, their next of kin and relatives have to do so. 

I find this is the worst aspect of dealing with anyone's death and it is one over which one has no control or ability to plan for avoiding it.

Postscript by Joe Sinclair