The joy of six o'clock commuting

Today the Government announced an £8 billion investment in the railways to increase capacity. For us long-suffering commuters who spend hours standing on overcrowded trains it can't come soon enough. However, it's not just the trains that need improving, some of the infrastructure is in a pretty poor state  and could do with a little TLC.

Commuting to London by train is not too hard if you live near a main station.  Me, I live in the sticks and my local station, Thatcham, is a poor country cousin to the likes of  Reading, Newbury or Oxford.

I have to be up at 4 am every day to get an early train to London and one Saturday last year I found myself the only punter for the 6 am train. Looking around the deserted station I was shocked by the state of the place. 

The ticket office/waiting room was closed, the clock wasn't working, neither was the information screen and the ticket machine had been vandalised. To cap it all, being a Saturday, I couldn't even get a free Metro to read. What a depressing scene.

The only positive thing was a sign saying "Welcome to Thatcham". A little ironic when you consider the welcome that awaits any would be traveller  arriving in a world without time and information and the prospect of a penalty fare if caught travelling without a ticket.

Since then, things have improved. The ticket machine has been repaired and the information system given a software upgrade and no longer slips into Jackson Pollock mode. The station has  been repainted and a new Help Point console has been installed. Unfortunately, all the clocks have been removed but I suppose you can always use the Help Point to ask someone the time.

If this happens again I would like to complain to the Fat Controller about the poor facilities but as I'm half English, half Scottish, I have a slight dilemma on how best to approach the matter.

My English side says, phone the head office and politely explain that Thatcham Station has failed its usability acceptance test and wouldn't it be a good idea to spend some of the thousands I pay in fares each year on improving the place.

My inner Scot says climb to the top of the footbridge and shout abuse at the world - it's not my fault that my inner Scot is Rab C. Nesbitt.