Echa polityki - trochę humoru

Z forum dyskusyjnego na portalu Onet.pl:

WRÓCIŁEM NA WYBORY DO POLSKI CHCIAŁEM GŁOSOWAC NA PIS ALE
jak wyjeżdżałem w 2005 roku ser żółty kosztował 12 zł kg
dzisiaj 25 zł kg! Moi rodzice emeryci dostali podwyżkę emerytury 30 zł w ciągu dwóch lat za mieszkanie płaca o 159 zł więcej! A posłowie dołożyli sobie po 3000 zł miesięcznie na utrzymanie biura poselskiego! NIE GŁOSUJE NA PIS NA ICH SOLIDARNE PAŃSTWO! W ciągu dwóch lat zrobili z moich rodziców bardzo ubogich ludzi...

Jedna z odpowiedzi:

To nic. W 2005 BMW 5 tka kosztowała 175 tys zł a teraz 218 000 zł . I jak tu żyć ?

~poseł, 11.10.2007 20:09

:)

Little games of Arriva Trains Wales

From time to time I have to use a local train to get from Cardiff to my beloved University in Treforest. I don't like using trains for few reasons. They are not very nice, not safe, dirty, slow, not reliable and seldom on-time, often overcrowded and without an exception always outrageously overpriced. A 20-minutes and about 10 miles travel costs about 5 GBP. For this price in Poland I could get 120 miles from Warsaw to my home town of Bialystok in a comfortable fast train. Leaving pondering over the sense of such public transport pricing policy and its influence on cars usage and environment aside, there is a way of making this a little bit more bearable. If you are a student you can get a Student Card (you have to pay for it) which entitles (you'd expect that wouldn't you? - well not quite as we will see) to some discount. Providing you are not unlucky to have to start your classes early and can take a train after 9.30 am. Then the price drops immensely to as little as 2.80.

Arriva Trains Wales, as a company of such great reputation and renowned quality of services attracts only the best and most skilled employees. A better part of these are working as conductors. Their role is to open the doors on every station, and in the meantime wander around checking and selling tickets. Their smiles and warm attitude towards passengers further improve the overall impression of the Company. Their work is really needed as travellers don't have to worry about buying a ticket on a station while missing their train. But there is a catch. There is a rule written somewhere deep in the regulations that if a station you are getting at has a Ticket Office you have to get your ticket there, and if you fail and buy your ticket from a train staff you will pay the regular price. The rule almost no one knows about, and which is almost never used. This way, by having a mysterious rule that Student Card users are not aware of the train staff gained a powerful weapon helping them punish some bad behaviour of this group of passengers and protect their dignity, fight with frustration and show who is really in power here.

I travel with a bike (that's a nice thing about this trains - it is allowed and you don't need to pay extra). Today the train didn't have a place for bikes, so I sat humbly at the end of the car at the almost empty part of corridor trying to keep it close to me to occupy as little space as possible - so someone could pass if he wanted. Unluckily I didn't notice that the rear wheel was slightly blocking the doors to the other car. And when the lady from the ATW wanted to enter the car she had to knock the doors for few seconds to make me notice that. Unfortunately she was not in a particularly good mood. And so she decided to take her little revenge. First she reminded me how inappropriate a place I have chosen for the bike, and suggested that, because she is going to move this way and back all the time I should move to the opposite side of the car. I would have to get through a long corridor occupied with people what made it almost impossible, and she was going towards that direction, so it really had no sense. Then she sold a ticket to a girl on my left. Student at a discounted price. When it was my turn she asked me where I am going, one way or return, and she issued a ticket for me.

Without giving me even a word of explanation she gave me just 30p of change from my 5 pound note, while I was expecting 2.20. When I said "Excuse me, is that all change I should get?" she said with victorious smile "Yes, because you didn't buy your ticket at Cathays, and there is a Ticket Office". Which is only partially true, as it is only on one side of the tracks, and no one bothers to go through steep steps and across the walk bridge twice just to buy a ticket if he can do it on the train. Especially when he has a heavy bike and has to catch a train. I told her that, but she kept on smiling and was obviously proud of herself. I told her she was not playing fair and was just taking revenge, because she didn't like the place I've chosen for my bike. She denied. But it must have been a good stroke, as the next poor guy she moved too had to pay 4.70 as well. And as she had to convince her that it wasn't unfair and personal, every other student in that car was from now on paying the full price. I felt really bad for bringing a bad luck to all of them.

As for blocking her passage and her suggestions for me to change the place she never come back until I got off. She also had to make up for her laziness and incompetence, as she was too slow to check and sell tickets to everybody before Treforest. If I would have chosen the opposite side I would be much better off indeed. I wouldn't have a chance to pay for the ticket at all - but avoiding paying wasn't my intention. The train was slowing and it was time to leave. I looked at the girl on my left. She was smiling, happy that she bought her ticket before the lady started her little game. Other students looked like children whose lolly pops got stolen. Except for a few freeloaders at the back of course.

Now I don't want to say that the rule has no sense. It has some as in theory it should encourage people to get their tickets at the station, and hence have an effect in decreasing the number of those who don't pay for their travels (conductors are sometimes too lazy to show up). But if it was to work the rule should be both clear and commonly known, and respected in a consistent manner.