h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've got nothing against public transport, but over the past 20 years the British Government has throwing obscene amounts of money in the direction of the private sector to provide a public service of appalling quality. This looks set to get worse if the London Underground Private-Public Partnership does go ahead, and this foolhardy idea of privatising UK Air Traffic Control. The latter is an accident just waiting to happen, just take Railtrack as an example and look at that now. Need I say more?

Hmm, and as a regular user of the Tube, it does worry me. On the other hand, I get a perfect excuse for a day off uni tomorrow, because of a tube strike in protest of PPP.

They're striking for more pay this time. The strikes over PPP were last year.
Unfortunately I still have to get from home to work somehow tomorrow.

The level of service you get is a lottery. The best services seem to be those most used by visitors to the country, e.g., the Gatwick Express.

It would be interesting to see what level of service is provided for routes that are regularly used by MPs (if there are any).

I have used the airport express 3 times. Each time there was at least 40 minutes delay. Twice I missed my plane - never again (the MTR to Hong Kong's airport runs every seven minutes and takes half an hour - ALWAYS)

I have long since come to the conclusion that there are only two advantages to being short.

1. Table Tennis; the amount of topspin you can put on the ball and the fact that you can whip really low net-skimming shots across the table is far greater when you are below 5'5

2. Getting onto the Tube at rush hour; the fact that you can fit into even the smallest of spaces.