Yes, our son is supposed to be coming down from Glasgow on Thursday. He has very sensibly opted for an earlier train than originally planned, so he should get something. At least he doesn’t need to worry about getting Covid if the trains are packed - it’ll be his first day out of isolation, having tested positive ten days ago.
The beauty of British passenger rail (and your son's good planning) is that if an early train is cancelled, there's a good chance another will be available even if via a different route. Try that here.
He’ll definitely make it, one way or another
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Hundreds cancelled, and that's just 5% of train services, a bit different to Amtrak, stateside...
What if I told you that (apart from track maintenance crews), no railroader in the UK has to go on strike to get Christmas off?
We expect bus and train services to stop over Christmas, we call this event "a holiday", something rare in the US...
The implicit assumption that nobody depends on public transportation, as everyone can afford car ownership or taking a taxi, sounds much more American than British to me - and it‘s just as shamefully incorrect in either country and on any day of the year (but especially on what is one of the two busiest days of the taxi industry)…We expect bus and train services to stop over Christmas, we call this event "a holiday", something rare in the US...
I don't know the reason for the strike, but I do support the right of anyone to withdraw their labour. (A pilot going on strike mid flight would leave me a bit conflicted, however...)
Interesting. I see your point, but I think the British view would not be that everyone owns cars or can afford taxi's, more that one travels earlier, or not at all if public transport is not available. After all, it is Christmas for train and bus crews too...
Actually, in the States, transportation services are cut back on holidays, too. However, even people observing the holidays may need to travel locally on the holiday, as I do to go to family for the Thanksgiving meal. Of course, it being America, I drive, but if I didn't have a car.....
It's implicit in that preference that his family's crazy is worse than the traveling public's crazy.
That pretty much applies to all companies/organizations/public services that require Christmas/New Year's shifts. We used to have a terrible time replacing "sick" staff on holidays all year 'round, despite paying premium wages for holiday work.
You have a good point, watch out what you ask for.It's implicit in that preference that his family's crazy is worse than the traveling public's crazy.
When I worked in a hospital lab, we used to fight over who worked Christmas Eve and Day, but like your bus driver friend, everybody wanted to work those days. I believe it was primarily to avoid all the work that the holidays involve, especially for women, and we were mostly women who worked there. It's nice to be able to say, "Oh, I can't host any Christmas events because my #K^% supervisor scheduled me to work that day!" I imagine that kind of plotting has changed with Covid19.
