You know the phrase: “Going with the Flow”?
Yesterday I felt like I was “flowing with the flow”, allowing myself to be relaxed while various setbacks happened on a travel day, then seeking to “guide” the flow only subtly.
My day was a regular monthly trip by train for a face to face meeting with a client for about three hours. However, when I say “by train” we are talking four trains in each direction and a long day of over 12 hours. Yes, it is worth it for the quality of time spent.
In years of making this monthly trip I’d never missed a train but today, hey, it happened. As I left my house all trains were on time, but within minutes the first train I was taking got delayed, and that delay grew to the point I knew I’d miss the longer train journey to the north.
Now, those long-distance trains in the UK have crazy fare systems. A one-way flexible fare is £156 for a two-hour train journey. Naturally I, like most others, look to be more reasonable with travel costs and buy advanced tickets, though that means if you miss your train, well, it is expensive. Even for an advanced ticket, I had paid over c£75 one way, and now that ticket wasn’t valid for the next train (only 16 minutes later than my originally scheduled train).
The train company had recently made an allowance such that rather than write off the whole ticket value, if you change it before your first train departs, you can apply that against the new ticket. That meant I paid (adding a £10 change fee) only £91 as I quickly changed the ticket on the app while on that first (delayed train).
Did I mention that UK train fare systems are crazy? People often fly or drive as it is cheaper. I feel the UK could “level up” the North for a fraction of the cost of newer faster train lines by simply hiring good airline yield managers to totally rework their fare systems. Hmm.
Anyway, a few minutes later I walked down the ramp towards the platform for the later train, then when the staff checked my ticket: “Sorry sir, this is for tomorrow”. Ugh. I’d made that mistakes while changing it on the app. Right train, wrong day.
The morning had already been lacking in “flow”, but I felt myself remaining relaxed and felt for the railway staff member whose job literally is “revenue control” (it said it on their name badge). Their initial response was that I’d have to go back to the ticket office and try to talk to them, but I realised that would make me later for my meeting, so I asked to show them the email on my phone that showed clearly a) that I’d missed my train by just a few minutes, b) I’d paid £91 to change it, and c) I’d made an honest mistake.
“Let me go to the platform and talk to the train manager, I think they are one of the nice ones”. Sure enough, a minute later I was waved down to the train, discretion had been applied. As I walked down, I felt to say thank you to that train manager. I then realised I would not have a seat reservation so asked where I should go. THey guided me to the last First Class carriage and said that would be fine. Lovely, nice “flow”!
Oh, when I went on that carriage I was the only person in a c60 seat carriage. Did I mention UK rail fare systems are crazy? 😉
So, all said and done, I made it to my meeting on time and sat in an empty first class carriage en route.
Flowing with the flow indeed 🙏🏻