Train in vain

The service manager on this morning's train had a pleasant voice. He exhibited the clear enunciation once displayed by BBC announcers before a drive for regionalism took hold. He was also aware of his 'talent' taking every opportunity to demonstrate it.

Consequently those of us on the train for a long time got to hear the list of upcoming stations at very regular intervals.

His fault was in Tring. The train doesn't usually stop there but today was doing so for some never-specified reason; it did give him an extra couple of opportunities to demonstrate his vocal qualities though so he was probably secretly happy. The fault was in his choice of words as we would today apparently be also 'touching-down in Tring'.

It was probably the lure of alliteration that trapped him, he couldn't resist it. Sadly this particular train never goes fast enough to touch-down anywhere and whilst he may have the voice of a pilot, it just made him sound like he was showing off.

A bit more wit and we'd all have welcomed his interruptions. To later tell us that the delayed arrival was due to the unavoidable stop at Tring was to compound the problem, since no-one had told us why we were stopping there in the first instance. Is anything entirely unavoidable? We don't usually stop there so it is easily avoided. Had he added some local knowledge or riffed upon the onomatopoeic qualities of the town's name he could've saved the day.

I didn't need any further proof that impressive delivery without equal content eventually fails, certainly not during my commute.