Under The Volcano: The Travel Industry And Acts Of God
It seems typical of the modern age that it would take nothing less than a giant cloud
of volcanic ash to remind us exactly how tiered and conditional are our chosen methods of travel nowadays. With the grimly optimistic there's been a general response to the air travel meltdown, variously packaging the words 'makes you think, though, eh?' And think we have. On the importance of rail travel and other alternatives in the shadow of the ash giant.The disruption was indeed severe and systemic in its overhaul of the transport infrastructure. But reading the passengers' stories human interest sketches on the various news websites, there seemed to be two ways of pitching the snippets from tired stragglers; families portrayed as refugees having narrowly escaped some unclear form of persecution, and secondly, the other breed who were simply indignant about it all. But there were successes in the 'madness' that was expressed: hire car companies were offering 1 deals for return of their vehicles scattered over Europe. People got their first taste of hitch hiking, and seemingly from reports, there was solidarity, at least between the Brits. Not much to celebrate, admittedly, but this was a special case.
Though it was assuredly not much comfort to the people stuck in between destinations, we did get a rare look at the incredible inflexibility of our travel infrastructure once the hierarchy of luxury is removed; passengers who had arrived in cities hoping to settle with a long train journey back were reduced to grappling for places on coaches, and eventually any form of locomotion that was better than walking.
The timing is what seems incredible. After we were gripped by the cold back in December and January, many rail companies were fully pointed towards optimum service in the spring months. Shadow this with the looming threat of state-backed takeovers from German operator Deutsche Bahn, and the last thing our rail network needed was something that could be classed as 'act of God'.
But even plumes of volcanic dust have not been able to smokescreen last year's successes, and this year's possibilities. Crain's Manchester Business reported yesterday that major rail operators have experienced growth in customer numbers despite the general fall in air travel, and also the sudden halt brought about last month. First TransPennine Express proved to have had achieved towering results in the National Passenger Survey, with an 89% satisfaction rating overall. Ticket figures were also boosted by the optimized rail-to-airport services the group runs, such as with trains to Manchester Airport, as many new customers opt to ditch the car and the long-stay parking fees entailed. Perhaps with growing support and reliance on terrestrial transport services, the pecking order of of plane, train, auto-mobile will begin to become a thing of the past.
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