With around three times as many people as the whole of Greater Manchester, it’s the home of world-beating structures like The Shard, and a meticulously well-organised transport system, that, well… always throws me off a little.
In the North West, if you pick two towns, let’s say Bolton and Blackburn, for example, there are three trains an hour, not taking into account delays, and two of those are within five minutes.
So that means you could be waiting up to half-an-hour should you miss one, and that’s on a good day.
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So if you’re a northern-based commuter, you’re almost conditioned, adapted. In the same way that a mountain goat can traverse steep cliffsides, I’m prepared to sprint through train stations to ensure I’m not waiting about.
And so, on a recent trip to the south east via London, I noticed that it’s not quite necessary down there.
I should add this isn’t coming from the perspective of a northerner that has never been south of Nuneaton, I travel down south pretty regularly, however, mostly by road.
And while I’ve navigated the tube before, I’ve always been left wondering, ‘why is nobody else frantically darting around?’.
And on the Bakerloo line from Oxford Circus to Embankment, I had my lightbulb moment: there is no need to.
You see, I knew I had three minutes to get my train, and years of Northern rail disappointment have conditioned me into thinking that if I miss it, that’s it!
But in London, you’re not, the idea that the capital is a hive of militant commuters battling their way through public transport just isn’t the case; compare it to Leeds, for example, and it’s a serene landscape.
There is a calming effect to knowing that if you miss you’re underground train, there is another in two minutes; you feel invisible.
But you also feel a bit silly sprinting down a platform when really it’s a superfluous task.
If only we had that luxury up here!
