Going home from work yesterday, I got on a Piccadilly line tube from Holborn station and had to stand in the carriage as there were no seats as usual during the rush hour. As the train moved off, what can only be described as a stench began to blow through the carriage but I couldn't see the source for all the commuters standing in the aisle. When people filed off at the next station I saw a dishevelled old man asleep on a seat halfway down the carriage with vacant seats around him, the obvious malodorous source. I was about 15ft from him and a sharp acrid tang of stale urine and alcohol rose off him like fumes. A woman sitting opposite him was actually trying to control herself from retching.
It's logical that if you use public transport you have to be prepared to deal with members of the public. That old man last night was also a member of the public, no matter what social level he may have been (probably homeless) and had every right to be on that train provided that he'd managed to get a valid ticket from somewhere somehow (difficult to get through an underground station's electronic gates without one). Sure, it wasn't pleasant; in fact I've never seen anybody retching because somebody smelt so bad before - but on public transport you'll come into contact with other members of the public, so no matter what you just have to deal with it.
Anyway, it's sad and unfortunate that he came to be that way in the first place; he probably had nowhere to go so the best he could have expected was a homeless centre, if he could even get to one that is.
No comments:
Post a Comment