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Heather Bateman looked up from her mobile phone at the electronic noticeboard. Platform one at Middlebrook station was a boring place at the best of times, but there was another eighteen minutes until her train was due to arrive. She was glad it wasn’t raining.
She tried to calculate how many hours she’d spent waiting on this platform. Her job meant she had to commute into London at all sorts of hours of the day. The morning rush hours weren’t so bad, as the trains came through every few minutes. At other times of the day, though, you could be in for a long wait — especially if there were delays or station closures.
Heather had the unfortunate situation of living near the worst-performing train line in the country, according to official figures. Well, at least the area was finally fa
