I must admit I did not commute through ‘unsafe neighbourhoods’ while I was in the UK, however, as far as I am concerned, I can say that I always felt reasonably safe and unthreatened in all British means of public transport that I used.Even when a well oiled man was sleeping near me on a night journey in a Megabus, when a bunch of teenagers who had no ticket quarreled with a train conductor, or when a train was stopped in the middle of a field.
In spite of my (albeit limited) personal experience, I noticed many posters warning against vandalism, which gave a phone number to passengers, where they could “call in confidence and help stop vandals in their tracks.”
Unlike what I often wrote about Big Brother-ish excesses (see here, here, here, here or here!) in the UK, I don’t find it an exaggeration to offer such a number to people, and I can only decry that, in Romania, few people would bother to denounce such ‘common’ acts.
Around 20,000 railway offences are reported yearly in Britain, including trespassing dangerous restricted areas, vandalism, placing obstuctions on the line, stone throwing and serious criminal damage.
It often happens that vandals are just exuberant graffiti artists, nevetheless, I don’t it’s worth condoning their offences. One can hardly separate artistic creations from destructive acts leading to injury or death.
[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]
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