Fred

It is a sad fact that I have been travelling to and from Birmingham City Centre to work now for over 25 years. I am a commuter.

Commuting can seriously damage your health wealth marriage and anything else you care to name if you believe the papers. Well I can believe it if you journey into London every day.

Last weekend there was a spring clean at Four Oaks Station where I join the train most days. I apologise for not having noticed all the efforts made on my behalf but I did manage to see the new paint!

Of course journeys end is New Street Station: a kind of pit more suited to Shelob's liar in the Lord of the Rings. Descending to the platforms at the end of the day to be assaulted by the mindless bellowings of the station tannoy makes one wonder if Saruman himself had built it.

Yet there is light even in the bowels of New Street Station. Boarding the train and hearing the call "Tickets and Passes also!" in that mix of Bruumie and the Caribbean is a tonic to end the day. Fred is the guard on board. He is the scourge of the freeloaders and loafers: the orcs among the travelling public. "It is a crime to defraud the railways of even a penny" is his cry.

Timelord was once (?) running to catch his train when by some mishap his mobile phone spilled from his hand and fell to the tracks. No problem to Fred. Down he went to the lines to retrieve it for me.

A true Aragorn of the tracks.