The Thin Green Line

A few years ago I carried out an early morning rail survey at Kew Station to find out what people thought of the District Line, and I have to say I was more than a little flummoxed by the response. ‘Great service’, ‘very reliable’, ‘an excellent direct link into London.’ Surely some mistake….

Of course the problem with the survey was that I assumed that the primary function of the District Line was to get people from Richmond to Westminster. I only later found out that the slow and often unreliable service provides the commuter with an excellent chance to read volumes of philosophy on their way to work. A faster service would make this impossible, which is why Crossrail was viewed with such disdain.

You may think I’m joking, but I’m not. What do you think was the single biggest issue in the Richmond and Twickenham Times Letters Page over the last year? Airport expansion, crime, the environment, tax? Don’t be daft, it was the question of whether God exists.

So does God exist? Well as a proselytizing atheist my answer is a categoric ‘no’, but then again if I thought long enough about it on a return journey to Upminster (the better part of three hours), even I might be revaluating my answer. The point is of course that whether God exists or not is somewhat academic, since what is ultimately important is that we have the time to make up our own minds on this and other vexing philosophical quandaries effecting Richmond’s body politic.

And what of other issues like crime and health? Well we’ll leave that to those who commute on the fast South West Trains service to Waterloo to discuss. As for me I’m off to Hammersmith for lunch now on the only thing I can find slower than the District Line, my old racing bike.