An unusual Friday morning.

On Friday morning a passenger on my train died. Luckily for me he or she wasn't in my carriage, but it sort of made me think about the frailty of life and the rail network.

With regard to the rail network, the resulting chaos caused was quite extensive. The train had to be held at the next station whilst the emergency services were called, followed by tthe police, and then the coroner. This all took in excess of an hour and whilst this was happening a bunch of trains ad to be cancelled and one of the main lines into London was closed. It also made me very late for work.

With regard to the frailty of life, well, that is a bit more serious. There were a large number of people whose first reaction was, "Why my train? Why not the next one?", which was a very natural, if callous reaction. After about fifteen minutes however I stated to think about the unfortunate person, "How old was he or she?", "Did they have a family?", "How would the family be affected?", and so on.

It really must be hard for the family. It cannot have been expected and they were probably just starting to get into the whole pre-Christmas madness with the shopping, wrapping of gifts, planning of meals, decorating, etc. Now they have a funeral to organise as well, or perhaps instead.

I'm glad that it wasn't me ,a member of my family, or a firend, or a member of a friend's family that this has happened to, and I can only hope that the family of the person who did die get a lot of support.