Where Tyres Fail,Tracks Endure

I remember when l was doing my internship, I missed the bus one time so my boss asked me to take the train. I was a bit not certain about it because there was this guy I was eyeing in the office that I wanted to follow. He said he wanted to pass by town to do something so I just wanted to follow him and get to know him or something, I don’t even know what I was thinking. Don’t judge me. I finally decided to take the train. My boss walked me to the train station which about a 10 minutes walk. When we got there, the train was about to leave so he literally rushed to book my ticket and everything.

It was the best decision I made that day. The bus usually spends about 45 minutes on the road due to traffic and all but that day, I got home in about 12 minutes. Yes, 12 minutes. The journey was swift and smooth. I could barely feel like I was moving. The train was air-tight. There was even a display map in my section that was showing the route of the train. It was such a beautiful experience. I was now thinking why don’t we even just quit using buses and switch to rain because that experience was everything to write home about.

About two days ago, my cousin came home very sad and ranting so much about how she wanted to buy a car. I asked her if she thought car was 3 dollars or what because she just started her National Service some months ago and her allowance is nothing to write home about so where from “the car thoughts”. I don’t blame her though, if I were to be in that situation, I definitely would also think of getting my own car. She goes to work with our neighbor everyday. She gives her a ride to work every morning and brings her back because they work in the same building.

However, on that particular day, the neighbor had to go somewhere so she decided to come home herself instead of waiting for the neighbor. Long story short, she alighted after about 15 minutes of boarding the car and then went back to the office to just follow the neighbor to wherever she was going and then come home with her. When she came back she was so tired. Apparently, in the public transport, the odour from the person sitting beside her almost gave her an attack and oh she’s asthmatic.

This might sound funny but in that moment when she was telling me, she looked so frustrated and scared. As an Environmentalist, I won’t advise anyone to stop using public transport because of obvious reasons but what I’ll say is that wherever you are going, just go on time. Sometimes, we become frustrated in public transports when we’re already late to wherever we’re going and we find faults that do not exist.

Anyway, after my cousin’s rants, I remembered my train experience and just wished the government could actually build more railways and bring more trains to Ghana because for me it is the fastest and convenient public transportation one could ever encounter.