Week of learning on train and in the office

It has been a funny old week. Don’t ever let people tell you a change is as good as a rest. Especially if you happen to be on a course with a learning arc as steep as the Eiffel Tower. For five days I have been part of a group of journalists subjected to a gruelling regime of computer training. A kind of IT bootcamp held in the company’s Exeter office.

For one week we were the last foot soldiers to undergo training before the new system swings into action on Monday. So, for the five days, it became a toss-up between car or commuting from Plymouth by train. The train seemed the best choice – especially for one who bears a warm regard for railways and those that run them.

Instead of waking up gently

For this wild week I joined the insulated world of the inhabitants of the 7.45am from Plymouth.

The train topped up with passengers at Totnes. At Newton Abbot it positively pulsated with effervescent banter of students who, on reaching St Davids, all tumbled out again.

Caught up in this brief platform hurley-burley of arrivals and departures felt like playing one’s bit part in the life force of humanity.

And the course? Oh, have I learnt anything? Yes, lots. Will I remember it? I’ll tell you later.

But, despite disruptive Storm Diana, I have certainly learnt about the collective pleasure of commuting with my fellow travellers on the 7.45.