Breakdown Britain: Yobs reach yet another new low

There seems to be no let in the yobbish behaviour that is plaguing breakdown Britain. However, this time I wasn’t reading about youngsters sinking to yet lower levels of bad behaviour but rather being in the thick end of their mindless acts of violence, intimidation and criminal damage.
As if my daily train journey from Northampton to Birmingham and back again isn’t eventful enough with frequent delays and disruptions, today’s return journey home took four hours and a momentary near death experience.
As we set of on the 18:48 from New Street, all was well as could be. As we approached Stechford, a small station 5 minutes from Birmingham International, the train, travelling at no less than 80 miles an hour, shuddered and screeched then staggered for over a mile as the breaks tried furiously to engage. The train, carrying no less than 300 people, tried in vein to maintain itself on the track. The passengers young and old, including a heavily pregnant women in my carriage held their breath. No one knew what was happening. It happened so quickly. The train was seconds from derailing or so it seemed. The pungent smells from the breaks were overpowering but we all sat in silence. It came to a complete standstill a mile or so from the impact with what we later learnt were shopping trolleys left on the track my mindless morons. The shopping trolleys got tangled under the train, causing the “air pipes to disengage”. That was the explanation of the driver.
Most of us were resigned to sitting out a couple of hours as mechanics were being despatched. People took out their mobiles, busy texting and calling their loved ones and rearranging lifts. People made small talk, doing as we do, when faced with such situations. Some cursed the perpetrators whilst others cursed their own luck.

What happened next was totally unexpected and frightening. Nothing could have prepared the passengers for the bricks and stones that reined in from across the fence on the banks. A group of no less than a dozen black teenagers threw stones and bricks at the train whilst shouting abuse. It was surreal. They just appeared from nowhere. There was nothing anyone could do but sit back and hope that the bricks did not come through the windows. One window shattered completely but did not break, forcing the train driver to march everyone to another carriage in the already congested train.

When police arrived 15 minutes later, they found no one. The mindless B*****d’s had fled. Two hours later, the mechanics had managed to remove the tangled trolleys and fix the fault to enable the train to just about reach Birmingham International. British Transport Police had given the train a thorough check as well as taking statements from passengers but the damage was done. While consequences of the disruption were felt by all, most people were just grateful that we did not end up derailing and involved in a crash and fatality.

Throughout the two hours, the driver and his crew did a sterling job keeping us calm and well informed. They did their best but there was no denying that as yobbish behaviour had sunk to yet another low tonight. Can things get any worse?