I arrived at Liverpool Central at 3.57pm. The departure board in the booking hall read: “Hunts Cross 1 min”. No time to lose, I thought, and dashed through the barrier, waving my Trio pass at the man.
I can’t be sure, but as I headed for the escalators I’m sure I heard one of the other staff members say, “he was a bit aggressive pushing that ticket right in your face, wasn’t he?”
Now, I was hurrying for the train, so wasn’t fully concentrating on my hand/ticket co-ordination. And I don’t even know if he was talking about me (but I suspect he was). Of course, I’ll now be obsessing over this for weeks to come. Am I too aggressive when showing my ticket? Do I push tickets right in their faces? I always try to smile at the staff when passing through, which is more than most miserable commuters do.
Whatever happens, I can now add the ticket barrier at Central station to my list of places where I feel unreasonably self-conscious.