Midland tourists

Anybody who lives in the South-West of England benefits from a fair amount of tourism due to the rural nature of the environment and the fact that we have several sandy beaches around here. One of which is the beach at Weston-super-Mare.

It's your typical British sea-side town and tends to attract a lot of people who don't have this scenery, mainly from the Midlands.

Birmingham is a city in the Midlands of England and has no such beaches. As a result it's become a standing joke that due to this, those who live in Birmingham tend to visit Weston-super-Mare all the bleeding time. Also, the joke's extended by mentioning that they know the place better than the locals do.

With this in mind, I hopped on a locally-running train home from work on a Friday before a bank holiday. I cast a glance around the train and saw the usual suspects you tend to see on the same train home every day; the sort of regular commuters that breed familiarity.

My eye was then caught however by the sight of a map on the side of the train. As I looked closer, I couldn't believe it.

It was a map of bloody Birmingham. It was a train designed to run locally within Birmingham, and it was taking me home.

Even their trains holiday down here.