Tec_

It's a skill that takes practice and not everyone has the patience especially in emergency situation to make it work. It can be doubly as hard if you're motor skills are failing you. The last time I used a magnesium fire starter was almost 15-16 years ago. I've still got them and I know how to use them but I'm out of practice and I very much doubt I'd get a fire going off of one in my first few attempts if I had to now. I keep a torch lighter as my go to and weather proof camping matches in my pack as a backup.

US transit worker myself, vehicle maintenance for light rail trains. Are you guys union labor or how does that work on your side of the pond?

US transit worker here, The police can ticket/fine you if you are caught but most of the time they will just make you get off at the next platform and buy a ticket and allow you to get back on. Our ridership is subsidized by the government so we get paid regardless. In fact we have many "free ride" events like concerts, holidays, and sporting eventswhere ridership is monitored but no fares are collected, We still get paid for it. The last official paperwork I had seen that have done the math to calculate how much a fair would need to be in order for ridership to purely sustain operations had tickets at something like $32 a fair. But that was quite old at the time.

Any air miles credit cards worth a damn?