Northern & Scotrail: Mediators

I was returning from the Lake District one Saturday this month. I sought to catch the 9.28 train to Preston, and then I’d catch the bus back to Barnoldswick. The train operator was Northern, and I opened its website (which charges no fees) to buy my ticket: £13.60. Yet if I bought the same ticket from Scotrail, Scotland’s national carrier, which does not even operate in England, the same ticket cost only £12.70. Only ninety pence difference, I grant, but why would it be more expensive buying direct than through a rival train company? Neither company charged booking fees, so that cannot be the explanation. The vagaries and quirks of the British railway system continue to baffle me! I contacted Northern to ask, but the staff rather blandly informed me that they were unable to comment on past rail fares, only future ones (as though, when wishing to buy a train ticket for the next day, I would go to the trouble of running the price comparison past them first).

Scotrail effectively acted as a mediator between me and Northern, and saved me the best part of a pound. I had a conversation with a pious gentleman recently, who came to my home and wanted to talk about faith. He was approaching God without the mediator, Christ Jesus. In the long run, he will find this to be a very expensive decision.

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 1 Timothy 2:4b-6a, New King James Version