As an avowed atavist, I yearn for the days when the roads and rails were mercifully bereft of people and going from A to B was simple and quick – and cheap.

In a locale where there is already an elegant sufficiency of temporary traffic lights, I was distraught to get caught in a huge traffic jam on my way back to Eilidh’s town the other night.

My chagrin was compounded by the fact that I seldom drive the route in question, and by far prefer the train.

The jam in question was caused by reducing two lanes to one on the wrong end of Dumbarton to allow work to be undertaken.

Fair enough, I thought, engineering work has to be carried out, and of course on the railway too, but after nearly an hour of crawling along I got to the merge to find that not only were there not dozens of orange-clad men leaning on their shovels, rolling cigarettes and shooting the breeze with each other while not working, there were no men there at all.

The agony might have been assuaged if there had been teams of people beavering away in the white heat of industry while people sat fuming in their cars. But no. When I eventually passed there was not a sign of a single workie, far less any heavy plant doing the business.

What followed must have been a deluge of calls and emails from ‘raging of Rhu’ and ‘scandalised of Shandon’ to the engineers in question, SP Energy Networks.

They were scheduled to install a high voltage electricity cable and substation at Milton, but promptly reversed the decision when the scale of the carnage became apparent.

However, with the plan shelved, another date will have to be found, and some means of lessening disruption to travellers sought.

The area where the works are due to take place isn’t easily bypassed by a shortcut, and this may well mean the residents in Old Kilpatrick and Bowling will face a diversion of traffic down their high streets from the main road when the works are rescheduled. That will also lead to congestion and safety issues.

I understand it’s a no-win situation.

Well done to the firm for listening to people. More big companies providing services to the public, particularly privatised utilities like energy and communications suppliers, should do the same.

More often than not, big blue-chip companies could not care a jot about the inconvenience of mere people like you and I. Instead, they see us as consumers rather than customers, and treat us as nothing more than a cash cow.