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Category: Railways

  • Heathrow to London Luton

    Heathrow to London Luton

    Another post for the sake of completion, so there were no major dramas getting from Heathrow to Luton. It was rather odd that I was staying around twenty metres from the country’s major airport and had decided to fly from Luton Airport. Such is the lure of the £8.99 Wizz Air flights. Geographical inconveniences don’t concern me though…..

    It was raining so I decided against walking the one hour to Hayes and Harlington railway station.

    I don’t find buses very exciting, but this was a handy option which only took around ten minutes. I also appreciate that bus content is not traditionally where great travel writing finds its highest expression, but there we go.

    I remember when this was all fields…. Well, I remember it before it was on the Elizabeth Line and it had this fancy frontage anyway.

    I might not love buses, but I do like trains and here’s the Elizabeth Line train sweeping in. I got the train into Farringdon to complete a little task involving free food and then decided that I’d walk the 30 minutes to King’s Cross St Pancras as the rain had stopped. I’m a natural athlete me, albeit one whose sporting career is mostly based around refusing to pay for short tube journeys.

    The delights of St. Pancras, a really rather beautiful shopping centre with some train lines.

    Platform 1 was the train to Corby and that would get me to London Luton Airport Parkway in under 30 minutes. I would add that the rail fare was £4.20 which is rather decent value for money I think bearing in mind I only booked it yesterday.

    One day I’ll find getting trains boring, but for the moment, it still excites and delights.

    In crawls the train…

    I don’t like five seats across as I don’t think trains were originally designed for this, but anyway, it wasn’t that busy. I also provided a free tourist service to the guy who was trying to get to Luton and I didn’t once ask him why he wanted to go to Luton which I think showed considerable restraint and perhaps even personal growth.

    Still the worst managed railway station in the country in my view, but I won’t labour that point as I might have drivelled on several times before about it.

    I walked the twenty minutes to Luton Airport and passed by the Vauxhall building, now closed down and staffed only by security teams and guard dogs.

    And safely at London Luton airport.

    And the longest queues which I’ve seen at London Luton, although, to be fair, I was still through in under 25 minutes and I was hardly in a rush as I had, once again, arrived five hours early for my flight. I can imagine that my two loyal blog readers can hardly contain themselves with excitement for the next post….

  • Norwich to Heathrow (Skopje Trip)

    Norwich to Heathrow (Skopje Trip)

    I set off for Heathrow yesterday as there was a cheap offer advertised by Accor and, naturally, I hadn’t formed any other plan. This is what travel looked like before people insisted on having itineraries, aims and a vague sense of personal responsibility. Anyway, here’s the train to Stansted Airport which departed on time and without issue. There was no driver until one minute before departure and I was slightly hoping for a delay repay, but it wasn’t to be. I’d add at this stage that there isn’t any fascinating content in this post (not that there usually is), but I like a complete write-up for my own memory. And, imagine, a future historian might query why civilisation failed and they might discover the answer from this blog.

    Safely in Cambridge.

    There was a six minute connection time to get the Great Northern train to King’s Cross and it took me four minutes to cross Cambridge railway station so anyone with accessibility issues would have likely missed it.

    Setting off and the train remained relatively quiet, which made it easier for all the people with seats to keep them there. These trains, similar to Thameslink, don’t have power points but I do like the ironing board seats, although I seem to be about the only person who does.

    I always like arriving into King’s Cross, it’s a beautiful station.

    And safely into Hayes and Harlington railway station using the Elizabeth Line. There’s a decent fair from Norwich to here, it came in at £12 which felt rather reasonable.

    I thought I’d pop to the Botwell Inn, the JD Wetherspoon operated pub located near to the railway station. This real ale went back, it was vinegary on the taste, but the manager was quick at checking it and replacing it. Actually, the manager was very good in general, this always feels like a well-run pub and real ale based issues are inevitably going to occur.

    The replacement beer was the Wolf of the Woods from Twickenham Fine Ales with a biscuity, toffee and nutty taste to it. It also cost only £2.39 a pint which is the usual bargain price from the chain.

    I decided that it might be useful to actually plan my week at this stage, since it was already Sunday evening and I had no idea where I was going. I do know that I needed to be back in Bristol for Friday morning, so I needed a plan to get there cheaply. I decided on a route via Skopje, booked the flights, trains and National Express, ready now for the craft beer festival. I mentioned a few days ago that this is one of the countries that I haven’t visited, so it felt a wise choice.

    Given that I was lingering here, I paid £6.39 for the steak pudding with chips and that included the Guinness 0%. It’s not exactly going to surprise and delight those who like fine dining, but it’s hard to complain too much at that price.

    It was an hour walk to the hotel and this time I decided to have a look at the church in Harlington for the first time, but more of that in a separate post as I don’t want some ecclesiastical masonry interfering with this post.

    Back at the Heathrow Ibis hotel which I’ve stayed at numerous times before. The reason I stayed here is that with the Accor offer it came to £13 for the night, which I thought was reasonable.

    I also get my free welcome drink and here are some of the options.

    Not Magners, but the Eazy from Camden Town Brewery which is growing on me, it’s got flavours of orange, it’s hazy and it’s quite intriguing. That is a pint glass, it’s just that the chair the other side of the table is unusually large.

    A room. This blog really doesn’t fail to delight with riveting content…. But, I arrived here with a plan for the week and that felt like an achievement in itself.

  • Hanover to Dortmund with FlixTrain

    Hanover to Dortmund with FlixTrain

    I used FlixTrain for the first time a few weeks ago primarily for the experience, but I found myself this time needing to use them as an affordable option to get from Hanover to Dortmund. Hanover railway station is dated and sub-optimal in numerous ways, not least the complete lack of seating for the number of passengers. However, the station is run by Deutsche Bahn, an organisation not always known for arranging its operations around the emotional well-being of passengers, so my expectations were already sensibly low.

    Deutsche Bahn wanted around £40 for the train from Hanover to Dortmund, but fortunately the FlixTrain service was more affordable.

    The city’s first railway station was built between 1845 and 1847, but a grand new building was constructed in 1879. Unfortunately, this was mostly destroyed by air raids during the Second World War and a less impressive railway station was built in its place, although this was heavily modernised in 2000.

    I could see the hotel room where I stayed the previous evening. At this point I used the toilet facilities at the railway station, but that arrangement is getting its own blog post. And you can see the extensive seating facilities for passengers in action.

    The FlixTrain sweeps in.

    There were carriages that were something like 1, 2, 3, 100, 5 and 6, with my carriage being 100 so it wasn’t entirely clear where along the train it would be. However, the signage on the train is good and I soon found my seat.

    The seats are comfortable, the tray table is of a decent size and it was all relatively clean. There are no power points on the train, but it’s all a perfectly reasonably set-up for the money.

    It wasn’t a particularly busy service and it all ran to a near enough schedule.

    There’s plenty of space for bags and I still quite like their wavy ceiling arrangement.

    And safely into Dortmund, for the third time this year.

    Overall, I thought that this service represented decent value for money and was a good budget option. Deutsche Bahn was just too expensive, although the German railway network offers unlimited regional travel for around £60 that I’m jealous of, so that makes them better value for money for locals. Deutsche Bahn can certainly benefit from competition and FlixTrain certainly does that, so I’m very glad that they’re there.

  • Hamburg to Hanover Train

    Hamburg to Hanover Train

    After a slightly sub-optimal rail journey from Lübeck to Hamburg, I had a thirty minute wait before taking another train from Hamburg to Hanover.

    I haven’t been to Hamburg for some years and I’ve forgotten whether I ever visited the railway station, but it feels modern and functional.

    The station was busy and lacking in obvious seating, but at least my train was operating nearly to time.

    The 21:28 was my train and it was a joint service between the Swiss and German rail networks. I was a little confused as it was stating that NJ741 required a reservation and IC60471 didn’t, but it transpired that reservations were only needed for those crossing over into Switzerland. As reservations were around £5 on top of the ticket, I hadn’t bothered getting one as I like a little uncertainty in life.

    I did wait in the queue to ask the Deutsche Bahn information desk about the reservation system, but they were overwhelmed and understaffed so I gave up after around ten minutes.

    The train arrives which was a promising development for those of us who had invested emotionally in whether we had a seat.

    I had wondered if I’d get a seat as I hadn’t reserved a ticket, but I found this seat by a table and power point, so I was content and felt that I was in a civilised location.

    These two seats were reserved and they changed hands over ten times as there was chaos with people confused over reservations. I didn’t much care, I had my seat, but the system is clearly flawed somewhere.

    I felt that the reservation system was clear, but there we go….

    There was a family of four here and I was quite worried as they, along with half the carriage, were told off by the guard and had to pay more. I don’t know what was happening, maybe they had the monthly pass that was for regional trains only. I showed my ticket and the guard looked pleased, so that was a relief as there are few pleasures in life greater than being judged administratively adequate by a German train guard.

    And safely in Hanover, the first time that I’ve visited this city. All told, I was very pleased with the whole journey, the train was clean, the service was friendly, the ticketing was clear and I was very happy that Deutsche Bahn got me in on time. It wasn’t the cheapest ticket at around £20, but that wasn’t unreasonable. After the earlier journey between Lübeck and Hamburg, arriving in the right city at the right time and with no need to sit on a staircase felt almost decadent.

  • Lübeck to Hamburg Train

    Lübeck to Hamburg Train

    I’m very jealous of the offer on German rail that passengers can get unlimited regional travel by trains for around £60 a month. The German rail system is routinely dreadful, but this is a scheme that I would very much like in the UK. At the moment, £60 feels like it would get me a seat at 23:07 to get from London Liverpool Street to Norwich, there’s so much more that we can do.

    It’s a rather lovely looking train, it’s operated as Deutsche Bahn Regio Schleswig-Holstein.

    This is the same, or similar, to the regional trains in Italy and I was thinking that I would be making a rare very positive post about German rail. At this point a conductor came on and threw everyone off with some considerable rudeness, so he was having an altercation with another passenger. I wonder sometimes whether Deutsche Bahn has some sort of commitment to making passengers suffer to some degree, but perhaps that’s being unfair.

    They decided to half the length of the train and although I’m sure that they didn’t do that to annoy me although it did show impressive dedication to that principle. It also made the service rather cramped, but here’s the confirmation that we were off to Hamburg though.

    There was no seating available, other than in the empty First class section, so people made themselves comfortable on the steps. On a different matter, I found a seat and had access to a power point, so my nerves were calm.

    This is the First section that remained empty during the journey, theoretical comfort in action…

    Unfortunately, a large number of football fans from FC Hansa Rostock boarded and put hundreds of stickers up around the train. But, they also abused women who took refuge upstairs where I was. Other passengers consoled them, because there were no staff to be seen anywhere, which is always reassuring when the train has developed the atmosphere of a lightly mobile police incident. The fans’ game was also to try and shake the train so it was hardly the most comfortable of journeys for many passengers.

    Anyway, this wasn’t a long journey and it was only just over an hour to get to Hamburg. I suspect that if I had selected the train before then the whole experience would have been very different, but this felt like a typical train journey on Deutsche Bahn. I’m pleased to say that the next leg of my journey on Flix Train was considerably better. I’ll just have to go back to Germany and take more rail journeys and I’m sleflessly very willing to do that for this blog.

  • Norwich to Stansted Airport Rail Journey

    Norwich to Stansted Airport Rail Journey

    This won’t be the most riveting of posts as there wasn’t really any drama. But, I had the opportunity to pop overseas for the weekend and that’s not something that I was going to deny myself. That meant a train journey from Norwich to Stansted Airport which was a very reasonable £14 booked on a complex ticketing arrangement.

    Waiting at the platform on a sunny Friday morning. It was already too hot.

    Here comes the train sweeping in and it was clear that there weren’t that many commuters waiting to go to Cambridge, which meant for a quiet journey in.

    And there’s my meal deal arrangement from the Co-op, very healthy as I’m sure that everyone would agree. Co-op sandwiches are not of the highest quality, the bacon is usually excessively fatty and the chicken has not been lavished with taste, but the prawn sandwich is agreeable enough.

    This was my view for most of the journey. Well, specifically I mean the empty seats, I didn’t have my head on the table.

    The waiting room at Cambridge railway station where I had a wait for the next train of around thirty minutes. A quick word on my rail ticket which technically required me to get off at Cambridge North and then get onto another operator’s train to take me the short distance to Cambridge. With the guard’s permission, I just stayed on the same train to avoid that change, but it’s that quirky switch to a Great Northern train which is why the ticket was much cheaper than the usual fare even to Cambridge. To be honest, at times it feels that securing agreement for an international treaty would be easier than getting cheap rail fares, the system really is sub-optimal in many ways.

    The view over Cambridge railway station from the bridge over the platforms.

    The only photo that I have of the second train and it was also relatively quiet. Fortunately, everything was running on time and there were no delays. As a side issue, I note that my bag looks in excellent condition there.

    I got muddled up at Stansted Airport railway station and managed to leave the ticket gates at the lift which I’ve never used before. I didn’t expect it to go straight into the terminal, I usually meander around some ramps to get there, so that was some operational efficiency that I hadn’t expected.

    With that, I had arrived on time and I could start to think about my flight….

  • Cologne to Dortmund with FlixTrain

    Cologne to Dortmund with FlixTrain

    I have a lot more to write about Cologne, as I’m partial to wittering on, but I’d better catch up with the rest of the trip I made last week before I forget the last bit of it. I had spent three nights in Cologne and I was then spending one night in Dortmund before leaving Germany. So, that meant a train journey and I like a train journey.

    Mine was the 12:14 train to Leipzig.

    This is Cologne’s main railway station and it first opened in 1859, replacing the rather awkward and sub-optimal arrangement of separate railway termini that had grown up as different companies did their own thing in the traditional nineteenth century manner. Putting the station beside the cathedral was, on one level, completely logical, because it placed rail travellers right in the middle of the city. On another level, it was a bold little decision to squeeze one of Germany’s key railway hubs next to one of Europe’s great Gothic buildings and simply hope the whole arrangement would somehow look dignified.

    And they’ve failed in my view with the new building, there’s the grand cathedral on the right and the rather dumpy frontage of the railway station. But, it’s rare for a central railway station to be this central, I’m impressed at their forward planning.

    It is an odd mix really, but anyway, back inside.

    The current railway station is largely the result of rebuilding in the late nineteenth century and then, of course, the rather undesirable outcome on the city from the Second World War. After 1945, the station was rebuilt and it remains one of Germany’s most important railway interchanges, at least being quite grand inside.

    I was meant to be getting the train from platform 5, but then the Brussels train was running late, so we were shunted to platform 4. This was not much of an inconvenience, since it’s a walk of around three metres.

    And here comes the FlixTrain storming into the platform. I’ve taken many FlixBus journeys, but this is the first version by train. I’d note that the prices were low, this journey cost under £10. Trains in Germany are generally cheap as it’s possible to pay £60 a month and then get unlimited free local travel on trains, something I’d love to be introduced in the UK. This FlixTrain isn’t included in that offer as it’s a private operator, but they made lots of clear announcements about that.

    Everyone is given a seat, although passengers can change it on the app, and mine was in the front carriage. Unfortunately, that was quite a way from where I was standing, and there were quite a lot of passengers shuffling along to the appropriate place. I meandered slowly, there were some passengers that seemed entirely panic-stricken by the whole process.

    The interior was spacious and everything was clearly signed.

    The train wasn’t that busy and there was no-one in the window seat for the journey, so it felt spacious. There were no power points, but the seats were comfortable enough.

    I was impressed that there was enough space to use my laptop, it’s often the situation on trains where the tray isn’t wide enough or the seat pitch doesn’t allow it.

    A photo of the carriage with its wavy ceiling.

    We arrived into Dortmund 35 minutes late, but I’m used to lengthy delays on the German rail network.

    And the outside of Dortmund railway station.

    I was impressed at the whole arrangement as the booking process was easy and used the same app as the bus service. It was clear where to get the train from, the seating options were easy to understand and the pricing was firmly towards the lower end of the scale. I’d certainly use this again and I hope that FlixTrain continues to expand their operations.

  • Cologne Bonn Airport to Cologne City Centre

    Cologne Bonn Airport to Cologne City Centre

    The signage at Cologne Bonn airport was broadly pretty poor and the only other airport that I’ve experienced this is at Berlin Brandenburg. Between the plane and arrivals, I was following other passengers and they, including different people, went wrong on three occasions. Now, I go wrong a lot when I get muddled up, but there was mass confusion here. Well, maybe I exaggerate mass, but it adds to the drama. I suspect that people don’t tend to much think about good signage that’s been well thought out, because they just naturally follow it and get to where they want.

    Either way, things didn’t much improve after getting into the arrivals area. In the above photo, there is a very difficult to see sign for the S-Bahn but you’d never walk down that bit as there are barriers, the passenger route is to the right where there is no signage. But, I’m an experienced walking route navigator, so I had a plan to just keep going and I was confident I’d end up somewhere. Maybe not where I wanted, but I’d end up somewhere.

    Fortunately, I managed to find the railway station without going wrong, although it was further away than I had anticipated.

    And finally nearly there….

    There’s the one that I want, the 22:54.

    The platforms were longer than I had anticipated when I saw the trains in the distance.

    That’s the 22:32 train to Koblenz on the right and by this time, it was 22:39. I realised I could get that delayed train, so I decided to get on it.

    It all looked mostly clean, there were power points and I thought this was working out. The train evidently wasn’t going anywhere fast, but I am a very patient person. For two or three minutes anyway. Then there was an announcement at 22:54, some angry faces and 90% of people got off and boarded another train.

    They boarded this train, the one I was originally meant to be on originally, so I joined them as part of the passenger stampede. Of course, the train we were all on then promptly left and there were some angry German words used by a few passengers that I didn’t entirely understand.

    I can’t remember the last time I saw anyone with their feet on the seats in Poland. In the UK and Germany, it’s a different matter. Not that I go on about these things.

    For added excitement for passengers, some of the doors didn’t work. But, all was well, I was able to get off at Köln Messe/​Deutz railway station and walk to the hotel.

    In terms of the ticket, there were two ticket machines at the airport railway station that I saw, but both were in use. That didn’t impact me as I had decided to buy my ticket online as there was a small discount, so I paid €3.68 on the KVB app. It was relatively easy to purchase as most sections of the process, although not all, were in English.

  • Norwich to Luton Airport Parkway by Train

    Norwich to Luton Airport Parkway by Train

    This wasn’t a rail journey of any great note, but sometimes the mundane still needs to be recorded. After a rather lovely few days at Beer Con, I departed early on Easter Monday morning from Norwich railway station. It was quiet, people were focused on their Easter eggs.

    There’s the Greater Anglia train to Ely at the back of the platform.

    This service was only going as far as Ely due to engineering works that prevented it from reaching the promised land that is Cambridge. That meant that most sensible people were going to London directly arriving into London Liverpool Street, but that was more expensive and so I wasn’t. Although there were points failure and sadly a suicide on that line, so it might likely have been a slower option anyway. It did at least mean a quiet and peaceful train service, as this line can get rather busy.

    And arriving safely into the beautiful city of Ely.

    Then the exciting bus replacement service from Ely to Cambridge. I was the last person to board this before they thought it had better get going and everyone else behind crowded onto what looked like a nicer bus. This one was far too hot, I’m surprised passengers didn’t get heat stroke, but the driver was quite chirpy although it might have been delirium caused by the heat.

    After a quick visit to the new Tesco opposite Cambridge railway station, I meandered to the platform with around thirty minutes before my train. For reasons I’ve never quite understood, Thameslink trains seem to sometimes depart one minute before the scheduled departure time, which caused an argument as one passenger ran to the train to try and board before being shouted to stand back as it was about to depart. I was restricted by what train I could get with an advance ticket, so I had less need to rush.

    I thought I would embark on my meal deal at this point and very unusually I didn’t go for the prawn mayo option as I felt that this was a chicken day. I should probably get out more….

    The Thameslink train thundering into the station.

    The Thameslink service, which left one minute before the departure time, remained relatively quiet, although as there are twelve carriages it’s not exactly limited for space. And, as part of my survey of global trends, I noted that a passenger had his feet on the seats. Not that I go on about this….

    Farringdon station where I was changing for another Thameslink train to take me to Luton Airport Parkway. I’m not sure why the route took me through London St. Pancras to get to Farringdon, then went back that way, so I went to a station further south than I needed. There were some young football fans shouting something about “we are the blues, we are the blue army, who are we?” as if they’d forgotten. They were ignored by everyone, which I felt was positive.

    And onto the next Thameslink train which was heading to Bedford. This was relatively quiet and everything was on time, so I arrived into the delights of Luton Airport Parkway station which is slightly less annoying when leaving it than arriving into it.

    And the walk to Luton Airport, which is around twenty minutes as I refuse to pay for the shuttle as it’s too expensive. The ticket price for Norwich to Luton Airport Parkway was £22 and as it was on time, annoyingly, there was no Delay Repay…. The ticket didn’t work at the Cambridge or Luton Airport Parkway station barriers, but there were gateline staff to let me through. So, one Greater Anglia train, one Greater Anglia bus replacement and two Thameslink trains….

  • Management Problems at Luton Airport Parkway Railway Station

    Management Problems at Luton Airport Parkway Railway Station

    Luton Airport Parkway is one of the most bizarre railway station operations that I’ve experienced. On two occasions now over recent months, the staff here have launched into quite direct attacks about the management of the railway station at a local level. As I’ve never asked a staff member about their thoughts on the management (nor indeed their thoughts on anything), it seems like there are issues and I’m not sure that customers should be bearing the brunt of this.

    There’s a problem at the railway station that the waiting room is not accessible to anyone on a timed ticket. Initially I was told that customers can’t enter the station more than twenty minutes before the train and then I was told it was fifteen minutes a few months ago. It’s been on those occasions that the, likely harassed by endless passengers, team members explained the problems they’ve had enforcing new rules.

    So, with the comfortable waiting room out of bounds, passengers have to wait here. I just waited without saying anything, but when I tried to put my ticket through at the barrier fifteen minutes before the train left, it failed. There was a staff member sitting down nowhere near the barriers by a heater who managed to get called an “a***hole” by one passenger he ignored, although he didn’t come and help me.

    I got the attention of another staff member and she was very friendly and let me through. She said that the rules had changed again and that customers couldn’t enter the railway station with a timed ticket until the previous train had departed. It’s to stop them boarding it with a timed ticket…..

    The train arrived on time and it was hard not to miss Poland, where I had just returned from. They have the radical idea that passengers on their services can always use their waiting rooms to wait in. It’s all a bit sub-optimal from Thameslink, especially given the huge sums of money invested in this railway station over recent years.