Category: Railways

And, here we are again, at London Liverpool Street with a rail service back to Norwich. Or, in this case, a service to Ipswich and a bus took me the rest of the way. I was placed to note that the toilets are back open at London Liverpool Street, all newly remodelled and still free of charge.

The trains are announced much earlier than they used to be, half an hour before the departure time in this case. I was one of the first couple of people to board, as is evident in the above photo.

The carriages were from the Stansted Express service, the 745/1 FLIRT cars, which I think are the same (with one caveat below) as the standard services from Norwich to London Liverpool Street. But, I don’t know my trains well enough to say (write) that with any certainty.

One difference is evident inside, there are no tables at any of the seats and there is some extra space for cases. I don’t know why there are no tables, it’s a bloody nuisance, and I imagine it’s another one of Jamie Burles’s good ideas. There are though power sockets and everything worked as it should, with the train being clean and well presented.

Another shot of the carriages. The service ran to schedule and the conductor seemed friendly enough in his announcements, although they kept breaking up. He said when we were near to Ipswich that the bus replacement service would depart from Platform 1, which entirely confused me. He changed this when we pulling into Ipswich to say that the bus service was now operating from outside the front of the station and this did make more sense. He’d probably had a long day. There were only two of us in the end carriage and although the other carriages were a little busier, it was still a relatively quiet service.

I’ve moaned, indeed moaned quite a lot sometimes, about how bus replacement services can be really badly managed. Although at least there were staff around, unlike the little incident that Nathan and I had with Deutsche Bahn last year. This was really rather good, there were staff making clear announcements that customers going to Stowmarket and Diss needed to get a certain bus, with those going to Norwich needing another. All very clear. The service was operated by Wrights Coaches, who I haven’t heard of, and everything seemed professional with them.

I think there’s a vague plan to try and get buses fitted with seatbelts when they’re used on bus replacement services, but there’s no such requirement at the moment. Ideally, perhaps, there would be. But, the bus was clean and not over-filled, it was all comfortable enough.

And back safely into Norwich, four minutes ahead of schedule. The fare was the usual £10 (I say usual, it isn’t always that price, but it’s the price that I’m prepared to pay, so it’s become my usual) which I think is pretty decent value for money. The bus section of the journey is always a faff, but it was handled as well as it could have been, and full marks to Greater Anglia. Although they need tables on their trains, as I like them.

This is the third time that I’ve taken the Greater Anglia service from Norwich to London Liverpool Street over the last month, another £10 bargain fare. Although the first train service into London for that price left at 13:00, arriving under two hours later.

As with my previous journeys, the train was quiet in Norwich. It was also clean and well presented, with all of the power points working well.

The train became busier towards London, although it was nowhere near packed. There were frequent announcements that made warning that customers might be fined £100 if they didn’t wear a face mask, but I’m not exactly sure who was meant to be doing this enforcement. I haven’t seen any presence from the British Transport Police on any of my recent journeys, so I suspect it’s just said more out of hope than anything else. There was high compliance with the rule though, with customers not moving around the train much.

The train arrived into London Liverpool Street on time and, unfortunately (or probably fortunately really), it was all rather uneventful. I still think that this new train looks beautiful and graceful, just a slight shame that there are so few people on the bloody thing.

So back off to London, on another £10 fare from Norwich with Greater Anglia and there’s a high availability of this price when travelling off-peak. Unlike my trip last week, the barrier staff are back at Norwich railway station, although most of the food outlets on the concourse are still closed.

The outbound 10.30 train was the inbound 10.27 train, which meant that there was no time to properly clean it down, although a cleaner came through to collect rubbish. But, the carriages all looked clean and well maintained, but there’s not exactly a huge passenger load on them at the moment.

The train pulling up onto platform 2 at Norwich railway station. The journey was uneventful as everything worked well and the train arrived at Colchester railway station a few minutes early. It wasn’t a particularly busy service, a handful of customers in each carriage and every customer I noticed was wearing a mask.

The guards aren’t walking up and down the train due to the current health issue, but there was an announcement mid-way through telling a passenger with a grey t-shirt to get their feet off the seats. I liked that the guards were clearly looking at CCTV, it’s reassuring from a general safety point of view, as well as helping to ensure that the train stays clean and presentable.

And safely in London Liverpool Street, all on time. It still seems a shame that these new trains are sweeping up and down the country with so few passengers on them, but at least it made for a comfortable journey for me.