Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Railways

Liverpool Weekend (Day Four) – Crewe to London Euston

With no disrespect to Crewe, but I couldn’t find much to excite and delight me on the Monday afternoon that I was there. There were no museums, Good Beer Guide pubs or craft beer bars open, although there was a micropub which looked marvellous if it had been open. There wasn’t even a JD Wetherspoon pub in the town, it’s shut. It meant the limit of my expedition, and it’s over a mile to the centre from the railway station, was a sub-optimal Poundbakery visit. Also, apologies for the slightly blurry photos, that’s partly a result of the greasy bakes from the aforementioned location.

As an aside, and it was rebuilt in 1880, but the Crewe Arms Hotel was built in 1838 and is the first specially built railway hotel. Queen Victoria stayed there on numerous occasions and it’s still in use as a hotel today.

There’s a pleasant waiting room at Crewe railway station. There was no town at Crewe until the railway boom built a junction here and the railway station was first constructed in 1837. It was rebuilt in 1867 and then extensively remodelled in 1984.

The interior of the railway station and this was nearly all shut down around fifteen years ago when there were plans to move to a new building which would be nearer to Crewe. There were meant to be HS2 services from Crewe, but the whole project is currently up in the air.

As a fun fact, there are seven rail operators which operate services to Crewe, which is the joint highest in the country.

The West Midlands Train service that I was booked onto arrives.

Seats were shoved in, it wasn’t overly clean and there were no power points. However, the journey was on time and only cost £10.20 which all felt quite reasonable. I moan quite a lot about this trying to five seats in across, not least on this blog, and I’m sure my two loyal readers are tired of hearing about it. But it all feels sub-optimal, it makes the aisle quite narrow and the seats are hopeless for anyone who is slightly larger.

Happy memories of Rugeley from a previous GeoGuessr expedition with Nathan.

And safely into London Euston with its shiny new boards. I still liked the old ones as I could read them more easily, but maybe I’m just old fashioned now I’ve reached 24.

I’m going to bring the Liverpool weekend story to an end here. I had a marvellous evening in London with a visit to the Craft Beer Co at Holborn, before getting the train back to Norwich. All tired at the end of it, but it had been a really quite marvellous weekend. Thanks to Steve, Susan and Bev for their company and I’m already looking forward to the next set of adventures. The trip to Bucharest with Bev and Steve, amongst others, is already booked and I hope that Bev in particular will be well behaved.

October 3, 2023
Liverpool Weekend (Day Four) – Liverpool Lime Street to Crewe

After a marvellous weekend, it was time for me to meander back to Norwich and I was doing this in a number of stages. Firstly, it was getting a London Northwestern Railway service from Liverpool Lime Street to Crewe. The reasoning for this relates to split ticketing and making my train journey back as cheap as possible.

My morning started with a debacle, which at least gives me something else to write about. I use my Chase debit card to buy nearly everything, as I get 1% back and that’s entirely optimal as far as I’m concerned. However, there’s a glitch with Chase that for security reasons they garble the card number and so it’s not possible to pick up the tickets at the station as the machine doesn’t recognise the card. Recently this hasn’t been a problem, I just get e-tickets and so there’s no need for a pick-up, but it seems that London Northwestern Railway don’t have that facility.

After the machine failed, as I expected, I went to the ticket office with some moderate concern that my train was leaving in 25 minutes. That sounds a lot of time, but these things often take a while to resolve and I was sensing a problem. Fortunately the ticket office was entirely empty and the staff member there was very polite, but said that she couldn’t do anything about it. Now, when this has happened before, the ticket office has been able to print the ticket, but she said that wasn’t possible now. Her suggestion was to contact GWR who issued the ticket.

Now, I was mightily impressed at GWR. They have a WhatsApp contact where you can just message them and my problem was resolved by them within two minutes of my sending it to them. They changed the ticket so that it could be picked up by any card and that meant I could collect my ticket. They queried why the ticket office hadn’t done this or tried to contact them directly and it feels sub-optimal that there’s confusion between the rail company and the ticket office. I don’t know who is right, but I was fortunate to have booked with GWR as their customer service seems on point.

The train pulled into the station on time.

I wouldn’t say that it was spotlessly clean, but it was comfortable and there were plenty of seats.

There weren’t any power outlets though which was a little disappointing. The young lady sitting in this seat later on in the journey had the wrong ticket, she was travelling to Birmingham and had a ticket for later on in the day. The conductor was polite, but firm, telling her that he wouldn’t issue a penalty fare notice but saying that she would have to get off at the next station. The lady explained that she couldn’t afford to buy another ticket, but the conductor said if she disembarked than she could board a later train with the ticket that she had. The lady’s story was true as when the conductor had gone she phoned her mother to ask her to transfer money onto her card so she could buy the £30 or so ticket that she needed to stay on the train. She went off to find the conductor, asking me to look after her bags (which is something I don’t like doing really as if someone comes to steal them then I’m hardly going to fight them) and she merrily returned with a ticket which let her stay on the train.

And safely into Crewe with the journey running on time. The fare was £13.80 from Liverpool to Crewe, which felt entirely reasonable.

October 2, 2023
Liverpool Weekend (Day One) – And Another Delayed Train

I walked relatively quickly from Cloudwater to Manchester Oxford Road railway station, as I’m always slightly nervous about being late for pre-booked services of any kind. It’s a slightly odd railway station, constructed in 1849 and reconstructed in 1960, now looking and feeling dated and it feels like it is ready for a major refurbishment.

They’ve put quite an attractive frontage on the building at least.

I arrived with eight minutes to spare until my train departed, with the boards showing that it was running on time. Marvellous, I would be in join Susan, Steve and Bev for the evening meal and still have time to get to my hotel to check-in. The signage at the station was clear and it was a fifteen second walk to the platform.

The 16:46 train to Liverpool Lime Street via Urmston cost me around £3.50, this was not an expensive train.

The Northern train pulled in on time, it all boded well after the delays of earlier on during the day.

It wasn’t particularly busy and I’ve moaned enough times before about how they shove seats onto these services with minimal thought for comfort. There was though a USB power supply which was useful to top my phone up a little.

The view from the train window, just as there was an announcement that trespassers on the line at Warrington had caused a delay to the service. This felt sub-optimal as we sat there for ten minutes. Pesky interlopers.

We got to Birchwood and there was an announcement that the service was delayed and might be cancelled.

On the bright side, a more promising announcement was made and once again my train was likely to arrive something like 33 minutes late so I would get 50% off the fare. Given how cheap the fare was this was hardly a big bonus, but nonetheless, it would pay for a drink.

We arrived safely at Liverpool Lime Street. Taking into account the Delay Repay refunds, it meant that my journey from Norwich to Liverpool had cost just over £15, which is hard to complain about. I felt that the delays were just perfect insomuch as getting a partial refund, but without being majorly delayed and eating into my time in Liverpool.

The delights of the station concourse and it was great to be back in Liverpool once again. I haven’t been travelling much recently, so I’ve been very much looking forwards to a weekend away and it was rather lovely to finally arrive. I then just had to head to my hotel and then go to the Indian craft beer bar that I suggested we all meet at, a plan was coming together.

September 9, 2023
Liverpool Weekend (Day One) – Delay Repay and the Perfect Delay

I’m pleased to confirm that my train got in 33 minutes late into Manchester and so I’m getting a 50% refund on my rail fare. This is very optimal, a delay that doesn’t inconvenience me unduly but it’ll fund all my beers at Track and Cloudwater which I’m going to rush to visit. What a time to be alive! The rest of the journey incidentally was quiet, just some problems with the train which caused a few delays at a number of railway stations. But, I’m happy, this is all very handy for me, a minor delay and so free beer.

September 8, 2023
Liverpool Weekend (Day One) – And So the Trip Begins…..

I may have mentioned in passing, but it’s been too bloody hot this week and I was pleased to see some clouds in the sky in the hope that matters might be cooling down somewhat. As the observant might have noticed from the title of this post, I’m off for a little adventure to Liverpool with a few others. I deserve a break away I’ve decided.

I arrived early at the railway station as it’s the rather rickety East Midlands Railway service to Liverpool, although I’m getting off at Manchester as split ticketing meant that was much cheaper. And I decided I’d spend a couple of hours in Manchester itself as well.

There was then a twenty minute wait for me standing by the train, but I was pleased to feel that the temperature had reduced somewhat. This two carriage train is entirely inadequate for the number of people who want to use it, so it’s at capacity and there’s no space for luggage. Half of our group made the sensible decision to go via London, but I’v picked the thrifty route.

I boarded first to get a table seat, as this train doesn’t have any seat reservations which I personally think just makes thing easier but others are less impressed. It’s transpired that Bev is on the same train to Peterborough, where she’s getting of, and she’s a bit stompy down that end of the train judging by her comments in the group chat. Hopefully there will be some drama to report later on, likely involving Bev. But, I’m at a table seat, I have power and I’m settled in for the relatively long journey to Manchester. What could possibly go wrong…..

September 8, 2023
Gdansk Group Trip – Day 0 (Norwich to Stansted Airport via London Liverpool Street)

After a successful little sojourn in the Queen of the Iceni we meandered back to Norwich railway station amidst a deluge of torrential rain. There were no issues with late running trains, whatever issue there had been at Romford had been resolved. I do little some adventure when things go wrong, but on this occasion I was just keen to get to Poland without too many issues. It’s more interesting to watch other people have random adventures when things go IRROPS anyway.

There’s our train on the right, ready to board half an hour before departure.

A suitably decadent meal deal from the Co-op of roast beef monster munch, a prawn sandwich and a Dr Pepper, for only just a little bit more than the Tesco version would have cost. I intended to save all this for when I got to Stansted Airport, but I finished the crisps before we left the railway station and the sandwich by the time we reached Ipswich. All the food and drink met my expectations and I also successfully completed the Gogen puzzle in the Evening Standard. I was going to do the cryptic crossword as well but I didn’t know any of the answers.

Our train arrived in at 22:55, just five minutes before the Greggs at Liverpool Street station closed. Fortunately, they were still opening with no early closing going on here. This is the first time that I’ve been here (at this outlet, I’ve obviously been to Greggs before, I’m not a heathen), I was surprised and delighted at the friendly service and how much they had left just before closing which I think goes off to the homeless. All very efficient.

And a sausage roll safely acquired.

I toasted the King’s Coronation weekend with my sausage roll.

I mutter and moan about the Stansted Express train operating the Norwich to London Liverpool Street mainline, not least because it has no tables. This is though its natural home and I thought this would be a good time to eat my sausage roll, I had waited long enough.

I can cope with this lack of table provision on the relatively short journey from London Liverpool Street to Stansted.

It wasn’t overly busy fortunately.

And safely at Stansted Airport railway station just after midnight, with only several hours left before we can go through security. This isn’t the ideal situation, but who needs the luxury of hotels at Stansted when you can meander around the terminal and coach station for a few hours to amuse yourselves? The main thing is that we had arrived safely, ready for the flight in the morning and the delights of Gdansk.

May 10, 2023
Harwich – Greater Anglia Train from Norwich to Harwich

Today’s little pub, history and walking expedition is to Harwich since I thought that I needed a day out. I noticed on-line that the London train before mine was cancelled so thought I’d rush down in anticipation of the actual service I was booked on being full. Fortunately, I got a table just in time so was able to merrily type away for an hour or so. The service inevitably got busier and I got chatting to a confused passenger (they weren’t confused by me, or at least I don’t think so) who wondered why the train was so busy. We then shared our thoughts about Greater Anglia, which is a healthy scepticism I would say mixed with a supportive attitude.

My train arrived into Manningtree on time, but since it was a tight connection I didn’t get time to have a look around the railway station.

Looking to the left, the train was empty. Something of a contrast to the standing room only of the train that I had just disembarked.

Looking to the right, the train was empty. Now, I know I complain, but I hate it when they shove five seats in across. They’re so narrow that it effectively takes out the middle seat of the three so I disagree that there’s any benefit in terms of passenger numbers. Indeed, they’ve just made it more uncomfortable for everyone as it’s hard to navigate down the aisle and there’s a reason why trains traditionally have four seats across.

A couple of other people got on and then got off again at the gateway to the globe railway station that is Harwich International.

I do love a bit of history and they’ve made an effort with the boards at Harwich Town. The sign notes that between December 1938 and May 1940 that 10,000 unaccompanied children came to Britain from Europe. Although many people were involved, it is impossible for me not to mention the work done by Sir Nicholas Winton, someone that I consider to be one of the greatest people of the twentieth century. The relevance is that the children arrived here at Harwich and many stayed locally.

Another board about the Kindertransport.

I’ve been watching a lot of Hi-de-Hi recently and I didn’t realise that the programme was filmed at Warners which wasn’t far from the railway station, but unfortunately it was all demolished in 1992. That was a suitable treat to feel so near to where all this comedy action took place.

It’s a pretty railway station and it’s at the end of the Mayflower Line, with the building being rebuilt between 1865 and 1866.

And an information board at the front of the station, it all felt more remote than I had expected with all this greenery. But I had arrived into Harwich on time and ready to explore the town for my first time in recent years.

April 4, 2023
Monday – Failed Visit to Piercebridge But More Success in Middlesbrough (Part One)

My intention had been to visit Piercebridge, promoted by the area’s tourist authorities, which is the site of a Roman bridge. I had watched the Time Team episode filmed at the bridge a year or so ago and though that it looked like an interesting site. I abandoned that plan when I discovered that the bus was going to cost £6.60 for a return ticket, despite it being a 12 minute bus journey. Normally I would have just walked it instead, but it was raining and quite bleak.

The Arriva bus driver was very helpful and tried to work out on his machine if he could find an alternative, but he was unable to do so. He apologised on numerous occasions for the price gouging of his employer, but it was hardly his fault. His bus departed shortly afterwards with just one passenger on board. If I had wanted a day ticket for the wider area it was nearly the same price and I realised why the company hid the prices of single and return tickets on their web-site. As an aside, the Government has demanded recently that bus companies publish a list of all of their fares, but they’re presented in a complex format which makes it hard to unpick without some IT knowledge.

I accept that this is yet another complaint I’m making on this blog despite trying to be a permanent ray of sunshine, but it’s no wonder that increasing numbers of people are moving away from using the bus network. Since this little failed adventure, Grant Shapps has announced (before being sacked) the new £2 bus fare maximum from January to March next year, which would have meant that I would have made this journey.

Instead, I decided to walk back to Darlington’s railway station to get a day return to Middlesbrough. This was a cheaper ticket than the bus would have been which pleased me greatly. The rail network very often produces remarkable value for money, particularly on advance fares, so the day was looking more interesting. And Middlesbrough has more beer than Piercebridge. It did mean traipsing back to the hotel en route to pick up my bag, but at least that meant I could have my laptop for the day.

Another photo of the grand interior of Darlington’s railway station.

My train would be departing from Platform 3.

And here thunders in the Northern train that I needed to catch, on time and in the right place. Still in a slight mood about the bus fares that Arriva charge, I decided once again that I’m really more of a rail person.

Clean and functional. I had purchased an off-peak return and wondered what times I could return, but the helpful guard said that there was no limit in the afternoons.

Wooo, power.

Welcome to Middlesbrough.

The railway station felt just a little bleak. The town had a railway station as early as 1830 when the Stockton and Darlington railway line was extended here, although the current building is from 1877. It was badly damaged during an air raid in August 1942 and apparently has been restored recently, although I’m not sure which bit. Please do though enjoy the beautiful greenery that the station has as its floral display.

What a graceful building, the former National Provincial Bank on Albert Road which opened in the 1930s. I’m not sure that its current usage is quite as decadent, but at least the building is still standing. For anyone interested, some helpful individual has placed the architect’s plans on-line.

The beating heart of Middlesbrough. I quite liked the town, but they had a lot of empty premises, including some large shops which are currently boarded up. It’s hard to see how they’ll fill those, but the atmosphere felt suitably vibrant. Like many cities and towns, Middlesbrough has had to transform itself from an industrial and manufacturing town into a more service and IT based economy over recent decades.

I thought I might as well tick off a JD Wetherspoon outlet first and this is the Resolution. The large Lloyds pub explains on its website:

“This pub is part of the Captain Cook Square development, named after Middlesbrough’s most famous son. The pub takes its name from Cook’s flagship, Resolution. Between July 1772 and July 1775, Cook undertook an even more ambitious voyage. He was given two ships, with the Resolution as his flagship. He successfully completed the first west-east circumnavigation in high latitudes, chartered Tonga and Easter Island, discovered New Caledonia in the Pacific, the South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia in the Atlantic.”

For reasons unknown, but which I assume relate to price testing, this is the cheapest JD Wetherspoon outlet that I’ve seen in a long time, this meal and drink came to £5. It’s quite a well reviewed pub as far as these things go, although they annoyed one local:

“I work in a bar an night club so I know how to treat customers right your polite and not rude it’s called manners whiclh your staff don’t have. There ill mannerd and are walking around like lifeless zombies an a face like Margret thatcher” [sic in several places there]

I tried to picture this whole experience in my mind, but perhaps I shouldn’t have done. Anyway, my lunch was delicious just in case anyone wanted to know. I accept that I have no idea who might want to know that, but there we go.

The coffee was lovely as well. There was then a chat with another customer, not instigated by me obviously, that distracted me for around half an hour, although he said early on that I had a posh southern accent. When I said I was from Norwich, he replied that he thought my accent was from somewhere posher such as Surrey. I was annoyed at numerous levels with that, but there we go…. Bloody Surrey.

I approve of this, a number of streets which are more accessible for pedestrians and where outdoor areas have been created for restaurants and bars. Who would have though Middlesbrough would be so on trend? But what would I know, since I come from Norwich and not Surrey…..

Very appropriate for Baker Street. This road, along with Bedford Street, had an abundance of micro-pubs, I was really quite impressed. They had so many micro-pubs that I’m very tempted to visit Middlesbrough again, it was an unexpected delight that was only limited that I didn’t have time to get to many on the day I went.

Although some of the micro-pubs weren’t yet open, I felt the need to visit one and I went for the Twisted Lip, which is a former terraced house turned into a micro-pub. It has been trading since 2014 and seems to have quite some following, with a range of craft and keg options which were all keenly priced.

I ordered, in my upmarket accent, the Thunderbridge Stout brewed by Small World Beers of Huddersfield, a very decent and rich stout.

I think it would be hard for anyone to deny that this interior was anything other than quirky.

The pub seems to get busy, but it was relatively quiet in the afternoon. The service was friendly and I was rather taken with the surroundings of the venue. I’d merrily recommend this pub, it sets its own style and avoids being formulaic.

Anyway, more about my little meander around Middlesbrough in the next blog post including a former Wetherspoons pub which I thought was quite intriguing…. And, not wanting to go on about it, there is nothing less decadent about Norwich compared to Surrey.

September 9, 2022
Friday – Arriving into Darlington (Part 2)

Picking up from the previous post.

The inside of Newcastle’s Central railway station, designed by John Dobson and constructed between 1845 and 1850 on a site which was three acres in size. The sheer scale of these projects was remarkable and today there are twelve platforms for trains and two platforms for the city’s Metro service.

I had a little issue that when I got the station that I had a ticket for a train that didn’t exist. I walked over to the customer service desk and the LNER staff member said that the train had been scrapped from the timetable the previous week and that I could board any LNER service to Darlington. I started my question with “I’m a little confused” and she responded “not as confused as we are”, so I liked her. The service was busy, not least because it was the day before and after a rail strike, but it meant I could depart 20 minutes earlier than I had expected. That strike action must have made matters challenging for the customer service staff, but they seemed to be doing a marvellous job.

I got a seat for the relatively short journey, but as it was so busy I didn’t take a photo of inside the carriage until I was disembarking. There was an announcement when I boarded that the trolley with food and drinks would be going through the train, but then another announcement ten minutes later saying that it wasn’t as it was too busy.

Safely in Darlington railway station which has some similarities to Newcastle, although was constructed later in 1887. There was an earlier station which had opened in 1841, but it didn’t prove large enough as passenger numbers grew.

Usually these signs note the local university of similar, but in this case, Lingfield Point is a large business park which is an important part of the town’s regeneration plans. One interesting little fact (or at least I thought so) is that the town’s name got shortened over the centuries and was frequently called Darnton during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was originally known as Deathingtun, meaning the settlement belonging to Deornoth’s people.

The frontage of the station which is now just the entrance to a car park area which I suspect might be repurposed in the future as it’s not a very attractive first impression. Although, looking at this news article, it seems they might be even more ambitious in their plans to modernise the station buildings.

Hints about the town’s railway history are visible at one of the main roundabouts. This is a model of the steam locomotive Tornado and there’s some information about this little arrangement at https://www.darlington.gov.uk/your-council/news/news-item/?id=997. More on this railway history in future days of this riveting blog though.

I was staying one night at the Mercure in Darlington, which I was returning to again later on during my little trip. The service was excellent, friendly and welcoming, and they kindly upgraded my room. There was a welcome drink available which I had to ask about, but that was willingly resolved. It was quite a hike to the room, it’s a large building and there are two separate sets of stairs (or lifts) to get there.

Ooooh, a Nespresso machine.

And a fridge with numerous cold drinks, all free of charge. I was very pleased with this.

It’s fair to say that there was no shortage of liquid soap and lotion options.

My welcome drink, a pint of John Smiths.

They’ve spent some money here on the hotel bar, and there’s a separate restaurant upstairs as well. The building has its origins as the Kings Head hotel and much of the original survives, although much modernised. The former grand entrance has been turned into shops, with a 1960s extension being where the reception and bar areas are. There was a large fire at the hotel only a few years ago, which led to a modernisation of the building, and everything still feels modern and contemporary.

The town’s market building, but more on this in a future post. I had a little meander around the centre of Darlington for an hour or so, although it was all rather quiet.

August 30, 2022
Thursday – Crossing London on a Rail Strike and Flying to Newcastle with BA (Part 1)

Starting Thursday having stayed at the YHA at Lee Valley, I was fully rested and ready for the excitement of crossing London during a rail strike. Although I’ve trailed that bit with the title of this post really.

Much of Britain has been a bit short of water recently and this is the River Lea looking the driest that I’ve seen it. Incidentally, it can be spelled either Lea or Lee, or as Wikipedia notes “the spelling Lea predominates west (upstream) of Hertford, but both spellings (Lea and Lee) are used from Hertford to the River Thames”.

The railway tracks for the Greater Anglia services are on the left, but they weren’t running at all from Cheshunt, although there were some trains shuttling up and down the line. The Overground was operating, although it wasn’t going to be the next day, but only from 08:00 which is later than usual. I wanted to get across London as quickly as possible for my 13:20 flight, so I caught the 08:02 service. I’m not entirely sure why the Overground was operating later than usual, but I assume it was because there were difficulties in getting drivers in on time.

The service was busy when I got off at Seven Sisters, but I think that was just a lot of people switching to the underground network who would have otherwise got the train into central London. It wasn’t busy for much of my journey, but I can imagine it was nigh on intolerable for many.

This is how I spent much of my journey, in the peace and quiet of the underground. I arrived at Heathrow T5 at around 09:40, which was as fast as I could have expected even on a day without strikes, so I was more than pleased with TFL.

I don’t often fly on domestic flights for environmental reasons (and my flights will be decreasing sharply next year anyway), but I have to note, it is much cheaper and convenient than using rail. However, I didn’t have many options when I needed to be in Newcastle and the trains weren’t running. A single fare cost £30 on BA, which I thought was very reasonable and compared to the railways, it’s just far better in terms of comfort, speed, efficiency and cost.

They’ve changed the security queueing system around a bit and I was stopped from going to the premium security bit by a staff member who said that there was no access via the way I wanted to go. I asked how I could get to the premium security line and she pointed me the way that I had been going. I suspect my dishevelled look must have slightly disorientated her. The staff were all friendly, but there was a woman complaining that her liquids were being seized. Again and again this happens, surely people must realise they can’t sneak stuff through, although I’m always impressed how surprised people pretend to look.

I had time to visit the BA Galleries South lounge and the breakfast spread here has improved no end recently. I’m not saying this is world class, but it’s more than sufficient and everything has reverted to being self-service once again. I’m pleased that they’ve stopped insisting on putting the bacon and sausages into rolls, it’s now served separately.

How decadent.

There’s now a market table as they’re calling it, with salad items and the like, as well as rolls.

And it’s the first time that I’ve seen nachos in a BA lounge as well.

Some of the hot options, which includes pies, chicken curry, vegan curry, chilli and the like. I was very pleased that the gravy was self-pour. They took the breakfast options away just before 11:00 and brought the hot food out just after 11:15, which I think is earlier than it used to be.

I was pleased to see the gravy was self-serve because that meant I could drown my pies in it, just as I like them. I’m easily pleased I accept. They’ve changed to pea and ham pies this month, and the quality is very acceptable indeed. I could have had quite a few of these. I know that as I did have quite a few of them.

There seem to be a lot of screens down around Heathrow at the moment, although the number of staff seems to have increased.

Boarding was a mess and it took them nearly 40 minutes from announcing the gate was open to letting people through. It’s easy to be critical, but they could have explained what was happening as I could see the annoyance on the faces of some people. And, if I couldn’t, the man next to me shouted down his phone to someone “it’s blasted carnage here”. I’ve changed the “blasted” word to be less rude, but readers (if it’s plural) of this blog can guess the word he used. I privately thought that the word “carnage” was a bit strong for a queue of this length, but sometimes people like to recount their stories of drama.

It transpired, as the pilot mentioned it on board, that the computer system had gone down and the gate staff were trying to fix it. They probably could have just said that whilst we were waiting, but they did look short-staffed and perhaps they were just focused on getting people through quickly. Boarding by group fell apart, although the queue I was in moved quickly and so I boarded relatively early. It was all fine, but it isn’t helped that there aren’t enough seats in this part of the terminal, so it’s not entirely comfortable waiting.

I can’t recall many air bridges that are so long, the terminal building is visible at the rear of the photo.

The flight was impeccable as ever and I had plenty of space and no-one seated next to me. The snack was the same crisps and water as with every other flight, but I’m content with that. Helpful and personable crew, but that’s fairly standard in my experience of British Airways.

Safely in Newcastle in under an hour from taking off. We had taken off 44 minutes late and arrived 38 minutes late, but I wasn’t in any hurry, so all was well. The boarding had been a bit odd as people were trickling on the aircraft for over half an hour, but on a day of a national rail strike, I was just glad to have arrived safely.

The aircraft is G-NEOR which as the registration suggests is an Airbus A321 NEO which BA have had since new in 2018. Of no interest to anyone else, but just for my own interest, I haven’t been on this aircraft before. The weather was colder than I’ve experienced in Norfolk over recent weeks, which to be honest was just a relief.

And I’ll leave this post here, starting off again soon enough with getting on the Newcastle Metro into the city and then checking that the pubs were all still open.

August 22, 2022