Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Railways

  • Glasgow – Glasgow Subway

    Glasgow – Glasgow Subway

    I use London Underground a lot, so was strangely and frankly needlessly excited to use the Glasgow Subway, which is the third oldest network in the world. It’s also the oldest in the world still to be in its original form as there hasn’t been an expansion since it opened on 14 December 1896. It took them six years to build it and there are fifteen stations (and always have been since it opened) on the 6.5 miles circular route. What wasn’t entirely ideal was that in its first week there was a crash at St. Enoch station when one carriage ran into the back of another one. It didn’t discourage the locals though who were apparently mostly quite excited about this new service.

    There’s an Outer and Inner network, although they’re both the same other than they go around the circle in a different direction. There’s just the one line, so there’s not much chance of getting lost.

    The platforms, some of which are laid out differently so that there are separate platforms for each direction.

    And the train itself. Rather impressively, this is only the second set of carriages that the network has had, with the first ones in use between 1896 and 1977, and the second set from 1979 until today. There’s good news though, an entirely new set of carriages is being brought into usage from next year. The gap from 1977 until 1979 is that the network closed for an extensive modernisation and restoration, but there was talk at the time that it might not reopen due to falling demand.

    This is a fantastic video of the period just before the closure in 1977 and it’s fair to say that it looks in a right old state….

    The interior of the carriages, which felt comfortable enough to me. There’s the benefit that although it can get busy it’s unlikely that anyone will wait long for a seat given that no passenger is likely remain on for more than a few stops (unless they’re just sitting there going around and around which I assume must happen).

    I paid £4.20 for an all-day adult ticket which allows unlimited use for the day, which isn’t an unreasonable price. It’s a shame that the network has never been expanded, but that does mean its retained its historic feel. The system is though easy to use, everything seems clean and the service is regular with trains every few minutes.

  • Southern Railway : London Victoria to Eastbourne

    Southern Railway : London Victoria to Eastbourne

    And another little adventure begins, I’m leaving London (and Pret) behind for a brief time and popping to Eastbourne, the jewel of the south coast (or something like that anyway) for a walking expedition with Hike Norfolk.

    Southern Railways sometimes have an annoying habit of only announcing the platform about four minutes before the train departures, which can be a bit fiddly in a railway station the size of London Victoria (although that can lead to interesting scenes watching people running or tripping towards the train desperate to get it in time). Fortunately, this one was announced over twenty minutes before it departed.

    I like the clear signage of when the next direct train to each location is, although slightly less convenient for those who wanted to go to Arundel or Bognor Regis.

    OK, I’m going to struggle to make this sound exciting as very little happened of note. But here’s the train and the boarding process. Normally on this service a fair number of the passengers are going to Gatwick, but for obvious reasons, that wasn’t happening on today’s service.

    The train did get busier and tickets were checked by a friendly and jolly member of staff. He was checking the tickets carefully and I always get worried when the guard stares at my ticket for more than two seconds in case something is wrong with it. This isn’t entirely rational as I know bloody well that the ticket is correct, I think it’s just a British thing. Anyway, it was fine.

    Coffee and a railway ticket, what more could anyone want for a train journey…. For anyone who gets this train hoping to charge their electrical devices though, they will be disappointed. There are a reasonable number of table seats available on the train and there’s also a small First Class section, although it didn’t look very busy.

    Given the company named here, this reminded me of something that my friend Liam would put up…..

    Welcome to Eastbourne, or as the station refers to it as, “the sunshine coast”. Eastbourne Railway Station has ticket barriers, although they weren’t in use today, so I could meander through (slightly annoyed at the lack of checks because these sometimes create drama from passengers who have lost their ticket between the train and the barrier, but that’s a different matter).

    And looking back at the train that I arrived into Eastbourne on. OK, this isn’t a very exciting report of a rail journey since nothing much of note happened. But that also means it arrived on time, which was handy (although meant I wouldn’t be claiming any Delay Repay). The journey cost £8.50 with Southern Railways, which seems quite a fair price given the distance travelled. And hello to Eastbourne.

  • LNER : York to London King’s Cross

    LNER : York to London King’s Cross

    This is really handy when you’ve looking for platform 5 (I was on platform 6 at the time).

    Anyway, this was the journey I took a few days ago from York to London King’s Cross. I’ll let the guard’s words speak for themselves about the state of this journey:

    “I really wish I hadn’t been on this service, I wasn’t meant to be on it, I’m angry that I am on it”.

    I certainly felt for him, LNER had served him badly, let alone the customers who had paid to be on it.

    It is possible to try and work out where to stand on the platform by following the little code at the bottom. No-one bothered judging by the rushing around from place to place when the train arrived, it’s all a bit complex.

    The LNER Azuma train sweeps into York. In fairness to LNER, these are perfectly nice trains, or would be if they were operated by a proper company.

    I’m normally more polite, but LNER really can’t run a rail service very well, the service is ridden with managerial incompetence.

    They insist that customers book a seat as part of the reservation system. This is so often a policy set for disaster, as LNER don’t bother putting anyone on the trains to enforce this policy, they just dump that problem on the guard. And on this occasion, he was busy dealing with the British Transport Police who were lifting a customer off the service. Nor indeed is the seat reservation policy enforceable anyway. My reserved seat was taken, so I just sat nearby. The problem is that this happened to nearly every customer. We had this ridiculous situation that some seats were kept free as customers thought others would be sitting in them (as the sign by the seat said they were reserved), whilst other customers gave up and sat in the aisle (as visible in the above photo).

    This would be much easier if LNER did what most other rail companies and just make reserving a seat optional when buying a ticket. I don’t want to reserve a seat, I wish they’d stop making me as otherwise I can’t buy a ticket. If someone wants to reserve one, then let them. LNER’s system just forces customers to cram into carriages hunting for their seat, which isn’t ideal during Covid times. I suspect there was a carriage somewhere on the train where there was open seating and there weren’t any reservations, but I have no idea where that was.

    Anyway, the guard put an announcement over the tannoy that British Transport Police had already been called to the train on two occasions and he was now dealing with a third problem. The poor guard sounded fed up and he vaguely attempted to check tickets, but was continually called to deal with seating issues due to LNER’s hopeless reservation policy. Drunken customers were also making his job harder and he reminded them over the tannoy that he would ask the British Transport Police to board again if necessary. He also suggested that customers text British Transport Police themselves if they couldn’t find him on the train. This announcement was made when we had just left York railway station, so it hardly felt a friendly welcome to LNER.

    As an aside, to be honest, people don’t really need to buy tickets for this service (although I’m too well behaved to risk that) as there is no gate line at York and the one at King’s Cross wasn’t enforced.

    The poor staff in the catering section were trying to walk up and down the train to supply food and drink as LNER have this great idea that customers can order at their seat. The system didn’t work as the staff couldn’t find the customer who had ordered it and they had to battle to get past the customers sitting in the aisle.

    As this journey unfolded, there was more excitement just before Peterborough, someone had started smoking in one of the on-board toilets. This positively annoyed the guard who made another tannoy announcement about the situation, evidently just entirely fed up with this service.

    And into King’s Cross, admittedly on-time. The guard must have been relieved that the service was over. I certainly was. The rail network perhaps needs to consider some significant modernisation to its processes as otherwise I suspect more people will just give up and start flying rather than getting the train. Or perhaps they could let British Airways take over the East Coast Mainline……..

    I accept this all sounds a bit ranty, but, to be fair, the guard was too and I agree with him.

  • Avanti West Coast : Birmingham New Street to Coventry

    Avanti West Coast : Birmingham New Street to Coventry

    Birmingham New Street is a delightful new and bright railway station, but the platforms under it weren’t modernised as part of the new structure. It seems a little unusual to go from a beautiful building which is modern and flooded in light, to the dingy platforms underneath. It reminds me slightly of Penn Station in New York, with the platform section being totally different to what is above (in that case because they demolished the beautiful building above the platforms).

    Here’s the Avanti train, not really looking the most beautiful in terms of its design, although apparently a number of their trains are currently receiving makeovers and so perhaps this one will soon receive the same modernisation.

    I had booked my train about twenty minutes before the trip using GWR (to get a few Nectar points) and it cost £4.90 to get from Birmingham to Coventry. Seat reservations are required and I was in Carriage F, although it transpired to not really be very busy on-board. The above set-up really doesn’t help customers find their carriage if they’re labelling them G and then U. The announcements made clear that customers need no longer wear masks, although they were welcome to if they wanted, which makes me confused as to what the rules actually are now as they seem to differ between rail companies. Customers were though asked not to sit in the aisle seats to help protect staff, although that request seemed to be widely ignored.

    The carriage, all clean and bright, although I couldn’t find any at-seat power (not that I actually needed any given that the journey was only twenty minutes). These are the old Virgin trains from when they operated the West Coast mainline franchise from 1997 to 2019, but Avanti will only hold the new franchise until 2026 due to changes to the way that the rail system will operate in the future (I suspect for the worse, but that’s a discussion for elsewhere).

    And safely into Coventry on time.

    I thought that this was all rather positive, they’re building a new station complex. The current railway station isn’t really very nice, it’s a bit tired and was in need of a modernisation. It was built in the 1960s after the previous perfectly adequate building was demolished, a sad loss for the city. As part of the integrated public transport strategy, buses and trains will now connect together at the new railway station building.

    Which all means that I’m safely in Coventry and this new development gives a much better first impression to the city than it used to.

  • West Midlands Metro : Birmingham to Wolverhampton

    West Midlands Metro : Birmingham to Wolverhampton

    I rather like light rail and tram solutions to public transport difficulties and thought that I’d spend the day going on the West Midlands Metro line which goes from Birmingham to Wolverhampton. An off-peak day pass cost £4.80 and it was easy enough to buy it on-line using the Metro’s app. There’s only the one line at the moment, but construction has started on additional lines given the popularity of the service.

    The timetable at a stop in Birmingham, although the trams seemed to run to an erratic schedule throughout the day. Sometimes there were fifteen minutes between them, sometimes three minutes, although the boards at stations were clear and accurate. It takes 45 minutes to get from Birmingham to Wolverhampton, although I got on and off the service numerous times on my journey to explore the highlights of the urban settlements between the two cities.

    Quite a sleek looking operation and there are 21 of these trams shuttling up and down the network

    The tram’s interior. I was surprised to see that they’re using a conductor and driver on every service, which isn’t a set-up that I’ve seen often on tram or light rail. It’s possible to buy tickets on board using cash or card, but the set-up that I had to show my ticket several times over the day seemed a bit labour intensive compared to other systems. Having written that though, it makes the service feel safer to have staff always available and they were helpful and friendly. The tram stops along the route are though all unstaffed and have limited facilities at them.

    It’s very hot at the moment and there’s no air conditioning other than in the driver’s cab. I know this as a customer commented to the conductor about the heat and he said they rely on opening windows to keep passengers cool, although the driver has air conditioning in his cab. The customer amused me by saying “as long as the staff are comfortable” in a manner that didn’t seem too rude. I didn’t think that the temperature on board was too bad though and the trams were clean and tidy. There were free Metro newspapers for those who want them, which is a handy coincidence given the name. There’s not a huge amount of seating on board the tram, but there are numerous places to stand, and most passengers aren’t on the service for too long.

    As a transportation option, I thought that this was well used, easy to use and clearly popular, so I’m glad that it is being extended. I’m sure that there are many more similar projects that could be brought in across the country, especially if it allows for the re-opening of closed rail lines. There is sometimes talk, although unfortunately rarely serious, of a tram network in Norwich, which is something that I suspect would be very successful if the up-front cost could somehow be subsidised. Unfortunately, that up-front cost is huge and so I can’t imagine that it will ever happen.

    There’s more about the planned extensions at https://metroalliance.co.uk/.

  • LNER : Berwick-upon-Tweed to Newcastle

    Back a couple of weeks again, this is the rail trip at the end of the St. Cuthbert’s Walk expedition when I needed to get back into Newcastle from Berwick-upon-Tweed.

    The railway station at Berwick-upon-Tweed, which has the distinction of being the most northerly in England. It opened in June 1846 as Berwick station, being renamed to Berwick-upon-Tweed in January 1955.

    Mine was the LNER Azuma journey leaving at 19:20 and arriving at 20:14.

    A little bit of history when going down to the platforms, noting that the station stands on what was the site of the Great Hall of Berwick Castle. It had to be knocked down when they wanted to build the railway station here.

    The waiting room at Berwick-upon-Tweed, which as can be seen wasn’t exactly packed out. There are toilets here as well, it was a better maintained railway station than I had expected.

    The train arrived and the destination on the locator board was wrong, but a nearby staff member reassured me that it was the right train for me. They had a helpful staff member guiding people towards the right carriage as well, which was all very handy. My faffing about checking I had the correct train meant that I didn’t get chance to take a photo of it (which I’m sure is of no real disappointment to anyone).

    This is a rather good idea, particularly given current events. I suspect it will increase the number of products ordered, as customers can see what’s available and the price at their leisure. There were some teething problems though it seemed given that there was a staff member from the cafe asking everyone in the carriage if they had ordered anything as they couldn’t work out who it was. I think it got resolved, but I suspect that projects such as this will be rolled out more. There’s a sensible set-up here as well that you can order and they won’t charge your card until they hand the food and drink over, to avoid any failed deliveries.

    The service wasn’t overly busy. I did have a reserved seat, but it was sitting next to someone else and it was just as easy to sit a little further down the carriage to avoid bothering them.

    Sweeping into Newcastle, which meant the excitement of getting to the Holiday Inn Express Metrocentre at Gateshead. The journey cost £7.30 and it left and arrived on time, so all very lovely and another efficient service. I probably wouldn’t have posted about this journey other than I liked the QR code to order which I felt was worth a little mention.

  • Chiltern Railways : London Marylebone to Birmingham Snow Hill

    Chiltern Railways : London Marylebone to Birmingham Snow Hill

    I can’t recall travelling with Chiltern Railways before, but they offered a £12 fare to get from London Marylebone to Birmingham Snow Hill, which seemed excellent value to me. Marylebone Railway Station is a fascinating location and one I rarely go to, and it nearly closed entirely in 1986 and was saved only at the last minute. It opened late for a mainline railway station, starting service in 1899 and it was 100 years before another entirely new station of its size was to be built again. It’s compact compared to the other London mainline railway stations, which means that there’s a limited amount of seating and facilities.

    I sat down to check Facebook for the eighth time in an hour, just as the platform number was called, number 4, which was around twenty minutes before the train departed.

    It’s the train on the right and I’m not much into trains or train spotting, but for anyone interested, it’s a Class 168 Clubman diesel. This route between London and Birmingham hasn’t been electrified and it’s a route that was nearly lost in parts, but like Marylebone, it has managed to survive.

    The train was never that busy, so I had my bank of four seats to myself for the entire journey.

    Nicely functional seats, with a pull-out section of the table for laptops and two power points. All comfortable and practical for anyone who wants to get work done. There was a ticket check from a friendly and cheerful guard midway through the journey, although he said he had no scanner to check my digital ticket and so he wouldn’t need to verify it. That seems to be a slight flaw in the ticket checking process, but there we go……

    I wasn’t in a rush, so I was happy to stay on the train for a little longer getting things done if there was a delay. This came to pass as the train in front of ours broke down and we were delayed for 20 minutes at Banbury. This meant that I was getting hopeful of a 30-minute delay so that I would get half my fare back. Unfortunately (for me), the train’s delay was limited to 20 minutes and, as Chiltern don’t operate compensation for 15 minute delays, I didn’t have a Delay Repay claim to make this time.

    And here we are safely in Birmingham Snow Hill. There’s a theme in this post of things nearly being shut down, but with this railway station it was closed in 1972 and demolished in 1977. It was then realised that this was something of a mistake and a new railway station, which was smaller and less architecturally interesting, was built and opened in 1987.

    I had a look at the Birmingham Daily Post from 13 March 1970, when there was some excitement that there would be four tower blocks on the site of the station that they were demolishing, as well as two hotels and a cinema. They were looking at using the rail tunnels to be used by buses instead to help city transit. A completely idiotic decision, as was clear given they had to rebuild the railway station not much more than a decade later.

    Anyway, I was very impressed by Chiltern Railways as they delivered a cheap fare, a comfortable train, friendly staff, updates when there was a delay and there were no issues. All rather lovely and it’s a convenient way of getting between London and Birmingham. It’s not clear what will happen after HS2 opens, but I assume that this service will continue in the same form.

  • Southern Railway : London Victoria to Shoreham-by Sea (gone wrong)

    Southern Railway : London Victoria to Shoreham-by Sea (gone wrong)

    I stupidly, and now regret to be fair, decided to go on a little camping trip to the south coast this week. That meant leaving the comfort of London with its bars, Prets, Greggs and other home comforts, for the wilds of the South Downs.

    With not much time spare (very unusually for me) I arrived at London Victoria. The platform for the train to Littlehampton wasn’t announced until 10:41, which isn’t entirely ideal when the service leaves at 10:45. Although, that gave me time to play guess the platform, and I guessed correctly that it would be platform 12, so I was ready and waiting. Any passenger in another part of the railway station with mobility issues would have had a rather more entertaining and stressful four minutes.

    Here we are, ready to board. At this stage, I didn’t think there would be much of interest during this rail journey, so I didn’t expect to use these photos.

    The Southern Train pulls in, all seems to be going to plan. It was a long train which was nearly entirely empty, but all was on time.

    The carriage. And with that, I was expecting to arrive into Shoreham-by-Sea around an hour later with no issues or delays.

    We got past Gatwick and there was then an announcement that the railway network on the southern coast had run out of power or something similar. This didn’t sound ideal, but a staff member at Haywards Heath said to just board the next train to Brighton and then change there. So I did that, whilst carrying my bag and traipsing another bag about. It’s fair to say, I’m not really getting into this camping thing. Indeed, I’ve spent most of the day moaning about it to people.

    Boarding the 11:43 to Brighton.

    On board that train into Brighton, carting all this bloody camping equipment with me.

    When at Brighton railway station it was evident that I had about fifteen minutes until the train to Hove, where I could catch a train to Shoreham from. I popped to the gateline and asked to be let out of the railway station (implying I also wanted letting back in shortly afterwards) so that I could visit Pret to get an emergency hot chocolate.

    I still have my Pret subscription, so this was a handy stop and got me an unexpected free drink.

    Back in the railway station I boarded the train to Hove, also relieved that I had been let back through the gateline without any problems.

    This train journey wasn’t particularly busy and since it only went to Hove it lasted all of around five minutes. My hot chocolate was so hot I still hadn’t drunk any of it by the time that we got to Hove (not that anyone will be too bothered about that).

    Anyway, I got off at Hove and this railway employee was giving advice on what to do next as it was clear not much rail traffic was leaving this station. The advice was primarily to get a bus and this was all arranged with the local company so that rail passengers wouldn’t have to pay. I liked his “there’s no point standing here” as some customers didn’t believe him when he said there were no trains for some time. As I understand, it transpired that it took the about three hours to fix the problem, so anyone waiting at the station for the services to be restored wouldn’t have had a quick departure.

    And a five minute walk saw me find a bus to Shoreham, which helpfully dropped me off slightly nearer to the campsite than the train would have done. But, I was well over an hour late, so at least this rail fare will be refunded under delay repay. With that, my camping adventure would begin, although writing this one day later, I can’t say that this is my favourite adventure that I’ve ever had. But we’ll see how it goes from here.

  • London Euston to Edinburgh Waverley – Caledonian Sleeper

    London Euston to Edinburgh Waverley – Caledonian Sleeper

    I needed to get to Edinburgh this week and I looked at numerous different options. Annoyingly, it was just as cheap to fly, but it’s not very environmental to fly domestically and so I decided against that given there were alternatives. There were some cheap fares to get between the two cities, but then I remembered the sleeper service which operates from London Euston.

    The concourse of Euston railway station. Fun fact, this dreadful station was actually designed to have no seating to prevent people from loitering. Welcome to the world of British Rail customer service. This decision was later reversed and seating has been installed, but there isn’t much for what is a substantial mainline station. Anyway, I’ve digressed already.

    The handy thing I discovered is that the sleeper service can be boarded over an hour before its departure. The platform number was announced, so I thought I might as well board. I’m always early for flights, trains, coaches and indeed everything, so this was all quite handy.

    Here we go, departing from platform 15.

    The train looked modern and clean. I hadn’t realised that the service didn’t operate for a couple of weeks in June due to a strike over staff pay. I’m not getting involved with commenting on that, but that’s a very disappointing state of affairs that must threaten the viability of a service like this moving forwards.

    I must admit that I found all this quite exciting, probably evidence that I need to grow up. A member of staff met me at the end of the platform just to check that I was in the right place and they then directed me towards a steward. He checked my ticket and then guided me towards where I needed to go on the train.

    I had just booked a seat rather than a cabin, as I’m not made of money…..

    One of the carriages with seats, which in normal times might feel a little packed. There was a policy though of having just one person per row, and no-one directly behind, which made arrangements feel really rather spacious.

    I was pleased to get the front seat as that had quite a sturdy little desk arrangement. There was a guide to the service on the table, as well as a little amenity pack.

    Some instructions on how to get to sleep. I’m not sure about this avoiding heavy food, avoiding alcohol, avoiding coffee and avoiding phones is useful, I’d rather just stay awake.

    There is an eye mask and ear plugs included in the pack. There wasn’t really much noise in the cabin, although a couple of English football fans going to Carlisle were politely told to shut up by the steward. He didn’t actually say that directly, he suggested that they go and sit in the buffet car, but it had the required effect.

    There’s a safe above every seat, although they’re not particularly spacious. I just shoved my bag on the floor, it’s currently so heavy that anyone trying to pinch it would just assume I’d padlocked it to the ground. The carriages are professionally fitted out, there’s been some considerable money spent here over the years. The quality of the interior was better than I had expected, so although it’s not Amtrak, it’s really not too bad at all.

    A steward (that’s the name they use, not one I’ve decided to describe them by) came by to offer everyone a menu, with the pricing seeming to be quite moderate.

    I don’t normally feel the need to take photos of toilets on trains, but on this occasion I thought that I would.

    I slept reasonably well and woke up to discover that we were in Carlisle. A few passengers alighted there and I don’t think we picked anyone up. I suspect that I would have been quite uncomfortable if the train had been full with passengers, as there isn’t really enough space to stretch out (not that I ever worked out the reclining function, since I don’t use it). Covid-19 doesn’t have many advantages, but this is one of them.

    This is, I believe, the River Sark, which is the border between England and Scotland. I was quite pleased to be able to get this photo as the train does move at quite a speed.

    There was a screen in front of me informing me of the train’s progress. Carstairs is a relatively small location, but it’s where they faff about doing something with the train and it heads back out in the other direction. The train operates on the West Coast Mainline, although it can also be diverted to the East Coast Mainline if engineering works require.

    As we approached Edinburgh, a plan of the railway station appeared on the screen. I thought that this was really quite useful. I understand that it’s possible to stay on the train for an extra hour or so, to allow for some extra sleep if required, but I had the need to find some snacks at the railway station.

    And safely in Edinburgh Waverley, with an engineer jumping out to fix something (or just to have a play on the track for all I know).

    That was really quite lovely as an experience. The price wasn’t the cheapest, at just over £60, although it meant that I didn’t have to get any accommodation for the night. As is usual, because I’m never in a rush I was hoping that the train might be 30 minutes late into Edinburgh, as then I’d have got half my money back. Unfortunately not though…..

    The service was professional throughout, the stewards were helpful and the train was on time in and out of every stop. I’m sure that the cabin option is much more comfortable (but it’s also much more expensive), but I got sufficient sleep and would use the service again. I just hope they sort out this strike action, as if staff keep going on strike (for whatever reason) then the train is perhaps in danger of being withdrawn forever. As it stands, there are just two sleeper services in the UK, the other one is the Night Riviera which goes down to Cornwall. Anyway, I’m very pleased that I tried the service.

  • Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    This is my first rail journey of 2021 and it’s certainly a step-up from the bus travel that I’ve been limited to for the last few months. It wasn’t busy at Norwich railway station with just a few people walking around the concourse, a couple peering into the M&S that has remained closed since March 2020. I still think that should have been a Greggs, but I don’t go on about it…..

    This is one of the Greater Anglia fleet that has no tables, as passenger surveys have apparently told them that customers don’t like them. I make no comment….. Anyway, the train was clean, shiny and nearly completely empty. Everything on the train was working though, including the power and even all the toilets were functional. How lovely.

    One of the slight problems with the rail journey into London is that it stopped at Witham, one of the few towns in Essex that I haven’t visited. I looked at TripAdvisor to see the top four rated attractions in the town and they are (i) a walk by the river, (ii) the library, (iii) the statue of Dorothy L Sayers and (iv) the town hall information centre. Given that, and with respect to the denizens of the town, I might wait just a little longer before making a proper visit.

    Anyway, there were plenty of Greater Anglia staff to guide customers onto the buses which would take us to Newbury Park. I’m not sure where Greater Anglia had found these staff, but they were particularly friendly and engaging, all a really organised effort.

    I try not to complain about things, but on my bus travels in recent years I’ve discovered that just about every vehicle has no more than four seats across. This is because there is only space for four seats and an aisle between them. But, no, this bus company has decided that more is better and have crammed in five seats across. I accept that if all the passengers were five years old, then this would be a perfectly sensible transportation move. But, the rail passengers were all above 18, which presented me with an interesting time watching them try to fit into the space provided, which was made more exciting as the bus company have given customers no real amount of leg room either. One man looked positively annoyed. I’d add that wasn’t me.

    I moved to the back of the bus to get some space, and I’m pleased to say that unlike the Inbetweeners, I wasn’t moved off those seats by anyone. The fortunate thing is that social distancing means that customers are kept apart, so there were only about 12 of us on the vehicle. About 105 seats, but only 12 people sitting on them.

    The rail replacement bus arrived into Newbury Park, where we were politely told to get on the Central Line into London. I asked the gateline staff if I was allowed to continue travelling down the Central Line to Oxford Circus, or whether I needed to get off at London Liverpool Street. To cut a long story short, he told me that I should really get off at London Liverpool Street, but that wasn’t what he recommended I should do. He suggested winging it with the gateline staff at Oxford Circus as that would be much quicker. He mentioned though that this was all at my own risk. Indeed, he mentioned that three times.

    I worry if I don’t have the right ticket, so I decided not to spend an hour worrying and I got off at London Liverpool Street. That also meant I didn’t have to try and enter into protracted negotiations with the gateline staff at Oxford Circus, which didn’t sound an exciting game to play. I had to faff about finding a member of gateline staff to let me out of London Liverpool underground station, and he looked slightly annoyed to watch me then go back through from where I had come from around thirty seconds later. But, my journey was now fully compliant with railway rules and I didn’t have to fear any TFL ticket inspectors. And more excitingly, I was back in London after way too many months.