Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Railways

  • 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.

  • Greater Anglia : London Liverpool Street to Norwich

    Greater Anglia : London Liverpool Street to Norwich

    The Prime Minister hadn’t quite made his latest announcement (or u-turn if you prefer) by the time that I was about to board the 13:30 Greater Anglia train back to Norwich from London Liverpool Street. But, when that statement was made, it was effectively saying that London was now entering Tier 4 and that from midnight the residents of the city shouldn’t leave the area. Things appear to have gotten worse with a new virulent strain of the virus, which is not ideal at all.

    There were reports in some elements of the media that there were huge flurries of Londoners rushing out to the countryside, although that appears to have been dismissed by the rail companies who said few trains were actually full. Either way, the train that I was on didn’t seem particularly busy, so I had a block of four seats around a table to myself for the journey. And, for those who note my annoyance on this matter when Stansted Express trains are pushed into service, this train did actually have tables. I bought my ticket over a week ago, another bargain priced £10 advance single fare.

    The most interesting part of the journey for me was annoyance at myself for either being asleep or not paying attention, I can’t remember which (and couldn’t at the time, so I was probably asleep) whilst pulling into what I think was Manningtree station. The driver made a furious announcement, although made professionally, that he had been forced to sound the train’s horn as he nearly hit a passenger’s bag which was being carried so near to the platform as to have actually been mostly off of it. The driver said several times, in excess of four, that the person responsible was a male, in carriage D and with a duffel bag. I was positively disappointed not to be in the carriage as otherwise I could have looked and tutted, to show my British displeasure, at this act of idiocy. I say idiocy, as that’s what the driver called it, along with other words.

    Anyway, I quite liked that the driver made his coffee order over the announcement system and that the refreshment team made one back, apologising for not having the biscuit he wanted. It was sufficiently light hearted to add some humanity back to the journey and I think it calmed the annoyed driver down.

    And here we are back in Norwich, on time and that really is the end of my travel for 2020. I didn’t think in early November that I’d be travelling again in 2020, but this twelve-night stay in London was worthwhile and interesting. What I’m more disappointed about now is that travel in early 2021 is looking effectively impossible. I’m likely to cancel my trip to Bilbao, whereas British Airways have already cancelled my trips to Lisbon and Dublin. I can’t imagine that I’ll be going to Inverness or Palma either, which are both in January, although haven’t yet been cancelled by British Airways.

  • Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    Norwich station now that travel has been opened up again, the 11:00 service to London. The railway station wasn’t particularly busy, but there were plenty of staff available. This was a £10 fare booked directly with Greater Anglia, but I only seemed to be able to get a ticket downloaded to my phone rather than a paper ticket.

    The train was ready and waiting on the platform, and, it still looks beautiful.

    And then I realised this is one of Greater Anglia’s Stansted Express trains, dumped onto the mainline between Norwich and London. I don’t like these trains as there are no tables, so people have to prop laptops and food on their laps and it just leads to drink spillages and people putting their feet on the seats. Unbelievably, or at least to me, Greater Anglia say the reason is “it makes the carriages feel very open and spacious”. I’m really not convinced that customers prefer it like this, but, even if Stansted customers hate tables then there’s always the risk that the trains get used elsewhere. Like on this journey.

    Anyway, moan over, I expect this was another one of Jamie Burles’s little ideas.

    The train remained pretty quiet until near London. As it’s the train from Stansted, there’s no buffet car, but there was a trolley service for customers. For the first time in months, the conductors are checking tickets again, which I think surprised a few customers. One didn’t have their railcard, but after much debate, the conductor decided that this wasn’t a problem. I’m not sure why he made it a problem in the first place, but I quite enjoy drama like that.

    And safely into London. The train broke down for 13 minutes at Diss, but they were able to make up much of that time, which annoyed me again as I was hoping for a delay repay claim, although it was handy to arrive nearly on time. Anyway, the next debacle then starts as Greater Anglia’s lovely new ticketing system doesn’t work, so there’s a queue of customers who have to have their tickets on phones checked manually by gate staff. Lesson learned for me, I’ll get a paper ticket next time…..

  • Rail Magazine and the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner

    Rail Magazine and the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner

    A letter from the Rail magazine issue of 18 November 2020 which is very hard to disagree with…. I’ve travelled that same journey from Los Angeles to San Diego, and the views are incredible as the train is effectively going merrily along the beach in places. But, landscapes aside, the Amtrak trains are spacious, better proportioned and there’s a more coherent set of snacks and meal options on board. But, there’s something rather lovely that guards welcome customers on board, they often seat them and remind me before their stop. I don’t mind the seats on the GWR trains, but these services have annoyed me with their insufficient staffing and seating on board (before the current restrictions were introduced).

    The rather beautiful train in San Juan Capistrano last year when I went back to Los Angeles…

    Anyway, perhaps it’s time that the next iteration of the railways in the UK is more like Amtrak. Amtrak needs new funding and expansion of its own, but at least it’s beautifully comfortable on board. Perhaps Amtrak Joe (the nickname of the new US President) might get going with providing funding to allow the reconnection of the Amtrak Sunset Limited line from Orlando to Los Angeles, which has been forced to start (or end, depending what direction you’re going in) from New Orleans since 2005 due to Hurricane Katrina.

    I do miss American trains…..

  • Greater Anglia : London Liverpool Street to Norwich

    Greater Anglia : London Liverpool Street to Norwich

    The Prime Minister’s announcement at the weekend meant that I abandoned my travel plans for the month, and indeed the rest of the year, so this was my trip back to Norwich. It was another £10 fare even though I booked it quite late.

    It wasn’t the busiest of trains, just a few people in each carriage. Everything functioned as it was meant to, the power worked and this was a train with tables (Greater Anglia sometimes operate Stansted Express trains on the London to Norwich route, which are annoyingly missing tables).

    And back into Norwich at 23:30, just a couple of minutes late. The railway station was quiet, the barriers were open and I imagine there will be few passengers over the next month.

    At least the next few weeks gives me some time to finish all the blog posts that I never quite got around to writing over the last few months……

  • Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    So, back to London Liverpool Street today, and this is my train having safely arrived into the capital.

    This wasn’t ideal when I arrived at Norwich railway station at 11:05, my train had been cancelled. I say not ideal, I wasn’t that displeased, as that means a delay repay gets triggered.

    I was travelling First today, which wasn’t some decision to switch to a more decadent lifestyle, but just because the price was pretty much the same as standard. I don’t think I’ve been in First on the new trains, they look all smart and tidy.

    The individual seats and I like these raised ones, there’s a ledge for my bag and also easily accessible power points. Despite the service having to cater for the 11:30 passengers as well as the 12:00 passengers from Norwich, it wasn’t overly busy.

    First class passengers get free snacks and drinks, so I merrily meandered to the cafe bar to collect my refreshments for the journey. There was a very friendly staff member at the cafe bar, although he told me something which I’ve suspected, which is that the InterCity 125s now removed from the route were more stable than the current new trains. He mentioned this as he was being flung about, as was I, and I can’t imagine how difficult it is to try and work like that. I had wondered if the trains were going faster and that was the problem, but he thought not. So, all that money and Greater Anglia have bought more rickety trains than the ones they already had.

    These new trains don’t really seem to be perfect in numerous ways, it was a train fault that caused the cancellation of my 11:30 journey. The automatic announcements also went wrong as it kept repeating that we were stopping at stations that we clearly weren’t (stations such as Goodmayes and Romford are not stops which this service ever calls at to my knowledge), which led to the driver (or guard, whoever does the announcements) having to clarify the situation. The train was though clean and all was comfortable.

    The fare for this journey was £18, more than the usual £10 that I pay. The train delay means that I get 50% back, so the journey cost me £9, which is entirely agreeable to me. So, all rather lovely.