Journeys By Train

Monday 6th March

Famously I do not drive – but that’s another story – so I get around mostly by train.  Or hope to.  But more and more I seem to be frustrated.  And I am a great believer in train travel; ecologically it is far better than lots of individuals polluting the planet in their own cars.  And I have been stuck in plenty of traffic jams as a frustrated passenger to know that car travel is not in any way perfect.  In fact in the past I have often been offered a lift by car drivers and realised afterwards that I could have completed my journey far faster in a train – and with the added bonus of reading on my kindle and listening on my Walkman to some music, arriving relaxed and mostly on time.

So, this weekend.  No problem on Thursday, both trains from Stansted and to Walton were on time and the journeys unspectacularly okay; and this is part of the problem; we don’t remember all these ordinary and often slightly boring journeys when the trains are perfect, the ones we remember are the bad journeys….and so to Saturday.

I was heading off to see Mum and Dad and my sister and her partner for (a week early) a birthday lunch.  Train from Walton on time, as was the change to a faster one to Colchester.  No problem there either as the train to Ipswich was on time.  But it was at Ipswich itself that the chaos started.  Now, I could have got a direct train from Colchester to Stowmarket, the Norwich train, but it left Colchester twenty-five minutes later and I could save a quarter of an hour by catching a train to Cambridge at Ipswich.  Still with me?  Okay, I get in the Cambridge train on time; it was a short four carriage hopper and the engine was running.  I sat there and after a few minutes I realized we had passed our departure time and still hadn’t moved.  Another five minutes and an announcement that the train was cancelled and we were all ordered off.  So, I decided to get the Norwich train instead due in ten minutes, but on a different platform.  I lugged my case up the steps and onto platform 2 only to hear that the Cambridge train was now running and about to depart.  Back over the bridge and onto the original train.  Five minutes later and it was again cancelled.  Back over the bridge for the Norwich train, which to add that sweet dollop of icing, was five minutes late.

Well, of course I got to Stowmarket, half an hour late, but we had a nice day.  I was training it back to London in the evening, and already knew that buses were replacing trains between Ingatestone and Newbury park Central Line.  But I had done this several times and though adding about half an hour onto the journey it wasn’t too bad.  I caught the 17.29 at Stowmarket and we decamped onto buses in wet and windy weather at Ingatestone.  The bus journey was tedious (stuck in traffic again…hahaha) but eventually we pulled into Newbury Park and onto the Central Line.  I got out at Stratford for the DLR, only to find that there was only half a service and no trains past Poplar for my stop, Island Gardens.  Dilemma; should I try to get a cab at Stratford, take Jubilee Line to Canary Wharf and a bus or cab from there or try to get a cab at Poplar.  I took the last option as I was already on the DLR platform.

Well, at Poplar there was an announcement that buses were available at the next stop Westferry.  Thank goodness for that at least.  But at Westferry there were no staff and no notices as to where or if there were indeed buses.  Lots of people milling around and no ideas.  Eventually out of the gloom a rail replacement bus loomed into view, and we took our lives in our hands and scurried across the road and piled on.  This bus wound its slow way to island Gardens, stuck in traffic yet again.  Got in just before nine; four hours since I left my parents.

I know that maintenance has to be done, and obviously it is better to do at the weekends, but what a wretched journey home.   And I am seeing one of my daughters today (Sunday) and by train again.