Sunday Travel

I have to admit that before I started on this trip I wondered whether it was wise trying to come back on Sunday. Normally I avoid travelling by train on Sunday in order to avoid engineering works and the dreaded rail replacement buses.

But this time it looked OK. There was some strangeness about having to change at Newcastle but why that should be didn't really occur to me ... until the train up on Friday. Then the guard revealed that the east coast main line was closed south of Newcastle over the weekend (a bridge was being replaced) so trains were being diverted around it. Why this required a change of train I'm not sure: perhaps the diversion didn't have electricity so required a diesel hauled set?

Anyway I turned up at Waverley rather early as I was pretty tired and talked out by then and just wanted to chill. And chill I did as the station was freezing. It did cross my mind to buy a £10 upgrade to get me into the First Class Lounge but for ninety minutes or so that seemed excessive so instead I went into Caffé Nero for tea and a slice of cheesecake.

Very fine is was too. But then things started to go pear shaped. I wandered over to platform 11 at about 15:45 only to hear them announce the train (which was coming from Glasgow) was delayed. A goods train had broken down ahead of it and it had diverted ... via Carlisle! It was going to be 54 minutes late. This figure went up and down a bit over the next hour but in the end it set off about an hour late.

After that it was relatively plain sailing, although I was now missing my connecting trains that wasn't a problem as it wasn't my fault so they honoured my ticket (First Class was pretty much deserted anyway so I had my pick of seat and in fact moved on the second train to get away from a chattering group). The diversion south of Newcastle was via Sunderland and Hartlepool before re-joining the main line at Northallerton Junction but as it was pitch black by then the diversion wasn't anything special.

Meanwhile I got on with my book and finished Ratking which is the first part of the trilogy of Dibdin's Inspector Zen novels which I've recently bought. What it lacked in plot it made up for in atmosphere.

Anyway I finally reached Ely thirty minutes later than planned and rather more stressed than necessary to fall into the welcome arms of my best beloved followed, shortly afterwards, by a very enthusiastic doggy welcome from Jack and Jessie.