I need to be in London sharp and fully ready for a 10AM meeting. This isn’t good. It means up at 0430, taxi at 0530 and in the station ready for the 0605 to Leeds. I am the first person in the station, except for the staff.
Harrogate to Leeds is fine. At Leeds the 0700 to London is now the 0720 to London and includes both the 0700 and 0730. Luckily I get a seat. Those coming on for the 0730 are struggling. Not that it matters as it actually doesn’t depart until 0800 and advises it’ll be stopping at extra stations.
It crawls South (well, ok, around 40mph). I’m really keen on a cup of tea, since I last had a drink at 5am. After two more hours, the trolley is only 5 rows away. As we enter Peterborough, a drink is nearly in sight.
Then the train is terminated. There’s problems South of Peterborough. We’re asked to vacate the train. And I don’t get any tea.
The entire double booked set of passengers disembark. We’re advised there’s another train coming in. That will be the 0820 from Leeds which is also double booked. It doesn’t take a genius to realise you’re not going to get four times the acceptable amount of people onto a train.
A handful squeeze on. Women and children first. And it’s off. Several hundred of us wait at the station. Another train arrives around 30 minutes later. The same deal, though I’ve positioned myself where the doors are. Like one of the “lucky one’s” from the Titanic, I secure my space standing on the train, while those a little slower, weaker (or more polite) are left stranded.
Still, it doesn’t improve from there. Only around 500 metres South of Peterborough, we stop. There’s a broken rail near Huntingdon, reducing the line to a single track. Effectively this mean on the East Coast of Britain, all trains are now queuing on a single track pinch point. It’s another hour before we’re past that, and another hour to London.
In the meantime I spot someone practising for an Estate Agent exam (left) and another revising the PR strategy for GHDs (right).
I arrive in the office just before 1300. I need to sleep.
I stumble through work and luckily have a high point that evening with a meal at a Damascan restaurant. I was served by this guy.
