Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Like children in a sweetie shop

Just recently I have taken to catching an early Chiltern Railways train that is non-stop to London Marylebone.

It is the first train of the day that has come any great distance and usually has three carriages. On Monday you are indeed fortunate to get a seat, by the time it gets to Friday you are unlucky if you don't get one.

So, this morning our little commuter club was standing by the designated spot on the platform - you know, the one precisely where your door opens without having to move unnecessarily to board. We had been chatting about this and that and simply commented, as the first two carriages chugged past that there were a few seats free today.

Suddenly, to our consternation, we realised as the train stopped that we were not stood at the rear most door of the last carriage. An extra carriage had been tacked onto the back of the train (not literally, but you know what I mean). So en-masse our band of happy foot soldiers traipsed along the platform, boarded the extra carriage and marvelled at the incredible choice of seats available to use.

We were indeed like children in a sweetie shop... choices, choices, choices.

I have never known a train at that unearthly hour to be anything other than three carriages long. It will probably never happen again, but one can but hope.

2 comments:

Station Supervisor said...

It's just the same everywhere, when I travel down on the first train, the usual suspects myself included board carriage A (whether back or front) we also abuse the travellers from Bedford as they have a choice of two trains but cram on to the East Midlands service, and make as much noise as possible, many a face is seen with a happy smirk as they listen to our conversations.

On nights I dive into the first class section and travel down with a different lot of staff and because we know most of the train crew they bring us free coffees and stuff.

The middle trains are the awkward ones as most of the day staff are grumpy buggers.

But it's all good fun

Central User said...

Thanks SS. I got one of the posh trains down from Luton three weeks ago - very smart, even if the buffet had already closed.