Parliamentary Train

Thanks to the tip-off by Diamond Geezer last week, today I travelled on the 10.02 Southern 'Parliamentary Train' from Kensington Olympia to Wandsworth Road.

As described by DG, it is indeed a weird feeling to board a train when the public address system explicitly tells you that the train is not in public service.

The only real difference between my journey and that experienced by Mr Geezer last week is that the train guard explicitly spoke with every passenger on board, before the train left Kensington Olympia, to make sure that they really meant to be on the train.

That would be me and a couple who like me, seemed to be on the train simply so as to make the journey that has no real purpose.

We left on time, called briefly at West Brompton and Imperial Wharf, before passing over the River Thames and then crossing a maze of railway junctions, somewhere South of the river.

We stopped for seven or eight minutes adjacent to the carriage works for the Venice Simplon Orient Express, before eventually pulling into Wandsworth Road station a minute early at 10.19.

If the point in travelling is the travel, then the journey was a short success. If the point of travel is to get to your destination, in this particular case, I wouldn't bother, but then I virtually need to use my passport when venturing as far South as Wandsworth.

I did travel North from Wandsworth Road, but back to Victoria. However I note that Ian Visits has previously made the afternoon return trip on this rather unusual, once a a weekday there-and-back train service.

Birthdays all round

It's a popular week for birthdays:

• Tuesday: Station Supervisor
• Wednesday: Central User
• Friday: Ian P (who I first met on the way to Venezuela in 1997 and who hosted a reunion for us on the south coast at the weekend). Thank you.
  
• Sunday: Julie P (wife of Ian) who was super-organised and a great hostess. Julie had two Grandchildren when we arrived and three when we left, so there were plenty of distractions.

Happy Birthday to the three who aren't me.

In terms of the weekend, I went by car. The best I could manage on public transport was this ferry, which has to be the least formal mode of public transport I have been on in the UK. Happy days.

Oh, and we did drop one of our party off at Chichester station to travel back to Yorkshire by train. I cannot speak for the whole journey, but the Southern train to Victoria departed spot on time.

A New Year and An Inauspicious Start to it by Network Rail

After a stormy night across the British Isles, a fantastic New Year's firework display from London (seen on the box) and a pleasant evening with friends in Abbots Langley, Network Rail have decided to scotch the best efforts of the Silverlink and Southern train operating companies at offering a good train service today, by offering a major signal failure just south of Watford Junction by way of a New Year gift. Thank you Network Rail.

I am not going to carry this on for the year, but... time lost so far in 2007 due to train delays... 60 minutes. As the song goes; "It can only get better."

Happy New Year!

Signalling problem between London Euston and Watford Junction
Time Reported:	12:18
Route Affected:	London Euston - Watford Junction - Milton Keynes Central - Northampton/Rugby - Birmingham New Street/Manchester Piccadilly/Liverpool Lime Street
TOC/s Affected:	Silverlink, Virgin Trains
Description:	Train services between London Euston and Watford Junction are being disrupted due to a signalling problem. Alterations and delays to services can be expected. There is currently no estimate for a normal service to resume.
Updates:	14:35 Train services are suspended again between London Euston and Watford Junction in both directions. Alterations and delays of up to 90 minutes can be expected. Silverlink County are running two trains per hour between Hemel Hempstead and Northampton in both directions, departing Hemel Hempstead at xx:06 and xx:36, departing Northampton at xx:02 and xx:32. Silverlink County tickets are being accepted on the London Underground between London and Watford, also on Midland Mainline services between London and Wellingborough, on First Capital Connect services between London and Bedford, and on Chiltern Railways services. Virgin Trains services are making additional calls at Tring for Silverlink County passengers travelling to/from Watford Junction. Virgin Trains are terminating services at Watford Junction. Passengers can complete their journey to London using Silverlink Metro services. Midland Mainline are accepting Virgin Trains tickets. 14:58 Southern services between Clapham Junction and Watford Junction are now starting from/terminating at Wembley Central. Passengers can use Silverlink Metro services between Wembley Central and Watford Junction.

	18:34 Train services are able to operate normally again between London Euston and Watford Junction. But residual alterations and delays of up to 90 minutes are still likely for the next 2-3 hours.
Time reported cleared:	20:29

Christmas Shopping (and Blogging) Splurge

Traveled like a maniac today around North West London, Hertfordshire and Central London in an attempt to get my Christmas Shopping nearly finished. Nearly was the end result.

I travelled on a bus, Silverlink County, Silverlink Metro, Southern, the District Line, the Central Line and Chiltern railways.

All ran to time (though another mini-rant about Chiltern later).

I used to live in the Watford area 20 years ago and it is now definitely a major regional shopping centre. It has everything from Poundland (no, I didn't go in) to a John Lewis, with much else beside. It is also full of track suited, bangled and blinged up individuals.

PS Although I have included a link to Poundland, they seem to be so cheap and cheerful that their website is currently slow enough as if to appear to be running their site off a ZX80 or similar. Either that, or my ISP is having a really bad hair day.

Baggage gets an extra day in Geneva

And the reason for another break in entries.... yes another holiday. This time to the 'La Marmotte' hotel in the great ski resort of Les Gets at the end of the enormous 'Portes du Soleil' ski area.

We had a huge amount of fresh snow while we were there, no really blue sky days and one day of sleet and rain. However over all we had a fantastic time because the skiing was so good.

As for the travel:

• London Underground to Victoria, then the Gatwick Express (five minutes late, which shouldn't really happen at £14 a go).
• British Airways Flight from Gatwick to Geneva (15 Minutes late arriving). Emergency aisle seats (good), one bolshy stewardess (not good).
• Shared Airport Transfer Service transfer from the airport to resort. Good value, but with a scheduled pick-up of 17:40, we eventually left the airport at 19:45. Motto: "Book a private transfer". Still driver James got us to the hotel in time for dinner.

The return journey was, shall we say 'interesting.

• The transfer back was booked with 2 hours to last check-in at the airport. Following a delayed start (bad traffic from Morzine), horrendous queues, snow chains and a side road, driver David got us to the airport with four minutes to spare. I think more by good luck on his part than good management on the part of the transfer company. Some of our fellow transferees will most certainly have missed their flight. Thank goodness for the BA Self-Service Check-In service. It helped us to catch the flight, bypassing a line of about 50 people in the process.
• The flight back was great- we had our own little row of seats at the back of our Boeing 737. We got a choice of sandwiches, chatty and friendly crew and generally rather enjoyable.

• Unfortunately it all went a little awry at Gatwick. After a few minutes it became apparent that only two of our bags had made it onto the flight, but my main luggage was missing. Gill had a taxi waiting so after ticking off her luggage receipts and us saying our goodbyes after a great week, I had to initiate the 'Lost Luggage' process. I have to say that we only just checked in on time at Geneva. By the time I got home, I was able to tell online that my bag was having an extra night's holiday in Geneva. By 9.45am this morning, I received a telephone call from Gatwick Airport to say my bag had arrived. I then had two automated calls- the second was at 2.45pm to say my bag would be delivered by 3.30pm. A man in a little white van delivered my bag at 3.05pm.

• I decided to get a Southern train back from Gatwick to Victoria (£4.60 with my Goldcard)- it took the same time as my outward jorney on the Gatwick Express (£14), the train was cleaner and less crowded.

Oh and a little footnote to my underground journey home- what looked like a gang of steamers boared my carriage one station from home, moved from the rear carriage to the next (pity the 'Danger of Death' notices didn't work) and proceeded to act with menace at my home station. I was able to leave the station without incident, but there were BTP and Met police vans and cars whizzing up the road within minutes. "Welcome home", I thought to myself.

Watford Junction - New Year's Day Timetable Rant

See if you can fathom this one out:

New Year's Day, lunchtime.
Silverlink County operating hourly stopping services southbound from Northampton. ALL terminate (contrary to published New Year's Day Timetable), arriving at Watford Junction at xx.26

Silverlink Metro operating hourly stopping services southbound from Watford Junction departing at xx.22

Southern operating hourly service southbound services from Watford Junction departing at xx.22, first stop Harrow & Wealdstone then Kensington Olympia.

What sort of idiot makes up these timetables? I was of course aiming for Harrow & Wealdstone. In the end Virgin Trains agreed to accept southbound to Euston- so with 95% of the passengers having been herded outside to catch a 'Fast Coach' to Euston, a small number of us lucky cattle were able to get on a big fancy red train resulting in me going the long way round, probably quicker than any other means. Oh- and the screens weren't showing any Virgin Trains going south, because they are only timetabled to drop off.

What exactly is it that Network Rail do? Grrrrrr...