Your Last Train Journey?

EXTspotter · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 12:54 am

Just got back from Durham. Sadly I didn't get the email £10 upgrade offer, if it was being offered again I would have taken it in a heartbeat.

Durham - London Kings Cross on a IC225 (Class 91), from the ticket stamp I think it was 1E18. The service originated in Edinburgh and standard was as full as I have ever seen on East Coast (most seats taken, I have never seen anyone stand on EC...). First was completely empty though, whereas on my outbound where I was able to upgrade first was quite full and standard was relatively empty. The 91 sets are starting to look a little tired now, in standard at least - all the plastics have yellowed in a strange way and the handles on the tops of the seats look much more well used than they should. Even the seats are starting to get a little worn. The armrest was broken on one side of mine today and on my way up the seat in first class was stuck in the fully reclined position.

Jumped onto the Northern Line via Bank branch to Euston and then changed onto the Northern Line via Charing Cross branch to Waterloo.

London Waterloo - Guildford on a pair of class 450s. The service continued to Havant. I was surprised that there were still seats given that it was a service out of Waterloo towards the end of the afternoon peak (7.15pm departure). It helped me get a taste for the joys of commuting as it is likely that I will be working in North London and living in Guildford next year. Not fun.

JamieLei · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 3:59 pm

Completely unintuitive but fastest and easiest way between KX and Waterloo is Victoria Line, then Bakerloo Line at Oxford Circus. Simply because it's a cross-platform interchange. Unless you really like the Northern Line of course

47434 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:14 pm

JamieLei wrote:

Completely unintuitive but fastest and easiest way between KX and Waterloo is Victoria Line, then Bakerloo Line at Oxford Circus. Simply because it's a cross-platform interchange. Unless you really like the Northern Line of course

Whenever I was going from KX to the SouthWest suburban services, I used to go Victoria line to Vauxhall, much easier if you've A LOT of luggage than the various rabbit-warren-esque tube interchanges!

EXTspotter · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 6:37 pm

@47434: Unfortunately for me Vauxhall is a bit ridiculous as a changing point because the fast trains to Guildford don't stop there, and only about half of them stop at Clapham Junction.

@Jamie: I remember you said that the last time that my love of the Northern Line was unhealthy, I knew you said that there was a better route but I couldn't remember what it was so I took the Northern Line to Leicester Square and then the Piccadilly to KX. Transferring at Leicester Square is manic. The benefit of going via Euston is that you can travel with the crowds quite a lot rather than fighting the tide with luggage (which isn't fun). The next time I'll remember your route. I promise. haha

47434 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 04, 2012 1:27 am

EXTspotter wrote:

@47434: Unfortunately for me Vauxhall is a bit ridiculous as a changing point because the fast trains to Guildford don't stop there, and only about half of them stop at Clapham Junction.

@Jamie: I remember you said that the last time that my love of the Northern Line was unhealthy, I knew you said that there was a better route but I couldn't remember what it was so I took the Northern Line to Leicester Square and then the Piccadilly to KX. Transferring at Leicester Square is manic. The benefit of going via Euston is that you can travel with the crowds quite a lot rather than fighting the tide with luggage (which isn't fun). The next time I'll remember your route. I promise. haha

Fair point. I was always heading to Kingston/Surbiton/Hampton Court, and back then Guildford had 2tph via Weybridge & Woking.

EXTspotter · **Posted:** Sat Feb 04, 2012 2:09 am

That service does still exist but I believe it is now Sundays only and acts as an extension of the outer suburban services to Woking and is only one train per hour, infilling for one of the slow trains towards Portsmouth (which I believe is 2tph fast and 1ph slow on sundays vs. 2 and 2 during the week). In terms of during the week it is possible to get a direct train to Vauxhall, however they are the slow services which go via Bookham or via Claygate which take nearly twice the time the fast services via Woking do.

47434 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 04, 2012 7:46 am

The direct Woking service (semi-fast to Surbiton) is 4tph, 2tph of those used to be extended to Worplesdon & Guildford- I think this was cut back to allow more limited-stop services on the Portsmouth Direct line. (of course, one of the extra Portsmouth line services now calls Worplesdon, in spite of the fact that seemingly no-one lives there!)

Jacko · **Posted:** Sat Feb 04, 2012 9:46 am

47434 wrote:

The direct Woking service (semi-fast to Surbiton) is 4tph, 2tph of those used to be extended to Worplesdon & Guildford- I think this was cut back to allow more limited-stop services on the Portsmouth Direct line. (of course, one of the extra Portsmouth line services now calls Worplesdon, in spite of the fact that seemingly no-one lives there!)

I second that

Yesterday: Southbourne - Portchester, and when i got there all the trains after mine were cancelled because of gas leak at fratton, which was lucky.

EXTspotter · **Posted:** Sat Feb 11, 2012 1:50 pm

Yesterday night I went to see the Black Keys concert at Alexandra Palace. It was epic.

Guildford - London Waterloo on a single 444 - crammed as usual.

Waterloo - London Bridge - Moorgate on the underground.

Moorgate - Alexandra Palace on a pair of 313s - I've never been on any of these trains and they are proper skanky. Unsurprisingly it was full to the gunnels because of the concert.

---

Alexandra Palace - Kings Cross on a pair of 313s - Had to rush back accross London because the last train to Guildford leaves at 00.09. Unfortunately FCC was being rubbish again and the first service which people leaving the gig would have got was delayed by 15 minutes, causing a massive crush to get onto the next service. I ended up using my old rugby skills to force my way into a door which was already closing and grab my friend to pull him in. There must've been at least 200 people in every carriage. Crammed. Also by the time we left Ally Pally, we had about 35 minutes to get to Waterloo.

Kings Cross - Piccadilly Circus - Waterloo on the underground - Ran the entire way, fell on an escalator (painful), somehow was lucky enough to have the tube arrive into the station just as we reached the platform.

Waterloo - Guildford on a pair of 455s - The last train of the night brings out the strangest characters. One load of drunk people behind me I overheard saying "When I die, I want my ashes to be spread over the hills of Wales, or Swindon.".

We had made it from Ally Pally to Waterloo in about 30 minutes which I am very proud of, even if running through all the tube made us lok like right idiots.

orudge · **Posted:** Sun Feb 12, 2012 6:35 pm

Yesterday: Aberdeen - Edinburgh on East Coast, first class. Nice and quiet, lots of tea, Coke and snacks, and free wifi. Jolly good.
Today: Edinburgh - Aberdeen on East Coast, standard class. Extremely busy, at least until Dundee. A bit less cramped after that, and much quieter past Montrose. Thankfully I did have a reserved seat at least.

Griff · **Posted:** Tue Feb 14, 2012 7:17 pm

I will be having free travel to Moor Street on Thursday, courtesy of London Midland.

Chris · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 2:30 am

Griff wrote:

I will be having free travel to Moor Street on Thursday, courtesy of London Midland.

Lucky you!

Meanwhile, on Monday:

Amersham - London Marylebone, Chiltern 165, we were planning on getting the preceding metropolitan service which ran straight through to Kings Cross St. Pancras, but due to overrunning engineering works at Neasden they were only running to harrow (I am a complete numpty for not checking before travelling

)

Walk to Baker Street, turned out even quicker than usual as the Bakerloo line was suspended due to signal failure.

Circle line from Baker Street to Kings Cross St. Pancras.

East Midlands Trains 222 Meridian from St. Pancras to Sheffield. Don't usually ever look at the number of the train, but glanced at front of train as I was walking up the platform, and it turned out to be 222001.

JamieLei · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 11:43 pm

Tottenham Hale - Cambridge

With my date. Coming back from an amazing day in London on Valentines Day.

bwong · **Posted:** Thu Feb 16, 2012 12:25 am

Company: GO Transit
Line: Lincolnville Line
Destination: Unionville GO Station
Starting point: Union GO Station
Notes: quite a comfortable ride, got a seat next to the doors and the heater, which was nice because it's winter

No delays

Ameecher · **Posted:** Thu Feb 16, 2012 10:31 am

JamieLei wrote:

Tottenham Hale - Cambridge

With my date. Coming back from an amazing day in London on Valentines Day.

And how badly are Abellio doing?

JamieLei · **Posted:** Thu Feb 16, 2012 3:42 pm

Train delayed 20 minutes on the return. I didn't really notice - we fell asleep and woke up on the approach into Cambridge.

bwong · **Posted:** Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:22 am

Since everyone here seems to be from the UK, I'll post a train ride that I made from my trip in England.
Railway: East Midlands Trains
Starting: London St. Pancras
Destination: Kettering Rail Station
Time Elapsed: 1hr 45minutes
Comments: Fell asleep as I got to Kettering so I missed my stop. Annoying things had to wait for so long to get back.

Chris · **Posted:** Fri Feb 17, 2012 11:13 pm

Yesterday:
Cross Country Voyager from Sheffield to Leeds, wasn't that busy which I was surprised at, and they have much larger luggage racks than on EMT which is nice.

Bus to the uni/bus back from uni.

East Coast 91+Mk.4s from Leeds to London Kings Cross. Love how on Mk. 4s I can get my luggage overhead, means that there isn't a problem when the luggage racks are full

.

S-stock Met train from Kings Cross St. Pancras to Baker Street, then some good old A-stock on the (very) slow train to Amersham.

47 407 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 18, 2012 8:56 pm

Yesterday:
Purley Oaks - Elstree and Borehamwood via St Albans
Southern and FCC, and return.

Wednesday, same journey. FCC journey East Croydon - Elstree and B'wood delayed by 1hr 10mins from East Croydon. Not good, especially after being told it would be runnning fast between St Pancras and Bedford!

Geo Ghost · **Posted:** Sat Feb 18, 2012 10:15 pm

Yesterday:
Hatfield to Ebbsfleet. Not your usual trip.

Hatfield -> Kings Cross.
No one will probably believe me but the train arrived a couple of minutes early not only at Hatfield but at every station! So much so, we actually caught up the train ahead of us and had to wait at a red signal. Must have changed pretty quick. The 317 went from speeding down the line to a full stop in a matter of seconds. Thought something had happened at first as it was so sudden.

St Pancras -> Ebbsfleet
Yay! Highspeed 1! Does anyone actually visit Ebbsfleet International? That place is pretty much dead. Even the carparks are empty! Maybe they are hoping businesses will move there or it'll act as a main commuter station. Doesn't seem to be working though so far

Today:
Hatfield to London... at 5:15am.

What can I say to this one? I've frigging mad to have done that. Worth it in the end. one time-lapse sun rise over London from Primrose Hill in the bag!

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