Overhead power lines
Discussion
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Took me 5 hours 20 minutes to get home (Northampton) from work (Canary Wharf) last night (usual commute 2 hours). Overhead power lines down at Birkhamstead. They shut Euston for a time due to overcrowding, so the tube from London Bridge never stopped at Euston we were told to get trains from Kings Cross. Kings Cross said "No mate, you need Marleybone". At Marleybone I may as well have said "Timbucktoo" rather than Northampton, they shunted me to Paddington. Sharp intake of breath at Paddington, no sorry mate you need St.Pancras. In the cab (tube suspended due to signal and points failure) down the Euston road, spotted Euston looking open and not crowded so bailed out of the taxi and on to platform 10 for train to Northampton. Sorry mate this is only going to Milton Keynes, the rear 4 coaches on the train on platform 12 are for Northampton but you have to run its due to leave. Ran round from 10 to 12, jumped on train, sorry mate front portion (just pulling out) is for Northampton we're only going to Bletchly.
In the end I got the 8:45 which left Euston at 9:11 and got in to Northampton at 11pm. 10 mins in a taxi and I was home.
So why oh why do we have overhead power lines not third rail? I'm guessing its cheaper? London Overground services were not affected so I assume some of the east coast line has third rail?
Took me 5 hours 20 minutes to get home (Northampton) from work (Canary Wharf) last night (usual commute 2 hours). Overhead power lines down at Birkhamstead. They shut Euston for a time due to overcrowding, so the tube from London Bridge never stopped at Euston we were told to get trains from Kings Cross. Kings Cross said "No mate, you need Marleybone". At Marleybone I may as well have said "Timbucktoo" rather than Northampton, they shunted me to Paddington. Sharp intake of breath at Paddington, no sorry mate you need St.Pancras. In the cab (tube suspended due to signal and points failure) down the Euston road, spotted Euston looking open and not crowded so bailed out of the taxi and on to platform 10 for train to Northampton. Sorry mate this is only going to Milton Keynes, the rear 4 coaches on the train on platform 12 are for Northampton but you have to run its due to leave. Ran round from 10 to 12, jumped on train, sorry mate front portion (just pulling out) is for Northampton we're only going to Bletchly.
In the end I got the 8:45 which left Euston at 9:11 and got in to Northampton at 11pm. 10 mins in a taxi and I was home.
So why oh why do we have overhead power lines not third rail? I'm guessing its cheaper? London Overground services were not affected so I assume some of the east coast line has third rail?
mattdaniels said:
So why oh why do we have overhead power lines not third rail? I'm guessing its cheaper? London Overground services were not affected so I assume some of the east coast line has third rail?
Third Rails freeze. All the time. Just ask anyone who has the misfortune of commuting via SouthWest Trains.I can kind of see the logic with Marylebone, the next few stations north of Berkhamsted are all about 10 miles from Aylesbury. So, not terrible in a taxi, if you were still able to get a train from somewhere north of the blockage.
Or you could have done St Pancras-Wellingborough, then a taxi.
I think with any long-distance commute you have to accept that once in a while it will all go horribly wrong and you'll be stuck.
Or you could have done St Pancras-Wellingborough, then a taxi.
I think with any long-distance commute you have to accept that once in a while it will all go horribly wrong and you'll be stuck.
Appreciate it's going to go wrong. It went wrong in the snow too so the point about third rails freezing doesn't seem to be the reason. Either way, it would be nice if there was a plan B so that the rail companies gave you information on what alternative route to take or briefed the staff at the stations they are directing you to so that they knew to expect a load of people asking to get to places that the station doesn't normally serve, and also to tell you correct information as to which section of which train on which platform to get on in order to get to the place they told you it was going to. Or maybe I'm expecting too much for my 600 quid a month.
Thanks for the tip on Wellingborough (I'm new to that part of the world so don't know the train lines intimately). Will have that in mind next time. Will be interesting to see if they will honour the ticket on that route. The guys at Paddington suggested I go to Birmingham and then travel south - not sure what the situation is ticket-wise with that one, whether they'd still class it as a reasonable detour and honour my ticket or whether I'd have to buy separate tickets and claim them back somehow.
Thanks for the tip on Wellingborough (I'm new to that part of the world so don't know the train lines intimately). Will have that in mind next time. Will be interesting to see if they will honour the ticket on that route. The guys at Paddington suggested I go to Birmingham and then travel south - not sure what the situation is ticket-wise with that one, whether they'd still class it as a reasonable detour and honour my ticket or whether I'd have to buy separate tickets and claim them back somehow.
Edited by mattdaniels on Wednesday 10th February 08:01
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