Python through the Snow
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2010-12-01 18:23:30 - Graham Ellis
Welcome to December ... just over three weeks to Christmas, and at this time of year I would usually be scrambling back through the archives for last year's pictures to add festive snow to some of my articles. But this year is different; the snow has come early, and it seems has caught everyone by surprise (hey - it usually does!). Here's a picture from yesterday morning - the predawn train calling at Melksham at 07:17 on its way up to Chippenham, where I changed ...
Cars, people, pushchairs all fighting their way through the light sprinkling of snow in Chippenham, still predawn (or first light) as I changed to head down to Bristol ...
I took the flow with the crowds out of Temple Meads, and walked across the City Centre - I was presenting a private Python Course in one of the high rise offices just below the hill that's Clifton ... and it gave me a chance to look at a few of the scenes I don't often seeI was agreeably surprised how quiet the actual city centre's roads were, even at that time of the morning - and I'll put my journeys to Bristol to give this course in the big success bracket. But, alas, the return journeys were so slow, with over an hour to "kill" on the journey - a course finishing at 5, but the train with a connection from Bristol not leaving until 6.30 - that's an hour later that ideal. And I wasn't the only one making that Melksham to Bristol journey yesterday morning - the barriers at Bristol rejected my (perfectly valid) ticket telling me to seek assistance, and in amongst those crowds another person who had joined the train at Melksham was going through the same thing. And I find it vaguely like I'm being accused of not having the right tickets when the barriers reject me; I can't help wondering is this puts other people off too.
And here's an interesting thought. There were between 40 and 50 people on the train from Melksham when it got to Chippenham, but only about 15 on the way back. What happened to those other people? Perhaps if there was an evening train at a true peak hour return time it would do much better ... it would certainly encourage me to use the train for days in Bristol!