Journey home by public transport for a Bank Holiday
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2011-08-27 22:18:40 - Graham Ellis
For past courses I've given in Cambridge, I've chosen to travel by car. The station in Cambridge is one side of town, and most of the people I train are situated on t'other. But this week - seeing as I had to travel up from Melksham on Monday after a day's hard work, and then back on Friday evening after another hard but enjoyable day's work, I decided to use the train. The idea of falling asleep at the wheel on Monday, or creeping along for hours in the London Orbital Car Park, listening to The Five O'Clock News, the Archers, Any Questions and (if I was really unlucky) Book at Bedtime didn't thrill me.
So how was my Public Transport journey? Absolutely great ... until the last leg, of course. That's where the train's due into Chippenham at 20:45 and the bus leaves at 20:44 ... next bus 22:10. I wasn't going to wait around for 85 minutes - so I took up Lisa's offer of a pickup.
Buses on route 2 leave the Cambridge Science Park every 10 minutes and meander through the 'burbs to the City Centre and on to the station. And every 20 minutes the new route "A" runs from this fancy stop beside the Scienc Park, over normal roads rather than this guided trackway but limited stop, to the station. Some of my delegates were telling me what a difference it has made to *their* commute, and sharing the irony of this improvement coming on the back of a big expenditure on the other parts of the route, when the express bus on their section could have ben provided very cheaply and years ago.
The 17:15 from Cambridge runs nonstop to King's Cross. It was about half full, and fast. There are very few other trains that I can think of that run from terminus to terminus without any intermediate stops. Sign of a strong flow, although one 4 car train would have taken everyone, and seated ... and I couldn't help wondering if this had been an Oxford to London rather than a Cambridge to London service if it would have been diesel not electric, 3 cars not 8, and would have stopped at least 3 times along the way!
There are some breathtakingly modern trains appearing on the London Underground. This is the Semi-fast service to Watford, at King's Cross. Comfortably busy, but not packed even on the Bank Holiday.
Our Circle line train dropped us off at the old Pread Street station - something of a surprise, as I had understood that the circle had been broken, running an inverted figure of six with all trains from King's Cross headed out to Hammersmith. Indeed, that's what the map in the train iteslf showed. Anyway - here's a busyness and a potent of things to come - with a tube train full of people all making for a staircase to go up, over and down just to go back up again to the ticket hall in a few yards. This really isn't a short-walk interchange!
The wide barrier for luggage had failed ... which was a shame on the way up to the main line station for long distance travel, when everyone had a load of luggage that they had just lugged over that bridge. Never mind - some chap from London Underground opened the side gate and we flooded through ...
... so that we could join the next queue for tickets. OK - I admit it - I had taken advantage of a ticket office with no queue last Sunday to buy myself a ticket ahead of time, so I could sit, wait, relax while waiting for my train.
And I could also enjoy the architecture - recently revealed - of the fourth arch at Paddington.
The concourse was busy with people standing and looking at the screens - trains called just 10 to 15 minutes before they were due to leave, resulting in a Tsumani of people onto the platforms and trains, with the fit and young sweeping the old, frail and disabled over and grabbing the few unreserved seats on the services.
Paddington always seems short on seats, but there are places to perch if you look carefully. Some of us happy to sit - to look around, to listen to music. Others looks like they have been waiting quite a while and are a bit brassed off about it.
Lined up, and waiting for the starting pistol to be fired - three old HSTs. These are almost the oldest trains we've used on the journey so far. They'll probably be the most overcrowded. And the fare per mile will be pretty high ... or would be if we didn't hang around a bit for the 19:30. £69.50 on the 18:30 ... £31.00 on the 19:00 ... or £25.50 on the 19:30. So I hung around a bit as I was a bit early. With a "superoffpeak" fare offered, things will have quietened down by the 19:30, right?
Wrong. It was packed ... In the very front (quiet) carriage, there were at least 10 people standing within the carriage itself (let alone the vestibule). Great fun as people with luggage came looking for their reserved seats. "Keep you luggage with you at all times" and yet the luggage racks are at the end of the carriage, and the seats face away from them. And there are at least three people in this quiet coach to whom the "no mobile phones" rule doesn't apply.
I would get tired of it as a regular journey, I'm sure - but frankly I don't worry too much about a bit of crowding, a challenge to sort out the right fares, an ability to get from (a) to (b) without burning up too much fuel and without getting tired and without spending a painful amount of money. Oh - and without putting people out. So - I may appear to have some negative comments along the way, but actually, yes, I'll be using public rather than private transport next time I'm in Cambridge too. I talked about the irony at the Cambridge end earlier. The irony is that it's at the home end - the public transport into Melksham - that I admitted defeat yesterday evening.
P.S. 1 - You'll notice that yesterday's two blogs were posted by me while I was on that 19:30 train from Paddington. I couldn't have done that from a car.
P.S. 2 - Click on any image to see it much larger.
Buses on route 2 leave the Cambridge Science Park every 10 minutes and meander through the 'burbs to the City Centre and on to the station. And every 20 minutes the new route "A" runs from this fancy stop beside the Scienc Park, over normal roads rather than this guided trackway but limited stop, to the station. Some of my delegates were telling me what a difference it has made to *their* commute, and sharing the irony of this improvement coming on the back of a big expenditure on the other parts of the route, when the express bus on their section could have ben provided very cheaply and years ago.
The 17:15 from Cambridge runs nonstop to King's Cross. It was about half full, and fast. There are very few other trains that I can think of that run from terminus to terminus without any intermediate stops. Sign of a strong flow, although one 4 car train would have taken everyone, and seated ... and I couldn't help wondering if this had been an Oxford to London rather than a Cambridge to London service if it would have been diesel not electric, 3 cars not 8, and would have stopped at least 3 times along the way!
There are some breathtakingly modern trains appearing on the London Underground. This is the Semi-fast service to Watford, at King's Cross. Comfortably busy, but not packed even on the Bank Holiday. 
Our Circle line train dropped us off at the old Pread Street station - something of a surprise, as I had understood that the circle had been broken, running an inverted figure of six with all trains from King's Cross headed out to Hammersmith. Indeed, that's what the map in the train iteslf showed. Anyway - here's a busyness and a potent of things to come - with a tube train full of people all making for a staircase to go up, over and down just to go back up again to the ticket hall in a few yards. This really isn't a short-walk interchange!
The wide barrier for luggage had failed ... which was a shame on the way up to the main line station for long distance travel, when everyone had a load of luggage that they had just lugged over that bridge. Never mind - some chap from London Underground opened the side gate and we flooded through ...
... so that we could join the next queue for tickets. OK - I admit it - I had taken advantage of a ticket office with no queue last Sunday to buy myself a ticket ahead of time, so I could sit, wait, relax while waiting for my train.
And I could also enjoy the architecture - recently revealed - of the fourth arch at Paddington.
The concourse was busy with people standing and looking at the screens - trains called just 10 to 15 minutes before they were due to leave, resulting in a Tsumani of people onto the platforms and trains, with the fit and young sweeping the old, frail and disabled over and grabbing the few unreserved seats on the services.
Paddington always seems short on seats, but there are places to perch if you look carefully. Some of us happy to sit - to look around, to listen to music. Others looks like they have been waiting quite a while and are a bit brassed off about it.
Lined up, and waiting for the starting pistol to be fired - three old HSTs. These are almost the oldest trains we've used on the journey so far. They'll probably be the most overcrowded. And the fare per mile will be pretty high ... or would be if we didn't hang around a bit for the 19:30. £69.50 on the 18:30 ... £31.00 on the 19:00 ... or £25.50 on the 19:30. So I hung around a bit as I was a bit early. With a "superoffpeak" fare offered, things will have quietened down by the 19:30, right?
Wrong. It was packed ... In the very front (quiet) carriage, there were at least 10 people standing within the carriage itself (let alone the vestibule). Great fun as people with luggage came looking for their reserved seats. "Keep you luggage with you at all times" and yet the luggage racks are at the end of the carriage, and the seats face away from them. And there are at least three people in this quiet coach to whom the "no mobile phones" rule doesn't apply.