Saturday 2nd September 2023 1. Tickets “not available“ Passengers using LNER’s website to book rail tickets will be familiar with the “not available” indicator on certain journeys when tickets have allegedly sold out. You might be forgiven for wondering how can that be, on what is supposed to be a walk-up-and-travel railway? Because it’s not... Continue Reading →
Saturday 24th September 2022 An annual ride on the wonderful West Highland Line is a personal must in my book so having missed a full blown Glasgow to Mallaig journey during the pandemic (I managed one trip as far as Tyndrum) it was good to be back on board on Monday last week. It was... Continue Reading →
Sunday 5th June 2022 Over the last few weeks I’ve been keeping notes of the state of catering for passengers travelling first class on trains. Here’s my report complete with a complimentary coffee, biscuits and packet of sea salt flavoured crisps. It’s only long distance ‘inter-city’ train operators who get involved in on board catering... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 24th May 2022 TPE staff with an original station sign There will undoubtedly be early morning shenanigans today with thousands out celebrating London’s new railway opening its central core gate lines for the first time, but today I’m bringing you news of a comparatively minor development - yesterday's opening of another railway station closed... Continue Reading →
Thursday 19th May 2022 Last week was Rail Sale travel week for me. I’d bagged a couple of bargain priced tickets when they went on sale last month for two day trips - one to Cornwall and one to Scotland - as you do. Monday morning last week saw me roll up at Paddington for... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 15th March 2022 I’ve been ‘off the road’ for operational reasons since last Monday (otherwise known as testing positive for Covid) which has given me an opportunity to reflect on the rail industry’s policy on ticket refunds. It’s all very simple if you’re a Marks & Spencer customer. Famous for its no quibble policy,... Continue Reading →
Saturday 26th February 2022 It's time for my fortnightly visit to a small to mid sized town and for D I selected one of England's most beautiful and iconic cities which I hadn't explored for many months. The city of Durham's population is around 50,000. It's the administrative centre of its namesake Durham County Council... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 15th February 2022 As a Brighton Main Line regular I’ve long been used to playing the ‘Thameslink only’ ticket game to save myself money on travels to and from London, not least during the current hiatus when my local station Hassocks is only blessed with trains to London Bridge and at that a Southern... Continue Reading →
Thursday 16th December 2021 As trailed in Tuesday’s blog about Soham, on Monday and Tuesday I took a look at a couple of other developments in the new winter rail timetable which commenced on Sunday. If one of LNER’s no expense spared razzmatazz launches is anything to go by the most exciting December development by... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 20th July 2021 I made six train journeys on Saturday and experienced more mixed messaging leaving me wondering whether our Government controlled railways along with the train companies really are interested in attracting passengers back on board particularly following yesterday’s withdrawal of Covid restrictions. During the early months of the pandemic messaging was all... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 4th May 2021 We all know it's going to be a big challenge to get passengers using public transport after the past year's pandemic hiatus. And it's good to see some exciting developments with new bus brands in Lancashire for tendered routes (Ribble Country and Little Hot Line), ambitious new services for the leisure... Continue Reading →
Thursday 10th December 2020 Have you heard of ‘Seatfrog’? It’s been LNER’s way of offering upgrades from standard class to first class on its trains since 2017. More recently it's begun doing the same for Avanti West Coast and GWR . Although it’s been around for three years I only gave it a try for... Continue Reading →
Friday 17th Janurary 2020 Last month's timetable change saw a greatly improved train service for Harrogate with LNER introducing direct trains to and from London Kings Cross every two hours; a substantial increase over the once a day journey which previously ran. Six daily southbound departures from Harrogate leave at 07:34; 09:36; 11:36; 13:36; 15:36 and... Continue Reading →
Monday 21st October 2019 LNER's flagship AZUMA trains started running between Lincoln and London Kings Cross today. They're journeys which previously just ran between Newark North Gate and Kings Cross now projected back to start at Lincoln, so they're not new journeys on the actual East Coast Main Line (ECML). They provide a significant boost... Continue Reading →
Friday 18th October 2019 There's rightly a lot of discussion about the impact of travelling by plane in the context of our global climate emergency; it pangs my conscious whenever I take a flight, and I don't do it very often, and when I do it's between London and Scotland, the Scottish islands or across... Continue Reading →
Thursday 1st August 2019 LNER know all about high profile launches. I guess it helps being in the public sector with a generous marketing budget rather than being a cash strapped TOC with unattainable winning franchise pledges submitted to the DfT in misplaced optimism a few years back. Following LNER's all singing, all dancing Kings... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 21st May 2019 First improvement in the May 2019 rail timetable I experienced yesterday on my tour around was from my own local station, Hassocks where our disjointed two an hour trains to the Thameslink Core stations and on to Bedford or Cambridge (one an hour to each but to a 40/20 pattern) have... Continue Reading →
Friday 17th May 2019 Let's get the usual bit out of the way first .... "at last, after many delays" etc etc. Same old story, of course, and in the Azuma's case it still hasn't quite been sorted with onboard technical issues to do with electrical and signal compatibility north of Darlington still to be... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 30th April 2019 My Funday in Furness yesterday exploring three small islands off England's north west coast came sandwiched between two other great travelling days. I travelled up the East Coast Main Line from Kings Cross to Newcastle on Saturday with LNER (always a favourite journey) to meet the lovely members of the Northern... Continue Reading →
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