Today I had my first train trip out since November. It was very much an unnecessary leisure trip and was to York, that being my destination of choice when I just want to go ‘somewhere’.
I started from Ipswich at 0600 and went via Peterborough. I had to revise my plan somewhat on arrival at York as it was cold, very cold! I had originally intended to spend the day there having a leisurely stroll around the city. As it was so cold I grabbed some last minute advances for a filler trip to Newcastle instead, out on TPE and back on XC. On my return I still had over an hour to kill so a took a quick walk around York city centre. The temperature had improved but only slightly. Nonetheless there were lots of people out and plenty sitting in the riverside gardens, Yorkshire folk obviously being made of stronger stuff!
Loadings were generally light throughout the day. Some of the afternoon Anglo Scottish LNER services looked quite full though, probably fully booked to socially distanced capacity.
There were the usual announcements about face coverings, distancing and needing reservations (on LNER) but nothing about essential travel that other posters have reported.
Other things of note:
- On the way up the ECML something in First livery passed the other way. I looked it up on RTT and it was a Hull trains ecs that seemed to have made two round trips from Hull to King‘s Cross during the day. Is this a regular thing to maintain crew competency or are they gearing up to resume services?
- My TPE into Newcastle was routed ‘round the back’ into the North facing bay platform one. Is this a rare occurrence? The crew announced it was due to a broken down train in the station.
- Out of curiosity I gave the LNER at seat food ordering online service a try on the way out. It took a while to establish a password it was happy with but everything worked after that. I was only a few rows away from the cafe bar and the smell of coffee, and then bacon, confirmed my order had gone through! I think I was the only customer they had on the whole journey.
- I came back in LNER first class and there was at seat service of freebies, which I wasn’t expecting. The staff took your order from an offering that was basically the current reduced cafe bar menu. They then brought it to you.
- A off licence application by Sainsbury’s was taped to the old travel centre at York so that answers the question of what‘s happening there. It will make a pleasant change from the usual SSP outlets at the station, particularly as it is quite a long walk to get to any form of ‘proper’ shop in York.
I started from Ipswich at 0600 and went via Peterborough. I had to revise my plan somewhat on arrival at York as it was cold, very cold! I had originally intended to spend the day there having a leisurely stroll around the city. As it was so cold I grabbed some last minute advances for a filler trip to Newcastle instead, out on TPE and back on XC. On my return I still had over an hour to kill so a took a quick walk around York city centre. The temperature had improved but only slightly. Nonetheless there were lots of people out and plenty sitting in the riverside gardens, Yorkshire folk obviously being made of stronger stuff!
Loadings were generally light throughout the day. Some of the afternoon Anglo Scottish LNER services looked quite full though, probably fully booked to socially distanced capacity.
There were the usual announcements about face coverings, distancing and needing reservations (on LNER) but nothing about essential travel that other posters have reported.
Other things of note:
- On the way up the ECML something in First livery passed the other way. I looked it up on RTT and it was a Hull trains ecs that seemed to have made two round trips from Hull to King‘s Cross during the day. Is this a regular thing to maintain crew competency or are they gearing up to resume services?
- My TPE into Newcastle was routed ‘round the back’ into the North facing bay platform one. Is this a rare occurrence? The crew announced it was due to a broken down train in the station.
- Out of curiosity I gave the LNER at seat food ordering online service a try on the way out. It took a while to establish a password it was happy with but everything worked after that. I was only a few rows away from the cafe bar and the smell of coffee, and then bacon, confirmed my order had gone through! I think I was the only customer they had on the whole journey.
- I came back in LNER first class and there was at seat service of freebies, which I wasn’t expecting. The staff took your order from an offering that was basically the current reduced cafe bar menu. They then brought it to you.
- A off licence application by Sainsbury’s was taped to the old travel centre at York so that answers the question of what‘s happening there. It will make a pleasant change from the usual SSP outlets at the station, particularly as it is quite a long walk to get to any form of ‘proper’ shop in York.