A few weeks ago, Jordy and I booked some GNER advance purchase tickets for us to go to Newcastle for the day. Jordy was to come over from Grimsby to Hull so that we could be on the same train on the outward journey.
The day started off very smoothly. I caught the 61 bus from Cottingham Green to Hull city centre at 07:52, having recieved a text message from Jordy saying he was on the train towards Barton. About half way into Hull, I decided to text him again to check on his progress. I was horrified to recieve the reply 'Stuck in Barton'.
I called him up straight away to ask what had happened. He told me that he had missed the bus and that he would sort everything out. Meanwhile, I phoned 'Buscall' to check out the next bus from Barton to Hull. Jordy later told me the story in full:
His Grimsby-Barton train was held near West Marsh near Great Coates for about 5 minutes. The train made up a couple of minutes en-route, but the connecting bus to Hull didn't wait and left before the train arrived, even though it is a booked connection in the timetable. He had to go to the Spar shop, and the staff there phoned for a taxi. Luckily, staff had just arrived at the local taxi office and a lady came straight away. The taxi rushed him to Hull station in just 15 minutes at a cost of £20! (Northern Rail will hopefully cough up this fee
).
My bus had arrived in Hull 10 minutes early, and so I had plenty of time to pick up a compensation form for Jordy's taxi. I went out to the front of the station to meet him, but as we walked inside, screens flashed 'Cancelled' all around! A broken rail at Wressle near Howden meant that the Selby line was closed and all York/Leeds trains were cancelled. That included our 08:39 service to Huddersfield (Trains were terminating here because of engineering works).
We were told that a rail replacement bus would run to York at 09:02, although this would mean that we would miss our connection. We could have caught a service bus from Hull to York at 08:50, but we decided to wait for our rail replacement service. This though, didn't come until about 09:40 beacause the bus had to come from Goole :roll:
The bus journey went smoothly, because of very light traffic. We got to York at about 11:00, to find out about the major problems that the ECML had been suffering all morning. The next GNER was delayed by 45 minutes due to a failed train at Alexander Palace earlier in the day. The question now arose, 'could it get any worse?' .
Well, the train lost another ten minutes, and having been refused access on a Virgin, we boarded the mallard service and sat in the buffet car. This was especially convenient, and I enjoyed a delicious Go Eat hot breakfast bagel
. To add another twist to the story, our service was calling additionally at Durham, and the signaller tried to route us through the station. After a further 5 minute delay, we pulled into Durham.
We eventually arrived into Newcastle at about 13:15, over two hours late! We had planned to try and do much of the metro, but our possibilities were now seriously reduced. After a few photos at Newcastle, we hopped onto the first metro service towards South Hylton, taking the front seats, and getting a great view of the line ahead. We alighted at Heworth to get a few more photos, and then took a Northern class 156 to Sunderland, missing a class 60 and freight by seconds :cry: .
Part two of our amazing day coming soon...
The day started off very smoothly. I caught the 61 bus from Cottingham Green to Hull city centre at 07:52, having recieved a text message from Jordy saying he was on the train towards Barton. About half way into Hull, I decided to text him again to check on his progress. I was horrified to recieve the reply 'Stuck in Barton'.
I called him up straight away to ask what had happened. He told me that he had missed the bus and that he would sort everything out. Meanwhile, I phoned 'Buscall' to check out the next bus from Barton to Hull. Jordy later told me the story in full:
His Grimsby-Barton train was held near West Marsh near Great Coates for about 5 minutes. The train made up a couple of minutes en-route, but the connecting bus to Hull didn't wait and left before the train arrived, even though it is a booked connection in the timetable. He had to go to the Spar shop, and the staff there phoned for a taxi. Luckily, staff had just arrived at the local taxi office and a lady came straight away. The taxi rushed him to Hull station in just 15 minutes at a cost of £20! (Northern Rail will hopefully cough up this fee
).My bus had arrived in Hull 10 minutes early, and so I had plenty of time to pick up a compensation form for Jordy's taxi. I went out to the front of the station to meet him, but as we walked inside, screens flashed 'Cancelled' all around! A broken rail at Wressle near Howden meant that the Selby line was closed and all York/Leeds trains were cancelled. That included our 08:39 service to Huddersfield (Trains were terminating here because of engineering works).
We were told that a rail replacement bus would run to York at 09:02, although this would mean that we would miss our connection. We could have caught a service bus from Hull to York at 08:50, but we decided to wait for our rail replacement service. This though, didn't come until about 09:40 beacause the bus had to come from Goole :roll:
The bus journey went smoothly, because of very light traffic. We got to York at about 11:00, to find out about the major problems that the ECML had been suffering all morning. The next GNER was delayed by 45 minutes due to a failed train at Alexander Palace earlier in the day. The question now arose, 'could it get any worse?'
.Well, the train lost another ten minutes, and having been refused access on a Virgin, we boarded the mallard service and sat in the buffet car. This was especially convenient, and I enjoyed a delicious Go Eat hot breakfast bagel
. To add another twist to the story, our service was calling additionally at Durham, and the signaller tried to route us through the station. After a further 5 minute delay, we pulled into Durham.We eventually arrived into Newcastle at about 13:15, over two hours late! We had planned to try and do much of the metro, but our possibilities were now seriously reduced. After a few photos at Newcastle, we hopped onto the first metro service towards South Hylton, taking the front seats, and getting a great view of the line ahead. We alighted at Heworth to get a few more photos, and then took a Northern class 156 to Sunderland, missing a class 60 and freight by seconds :cry: .
Part two of our amazing day coming soon...
