VTPreston_Tez
Member
I travelled to London on the non-stop service from Preston (the 1550 if I should not be mistaken) on Sunday, for your convienience the 28th of October. The journey was brilliant, I ended up in First Class with my mum for a reasonable supplementary cost of £20. Shame where the First Class end of the train was at Preston station there was no roof and it was raining rather heavily at the time, but oh well.
The wi-fi wasn't that great, but it was free so I'm not exactly one to complain. The catering team came down a number of times throughout the journey and were generally nice, I got a fair share of snack boxes. The coat hangers were a nice touch as well. I shan't go into detail about how much I was annoyed at the scheduled stop outside of Stafford, I just wanted to get to London and I would have been much more fuming should I be in Standard Class.
I alighted at Euston and went straight for the Northern Line to London Bridge; the only Tube journey I needed to make that day. £6.10 in total costs was a bit ludicrous to be fair, considering the journey was standing room only and trying to sit on parts of the train that should be leant on thus falling off wasn't particularly fun. A homeless chap boarded at Angel, I had some spare coppers I could have gave him but he'd cleared off by Old Street. Then nothing really happened. Just a boring tube journey I suppose. That marked the end of day one.
The next day, I went straight for the cable car at North Greenwich. I was armed with a Z1-6 travelcard to cover Heathrow as will be seen later on. After nearly losing my travelcard due to high winds in the Greenwich area, I finally boarded the cable car, originally someone else was on board but he bailed at the last minute, as he had forgot something. I don't know what, mind.
I arrived at Royal Victoria after a lovely smooth(ish) ride and went straight to the DLR for a train to Tower Gateway. My objective was to get to Heathrow, and this was the fastest way within Travelcard limits. I then changed for a District to South Kensington after a quick walk to Tower Hill which I narrowly missed so I took the Circle Line instead. I then took the Piccadilly to Heathrow, which seemed to take forever. After arriving at Heathrow, I then went to look for the driverless pods. Well yeah, if I could find them. After seeing all the flights that Hurricane Sandy had cancelled in Terminal 5 alone, I decided it would be time for a break.
5 minutes later, I was struggling to navigate the terminal still but eventually found the lift to the pod terminal, and I got some good action shots over to car park A, then to B, then back to Terminal 5. Well worth a cross-london trip! I then went for the free shuttle to Terminals 1 2 and 3 which resulted in a hefty climb up a load of escalators and across a walkway, it seemed to take forever! I then took the Piccadilly Line from there to Leicester Square, then to Camden Town to do whatever you do there.
Upon arriving at Euston though, one Northern Line trip later, the whole place was in complete and utter chaos. Thankfully I'd come out of the wrong exit near one of the Marks & Spencers so I could actually get out! It turned out that someone had been hit by a train at Aspley and there were no staff at all on the station, bar shop workers and (I think) a G4S worker. Nobody knew what to do. I contacted London Midland and Virgin to ask them how I was supposed to get back to Preston, to no avail. Thankfully I had one last resort - National Rail Enquiries. They told me to go to King's Cross to recieve instructions from there.
One packed Victoria Line train later, I arrived at King's Cross St Pancras underground station, where things turned into a mad rush for information. I was second in the queue for information, but the Warrington chap in front took 15 minutes, he wasn't even getting help, just standing there. After I started talking behind his back though, he realised how many people were actually there and he plodded off to wait for his train. I was then told to get the Harrogate train as far as Doncaster, as was everyone else. Did we? No! There was a much less crowded Hull-bound train leaving in 5 minutes, so everyone hopped on that, a great move for everyone. Most of us would go on to board this Harrogate train at Doncaster though to get to Leeds, where we could get home from there. It saved me from standing for 2 hours!
At Leeds, I had just missed the Blackpool train which would get me back home, so I ended up waiting an hour there. I wasn't too fussed mind, just having a lack of phone battery was a pain at this point. I took the next train to Preston, and the first Preston-bound train out of Euston hadn't even arrived yet upon arrival. It was pure and utter chaos, full but not standing until Preston of course, where literally everyone got off.
I will be filing a complaint about the lack of staff and expect decent compensation for what happened. I finally got to cover the southern ECML, but in such circumstances...it just didn't feel like a success at all. Arrived over 3 hours late in the end.
The wi-fi wasn't that great, but it was free so I'm not exactly one to complain. The catering team came down a number of times throughout the journey and were generally nice, I got a fair share of snack boxes. The coat hangers were a nice touch as well. I shan't go into detail about how much I was annoyed at the scheduled stop outside of Stafford, I just wanted to get to London and I would have been much more fuming should I be in Standard Class.
I alighted at Euston and went straight for the Northern Line to London Bridge; the only Tube journey I needed to make that day. £6.10 in total costs was a bit ludicrous to be fair, considering the journey was standing room only and trying to sit on parts of the train that should be leant on thus falling off wasn't particularly fun. A homeless chap boarded at Angel, I had some spare coppers I could have gave him but he'd cleared off by Old Street. Then nothing really happened. Just a boring tube journey I suppose. That marked the end of day one.
The next day, I went straight for the cable car at North Greenwich. I was armed with a Z1-6 travelcard to cover Heathrow as will be seen later on. After nearly losing my travelcard due to high winds in the Greenwich area, I finally boarded the cable car, originally someone else was on board but he bailed at the last minute, as he had forgot something. I don't know what, mind.
I arrived at Royal Victoria after a lovely smooth(ish) ride and went straight to the DLR for a train to Tower Gateway. My objective was to get to Heathrow, and this was the fastest way within Travelcard limits. I then changed for a District to South Kensington after a quick walk to Tower Hill which I narrowly missed so I took the Circle Line instead. I then took the Piccadilly to Heathrow, which seemed to take forever. After arriving at Heathrow, I then went to look for the driverless pods. Well yeah, if I could find them. After seeing all the flights that Hurricane Sandy had cancelled in Terminal 5 alone, I decided it would be time for a break.
5 minutes later, I was struggling to navigate the terminal still but eventually found the lift to the pod terminal, and I got some good action shots over to car park A, then to B, then back to Terminal 5. Well worth a cross-london trip! I then went for the free shuttle to Terminals 1 2 and 3 which resulted in a hefty climb up a load of escalators and across a walkway, it seemed to take forever! I then took the Piccadilly Line from there to Leicester Square, then to Camden Town to do whatever you do there.
Upon arriving at Euston though, one Northern Line trip later, the whole place was in complete and utter chaos. Thankfully I'd come out of the wrong exit near one of the Marks & Spencers so I could actually get out! It turned out that someone had been hit by a train at Aspley and there were no staff at all on the station, bar shop workers and (I think) a G4S worker. Nobody knew what to do. I contacted London Midland and Virgin to ask them how I was supposed to get back to Preston, to no avail. Thankfully I had one last resort - National Rail Enquiries. They told me to go to King's Cross to recieve instructions from there.
One packed Victoria Line train later, I arrived at King's Cross St Pancras underground station, where things turned into a mad rush for information. I was second in the queue for information, but the Warrington chap in front took 15 minutes, he wasn't even getting help, just standing there. After I started talking behind his back though, he realised how many people were actually there and he plodded off to wait for his train. I was then told to get the Harrogate train as far as Doncaster, as was everyone else. Did we? No! There was a much less crowded Hull-bound train leaving in 5 minutes, so everyone hopped on that, a great move for everyone. Most of us would go on to board this Harrogate train at Doncaster though to get to Leeds, where we could get home from there. It saved me from standing for 2 hours!
At Leeds, I had just missed the Blackpool train which would get me back home, so I ended up waiting an hour there. I wasn't too fussed mind, just having a lack of phone battery was a pain at this point. I took the next train to Preston, and the first Preston-bound train out of Euston hadn't even arrived yet upon arrival. It was pure and utter chaos, full but not standing until Preston of course, where literally everyone got off.
I will be filing a complaint about the lack of staff and expect decent compensation for what happened. I finally got to cover the southern ECML, but in such circumstances...it just didn't feel like a success at all. Arrived over 3 hours late in the end.
Also if you use Oyster PAYG next time, then you do not have to take the card out of your wallet.
