Just returned with some footage for the final update to my Vlog, which I will start editing after lunch.
Had an interesting chat with one of the "officials" who was rather blunt with regards to me being there. Having explained why I was there, and at what lengths I went to to obtain permission to attend any "official" opening ceremony he was still adamant that as I didn't have a commercial permit to film I wasn't welcome on the platform. Having explained that I had traveled on the service still in the platform, with a ticket I stated I had every right to be on the platform, even if I wasn't filming. Fortunately the station manager came over, knew about my vlog (including the track walk which he found interesting) and after apologising for the heavy handed approach of his colleague we came to a compromise which was agreeable. I did explain that it wasn't my intention to obstruct proceeding, which he understood, so ,most of the recording was done from platform 4. He even offered to buy me a coffee after, which was nice, but due to my time constraints I couldn't take up that offer. I have no idea who the other "official" was, but I must say I have always been welcomed by the staff of Stevenage, and found them to be very hospitable to me on the odd occasion I've been there to document things.
I'm not 100% sure things were going smoothly though, and certainly not as Chris Heaton-Harris stated above.... with cancellations due to damaged OHLE in two areas on the ECML, and drivers not being available as a result it meant that a lot of the officials were kept waiting about for others to attend. The public travelling were also asked (Herded??) to remain in one place by the ticket barriers due to the "official" opening, and were not happy when a cancelled service was then taken up by an empty coaching stock 717 unit departing from platform 1 and were ushered off the platform. Whilst I was there the service into platform 5 was 1 train per hour, which didn't seem to go down well with the TV crews who wanted B-Roll footage for their segment, and no doubt were on a tight schedule in order to get the tape back to the newsroom.
Anyway... like I said, video will be up later....
The ECS set that arrived on P1 at 1030 was the 1032 departure. It left 8 minutes late, as it waited for passengers to cross over.