ALR06/02 Day Seven - Taking The Long Way Home

Posted in Railways on Sunday 15th October 2006 at 6:26pm

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Awoke early in the hope that somewhere in Birmingham would be open for decent coffee on a Sunday morning. After checking out of the hotel, discovered I was mistaken - should probably have gone to New Street station, but even there I've struggled to get a decent cup at this time of day on a Sunday. Strolled around the very quiet and rather chilly City Centre, in the general direction of Snow Hill Station. Took a route through St Phillip's Cathedral (closest I've been to a church on a Sunday for a long time!) and into Colmore Row. Remembered lots of tales from my mother about working near here in the late 1960s, and taking the train from New Street which was under reconstruction at the time. Today though, I was starting out from Snow Hill. I used to be fascinated with this part of the network - particularly because the station closed just a little before I was born. It's probably ten years since I caught a train from here, and whilst the booking office is a bit more functional not a lot has changed at platform level. Today though, it was necessity rather than sentimentality bringing me here - the route from Birmingham to Gloucester being blocked at the weekend for a number of weeks. I could have taken a bus, but on the last day of the trip, that would be admitting defeat!

Having arrived early, had a fairly long wait with a pretty odd crowd of fellow passengers. Eventually, a single 165 arrived at the platform in an appalling mess internally. A train cleaner made a fair effort to sweep away the detritus of a Saturday night, but he needed much longer than he had, so we had a short-formed, partly cleaned set for the trip to London. The guard apologised for the overcrowding early into the journey and promised a full ticket inspection - it didn't happen, simply because once we left Solihull it was impossible to pass along the train at all! Things became progressively worse, and by High Wycombe staff were refusing access to further passengers - something I've not seen for a while. Chiltern have been rather gloatingly remarking on their website about offering a 'full train service' to London during the engineering work causing Virgin's bus substitution and terminating short of Euston. Well, in fairness this train was about as full as it was possible to be!

Uncurled myself from my seat and hobbled off at Marylebone. I've always liked the journey via the Chiltern line, but this time I just wanted it to end as soon as possible. Got my legs working again, and realised I needed to make good time to Paddington for my next train. There were plenty of alternatives as far as Bristol, but few that linked into trains back to Highbridge on a Sunday. In the event, made excellent progress and had time for a stroll around Paddington before boarding. Departed on time, and had a relaxing and uneventful trip diverted via the Berks & Hants. Somewhere along the way the mist cleared and I enjoyed some fantastic views and some late-autumn sun. At Temple Meads made a swift change to my final train of the week. As I dashed down the stairs and up again, noted that my bags seemed much heavier than when I was crossing the station last Monday! An ex-Transpennine unit was already waiting, so I found a seat in the declassified first class section, and stuck my MP3 player on to drown out the giggling girls in the seats behind me.

So, another All-line Rover completed. In retrospect, I've really enjoyed the week and I think I stuck the right balance between pioneering runs out to far-flung parts of the network, and high-speed dashes along busy lines. As it gets harder to find bits of passenger line I've not travelled on, I suspect future rovers will be more about finding the unusual services and exploring the changes in journeys which re-franchising is going to bring about. Someone once asked what I would do in the unlikely event I ever managed to cover all the track possible? Quite apart from the lure of mainland Europe and Ireland, there is always something changing on the railway - something new happening, something old about to cease, new trains, new services. It's taken over a decade to get this far (albeit with a break where I tried, unsuccessfully to have a normal life!). The next Rover seems much too far away...