OK, we've all had them - the nightmare journeys from hell on public transport.
I felt I had to share last night's episode, as it is part of an ongoing set of three journeys which I have made on the same line, all of which have been delayed. I should point out now, before I relay the story, that I don't partake in the sport of public transport bashing. I always come down on the side of the railway companies in situations like these. They don't cause these delays foe the fun of it - privatisation of the railways and government underspending are the main culprits.
Anyway ...
I live in London and work in a small town called Flitwick, in Bedfordshire. The railway line which connects them is part of the Midland Mainline which runs between St Pancras and Sheffield, Nottingham and Derby. Also sharing the line is the old Thameslink service, a franchise now operated by First Capital Connect.
My evening journey home consists of catching a train from Flitwick to West Hampstead, and connecting to a following slower service which takes me one further stop to Kentish Town. Yesterday afternoon, as I walked to the bank before getting the train home, I noticed a train at platform one at Flitwick station. It was still there when I walked out of the bank seven minutes later. Being a transport geek, I knew something was up.
Sure enough, the screens on the platforms were showing all the train arrival times in green (which means they're late). I stood near the doors and waited for the driver to make an announcement. He told us that there had been a "power failure" north of Luton station. I know enough about railways to know that this was almost certainly a track circuit failure at Leagrave Junction which was preventing the signalman at West Hampstead (the line from London to Wellingborough is controlled from there) from setting routes across the junction, as the signals would have "stuck".
As the signal in front of our train was showing green and the train had been sat there a good while, I knew I was in for a slow trip home. Leagrave and Luton are consecutive stations on the line, with Leagrave being the first my train arrives at. It transpired that FCC had decided to terminate all southbound trains from Flitwick at Leagrave and then provide a replacement bus service to Luton, where trains would start running south into London.
On hearing this I prepared myself for a good 90 minutes to be added to my journey, whilst everyone else just tutted and sighed. We moved off eventually and arrived at the next station after Flitwick (Harlington), where we were held again for a bit (cue more tutting and sighing from one guy who kept saying "for fuck's sake" every 30 seconds for about ten minutes). Finally, we were given permission to go to Leagrave, where I walked down the train to the door I knew was nearest the steps. I knew that any replacement " bus" service at rush hour in Luton would not be frequent, so I was ready to be the first over the bridge and out of the station.
It wasn't even a bus - it was one of those 30-seater minibus things. I made sure I was in the crush to be first on and away we went on our slow trip across north Luton to the station on the other side of town. To make matters worse, the driver had Chiltern Radio on - this was proving to be a patience-testing journey. Some people were already showing signs of nervous breakdown at this stage, but if they thought it was bad so far they had a shock at Luton.
On arrival at the station there was one train standing on platform 3. The FCC service runs "fast" and "slow" trains. The fast ones run fast from St Albans to King's Cross Thameslink without stopping at the intermediate stations and the slow ones stop everywhere to London. Now given that the service was completely buggered, and that trains were arriving into Luton from the south and turning round to go back, and that it was rush hour, the chances of a fast train were slim to non-existant.
People were piling into the platform looking thoroughly confused, whilst I took the much more sensible step of engaging in conversation with the driver who told me that it was likely that this train was stopping at all stations. That was fine for me, as I wanted a station that fast trains don't call at, and the extra ten minutes spent stopping at the intermediate stations was nothing to the overall delays we were suffering.
The train didn't leave until about 25 minutes after I had arrived at Luton station. In that time I indulged in the sport of people-watching. And what a weird bunch they are. You'd have thought that over the years of using the railway people would have gained some understanding of how it works. I'm not the kind of person who sits on a train while it's delayed. I hang out of the door, stand on the platform, talk to the driver and get a general idea of what's going on.
I must have been approached by two dozen people asking me when the train was leaving and where it was going, simply because I was standing calmly by the door and watching the red signal at the end of the platform. Here's a typical conversation I had:
Person: "When does this train go?"
Me: "I don't know - maybe not for a while yet"
Person: "Is it a fast train?"
Me: "No, they won't run fast trains when the service is like this and there are lots of people to get home"
Person: "Do you know when the next fast train is?"
Me: "No, because there aren't any other trains in the station and they have to arrive from London before they can go back"
Person: "Why aren't there any trains coming from Bedford then?"
Me: "
