Heart of England Rover Day 4

Notes:
As before my thanks to Real Time Trains for the material in the links.

Operations on the Day

This was not the original plan for Saturday – I was going to go and ride on the trams of Nottingham but saw a message that Southampton were playing Notts Forest this afternoon, however something went wrong with the dates and the game is actually on tomorrow, never mind it should still work.  Tomorrow with engineering works I think it is virtually impossible for the Southampton fans to travel to Nottingham anyway!  So this plan was swapped in from next Tuesday (day 7).

In view of the short notice and in of the poor Sandhurst service I felt it was worth making the 10 minute drive to Wokingham – until I tried it.  The direct route was completely closed, the Old Wokingham Road has road works with a four way delay traffic lights.  The traffic flow in Wokingham near the station has been changed so that you can no longer turn into the station – right turn forbidden.  No obvious or practical reason apart from changing the kerb – which meant going all the way round a roundabout.  In all it took 27 minutes from getting into the car to standing on the station platform.

The train from Reading towards the West is far more heavily loaded than yesterday and I sit in an allegedly reserved seat to Oxford.  As we head west the loadings decline and there is plenty of space in the train.  The GWR train terminates at Great Malvern and this is a very peaceful station – very quiet  apart from the pensioner playing her phone videos – why can people not use earphones?  It remains an attractive station even if the former subway to the adjacent hotel is long closed (as is the hotel).

A West Midlands train takes me onward to Hereford.  On board there is a very full ticket check and chat with the guard who tells me that he sees few rovers these days as they simply do not get any local promotion so they are not sold.  Leaving the train at Hereford I check the destination boards and I find that my next service is delayed due to “attachment issues” and is running around 25 late.  I attempt to purchase lunch at a nearby KFC but fail.  The instructions on what to do pay by cash are unclear – obviously the modern age and I are simply not compatible.  No-one has obviously tested it properly to ensure proper instructions are given.  It saves me eating junk food and the station cafe has an odd sandwich available.

My late running TfW two car single unit obviously decided to come by itself and it just about copes with the demand as we head via Shrewsbury to Crewe.  There is catering on board but they lose out on a sale as they will not take cash – and I continue my aversion to spending optional funds with organisations that do not want to take legal tender.  This is a very naughty unit as the toilet is not working either.  The service is terminated early at Crewe so that it can go home again, hopefully for a formal disciplinary interview at the depot.  However the section from Shrewsbury to Crewe has never previously been traversed and therefore it is another section of line covered for the first time.

However the late running means my planned connection has gone and so has my backup plan,  so I am now going to run an hour later than planned for the rest of the day – first on a service to Stoke-on-Trent and then onto a Cross Country which is running immediately behind it to enable coverage of the previously (at least so I believe) un-covered route to Stone.  There is a proper ticket check on the local service from Crewe with the added attraction of non-passengers at one station giving the train a huge wave as we leave!  Waving at trains is rare these days.

The Cross Country service is busy – but in the front coach there are some seats – so people could sit if they wished.  Birmingham New Street sees a huge changeover of passengers.  Passengers seem very slow to exit – when I board I stand in the vestibule for a while having boarded – there was no-one waiting to get off at the door – but they are still in the carriage walking towards the door – it does not do a lot for keeping the service moving on time.  Once again I am occupying a seat which was theoretically reserved.  Vast change in passengers at Oxford – where it becomes markedly noisier for some reason.  The homeward drive by a different route was equally disrupted with more sets of traffic lights!  What do they have against us (and the chip shop had no chicken)!

Costs / Ticket Checks

Several ticket checks during the day but once again noticeably not on Cross Country which is where I spent a lot of the day.

Rolling Stock

Obviously the 197 was disappointing in that it was not two units and was running late with a toilet not functioning correctly.  The West Midlands unit was also externally fairly dirty.

Summary

The late running was disappointing and it was just as well I drove to Wokingham – but the day did not become excessively long.  However these journeys are some way from showing that we have an utterly boring, utterly reliable railway out there.