New carriages in service from late 2017, for GWR (Great Western Rialway) train at Paddington station, London, England, Feb 2018, ready to depart to Swanwsea in Wales. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Problem
These are the new GWR carriages. What's GWR? Great Western Railway. It goes west from Paddington station, which is slightly west, north west actually of the middle of London, England.
With a new service you get problems. I saw the wonderful new trains which go from Paddington station to Wales. I heard they had problems on day one. The doors in one of the carriages would not open! Oh, dear. What an embarrassment. Trapping the VIP visitors and journalists. These things happen.
Checking train times. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
I had the fortune, the joy, of finding myself, quite by chance, sitting opposite a retired railway worker who used to be in charge of trains. He maintains he always left the station on time and was known for his speed in attempting to catch up and arrive on time at the next station! I don't doubt him.
He is clearly the time keeping type. I know. My husband and late father, my early late father, were both people who complained if you were five minutes late.
My new friend is tutting over the fact that the train left half a minute late?
I asked, "Does it matter?"
"Yes!' he says, outraged.
He was poring over a notebook writing down the time reached every station, checking speed on his GPS. He was on his way to meet a group of retired railway staff who act like mystery shoppers and report back to management.
How To Check Your Train Speed with a GPS. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
How To Check Train Speed
Did you know you could check the train speed on your GPS?
You can also log onto the train's wifi, then their website, and find out whether your trains were on time or not.
Our train was stopped by a signal failure which affected a lot of the lines in the area. Apparently if your train is delayed a certain amount of time you can claim compensation.
Delayed Travel Compensation Forms
Ask for a form at the station.
What can the train company do if a train is late and everybody is missing their connection to a train which runs only twice a day?
Delaying A Train
They can delay the second train to wait for the first. If the delay is too great, that creates further problems for other people.
Speeding Up An All Stops Train
The train we were checking on, instead continued non-stop onto Swansea, offloading passengers who could switch to the slower trains.
Bus or Taxi Replacing Train Service
That still was not enough. So the third option was adopted. Three passengers who missed their connection were put into a taxi to take them onto the next station.
Apparently this happens quite a lot. It's cheaper to put people into a taxi than run an entire 50 seater bus. So for our three passenger, all ended well.
So, no need to get stressed. I was not stressed about the delay. I had a wonderful time learning about trains from somebody in the know.
My railway expert told me that you could take a train from London to York in just under two hours. So you could spend a day seeeing York, and come back the same day. That would be great if you were in London for a conference and had just the one day to spare at the end. It's not cheap. Trains are not cheap. Some journeys cost as much as £250. You could fly from some UK cities to Dublin on Ryanair for about £10 one way, off-season!
Options for reducing the cost include:
Buying two for one cards.; buying a seniro railcard.
I had another great conversation with a man who worked in KL in Malaysia.
I had a third conversation with a nurse. I was able to ask her about what happens during an operation and what causes somebody to have a stroke during an operation. A stroke is a clot formed by blood, or even a piece of break away bone, which reaches the brain and then causes bleeding. A member of a family I know well died only a couple of days previously. Compared with the death of a friend, or relative of a friend, or friend of a relative, in the grand scheme of things, in the world and your life and mine, a delayed train is, as they say, not the end of the world.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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