I woke reasonably early after a decent nights sleep in a soft warm bed, and lay relaxed until it was almost time to get up. Deciding on a quick check of my emails, my eye was drawn to one from Avanti titled “Laurie, your train has been cancelled”. Seems there had been a fire near Glasgow Central and no trains were going in or out, including my train back to Crewe. Not what you want to see on your day of travel. Fortunately I’m fairly clued up on the rail network, so my thoughts were get to Edinburgh from Queen Street and from Edinburgh I knew I’d get an Avanti service to Crewe. I got changed and checked out of the hostel, picked up the bike from the cycle store and rode the short distance to Oban station. I loaded the bike onto the train, noticing that I’d hung it the wrong way up last time, and sat down in my seat to check timetables and make the necessary bookings. I booked Glasgow to Edinburgh via the Scotrail app quite quickly, then tried to get an Avanti service to Crewe using the Avanti app.
Interestingly, there seemed to be no services whereby I could book a cycle reservation, at least not until April! Fortunately I got onto the Avanti website via National Rail and from there found that I could indeed book my bike on, and so booked the 14:52 to Crewe. For the rest of the journey to Glasgow I looked out at the scenery, still lovely even though it was again dreich! Closer to Glasgow the scene outside became more urban (and depressing at times) and we were soon rolling into Queen Street station where I disembarked and went to the concourse for the short wait for the Edinburgh service. This train took cycles, but it was first come first served with a maximum of two bikes, which leads to uncertainty and an anxious wait. I saw one other bike on the concourse so wasn’t too worried. The train was announced and I headed to the carriage for bikes, and found I was the first on board – phew. Another cyclist joined soon after me and stored his bike alongside mine. The journey took a little less than an hour, and was through mainly urban countryside with not a great deal of interest to see. Arriving at Edinburgh I got off and went to pick up my tickets from the machine, where again no cycle reservation ticket was printed, so a quick trip to the ticket office was required to resolve that.
Looking at the screens of arrivals and departures it was clear that Avanti had a problem on the West Coast route, with trains from London Euston delayed significantly – turns out there was a problem with a trespasser at Preston which was causing long delays. My train was suggested as being 31 minutes late, so a long wait of two and a half hours ensued. I had some lunch and did a couple of laps walking the bike around Waverley station to pass the time. At last, my train rolled in, and I loaded the bike into the storage space, found my seat and settled in for the three hour journey. I’d decided to get the train back to Sandbach from Crewe rather than ride home in the dark, so booked onto the 18:16. After a scenic ride down to the borders the weather started deteriorating after Carlisle, and all you could see outside was dank, gloomy countryside. The onboard train progress screens were starting to show further delays to the service, caused by the earlier trespass issue, so I looked up the Northern timetable to see what my options were going to be – fortunately there were trains every half hour so if I missed the 18:16 there would be another at 18:46.
At Preston it was clear that I’d miss the 18:16, and with further delays by Wigan and Warrington even the 18:46 had come and gone. Finally we rolled into Crewe just before 7, meaning I had a short wait for the 19:16. Luckily we came in on platform 5 and the Sandbach train left from platform 1, meaning no need to get the lift up and over the tracks. My train came in and I loaded up the bike into the designated carriage, and a quarter of an hour later we were off.
Seven minutes later we rolled into Sandbach where I dismounted, manhandled the bike up and over the footbridge (where is the lift when you need one!) and rode the short distance home. Not the journey home I’d envisaged when booking the trip, but it was a lot less stressful than driving would have been, plus as a bonus I’d got to experience Edinburgh Waverley ahead of my trip later this year, and got experience of travelling on Northern Trains which I probably wouldn’t have done if I’d got to Crewe at 17:00 as originally intended. Despite the issues caused by the fire and trespass, my experience hasn’t put me off taking my bike on the trains again in the future.
Later on I found out that the "trespasser" had climbed onto a bridge at Preston and wouldn't come down. He was later arrested, then de-arrested and sanctioned. It made me think that stress is all relative, a delay to a train is hardly comparable to being in a difficult state of mind.
not just a journey...an adventure!
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