Delayed...

I had planned to take a few photos when I arrived back in Edinburgh, but the journey was so exhausting that I didn't remember. I took this picture as evidence of the delay so far on my first train in order to hopefully claim some compensation. I ended up arriving in Edinburgh about an hour and a half late.

You may not be all that interested in the details of the journey or reasons given for the various delays, but I'm going to tell you anyway!

Signalling problems delayed the first train before I got on it, then when we got to Birmingham we were told they didn't have a driver for the train from there on. We were then told that the train at the adjacent platform would be leaving before our train so quite a lot of us got out and tried to get on that train. I had real doubts as to whether there was physically room for us even packed as sardines, and I had more or less decided to get back on the original train when we were told that the other train didn't have a diver either!

I had long since missed my connection at Wolverhampton and then needed to do an extra change or wait for another hour, so I opted for the former. As regards the next train, it was delayed due to a safety check, which I hope it passed although they didn't say. I decided to stay on the second train (a Double Voyager Virgin train as I was told by the staff, which basically meant it was quite a long train) as long as possible as I had a seat so changed in Carlisle to get on the final train which turned out to have only four coaches (Transpennine Express - I wasn't expecting luxury). It was delayed due to animals on the line. I hope the animals were OK. I got a seat no problem on that train as well and felt pleased with myself that my strategy had worked - well, maybe I should have changed in Birmingham so that I got on my original train there instead of Wolverhampton!

It could have been a lot worse - I did get a seat on all the trains and that was my main worry when I knew I had missed my connection at Wolverhampton.

Now that feels better, I've got it off my chest! Must be about the most I've ever written on Blip. Back-blipped from 31st December.