Tag: Midland

November 8th – Walsall Station at night has an odd, other-worldly atmosphere. The view from the ramp has always been great at night, but sadly diminished since the BOAK building in Station Street was lost to arson. It’s a horrid place to wait at – particularly for those on platform one, here waiting for the Rugeley train, as usual delayed by ten minutes.  London Midland, the embattled operator of the station, have talked about removing the staff here and leaving the station unstaffed at night. If they did, I think the service would see much less use – I, personally, would not feel safe. Good old London Midland.

October 23rd – The bleak weather continues. Thoroughly depressing commutes were lightened only by getting a decent train service for the first time in weeks. Despite the mass cancellations, I for once fell lucky and managed to get on 2 trains that were on time and 2 that were only a few minutes late. This may seem unremarkable, but the service has been so bad of late it’s been adding whole hours to my commuting time. As my train home rolled into Shenstone, I felt quite pleased, but noticed the announcement as I alighted that the following train was 15 minutes late. That one was set to be seriously overcrowded. The local rail system really is useless at the moment.

Shenstone Station, however, is still beautiful, even in the half-light of a miserable day.