Tag: travel

January 27th – Awful day. Horrible commute in rain and a headwind, loads to do then I had to nip into Birmingham. Coming back, New Street was rammed, the train back was awful and I just wanted to be home.

The top photo really illustrates the hogwash on ‘Grand Central’ – or the ‘remodelled’ New Street. The platforms are still cramped. It’s still very, very dark down there. The new cladding only covers bits that can be seen from the street. And nothing has been done to alleviate the terrible train congestion that dogs the station.

Climbing off at Walsall, I was expecting a following wind, which didn’t show up. But Walsall Station, splendid in it’s isolation, was as haunting as ever.

Those Late Night Feelings again.

January 11th – I had to go to a meeting in Leicester, and for some reason felt very low for most of the day. My health wasn’t great and I felt grim and lacklustre.

Only one thing for it – comfort food on the way back. I called in a a favourite asian snack shop, and bought the most wonderful dhokla, patra and five small, crunchy samosas. The whole lot was less than £3 and came with various sauces.

They tasted wonderful and got me home feeling better. Sometimes, you just need a bit of soul food.

November 27th – In Telford, the skies westwards were foreboding, and eastwards more optimistic, but it was to be a terrible afternoon both in terms of work and the weather. The stark beauty of low sun and early winter cycleways was gorgeous, but the western sky wasn’t making idle threats and I would return home in a rainstorm, battling bad connections having had a terrible day.

Sometimes, the omens are not good from the start.

October 29th – much to my irritation, I had to make an unexpected trip to Telford mid-morning. The weather was miserable and it was a grim morning – but one thing that always raises a smile is the quality of the bike storage on Arriva Trains Wales services. One of the best examples of bike provision I’ve ever seen, there are 2 spaces in every 2 car set. There’s a steel wheel support rack with car-style seatbelt to hold the bike in the rack. The whole thing is near a decently wide door with good clear access.

The space is a little cramped, but with manners and consideration it works well and is miles better than other companies, who may well allow bikes but don’t actually provide any means of securing them.

This just makes cycling life a little easier, and is very welcome.

July 3rd – I was wiped out. I’d had to sit on the floor all the way back from London, and my back was aching, and I hadn’t eaten enough – but New Street, for all it’s faults, welcomed me home with it’s hard surfaces and contrasting lights; and 30 minutes later, a real Late Night Feelings moment at Walsall.

Home is where the heart and teapot are. Oh, that first mug of tea!

July 3rd – As readers who follow me elsewhere will know, I have been extremely busy with work and other stuff in the last few weeks. Today was no exception and very heavy: I had an 2pm afternoon meeting near Eastbourne to attend, so I handballed my bike on the train, rode across London Village from Euston to Victoria, arrived at my destination – Polegate – and then took advantage of a great traffic free trail to arrive bang on time. 

In the early evening I returned, again crossing London, and got home near midnight.

I loved cycling in London – around Trafalgar Square, down the Mall – and I understand a lot more why the city has such a notorious cycling reputation: If you leave 3″ of space, there’s either a tourist, a taxi or a cement truck in there. You have to be assertive, attentive, and dare I say it aggressive.

But what a blast.

I have spent most of the weekend after knackered. Maybe I’m getting to old for this shit…

June 16th – I had to go a long way, early in the day. I still wasn’t well, and felt dreadful, but the weather was reasonable, and the ride to Lichfield Trent Valley made a nice change. Whilst on the train, I noticed I was sharing the bike space with a state of the art, Wiler road bike – carbon fibre frame, forks wheels and bars, and high-end Ultegra gears. That’s about £3,000-worth of seemingly well-used bike. Not an ideal commuting steed, I’d wager, and the owner nowhere to be seen.

Not my thing – I’m not ready to trust a plastic bike yet – but a remarkable thing to be sure.

February 12th – After a protracted and tortuous journey to Telord to undertake a five minute task, I needed to be in Tyseley that afternoon. The snow remained, and it was really quite cold and grey. A succession of delayed trains, grim light and relentless chilliness darkened my mood all day, so much so that when the time came to go home, I was glad.

I’ve been away from Tyseley for just over a week. I’ve really missed it. Looking from the Wharfdale Road bridge, I liked the snow on the terrace roofs stretching out beyond the railway to Camp Hill, whilst down on the platform, the railway signals twinkled in the mist.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.

November 30th – When you have to be home for something important., that’s when fate trips you up. I was dashing home. I left work at 3:50pm, and the trains I would have caught from Tyseley or Acocks Green were all cancelled due to London Midland’s ongoing staff crisis. Catching a train at Spring Road, I managed to get to New Street in time to catch the Walsall train. When that turned up ten minutes late, it was only two carriages. With other service cancellations, there was no way I’d get on, and the crush I witnessed on the platform was nasty and dangerous. I opted to try for a Lichfield bound service, but they were all similarly stricken or curtailed. After 30 minutes of faff at New Street, I got a train to Four Oaks, and cycled home from there. After a freezing, tired ride, I arrived home at 6:40pm – nearly three hours after I left work.

The local train service operated by London Midland is crippled by bad man-management and operational difficulties. I could have cycled the distance in a third of the time, and wished I had. I’m seriously considering dumping the trains for Birmingham journeys. The farce that is the cancellation of services due to staff losses and mismanagement is harming the reputation of the service, and resulting in huge crowds of frustrated passengers at New Street. Quite how bad this will get with the Christmas crowds is causing me a great deal of concern. Awful.