Interrail trip 4 - the Home to Harwich to Hook experience

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Notes written along the way - UK^▸ (United Kingdom) elements are more useful to Coffee Shop members so a details log just for the first bit

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Uber - home to station. First time, far too easy, quick to turn up and low cost.  Noted vehicle registered in South Gloucestershire.

Quiet but yet +8, -3 on / off train.  Supposed to be Frome to Swindon but had only started from Westbury due to staff shortage.

TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) broken.  Ticket issuing / checking not available on train - system problem.

Swindon display - train showing with varios zones - 1 to 10 - but yet no indiaction as to which zone for A.  Train busy and a few ninutes late due to "busy platforms and delays at previous stations". Real time trains (indusrty feeds) showing "A" in the middle but in fact as I expected turned out to be at then back.  My seat (ADV ticket) correctly flagged but occupied by a well installed young lady.  Lisa (Interrail, no reservation) took the seat next ton her which was reserved Swindon to Reading, but no-one claimed it.  I found an unoccupied Bristol to London reserved but not taken up along the carriage.   

Noticable flow off at Didcot. Being a Sunday, no direct Bristol to Oxford trains.

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10 minutes late into Paddington, 5 more minutes to even clear the platform and a queue for the overworked lifts to the Elizabeth line. They arrive already full at the level we were joining them at.  Then Lisa's Interrail pass failed to work the ticket barriers and we had to queue to speak to the overworked barrier helper who was overworked to put it mildly.

Liverpool Street - Elizabeth line to National Platform level - involves three lifts, including the sloping one which was overworked and queuing, and a final one with a limit of 4 people and an awkward turn in. So we arrived on the concourse within 5 minutes of our outboard train at 19:30, to find it cancelled. 

With my advanced "this train only" I asked at the informtion desk and was advised to travel on the 20:30.  Polite, but por advise - he should have asked where we were going (passenger-centric) rather than looking at the next train (operation-centric) and suggested the 20:00.   I asked about this train, and once he thought for the passenger agreed we could catch it which was, indeed, the direct Harwich (boat) train.

The Harwich train platform was only announced 5 minutes before it left - real scramble to get on in time, and indeed the barrier failed on Lisa's ticket again.  But made it, and reached Harwich more or less on time.  Notes being written from the ship - headed down for breakfast and we will be sending when on land and in Schengen.

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Posting from the Netherlands ... more to follow though not as detailed!

[CyclingSid]

Had problems on Saturday, wonderful new tickets didn't scan at Reading, didn't scan at Southampton, didn't scan at any of the checks. Helpful train manger on Cross Country said to tell Reading these tickets don't work if you are trying to save printer ink, stick a new cartridge in.

Not entirely sure of the benefit of the new tickets, the ticket checking device just shows a picture of the old style ticket for checking!

[grahame]

Had problems on Saturday, wonderful new tickets didn't scan at Reading, didn't scan at Southampton, didn't scan at any of the checks. Helpful train manger on Cross Country said to tell Reading these tickets don't work if you are trying to save printer ink, stick a new cartridge in.

Not entirely sure of the benefit of the new tickets, the ticket checking device just shows a picture of the old style ticket for checking!

It's incredible how the British Systems seem to need someone on the gateline to assist the very high proportion of people who need help, the Dutch system we have been using today just works, and in Germany where we are now there are no gatelines - just male and female dragons on trains who keep the passengers well in order.   

The UK^▸ (United Kingdom) system with its complexities to produce loopholes, and two partial systems with gates and on-train checking seems to have ended up as the worst of three worlds.

[grahame]

Nine electric main line trains, 2 diesel trains, 3 metro-ish trains, one Uber. 1 sloping lift and numerous vertical ones. A handful of escalators and travelators. 29 hours from Melksham. No flights.

Three planned trains were cancelled, each of them leading us to drop back a train. In the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) case, we had a substatial buffer and caught the ferry anyway, but each of the German train cancellations cost us an hour. No trains were late enough to cause us to miss a connection, but slower-than-previous immigration at Hoek, and a faulty lift at Beurs, each put us back one metro and caused a missed plan at Rotterdam Central.   So we arrived in our destination town at 21:41 rather than the 18:39 suggested by the journey planner.  Which, however, was no big deal.  There were still two further trains in the hourly cycle had we needed them, and we had eaten on the way including a rather tasty chilli on the German ICE.  And I had emailed the hotel to update our estimated time of arrival.

But it is dark, so pictures from our base for the next couple of days will have to wait until the morning.


So in summary, in the Netherlands, the lifts don't work.  In Germany, the timetable does not work. And in the UK the ticket gates and fare system don't work.   All around, there are pockets of crowding and even extreme crowding, but the majority of trains are somewhere between comfortable and quiet.

[grahame]

But it is dark, so pictures from our base for the next couple of days will have to wait until the morning.

View from our window ...