Past the stream bridge of family fame and on to Helmsley for the bus home.  Several crossings of the former railway which ran from the ECML to Pickering and on to Scarborough.  Some fine station houses remain, and a signalbox at Coxwold.

Eurostar on the way back was delayed leaving by British passport officers understaffed and working to rule so we found out that, provided you are at the front of the Eurostar and make a prompt exit, you can get from St Pancras arrival to King’s Cross departure in 7 minutes, at a very brisk pace, having originally allowed 31 minutes for this transfer.

Returning, the bus ploughed through heavy rain most of the way, but Norwegian roads seem to be designed to shed water rather than retain it in puddles, so no problem.  Again Ryanair did Ok and with only 40 minutes between touch-down and train departure we nonetheless made it.  At this point puzzlement sets in.  The Cross Country Stansted to Brimingham stopped for signals outside Stansted, waited at least 5 minutes for a platform at Cambridge, dallied at Ely and March, and yet got into Peterborough on time. Another example of the totally absurd timing practices on Britain’s railways, whereby everything is so generously timed it’s almost impossible to ruin the company statistics by being late.  But realatively troule-free there and back again.

The Brompton folded nicely and Eurostar was happy to accept it as luggage, as were all the other trains in France, Germany, Austria and Belgium.  It was useful to potter from station to hotel/youth hostel / house(s) of friend(s) but also enjoyed itself on a 70km jaunt from Schwabisch Hall to Heilbronn on a mixture of quiet roads, forest and farm tracks, and an old railway line.  There were a few steepish hills, but only one where I had to walk, and that was more because it was very hot and humid than because it would have been too hard.  

Pedalling alongside Lake Constance from Lindau to Uberlingen was just fine, and of course no problem on the train back, even for my daughter’s hired conventional bike, because German local trains have such generous accommodation for bikes.  Much better than the niggardly provision in the UK.  This was well illustrated when we turned up at Lindau station for the train to Wangen, only to find a cycle club of about a dozen middle aged gents waiting for it too.  But it accommodated the club, my daughter’s bike, and another couple we picked up on the way, perfectly adequately.

Then a lovely ride from Wangen back to Lindau – beautiful countryside, excellent cycle path, a good lunch, and almost all downhill.

The Brompton / train/ bus combination is just ideal.

I had a through ticket from Heilbronn to London via Brussels for only 69 euros, which was great, but the only trains which ran on time were the local train down the Neckar Valley at the start of the journey, and the Eurostar at the end.  The IC from Heidelberg to Cologne lost time and showed no enthusiasm for regaining it, and the Amsterdam-Brussels ICE I joined at Cologne arrived late and in spite of the new high speed line across the Ardennes didn’t regain anything.  The swept-nose ICE sets are beginning to look a little tired – they need refurbishment – and preferably to get more than 50% of the loos working.

The point about late running, of course, is that if connection times at major stations are between 8 and 3 minutes, punctuality is essential.

Miraculously, although I had a window seat with a pillar on the outgoing Eurostar, half a pillar on the TGV, and a complete pillar on the ICE, on the only other train where I had a booked seat, the IC which travels down the Rhine Gorge, the window seat was actually by a window, and on the right side of the train to view the river.  

Having said all that, on the whole the DB system remains far superior to our chopped up and disconnected privatised railway.

So, having booked for two concerts in London on a Saturday night (qv) it was with horror that I found that the East Coast Main Line was closed between Huntingdon and Hertford all weekend, with an hour long bus-journey to bridge the gap. Alternatively one could change half a dozen times and go via Cambridge.

Fortunately, if one books to “London Stations” instead of Kings X, the ticked comes marked as valid on “Any Permitted” route.  I reckoned if we could do that with no more than one change, it would be worth the extra time (though still much shorter than the options offered on the ECML by National Express).

So, York to Sheffield by Cross Country – OK and on time thanks to the ludicrously long station times enjoyed at Doncaster and after arrival at Sheffield. Sheffield to London St Pancras by East Midland trains.  This is another piddly short replacement for a 125 and so by Leicester was full and standing all down the centre aisles of every carriage.  But at least it was on time.

On Sunday, for the return, Network Rail advised that St Pancras to Sheffield was going to take forever, for some reason, and that we should travel Euston to Manchester Piccadilly and then Trans Pennine to York. The Pendolino was fast, not too full, and comfortable, though why anyone thought horizontal arrow slits for windows was a good idea I’m not sure (perhaps they keep them small in Italy cos its sunnier).  We were doing well until overrunning engineering works sent us round via Northampton. The ten minute late arrival at Manchester meant we missed our connection. We saw it leave looking like something out of Mumbai in the rush-hour, though without the passengers hanging on the outside.  Our Liverpool-Scarborough Trans Pennine was fine.  

Extended journey times, but OK – and no hot overcrowded smelly buses.

On Friday afternoon the guard on a Cross Country train leaving Bristol explained that the reason for the overcrowding was students travelling home for the weekend. So – overcrowding is the passengers’ fault, rather than the decades of underinvestment, the Virgin policy of replacing 8-coach trains with 4 or 5 coaches in a period of passenger number growth, and the lack of spare coaches because of the cost of leasing them from, among others, an RBS subsidiary. This is why we pay over the odds(Leader, Fares Fair 20 February): a privatised mess which New Labour has ignored, being content to let the anti-rail mandarins at the DfT to simply ratchet up the billions paid to the Exchequer by the franchisees and thus to ratchet up the fares. Maybe the Chancellor could find a few bob to re-nationalise the railways too.

Yours sincerely,

John Gilham.

And another day to Lincoln – change at Doncaster going and a pleasant potter across the flat fertile lands of Lincolshire on a one coach unit. Lincoln station has ticket barriers as do so many now – and no possibility of a platform ticket.  Return via a change at Newark and again at Doncaster.  Fair enough but the connections at about 15-20 minutes each (also at Doncaster on the way out) are ridiculously long compared to Holland and Germany and Switzerland, where they order these things much better.