I got my first e-mailed news alert from GNER today and here's what it said: -

Between 22 and 25 September 2006, GNER has more availability of our cheapest First and Standard Advance tickets for travel between 1 November and 15 December.

For example you could travel from Leeds or York to London standard class one-way for as little as £8.45. This low fare is only available at gner.co.uk where an extra 10% discount is already included on our cheapest First and Standard Advance fares.

Enter your details into the quick tickets box above to look for our lowest fares to all our destinations. 300,000 extra First and Standard Advance fares available between 22.09.06 and 25.09.06, previously 200,000. Fare shown is York to London standard class one-way only available at gner.co.uk. Terms and conditions apply.

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This is a fracking sales pitch, not news about my journey.

I can shed some light on the questions Fentyke posed in the previous post...

I caught the 18:03 yesterday evening and was 20 minutes late getting back to Peterborough. The train stopped just after Huntingdon for a few minutes and then crawled the remainder of the journey to the ghetto. No apologies and no explanation. However, I did hear another commuter this morning saying it was due to "rough track around Huntingdon".

What the bugger does that mean?!

I'm particularly infuriated because I passed up on a jolly at the LSE just so I could get to the gym yesterday evening (I've put on a couple of pounds worth of holiday blubber).

After changing, a cup of tea and hitting the gym, it was 10pm before I got round to having supper.

Today I have an upset tummy.

I knew I shouldn't have posted yesterday entry about trains running on time.

I got to KX at 17.15 last night to find the concourse packed with commuters waiting for the 17.20, 17.30, 17.33 and 17.50. Even FCC services seemed to be affected.

I didn't stay long enough to find out what was going on because I went for a pint or 2, but what I can tell you is that the problem appeared to stem from a problem with inbound services running late. Consequently the 17.20 hadn't even arrived, the crew for the 17.30 were stood waiting for permission to board and god only knows what happened to the 17.30 and 17.33.

I eventually got back and caught the 18.50 which left KX and arrived into The Boro on time.

This morning, despite the boards telli9ng passengers the 07.20 was on time, it actually arrived at 07.25 and left at 07.28. As we all kniw the 07.20 has time in the schedule to accomodate such a delay and it arrived into KX on time.

Next time I've had a good week I'll wait until the weeks over before posting.

As a season ticket holder I'm entitled to register for a number of so called 'benefits' from GNER for which I successfuly registered yesterday. I say successfully because I tried to register last week and received an e-mail telling me the I had been unsuccessful but little by way of an explanation as to why. Apparently it was due to something to do with the date I registered (13/9) and and the expiry date on my season ticket (15/9/07) being outside the term allowed.

The benefits I now receive are as follows: -
- 4 x weekday upgrades to First Class
- Unlimited Season Duo tickets
- Unlimited off 34% Standard Advance 4, Single tickets
- 20 x £1 GO EAT catering vouchers
- Email news updates if you have chosen to receive them when registering for benefits
- GNER365 Ticket Wallet

My problem with these benefits are as follows: -
4 1st class weekday upgrades are 1 way only. Consequently I save them in case I can't get a seat in std class.
I've no idea what Season Duo tickets are, how they work, how much they cost.
34% off std advance single tickets - I've tried and failed to book these in the past but due to a number of excuses, failed on every occasion. They're also limited to GNER trains only and must be booked days in advance.
£20 Go Eat vouchers - Don't go very far (equivalent to 15.4 cups of tea or 7.7 cans of Stella) but are still worth having.
Email new updates. I didn't receive 1 last year.
Ticket wallet - Usually falls apart inside 3 months.

Quite frankly I don't view these as benefots but by all accounts are better than other rail companies benefits scheme.