by
Fentyke
@ 28/09/2006 - 14:38:10
Unlike Platform6, I wasn't so lucky this morning. In fact, under the circumstances, maybe I'll wait and see if he get's home in reasonable time tonight before I consider myself lucky or unlucky.
I had a feeling today wasn't going to be a good one when the alarm went off at 6am and my first concious thought of the day was Fuck! It's morning already. I dragged myself to the station in good time for the 07.20 which the departure board said was running 10 mins late. As it normally arrives a good 5 mins early, I didn't see this as much of a problem at the time. WRONG!
Sure enough it arrived at 07.28 and I sat down with my copy of the sun. It wasn't until we were somewhere between Tinsel Town and Huntingdon that the internal alarm bells started ringing when the guard announced that he had received a report that the lines were down in the Alexander Palce area and it was more than likely that there'd be more delays to endure.
As we passed St Ives the train started to slow and eventually came to a complete stop at St Neots station round about 07.40. I glanced out of the window and noticed that the 07.13 FCC train was still sat on the other side of the platform with the doors wide open and the passengers wandering around. Even the occasional passengers knew this was not a good sign.
After about 5 mins the guard announced that there was no power on all 4 lines in the Alexander Palace area and we were unlikely to go anywhere for some time to come. The doors were opened and we were invited to wait on the platform or at our seats.
After about half an hour of chatting to a few mates and other passengers, listening to the guard announcments telling us that it was likely we'd be there for hours rather than minutes, the realisation dawned that I probably wouldn't make it to the office today. That was the first thing I'd got right all morning. Neither the station staff, GNER train crew or FCC train crew could give any information other than to tell us that they were waiting on head office to inform them what they're contingency plans were. I thought it was a bit rich that they didn't know already, but not surop
At about 08.15 a few other people I knew, and what looked like half of the GNER and FCC passengers, eventually decided to try to get a cab or a bus back to The Boro. As we approached the taxi office at St Neots station it was obvious that we'd be extreemly lucky to get a cab given the number of people in the que. I'd say there were at least 50, probably more.
Next option was to walk into town and find a cab office there or get a bus. Little did we know that St Neots station is about 2 miles outside the town centre. To cut a long story short, we walked intotown, found out the buses run hourly but only as far as Huntingdon and the next wasn't due for another 45 mins. Eventually one bloke called his dad and he came and picked 4 of us up while I went with another fella who'd called his misses.
I eventually got back into Tinsel Town at about 11ish. Not bad eh? 3 1/2 hours to go 20 miles down the road and back again. I'm now trying to work from but I've only got access to my e-mail so can't do too much.
Things wouldn't have been so bad had GNER actualy had a contingency plan to put into action or a system on what to advise customers. As it was we were left to make our own decisions from the limited information we were given. I've no idea if we did the right thing or not. Probably never will.
