I'm writing this from my hotel room in sunny Barcelona and for once in my life, I wish I was actually back in good old blighty making my usual journey into KX. Why? I'm lonley on an evening with nothing but my music, Spanish TV and the odd DVD to keep me company. Thank god for the Raconteurs, Maximo Pak, Milburn and co or i'd be going out of my mind. Mary Joanna anybody?

Looks like i'm missing all the fun with GNER and their financial problems too. GNER's parent company have filed for bankrupcy, whilst GNER say it won't affect them. YET is my take on that one.
Ticket office staff could be going on strike as they seem to be the most vulnerable for redundancy and they still refuse to make the trains run on time. I say on time because they're either late or early. Anything but on time it seems but as we've already pointed out on this site, GNER build additional time into their schedule which helps them accomodate delays. Doesn't help me or other passengers though.

I'm going to use the Taxibus service this Friday morning as I'm off to see the Raconteurs Friday evening. Won't need them on the way home though as my misses will be driving.

Finally I'll just mention my last trip with GNER last Sunday.

I arrived at P'boro station to catch the 18.02 train only to find....
Wait for it....... it was late. When it finally arrived at 18.14 I found a mtrain jammed full of people standing in the vestibules. Being a seasoned traveller I waded through them to find an empty reserved seat in the hope that the true occupent didn't turn up. They didn't and I got a seat all the way into KX. Had they done I intended to wander, or should I say fight, my way down to 1st class and use one of my upgrade vouchers. Thankfully I didn't need to.

What really surprised my though was the sheer number of people on board. At the time I wondered if there was a maximum number of passengers allowed on any one train. Then I started thinking, if there was, how would/could GNER police it? My conclusion was that there wasn't and they couldn't hence the reason it was so busy. God forbid such a train ever crashes. Carnage would not be a fair description.

I'm back in blighty on Thursday though I won't be on the 07.20 as I'm due a lie in.

GNER may be facing financial meltdown, but the service has not suffered, YET!! This morning the 06.15 arrived 10 minutes "early" and they were offering free orange juice at the cafe bar. Now that is a first, I have been offered the odd pack of biscuits in the past but never OJ. Are they trying to show us that everything is OK?? or do they just have too much OJ with a short sell by date?