Seesm to be the order of the week for the evening GNER services. I don't think an evening has passed this week wher one or more service has been cancelled for whatever reason. Last night was no differant.
My last meeting overran so I missed my usual 17.20 and got to KX a knats knocker past 17.50. Given their performance this week I was therefore hoping to catch the 17.50 but as I entered the sation, there was no sign of it so I presume it was either cancelled or left on time. No problem though becasue the 18.03 was showing on the board as 'on time' but no platform had been announced. As I looked around I noticed there were only 2 GNER trains in the station on platforms 2 & 3. The concourse was chock full of pissed off people though this did ease when they announced the 18.00 was ready for boarding on platform 2.
As the only other GNER train in the station was sitting on the adjacent platform 3, I decided with reasonable certainty that this was probably going to be the 18.03 to Skipton so I joined the hoards boarding the 18.00 to take a look see. Sure enough as I passed the 2nd coach there was a window board which confirmed that the train on P3 was indeed going to be the 18.03 so I carried on walking up to coach C and stood on the platform and hoped no jobs worth sent me back to the main concourse.
The 18.00 pulled out on time which left me and one or two other like minded people waiting for them to announce the boarding of the 18.03. As we waited we could hear the tannoy requesting passengers crowding the gate to P3 to move back becasue they were causing a health and safety problem. What tosh. How can they blame passenegers for creating a H&S issue when it's GNER who cancelled or delayed services which caused passenegers to crowd the gates in the first place. The logical solution would have been to allow passengers onto the platform but close the train doors so they can't board. But as we know, GNER aren't logical at the best of times.
As I boarded at 18.05 I heard the tannoy appologies for the late boarding and announce that the next Newcastle train had been cancelled (but didn't catch why) and would passenegrs traveling to NC please catch the next service due at whatever time the train was due to depart.
I got into coach C becasue I fancied a beer and knew it wouldn't take long for the trolly to clear coach B so I'd get maximum time to enjoy a nice GNER warm pint of Kieth Della. As I sat down I asked another early boarder why we were late. He wasn't sure but thought it was due to lack of staff and rolling stock to which I had to laugh. A train company with few staff and fewer trains is not exactly encouraging.
We eventually left at about 18.13 which I guess means it was officially late. Just after we departed my hopes of a beer were dashed when they announced..... wait..... a bit more...... there was no trolly due to lack of staff. With this in mind I settled down to watch episode 3/season 3 of Battlestar Galactica all the way into Tinsel Town.
The last highlight of my journey came from the 3 girls with whom I shared the table. All were mid 20's and reasonably attractive (which was nice) but the downside was the girly chatter I had to endure over the top of Battlestar. Thankfully I'm a bloke so it was fairly easy to shut this out and concentrate on my BSG. As we approached TT and I was putting the laptop away I heard the girls wondering how long it would take to get to Grantham, Donny and LEEDs. Being an ECML regular I gave them the answers they were looking for and received 3 very nice smiles and thank you's in return. As I left they said goodbye and have a good time. I couldn't ignore the have a good time bit and told them they obviously hadn't been to P'boro before because if they had, they would have known that it's no easy to have a good time in Tinsel Town on a wet Wednesday night.
Got to go do some work now but before I sign off I'll just mention that this morninf 07.20 was bang on time.