I've just received news that GNER have cancelled all Northbound services as of 13.45pm and Southbound services are being held or terminating at Peterborough. I've also heard a rumour that part of the roof at KX has been blown off so there are no FCC services either.

I've no idea how true either of these news items are and no way of verifying them. If anybody has any better information please add them to the comments page for all to see.

For those that don't know, Dr Mike Mitchell is head of Railways at the DFT.

According to a report in 'The Times', Dr Mitchell thinks it's entirely appropriate for commuters to pay £5000+ for a season ticket but they shouldn't expect a seat to go with it. You can read the article for yourself at:-
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17129-2553000.html

Ordinarily I'm not a violent person. I haven't been involved in a fight since I was a teenager and I've never ever started any form of physical violence against anybody. However I'd happily make an exception for this Tosser. Personally, I take great offence to his comments and, along with my fist, I'd love to ram them straight down his throat.

Like every other UK citizen, I woke up this morning to the sound of strong winds. Very strong winds. Like most rail commuters I expected the wind would affect my journey. I wasn't disappointed. It did. Happily it didn't have the affect I thought it would though.

I stuck the telly on after I got back from flying the dog and learnt that FCC and GNER were running an emergency timetable (which wasn't a surprise). Following a very blustery and somewhat dangerous ride on my Scooter, I arrived at the station at my usual time of 07.10. I expected to be greeted by a throng of people waiting for the next service but found an empty platform instead.

At first I presumed this was because a service had just left but an announcement over the tannoy dispelled that idea. Then I thought people were probably sheltering in the station building but they weren't. In actual fact many had obviously (and wisely) decided to stay at home. The nutters like me who'd made the effort started to gather and shiver on the platform.

The tannoy told us all that the next GNER service would be the 07.26 and it was on time and would arrive on platform 2. In the same breath he told us the next train on platform 3 would be the 07.26 FCC service to KX. Great, 2 trains departing at the same time could make for an interesting blog entry. Sadly it didn't and both arrived and left without a hitch.

As the train arrived one or two of us were mutter how the train was likely to be full and with no seat reservations we expected to stand. Wrong again. Obviously the 07.26 was originally the 07.20 so I even had my usual seat. That said the train was heaving and a number of people did indeed have to stand all the way.

Despite an unscheduled stop at Stevenage we arrived into KX less than 10 minutes late. As we pulled into the station the guard warned passengers to be carefull alighting as there was a power cut at KX and only emergency lighting was available. Given the weather, the problems with the leccy and large amount of travellers, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how well GNER were coping. I just hope it continues for the rest of the day.