I’m sure most people out there have their own train related stories of doom, falling asleep and winding up the other end of the country or losing luggage or something. I am slowly building up a nice collection of cursed tales of which these are just a couple...
So there was the Wales field trip at uni. All I had to do was get a train from Leicester to Pembroke and back again. Not too difficult right? Except on the way there someone threw themselves in front of the train which was therefore cancelled. I was at the station early, but not early enough to get the previous (uncancelled) which everyone else managed to get on so I had to get the later train and then they had to send the mini bus back to pick up me and the one other girl who had failed to be on the early train! (The minivan then waited in the car park whilst we were freezing on the platform! Lovely! But eventually we found each other).
Then on the way back we missed a change in Bristol I think, then one of the girls had her ticket in her bag which got moved to the luggage compartment so she then had a huge argument with the ticket collector and almost got us thrown off the train! (Thankfully being incredibly tired and stressed from the field trip she then proceeded to burst into tears and the lady felt so sorry for her she fetched tissues and water and let us stay!) Then, finally back in Leicester almost an hour later than planned...I got off the train only to realise that my wellies were still on board. I hopped back to get them and the door closed just as I was about to get off again. So I wound up in Melton Mowbray with an hour to wait for the next train back!
That one simple return journey to Pembroke took 8 hours to get there and 9 hours to get back! Fun!
Then there was the trip to York for a Student Forum meeting. I had my tickets in advance so that they were reasonably priced...then realised, once on the train, that my tickets were for a different time from everyone else. So I had to buy new tickets on the train. London to York at over £100! Eeek!
And then the other day I used the annoying little machine on the platform to get tickets up to Warwick where I have my second year report feedback meeting (argh!) I had to be up at 4am to get my train on time so was not quite awake when I went to get tickets (so should have got them in advance, but you saw how well that worked for York) I found the page of tickets for Leamington Spa, On the left was ‘Off Peak Single’ and ‘Anytime Single’, on the right ‘Off Peak Returns’ via London or Birmingham and then ‘Anytime...’ well I assumed return, bought it and then realised, nope, that was a single. A single that cost more than the off peak returns! I then realised that given that it was still 5am I could use off peak tickets anyway! The ticket office hadn’t opened yet so I couldn’t go change it so I had to pay for new off peak return tickets!
I have now filled out some annoying paper work in the hopes that they might give me some money back. I really hope that they do.
Oh well, it could always be worse:
It’s at time like these that I think I really should get on and learn to drive!
