Since living in the South West of the country I have been catching the train to the company meetings in Reading. It’s been nice to be able to travel and relax, instead of having to concentrate to make sure the blind assholes in other 4-wheeled cages don’t manage to get in my way! Seriously though, I’m not one of those road-rage type of drivers, but some of the driving standards on the roads today leave a lot to be desired.
Anyway, last week’s meeting was to be held in Oxford. It was what the company call CPD (Continuous Professional Development) Day. All the company RNs have to attend to make sure we have some to be able to keep our registration.
This meant that I would need to catch 2 trains as there wasn’t one straight from our little hick town of St. Austell to Oxford.
Always being organised, I booked my trains the week before. Planned itinerary was 17.00 from St. Austell, change at Reading and arrive in Oxford by 21.30. I had seats booked on both trains as they can get busy. I would be able to get there in time for a night cap in the bar!
So the happy day arrived. I finished work early so I could be at the station in plenty of time. As I arrived they announced that due to a train breakdown my train was cancelled. Damn. Next one was at 17.42, only went as far as Exeter, where I would be able to catch a connection to Reading. Ok, now I have 2 train changes, a bit of a pain but no big deal. Now the train I WAS supposed to catch would have been 8 carriages long, being a main London train. The 17.42 that arrived was a 2 coach commuter train that had standing room only! Brilliant! Well, we all somehow managed to cram on, and off we go. Three stations later I managed to get a seat (remember I had booked one for my original train!). During the journey to Exeter we were told that the next London train from Exeter would be held for us to get on to continue our journey. We arrived at Exeter to find out THAT train had been delayed by 15 minutes, so WE were waiting for IT! It arrived, and on we got. Glad to say it was an 8-coach and I managed to get a seat OK because the rest of the journey was another 2 ½ hours. Off we set, it was fine for a while, then 15 minutes out of one of the stations, Newbury, we stopped. In the middle of nowhere. Tannoy message said the driver was checking the train as they had been alerted of a technical fault. About 10-15 minutes later we set off again, arrived at Newbury and were then told that the train was terminating there because this train had a fault that needed rectifying. The message said that there was another train waiting to come in and could take us on to Reading. Except that it couldn’t get in because of the broken down one stuck in the station! By this time it was getting late, and there was no way I would have made the last connection from Reading to Oxford. So I had to make the decision between spending the night on a cold station or getting a taxi to my destination. Bit of a no-brainer. Asked one of the taxi drivers how much. He said £125 on meter, but he’d do it for £90. Deal done, he stopped at an ATM on the way so I could get the cash, and had a more comfortable, pleasant non-stop journey to my hotel in Oxford! Finally arrived there at 23.30. Two hours after my original arrival time.
Now I am not one of those who can just arrive and get to bed straight away, especially after the journey from Hell, I’d just had. I needed to wind down. So it was about 01.00 when I finally hit the sack.
CPD day went well, with some interesting topics and then I had the return journey to face. Guess what? It went without a hitch! All times on train and booked seats available on both trains. Even so, Great Western Railways (mis-nomer if ever I heard one) got quite a disgruntled email from me on Thursday. I am awaiting a reply and, hopefully, some compensation. And the good thing is I get to claim all the train expenses, and taxi fare, back from the company anyway!
Luckily, I’ll be back up north before the next meeting and I can drive again. At least , I know I’ll be on time!
Hugz
RNBiker
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