Recent content by philjo

I don’t know about other counties, but Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire schools start the new term next week on Wednesday 2nd and Thursday 3rd September depending on year group.

Yes, the 1st floor used to have a Large book department and I think toys. Though less than 5 minutes walk away are Waterstones (previously Dillons) and also Heffers now part of Blackwells which have a much more comprehensive selection of books anyway.

I saw a report somewhere that the Cambridge branch will close on September 14th. It is quite a large store on 2 floors - the 1st floor has been out of use for over a year.

Lots of cancellations today. It appears that there was a broken down train at Farringdon earlier. Several Cambridge-Brighton services are cancelled. The screens at Hitchin were running in disruption mode when I got there late afternoon. As it is Saturday the stoppers only go to Cambridge hourly...

Are there other classmates doing the same journey? Travelling together would reduce any risk. Especially once it gets dark early after the clocks go back.

in 2019 or possibly early in 2020 prior to Covid restrictions, there was a public meeting held in Letchworth for the various rail user groups on the Cambridge branch and GTR staff and local MP present. The possibility of converting the down goods loop at Royston into a new bay platform was...

9S44 Brighton - Cambridge overtook 1C82 on the fast line at Knebworth so we also had to wait for that to clear platform 4 at Stevenage before passing through to Hitchin,

The 1724 Kings Cross to Cambridge was held at Knebworth for about 10 minutes while the driver attempted to reset the air con which was not working in several carriages (2x379s). The coach I was in wasn’t too bad. So the Kings Lynn train was almost immediately behind when it departed Letchworth...

It was a broken down freight train blocking the line between Hitchin and Letchworth for about an hour. It got going again around 07:15 towards Cambridge. At that point there were several Cambridge services held at Hitchin, Stevenage, Knebworth and WGC to avoid blocking the fast line. The 06:31...

It has been like that for some time. On Saturdays since November 2025 when the 98 ceased on Saturdays it has been hourly (97 Stotfold service). There are also the Stevenage-Buntingford buses at certain times. but they are not very regular. Baldock will now only have the The 91 Royston-Ashwell...

The Southern Seaside Sparrow on 3rd October is now fully booked but the UKR website says they hope to add another standard class coach so bookings may reopen in a few days. As a rare event I can walk to one of the pick up stations in 10 minutes from home so don’t need to rely on early morning &...

I don’t know if it is still the case as I haven’t been there recently but Canterbury West had bells ringing shortly before a train arrived from Ramsgate in the early 1990s.

The 17:47 Kings Cross to Kings Lynn departed on time this evening but the middle unit had no air conditioning so those 4 coaches were rather warm when I walked through. Fortunately it was much cooler in the front unit!

I saw a couple of 4-coach 379 services running yesterday, both times when we were waiting at Foxton level crossing!

The London-bound platform could have a ramp into the car park towards the Cambridge end ? I think there is a strip of unused land adjacent to the Cambridge-bound platform so wondered if a path could be made down to the A507. THere are Network Rail gates by the road so looks like it is kept as...