And if someone says I should have got that instead, I'll smack them...
Peter B, you are failing to pick up the one major point I was making. This will be the THIRD time now...
I did NOT arrive into King's Cross at 1611 because I was ready to leave London. Instead, I was getting, quite frankly, ****ed off that I had arranged a pub meet when all I wanted to do was continue bashing and spotting around London! Turns out that it had been a good idea to arrange to meet my friend in King's Cross, as otherwise I might have been going around London totally unaware of any problems, turning up around 2030 (at which point I might have been in a more ready-to-leave state) for my train.
Put simply, if I had not turned up to do the arranged meeting at KGX, I would have not known of any problems and I would have been in Cuckoo Street (that's an old expression I'll not expect 75% of this forum to understand).
No, I didn't arrive any earlier in the end. How was I to know that GNER began operations shortly after I left on the 1925? No-one did, and I was VERY, VERY surprised to get a text message from Sprinter to say that the 1930 to NCL had left, wedged, at 1950!
Put simply, if I had KNOWN things were going to begin again out of KGX soon, I'd have stayed and got moving. I might have been stuck in London all night, missing my booked train from Newcastle and having to fork out extra for another ticket home the next morning from Paddington. So in my eyes I made the right decision and had a thrashtastic trip to Donny.
yorkie and David have confirmed how much staff knew on the day on the ECML. Which was next to nothing. It was a farce because the right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing (again, an old expression some people will not understand). GNER knew nothing, Hull Trains weren't helping and FCC were doing what they could to get people up North by running 365s as far as they could to St. Neots for a bus to Peterborough and off from there for passengers with GNER. In my eyes, FCC were the most responsible and decent operator that evening out of KGX. Which says volumes.
For me, the heroes of the day were MML, who accepted GNER passengers onto what are very busy trains in the evening under normal circumstances. More reasons for MML to be Passenger Operator Of The Year. What's more, they didn't have any significant delays on the train I was on. OK, so we left 1.5 down. By Leicester we were early, awaiting time to go. We'd have been earlier still at Derby if it hadn't been for a seriously fast and heavy almost-stop at Loughborough (seriously, we must have had a full brake application, taken off just before the platforms for a full thrash out) and a Birmingham-bound 170 being in the way. Nevertheless, we were virtually on time for the whole journey, apart from at Doncaster when it left late due to passengers not knowing what to do thanks to the farce.
Oh, and another reason for it being a farce is the out-of-hours driver everywhere, all of the out-of-place staff and all the stock being in the wrong places! Effects would have been felt into the next morning. Indeed, one GNER service from Donny to Leeds nearly DID leave on Saturday morning vice Friday night...The 2257 to Leeds had to be kept in platform 8 until a 91, possibly the one yorkie was on, arrived for connecting passengers to Leeds. It left circa 46 down, 2341 I think it left.
yorkie is also right in saying you can't really comment on the events if you were not at King's Cross to witness them. Same if you were not trying to travel along the East Coast that day.
Farce. ECML. Why is it these two terms go hand-in-hand far too often?
EDIT: As for complaining to GNER, I'm planning what to say to them at the moment. Trust me, I'll get my money back...They'll get a very well-worded essay on the subject of Friday's travel with them [sic]. It might be £16.20, but I will certainly have my piece with them!
