WolvertonWorks
Member
A quick report on some recent rail journeys. All prices are total for two adults both with a senior railcard.
Monday 14th August Avanti 06:52 Milton Keynes Central to Carlisle advance tickets £44.70
Journey went without any problems, reserved seats available.
Wednesday 16th August Northern 11:07 Carlisle to Corkickle advance tickets £4.30 – lovely friendly lady checking tickets, enjoyable ride with views and intrigued with going through tunnel from Whitehaven to Corkickle. (Subsequently read how passengers and freight originally had to walk or use horse and coach between the two). Thursday morning whilst waiting for train at Whitehaven noticed that there is a box for the token at the tunnel end of the platform. Also info poster at station says buses stop at the station car park – they don’t appear to come into the car park anymore, they stop on the road a few minutes walk away.
Thursday 17th August (Northern) walk up off peak return tickets Whitehaven 10:12 to St Bees return £4.20 – noticed at St Bees there only appeared to be a ticket machine on platform going towards Barrow. Manned signal box (probably not the correct term) and proper level crossing gates. Very popular train journey with families going to St Bees for the beach on a lovely sunny day.
Friday 18th August (Northern) Whitehaven to Morecambe via Barrow in Furness and Lancaster. Walk up tickets £28.60. 10:12 Whitehaven to Barrow a pleasant journey with the lady from Wednesday again checking tickets.
Arrive Barrow and cross platform to awaiting 11:51 service destination Manchester airport. Three carriage train and already the platform is very full before anyone is allowed to board. It is almost 11:51 before doors are opened followed by mad rush of people, many with large suitcases. Insufficient luggage storage space – cases on tables, on people’s laps - if a train is going to an airport why don’t they have more luggage space. It’s not as though people don’t take luggage going to and from airports. People standing all the way to Lancaster, where we alight, and more get on along the route.
Break journey to go into Lancaster for some lunch and return for the 13:59 Northern service to Morecambe only to see that it is cancelled. Fortunately following service shows as running so sit and wait. Chat to Avanti staff on platform and told that the previous day many Morecambe services had been cancelled.
Saturday 19th August. Advance MCB-MKC via LAN £56.60. Some services LAN-MCB or MCB-LAN cancelled that morning and others ran late.
Boarded booked Avanti at Lancaster to find our booked seats showing as booked from Edinburgh and people sitting in them but found other seats. Then announcement saying they were going to reboot the system to try and sort out the reservations so obviously they hadn’t been working from earlier in the journey. Announcement asked people to sit in booked seats. Seats then showing no bookings followed by booked from Edinburgh so that didn’t seem to have worked. I do wonder whether having a system to book seats that can’t be relied on is worth having at all.
All in all an enjoyable trip, lovely views from the trains, and reasonable walk up fares for the journeys we made and not too inconvenienced by Northern cancellations.
Monday 14th August Avanti 06:52 Milton Keynes Central to Carlisle advance tickets £44.70
Journey went without any problems, reserved seats available.
Wednesday 16th August Northern 11:07 Carlisle to Corkickle advance tickets £4.30 – lovely friendly lady checking tickets, enjoyable ride with views and intrigued with going through tunnel from Whitehaven to Corkickle. (Subsequently read how passengers and freight originally had to walk or use horse and coach between the two). Thursday morning whilst waiting for train at Whitehaven noticed that there is a box for the token at the tunnel end of the platform. Also info poster at station says buses stop at the station car park – they don’t appear to come into the car park anymore, they stop on the road a few minutes walk away.
Thursday 17th August (Northern) walk up off peak return tickets Whitehaven 10:12 to St Bees return £4.20 – noticed at St Bees there only appeared to be a ticket machine on platform going towards Barrow. Manned signal box (probably not the correct term) and proper level crossing gates. Very popular train journey with families going to St Bees for the beach on a lovely sunny day.
Friday 18th August (Northern) Whitehaven to Morecambe via Barrow in Furness and Lancaster. Walk up tickets £28.60. 10:12 Whitehaven to Barrow a pleasant journey with the lady from Wednesday again checking tickets.
Arrive Barrow and cross platform to awaiting 11:51 service destination Manchester airport. Three carriage train and already the platform is very full before anyone is allowed to board. It is almost 11:51 before doors are opened followed by mad rush of people, many with large suitcases. Insufficient luggage storage space – cases on tables, on people’s laps - if a train is going to an airport why don’t they have more luggage space. It’s not as though people don’t take luggage going to and from airports. People standing all the way to Lancaster, where we alight, and more get on along the route.
Break journey to go into Lancaster for some lunch and return for the 13:59 Northern service to Morecambe only to see that it is cancelled. Fortunately following service shows as running so sit and wait. Chat to Avanti staff on platform and told that the previous day many Morecambe services had been cancelled.
Saturday 19th August. Advance MCB-MKC via LAN £56.60. Some services LAN-MCB or MCB-LAN cancelled that morning and others ran late.
Boarded booked Avanti at Lancaster to find our booked seats showing as booked from Edinburgh and people sitting in them but found other seats. Then announcement saying they were going to reboot the system to try and sort out the reservations so obviously they hadn’t been working from earlier in the journey. Announcement asked people to sit in booked seats. Seats then showing no bookings followed by booked from Edinburgh so that didn’t seem to have worked. I do wonder whether having a system to book seats that can’t be relied on is worth having at all.
All in all an enjoyable trip, lovely views from the trains, and reasonable walk up fares for the journeys we made and not too inconvenienced by Northern cancellations.