Analysis

So, now it’s all over, have I learnt anything? Well, yes.

The good

The UK rail network and system is nowhere near as bad as a lot of people will have you believe. I travelled all that distance and most importantly the trains were nearly all on time or early. And I don’t mean the ‘five minutes late counts as on time’ definition as used to compile the performance figures, I mean exactly on time.

Left Plymouth on time at 23.51. Arrived at Paddington 05.25 – eighteen minutes early.

Left Euston on time at 06.17. Arrived at Manchester Piccadilly 08.28 – on time.

Left Manchester Piccadilly on time at 08.43. Arrived at Sheffield 09.35 – on time.

Left Sheffield on time at 10.27. Arrived at St. Pancras 12.34 – on time.

Left King’s Cross on time at 13.00. Arrived at Edinburgh 17.25 – eight minutes early.

Left Edinburgh on time at 18.11 . Arrived at Preston 20.54 – seven minutes late.

Left Preston twelve minutes late at 21.29. Arrived at Birmingham New Street 23.05 – ten minutes late.

23.05 from Birmingham diverted.

The tickets that I had to pay for were generally very good value. Admittedly, I did book early to get good prices but even the latest ones I booked (Paddington – Plymouth and back) were £56 return, for a journey of over 450 miles. I personally think that’s good value.

Every train was clean and comfortable, including the toilets, with no damaged or broken seats or trim.

Every station was clean with no litter left around, although some more seating areas would help, especially at Paddington. I was disappointed by Paddington, but there are extenuating circumstances. There is a lot of refurbishment work going on and it was very heavy rain. The concourse was slippery,so there was a lot of yellow signs and also matting laid on the floor to reduce the risk of slips and falls. I didn’t see a lounge/waiting room like at King’s Cross but there may be one.  Plymouth and Preston had proper waiting rooms which was nice to see. Rugby had a small ‘lounge’ on the platform which just had some ‘perches’ rather than proper seats, which was better than nothing, but not ideal. I didn’t get time to check at Sheffield what with my media commitments! .

All the staff were friendly and helpful, whether they were in the retail establishments, on board or on the station.

The bad

A lot of preparation is needed. I’m lucky that I know a lot about how the UK rail system works but if you’re not used to it, I can imagine that it can be very confusing and very expensive. Walk-up fares are eye-wateringly high so if you don’t know about Advance,  Super-Off-Peak and Off-Peak, when they are valid etc., so it wouldn’t be difficult to get caught out.

Information at stations is sometimes not the best either. Edinburgh Waverley I found particularly poor in this respect, I have to say. Although there was plenty of signage, the exit from the platform wasn’t clear nor where to go to for other platforms. I followed signs to the Travel Centre, reasoning that I could get any other info there. Luckily, it was in the right direction for where I needed to be anyway.

I was disappointed by the lack of 3G/GPRS signal on the Midland Main Line between Sheffield and London, and the West Coast Main Line between Preston and Birmingham. If the railway wants to tempt people out of their cars, then they need to rectify this. On a train, people need to pass the time so they will want to use their laptop or their phone. Business customers will need to make calls and check information online. The WiFi installed on both Virgin’s Pendolino and National Express’s 225 were very good and I ‘d like to see that rolled out to all long-distance services.

Would I do it again?

Yes. And no. I’d love to travel all those routes again one day but this time without the time pressure. And not trying to update a blog and Twitter! I didn’t really get a chance to see any of the interesting stuff on and around the railway which I would like to have.

Now I’m wondering how many miles I can do across Europe…

And so it ends, not with a bang but with a whimper…

As you’ll have read if you were following my Twitter feed, the last few hours of the challenge were a bit frantic, and in the end took on a different twist to what was intended.
The TransPennine Express service (Edinburgh-Preston) had picked up a ten-minute delay by Lancaster. That was not a problem, as long as it didn’t get worse. We were still ten down at Preston but that still left me with 17 minutes before the Birmingham train was due. But two minutes before arriving, that suddenly acquired a twelve-minute delay. Bad news…
A twelve-minute delay meant I would arrive at Birmingham with just three minutes to make the last train for Rugby. I spoke to the train manager and he eventually got an agreement that as they were both Virgin services, they would hold the Rugby train (the 23.10) until we arrived. It would only be a couple of minutes, as we expected to arrive at 23.10.
But as we approached Birmingham, it all changed. The 23.10 would not now be calling at Birmingham, it would be calling at Stafford, a station we had already passed. If this decision had been made earlier we could have changed trains there.
What we had to do was get to Birmingham, change there for a train to Tamworth and then change again for the train that we *should* have got at Brum, but went via Stafford instead. Got it? Good, I’ll be asking questions later.
This caused me a problem though. I had already covered the Tamworth-Rugby stretch in the morning. Under my ‘no backtracking’ rule, that meant that any miles I did after Tamworth wouldn’t count. This map from Wikipedia should help.

I’d followed the Trent Valley north from Rugby while on the Euston-Manchester service, branching off at Colwich Junction towards Stoke.
From Preston, I was coming south down the orange line. As you see, this goes through Birmingham, and continues via Coventry to Rugby. No backtracking, see!
But of course, we ended going across country via Water Orton, to Tamworth, and as you can also see, Tamworth is on the blue line…
I had checked the timetable on the Edinburgh-Preston leg, to take into account the mistake I made with Stockport, and had a total of 1360 miles. But now, I had to take off Brum to Rugby and add on Brum to Tamworth.
So, the total completed mileage was 1343 miles, covered in 23h 47m. I was disappointed at first, but on reflection, it’s still a damn fine effort I reckon!

The other half of the 225 partnership

Having eulogised over the NXEC train, now it’s time to do the same for the route it runs on, the famous East Coast Main Line or ECML
This line is probably the most well-known in railway history, as it was the location for a number of firsts and records, including the first authenticated locomotive to reach 100mph, the first non-stop run from London to Scotland and the world steam railway record, set by Mallard at 126mph and which still stands today.
Now, a lot of the praise I heaped on the Inter-City 225 is partly due to the track it runs on, of course. After all, there’s no point owning a Ferrari and driving it on a pebble beach, you won’t get the best out of it. And the same apllies to a train and its track.
But the ECML is not only well engineered and maintained, it takes in some of the most well-known locations on the railway in the UK. It starts at King’s Cross, which to many people is *the* London railway station. OK, I’m biased and would pick St Pancras, but The Cross is ingrained into the public consciousness. It’s where Harry Potter gets the Hogwarts Express. The Pet Shop Boys even named a song after it. It runs to York, home, of course, to the National Ralway Museum. Newcastle, with its iconic High Level Bridge. Beyond Newcastle, it starts to hug the North Sea coast, so close you can see the beaches,and then it opens up to one of the most stunning approaches to a station you will ever see.
The city of Berwick-upon-Tweed lays to your right. The line curves around in a graceful arc over a spectacular viaduct. As you cross, look down and you’ll see ruins of what I think is a castle, and then you roll into a wonderful small station. Just beautiful.
As you leave Berwick and continue on towards Edinburgh, the line never strays too far from the coast and
to me, never fails to impress.

All of that combined, meant an arrival at Edinburgh Waverley eight minutes early. A run of nearly four hundred miles in almost four-and-a-half hours.

I’ve left Edinburgh now and am on a TransPennine Express service to Preston. This is another ‘local’ service, with a three-car diesel multiple unit (Class 185), similar to the one I caught from Manchester to Sheffield earlier. Not as comfortable though. But we left on time again, and there’s no reason to think that we won’t be on time in Preston either.

Change of plan

Not on the Challenge but on the blog. NXEC’s WiFi is a little slow for doing photo uploads, so I’ll leave that ’til later.
In the meantime, a few thoughts on their trains. This service is a Class 91 with Mk4 coaches and a Driving Van Trailer, also called an Inter-City 225. These trains have quite a following among the enthusiasts, and I can see why.
Travelling on one of these is another first for me, but they are very fast, very smooth and very comfortable. Not as good as the FGW HST from last night, but they have just come out of a comprehensive refurbishment programme. On this 225, I am at a four-seat table, so have to ‘share the legroom’, although the airline seats still don’t look as generous as the HST. But powerpoints, good lighting, comfortable seats and WiFi all add up to an excellent package, although I *think* these Mk4 coaches are narrower than the Mk3s on the HST, but someone more knowledgeable will know for sure. Add in a smooth ride, and you have a winner in my view.
A bit more legroom, and you would have the perfect Inter-City train.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused

How many times have you heard that when travelling by train? Well, I haven’t yet!

The only reason I haven’t sent any updates for a couple of hours is because of the aforementioned flaky mobile broadband access. At no point between Sheffield and St Pancras could I get a stable 3G or even GPRS connection for more than an moment or two and East Midlands Trains have no WiFi on their services.

Whilst at Sheffield however, I did another interview for BBC Sheffield, with Gareth Evans. You can hear it here on BBC iPlayer, it’s about 1h 3m in.

And, I am still bang on schedule. I am currently on the 13:00 from King’s Cross to Edinburgh, using their free WiFi (in Standard Class!). So I shall be uploading some pictures and stuff during this leg…

The 08.43 from Manchester Piccadilly to Sheffield (via Stockport)

Also on time! The Virgin service arrived in Manchester spot-on too.

This leg is much shorter, I should be in Sheffield at 09.35. And I also need to knock off a few miles. I didn’t realise that this train goes through Stockport, so I’ve duplicated the stretch between Stockport & Piccadilly. No free coffee or breakfast here, this is a basic four-coach train, albeit a fairly comfy one (2x 2-car Class 158s).

Liverpool-Norwich service arrives at Manchester Piccadilly

This is an East Midlands Trains service that runs from Liverpool to Norwich, although I doubt many people do the whole thing. I once went from Clapham Junction to Abergavenny on a train the same as this one. Not exactly the last word in space and legroom…

Impressed with Piccadilly station. Very airy and light. Intrigued by the derelict Mayfield station next door. I’d love to have a good poke around in there!
First phone interview done with BBC Sheffield. Went well, except they at first thought I was going 14,000 miles! It’s on iPlayer here: http://tr.im/yXsB Starts at 51m and then a live follow-up at about 1h 24m

One minor irritant is that coverage on my Vodafone broadband dongle isn’t as good as I thought it would be, so I’m going to save any picture uploading etc until this afternoon, when I can use the free Wi-Fi on National Express East Coast. Having said that, seeing as I am currently whizzing through the picturesque but very rural and hilly Peak District, I shouldn’t be surprised at the lack of signal!

The 06.17 from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly

Left bang on time!
Am now nicely settled in First Class, thanks to Elsa at Virgin. A nice cup of coffee, free WiFi and power for the laptop, and a cooked breakfast on the way!
This is another first for me, in fact a double first. First time on Virgin and first time on a 390 Pendolino (390 013 for the gricers!). It’s a bit bouncy if I’m honest, which surprises me.

Pendolino 390 013 at Manchester Piccadilly with a sister unit

But as I finished typing that last sentence, it seems to have smoothed out a lot. Moving at a heck of a lick, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we were well over 125mph already.

Oh, I forgot! I should be on BBC Radio Sheffield about 8am – listen online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlive/bbc_radio_sheffield/