The Anonymous Widower

Senior Travellers,Racegoers and Pub-Crawlers

As Free As Lark had been pulled out of the race at Great Yarmouth today, I was at a loss about what to do, as I’d quite fancied the trip on a train to the wilds of Norfolk.

So I went anyway!

I was dropped at Dullingham station a few minutes before ten, with the intention of catching the first of three trains, that would get me to my destination by just after twelve after changes at Stowmarket and Norwich. And all for a return ticket price of just £9.20 after my Senior Railcard discount.

At the next station, Newmarket, the train filled up considerably.  There was a lot of chatter and I felt there were a couple of parties going like myself to Yarmouth, but to the races. It was all very civilised and friendly, and I suspected that many like me were travelling on Senior Railcards.

As I got off the train at Stowmarket, I was recognised by one of C’s morning swimming companions.  He asked how I was doing and said that he was going to the races at Yarmouth.  He also added that one of the parties on the train, were a group going for a pub crawl in Ipswich and Felixstowe.

But it all goes to show how train travel is changing.  Many of the travellers, myself probably included, would never have used a train for these journeys a few years ago.

Another change was that the two changes at Stowmarket and Norwich took just a couple of minutes.  The last time, I’d attempted something similar, I’d had to wait a lot longer.  I think that the scheduling is better and this is helped by much better time-keeping.  I can’t remember when one of the trains between Ipswich and Cambridge was seriously late.

I also found out that you can get a go-anywhere in East Anglia ticket called an Anglia Plus One Day Pass.  It’s just a pity that Beeching removed some of the important links between the railways in East Anglia.

So how can we improve things further?  Cambridge to Ipswich has one one-coach train and one two-coach one to operate the schedule.  National Express East Anglia do their best, but they struggle to provide enough capacity on the line.  I suspect it’s the same on other lines in East Anglia!  We need more trains and perhaps a couple of three-coach ones too, to handle rush hours to and from Ipswich and Cambridge! An hourly service calling at all stations would be good and with promised station improvements at Ipswich and Cambridge, this might be possible.  Perhaps the service could be extended at the Ipswich end to Harwich and/or Felixstowe!

With a new franchise up for grabs, we can only hope!

September 15, 2010 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Cambridge, Great Yarmouth, Ipswich, Norfolk, Trains