The Anonymous Widower

Travels in the Snow

I had to go to London today, to see the man, who is decorating my new house and make sure everything was OK.

I was dropped at Whittlesford and the trains were running very much to time.  As a fallback, I checked that the new Holiday Inn at the station was open, so if I needed to wait for my taxi, then I could do it with a coffee in the warm.  It was, so that was probably an omen that I wouldn’t need it.

I didn’t take my normal route to Highbury and Islington from Tottenham Hale, but instead took a bus from Seven Sisters through Stamford Hill and Stoke Newington to the Essex Road.  It worked and I had a much shorter walk than I normally do.

Everything was going well, so because of the weather I checked on a few things and walked to Carluccio’s in Upper Street for some lunch.  After an excellent risotto, I walked to Highbury and Islington to get back to Totteham Hale.

I won’t say my troubles started there, as compared to many others, I didn’t suffer much.  The Cambridge trains weren’t running, so it was suggested by staff that I go to King’s Cross and get a train from there.

Now the company that goes out of Kings Cross is First Capital Connect, which is a different one to that out of Liverpool Street.  So I was worried that my ticket might not be valid!

By 16:30, I was in Cambridge, only to find that there were no trains to Newmarket, so I took the bus to the main Cambridge bus station, intending to get a bus to ether Newmarket or Haverhill. It actually doesn’t matter which as there are good taxis home from either, but the ones from Haverhill are slightly cheaper, as the town is closer.  There was a large crowd waiting for the Newmarket buses, so as one was just leaving for Haverhill I took it. Unfortunately, it was a slow one, so I had an extensive tour of the many estates that surround the town before I got a taxi home.

If there is anything positive about today, it is that public transport must be flexible and that tickets must be interchangeable, if one service fails. Except for the taxi, which I would have had to pay for, wherever I returned home from, everything was covered by my day retiurn and Travelcard from Whittlesford or my bus pass.

Except for my walk too, everything was clean and warm and as I sat upstairs in the front of the bus from Cambridge to Haverhill, I was able to complete the Sudoku from the Times.

The one thing though that would have improved my journey would have been the unopened Cambridge busway, which surely will make getting from Cambridge station to the city centre aot easier.  Or it might do in the future, if has been designed properly. And on that subject, shouldn’t the busway and the trains interface properly with buses that go to inaccessible towns like Haverhill?

Incidentally, it appears that the trains from Tottenham Hale are now running to time, so perhaps my diversion to King’s Cross was unnecessary.

It also seems that the overhead electric trains to the north of London are much more reliable than those to the south using a third rail for power.  My engineering knowledge would suggest that overhead electric trains perform better in snowy weather, but I’m happy to be corrected.  If this is true, it is rather strange that some railways south of the Thames were electrified using overhead cables, which were then changed for thrd rail. But the history of railway electrification in the UK is as complex as you can get, with innumerable systems, changes of policy and objectives.  Read a simple history in Wikipedia.

December 2, 2010 Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Buses, Cambridge, Cambridge Busway, Haverhill, Trains | Leave a comment