The Anonymous Widower

In Style To Sheffield And Then This!

Barnsley must be one of the biggest towns in England without a direct service to London.  I was in a very comfortable First Class seat to Sheffield and then this.

In Style To Sheffield And Then This!

We have more comfortable and decidedly newer trains on the Overground.

The name of these Class 142‘s is even crap, as they’re called Pacers.  They should be called Crawlers or Rattlers. I suppose the only compensation was that the last bit of the journey took about fifteen minutes.

September 30, 2012 - Posted by | Transport/Travel | , ,

6 Comments »

  1. The journey between Barnsley and Sheffield….can be a direct..without any stops…or a journey of 31 minutes…and stopping at all the pit villages…Wombwell, Elsecar etc. The train you took…was one of the better ones….
    Every time you remark about how good the travel etc is in London, just think on…we dont have the luxury…

    As for the direct service…can go to Wakefield. or Doncaster….and catch the train to Kings Cross..
    Much prefer the St Pancras way…via Sheffield…

    Comment by Janet | October 1, 2012 | Reply

    • Read any of the railway magazines and they are always complaining about Pacers. We used to have their equivalent in London, but they went, when the Gospel Oak to Barking line was modernised two years ago. Going back I got one of the semi-fast which was much better.

      Hopefully, when they electrify to Sheffield, they’ll continue soon afterwards on to Leeds and Manchester to connect the various systems. After all Barnsley is 75% the size of Ipswich, which has a direct service to London, so a 100 mph service to London, should pay its way. Why should you have to drive to Wakefield or Doncaster?

      I suspect that Barnsley could probably support a couple or more trains each way direct to London, via Sheffield and Derby. After all you’ve got one of the best two-platform stations in the country.

      I use St. Pancras quite a bit as it’s a less-crowded station. I wish they still had Manchester trains from there. Euston is a dump compared to both Kings Cross and St. Pancras.

      Comment by AnonW | October 1, 2012 | Reply

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