Welcome to Edinburgh Waverley
In the last few weeks, I’ve been in and out of Edinburgh Waverley station several times and to be fair it is not one of the best. It always seems dark and crowded, information provision is minimal and unless you take a taxi, you always seem to have to walk up endless flights of stairs. I know there are lifts, but I can never be bothered to wait. How too will it interface with the tram? I doubt without lots of steps!
I suspect though that it’s really one of these cases of the station being built in the wrong place for the 21st Century.
On my trip to Inverness, the Driver Manager told me that there were plans to improve Edinburgh Haymarket, so perhaps in a few years time, it will all be a lot better.
It is interesting to compare Waverley with Glasgow Queen Street, where the station is much lighter and the access into the station seemed generally level.
Doncaster to Edinburgh
I had a few minutes to change trains at Doncaster, before I got on the fast train towards the North. I’d known when I booked that the last part of the journey to Edinburgh would actually be a coach as they were doing substantial work in the Morpeth area. At least though when I got in the Scottish capital, I knew that it was perhaps a ten minute taxi to a comfortable bed in my friend’s house.
Doncaster is a station that has had a serious makeover with most of the facilities modern and up-to-date. But I don’t know, but it just lacks something.
Perhaps, stations should be destinations in their own right.
I know St. Pancras International is in a different league from every other station in the UK and possibly Europe, if you believe some of the statements of the head of SNCF, but I believe all stations should aspire to be a little bit like that station.
If say you are meeting someone in the station, it should be a pleasant place to wait, have a coffee, read the paper and perhaps watch the trains coming and going.
Moving a Train
The picture shows a Southern train from the routes south of London, probably being moved to the works at Doncaster or York for repair or refurbishment. There is a lot of movement at a station like Doncaster.
Stations should also be places for business meetings, so that say if you are based in london and want to meet your managers from say Hull and Newcastle, then perhaps a sensible and productive lunch in the middle would be an idea.
I didn’t venture outside of the station, so I don’t know whether their is a nice hotel or restaurant outside or not!
But why not create a sensible cafe/restaurant, shops and perhaps a hotel high up in the station? Many stations have beautifully structured roofs and the proper structure placed up there would compliment them. In some ways, the engineering involved would be similar to that in some of our art gsalleries and museums, where roofs and mezzanines have been created. Space should always be use to the maximum, and now that trains make a lot less pollution, the roof space might be ripe for development
It might not be practical, but so many of our stations are cluttered and there is nothing more than a Costa and a burger bar.
We can do so much better!
It’s just a small point, but to get it right, you must get all the details right. For instance they’d put in nice new toilets in Doncaster, but the toilet roll dispensers were all broken, as they were badly designed.
Coming up, I would have been able to just walk across the platform, but when going north, it meant I had to use the underpass. Perhaps, we should ensure that as many connections as possible are just a short walk on the level! Doncaster, Peterbough and York aren’t too bad. They would also be a lot better, if people didn’t travel with the kitchen sink on wheels trailing behind them.
I was travelling very light and all I had was just a shoulder bag, that carried a spare pair of knickers and socks for each day I was away and a shirt for every two. I didn’t bring a laptop, as I’ve now come to the conclusion that every gram is something else to carry and more strain on my decrepit body.
We arrived in Newastle on time and whilst others were dreading the bus, I was being philosophical. There was a bit of a scrum at the coaches, but I was on quickly and managed to get a double seat for the nearly three hour trip. I think it could have been better organised with perhaps a few coaches going direct to Edinburgh, rather than having to drop off perhaps one person at Berwick and Dunbar. Some American passengers were getting distinctly edgy, as they’d only got into Heathrow that morning. They’d have probably changed their plans, if they’d known about the coach, but then the information their agent got in the US seemed to be incomplete. Travel agents are to me the lowest of the low, as they always book you on the route that gives them the most commission, so possibly East Coast pays better than Virgin! We are lucky in that we have two equally fast routes to Scotland from London and you should use the one that is more convenient, not the one that is obvious.
Three Good Things About Scunthorpe
Other than the coffee and Raz and his excellent taxi, there is only one other thing good about Scunthorpe. Or should we be polite and call it Shorpe! And that is the TransPennine Express, that gets you out of the town.
TransPennine Express at Scunthorpe
I took one of these trains as far as Doncaster, where I headed north towards Edinburgh.
Trip of the Year, Month or Perhaps Weekend
I did think I might call this post something like Trip of a Lifetime, but that wouldn’t be honest and I don’t want to shilt myself, as I really might do one of those when I get older.
But a trip starting at Ely on Saturday the 25th and then going via Peterborough and Doncaster to Scunthorpe, before travelling to Edinburgh for the night. Then it was Glasgow on the Monday and then up to Inverness. Tuesday it was down to Kyle of Lochalsh, Skye, Mallaig and Fort William for the sleeper back to London, before a train out to Dullingham after changing at Cambridge.
Thoughts on Ticket Booking Web Sites
I’ve just been booking tickets for my trip north at the weekend. It looks like the itinerary will be :-
Saturday 25th September
Ely (8:58) to Peterborough (9:38)/
Peterborough (9:46) to Doncaster (10:38)
Doncaster (11:07)to Scunthorpe (11:45)
Scunthorpe (17:10) to Doncaster (17:40)
Doncaster (18:34) to Newcastle (20:01) – Ticket pick-up at Doncaster
Newcastle (20:50) to Edinburgh (23:30) – It’s actually a bus!
Monday 27th September
Edinburgh (16:33) to Inverness (20:08) – Meet at Waverley Travel Centre at 16:00
Tuesday 28th September
Inverness (09:00) to Kyle of Lochalsh (11:28) Ticket pick-up at Edinburgh Waverley
Mallaig (16:05) to Fort William (17:07)
Fort William (19:50) to London Euston (07:47) Ticket pick-up at Edinburgh Waverley
I haven’t had too much trouble booking these tickets on-line. But one thing that gets to me is the nit-picking detail on many of these sites.
As an example, they always ask you to tick the Terms and Conditions box. Does anybody not tick this box? It should be up the other way and you should only tick it if you don’t accept them!
ScotRail‘s web site seemed to get you to put in everything twice. But then it’s a long way up to Scotland and the Internet probably forgets what I’ve typed in last time.
I also had the usual nause about registering with ScotRail for the sleeper. Why can’t the same registration apply for all of the TOCs? I use the same details in them all anyway!
Scotland and London Get the Pope, Suffolk Gets the Tour of Britain!
Today, the Tour of Britain came to Clare, which is a village a few miles from where I live.
I asked one of the local officers about it and he definitely felt we’d got the most entertainment and the better deal.
There was quite a few people on the streets of one of Suffolk’s most pleasant villages, as this video shows.
After the excitement, I went down the pub and had a half of Aspalls, before returning home for lunch.
Looking back on today, I’m rather pleased at how the video has turned out. It’s the first real one, I’ve done since the stroke and it’s a lot better than some I’ve tried. But this was done with my trusty Fuji S5700 and Windows Movie Maker.
An Unusual and Good Hotel
It wouldn’t suit everybody, but for someone, who needs an affordable place to put their head down in Islington, I can recommend the place where I spent, Thursday and Friday night, The Raj Hotel in the Essex Road. I paid £60 for the total of the two nights and I had a cosy room with a very modern and clean shower/bathroom, a choice of two comfortable beds, where I slept well, a Freeview TV and a light breakfast. The staff incidentally, were everything you could expect in a small hotel. Something that is often lacking in other hotels!
Judging by the people at breakfast on the Friday, a couple of single women were staying, which is always a test of value and quality.
On the Friday night, I also sampled the food, which was excellent and proper Bangladeshi food with lots of flavour. I paid just under £10 for a chicken tikka, trimmings and a Coke.
Tommy Miah, who owns this hotel and also one in Edinburgh, may be starting a revolution here. Will we be seeing affordable and clean Indian-themed hotels, possibly attached to good restaurants, springing up all over the UK? I surely hope so, as there is a vast gap in the marketplace.
I shall certainly be staying again. If I ever get to buy a house nearby the hotel, I will probably use the restaurant again.
Cider in Edinburgh
Proper cider is my long drink of choice and it seemed to be almost missing from Edinburgh pubs and hostelries. Only as we were getting a bus late on Friday, did I find some Weston’s being advertised outside a J D Wetherspoon’s pub called the Alexander Graham Bell.
Now I’m watching Michael Portillo in Carluke and he is talking apple juice and cider.
So I searched and found this page on the web. But I can’t find his Carluke cider makers.
The Gilded Balloon
The Gilded Balloon is one of the main venues of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The GIlded Balloon, Edinburgh
I’m not sure, but I think it used to be the Student’s Union at Edinburgh University. It certainly has that feel and is a friendly place. I bought a coffee in the bar and the waitress offered to take it upstairs for me, as the stairs weren’t that easy. Only a small thing, but things like this can make your day when you have problems. I should say that since my return from the North, my arm is a lot better!
I saw two other shows at the Gilded Balloon in addition to Jarlath Regan; Stripped and Lockerbie:Unfinished Business.
As I have said in other posts Jarlath was funny and it cheered me to see someone, who I’d last seen at nine, perform.
Stripped was very much worth seeing and was a one-woman show describing the life of a stripper. It was sad, funny and touching!
Lockerbie was one of the most moving shows I’ve ever seen and it was about Dr. Jim Swire’s search for the truth about the death of his daughter in the Lockerbie Air Disaster. My heart goes out to people like Jim who’ve lost children to violence. I know that I’ve lost my wife and son to cancer, but in some way it’s not so bad for me, as both of them died bravely with the highest personal dignity.
I have always believed that the Pan Am Bombing was revenge for the shooting down by the USS Vincennes of the Iranian Airbus. But that is not to absolve Libya for any of the acts that they committed like the shooting of Yvonne Fletcher. In that case, we should never have lifted the siege on the embassy, without a full investigation into who fired the shot. It could also be argued that because we let diplomats and other foreign nationals act outside of the law, that others follow suit.
Whatever we do with rogue states like Iran and North Korea, we must never go outside of the law and behave such as to give them justification for what they did.
If you do get a chance go to see Lockerbie:Unfinished Business.
Fast Food – Loch Fyne Style
When you are a coeliac, snack lunches or quick meals on the go are a real problem. At times, I’ve been reduced to Crunchie Bars, Kettle Crisps or even McDonalds fries. But I always yearn for something better.
Whilst getting tickets at the Gilded Balloon, my stomach asked for lunch and I walked alongside the side of the venue into the fast food area.
What caught my eye was a caravan from Loch Fyne Oysters.
Loch Fyne Oysters Caravan at the Gilded Balloon
I’m not into oysters and muscles, but they did have something deliciously different; kedgeree.
They just put a generous portion into a cardboard punnet and warmed it back up in a microwave. Perhaps not very Gordon Ramsey, but it was certainly better and better for me than a greasy burger.
Let’s make kedgeree the fast food of the future.
