Nottingham to Newmarket
This is one of those journeys that works, but because od the limited services in East Anglia, it takes a lot longer than it should. I got a direct train to Ely, but then it was another train to Cambridge and then another to Newmarket. But everything was on time and I met the booked taxi, which got me home about four hours after I left Nottingham.
At least though the train wasn’t very crowded after Grantham and I just sat there reading.
I did have to wait for perhaps twenty minutes at Ely and forty at Cambridge but it wasn’t cold and I had an excellent cappuccino from AMT at Cambridge.
So how could this jouney have been better?
East Anglia to the Midlands and the North needs more and bigger trains. At present we have Stansted/Cambridge-Birmingham (hourly) and Liverpool/Manchester-Norwich (3-hourly) , all of which pass through Ely and Peterborough. In addition, there is an hourly service from Ipswich to Peterborough. But even so, it is just not enough!
The trains that connect to these long distance services are not big enough either. At least today, I got a two-coach, Class 156, to and from Cambridge, but sometimes it is just a decrepit single coach, Class 153.
I ope this all gets sorted out in the next few years. But whatever happens, we need some bigger and better trains. But then as long as I can remember, East Anglia has always had evrybody else’s hand-me-downs.
Dullingham to Nottingham
I actually left fromy my local station at Dullingham, rather than my return destination of Newmarket as it was easier to get to at 9:15 in the morning. The cost of the return ticket is the same at £27.65 from both stations, so ticketing was not a problem.
To get to Nottingham was a double change at both Cambridge and Leicester. This is one of the problems about getting trains from East Anglia to the rest of the country. Nothing is ever straightforward unless you drive to either Ely or Peterborough first and I can’t drive at present.
The second problem is that the East Anglia to Midlands and North trains are just too small. The train was very crowded all the way to Leicester from Cambridge, but luckily I had a seat by the window. After Leicester I was in one of the larger Meridean expresses to Nottingham.
Everything otherwise was fine and I arrived in Nottingham just a few minutes over three hours after I’d started my journey, which was as should have been expected.
The only problem I had, was that the station information at Leicester wasn’t up to the standard I usually find and I could have missed my connection, if I hadn’t guessed right. It probably wouldn’t have been serious, as there are quite a few trains between Leicester and Nottingham. But what if I’d been going the other way, where missing the connection would mean a sizeable wait.
I’d never been to Leicester on a train before today, which is surprising, as in the past I’ve used trains to quite a few cities in the Midlands. I sometimes wonder if I’ve got a thing about the city, as it was one of the last trips C did by train for her business. She had just finished the radiotherapy for her breast cancer and had gone there by train and she then took a train to London to see a friend sworn in as a judge. Except for the odd trip to London, I don’t think she ever went on a train again. I also remember that I’d been to see Ipswich lose at Leicester. the day before she told me, that she had breast cancer. So perhaps it is a town for me to avoid! Although they do have a Carluccio’s there now, so at least the food will be good.
Comings and Goings at Ely
To get the train to Scunthorpe via Peterborough on Saturday, I got to Ely just before nine in the morning and I was totally surprised at how busy the station was.
There were passenger trains going to Stansted, Kings Lynn and London.
Trains to All Points at Ely
The town will get more important if and when Thameslink opens to Kings Lynn.
The freight importance of the station was also emphasised, as a very long train passed through from Felixstowe to Peterborough and the Midlands and the North.
Lots of Boxes at Ely
There will be lots of changes in the next few years at Ely, what with Thameslink, freight and perhaps many more trains to Norwich and Ipswich. In the case of the latter, there could be substantial passenger improvements following on from the capacity upgrade for freight, with perhaps a new station at Soham.
Ely lives in interesting times.
The Anonymous Widower 