I’m sure many of you follow him on twitter, but his account of his journey home from Blackpool was first class 😂
At the time of writing this, he’ll probably be tucked up in bed, and he learnt a valuable lesson about the consistency and reliability of the Bayliss Coach, but when he wakes up to see a whole thread dedicated to it, perhaps he could elaborate more
My favourite bit was the replacement cab laid on when he got back to Euston that got lost and dropped him off by a closed road at 2.52am.
Can you imagine how much harder this would’ve been had we not come back with at least a point
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messaged The space cadet and he said 9.40pm they were due to pull in to Euston phew ….picked him up from tube station at 10.30pm
wallop
poor old Louis but let’s be honest every bit of luck in the Charlton universe was used up when Rhodes missed that chance , so rough with the smooth
and I always make sure every taxi driver I have bangs on Waze if they don’t have it my phone provides it , Take humans out of the equation.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/avanti-west-coast-joking-taxpayer-funding-free-money-b1132759.html
Not enough money for train crews though...
Signal problems knackered everything out of Preston. I was booked on the 20:00 which was the last train back to Euston. That was cancelled whilst on the train from Blackpool to Preston. Sat outside Preston for about 30 mins on that one.
Was told by Avanti on twitter that I had to get the 21:05 heading to Birmingham and get off at Stafford to meet a coach. The 21:05 pulled into Preston about 10 mins late. Got on and there was an announcement that we were waiting for train crew and wouldn't leave until 21:45. At 21:40 that changed to not leaving for the foreseeable because they were waiting for a different train to bring crew down. That train pulled in and we were told to go and get on that one instead at about 21:55.
We were told that we'd be moving soon when we got on that. Still didn't leave for another half hour. Then it's an hour down to Stafford.
To my immense surprise, there were rail replacement coaches waiting - one for each destination (from memory, MK, Coventry, Watford, London)
So got on the coach which set off at 23:45. Drove down the M6 for maybe half an hour before he suddenly pulled off into an industrial estate in Walsall. Then turned around and said he now has to make five more stops (which I'm convinced was a lie because we were all going to the same place) so they're sending a replacement bus and made everyone stand in a lay-by. I refused to get off until the next one came as I had visions of being left stranded roadside for an hour. It did arrive quickly but we went from a full size coach where we all had space to a minibus where we were all on top of each other (I think he subcontracted out the journey to his mate with a smaller vehicle but took the ££ for a big coach from Avanti)
Left there about 00:20, got to near Euston at 02:50 but the driver got caught in the closures for HS2 and just panicked and told us to get off at Drummond Street. Had been in contact with Avanti on the way down being assured and reassured that someone will meet us off the bus with a hoard of cabs.
Needless to say, there was no one meeting us off the bus and the station staff stopping people from going into the closed station both knew nothing about it and refused to help or go and get the manager.
Had to get back onto Avanti via Twitter DMs and eventually they asked for my details and booked a cab. But there was two others still with me (from about 10-12 on the coaches) who were stranded and didn't have Twitter. So the Avanti DM person said they'd told the station manager but he still took 15 mins to turn up and couldn't look less arsed. I left him with the others to sort their cabs as mine arrived.
Cab took 45 mins or so from Euston to Sidcup so was in for 4am
I get signal problems and whatever happen but the organisation after was terrible. Also can't work out where everyone went because normally 100-200 would get off that train at Euston. We were whittled down to 10-12 and Avanti were happy to go mute on helping them without being pushed by me.
If ever there was an account that tells why we need modern infrastructure and more capacity, rather than the backbone of the country relying on knackered assets and a shocking customer model.
Great story though!!
Must get onto my old mate Mr Ford.
The next day Avanti could do one if they wanted another ticket out of me.
You just wouldn't get this level of Network Rail operational matters seriously discussed.
;-(
Until last season would always use the train for away trips, but after the nonsense journey back from Accrington I have restricted the train to the shortish journeys and used the car for the longer ones (sometimes with an overnight stop).
It's a joke you can't rely on the trains to do very simple journeys
And for his pain, wins this week's " Bless his cotton socks" accolade.