6am eternal

Hello I am typing using my slow and dim netbook on a train from Manchester to Birmingham. Not the train I had originally intended to get. Not the train I was assured that would be leaving Manchester Piccadilly at 6.10am prompt when I called National Rail Enquiries at 1.20am this morning. No. That train was cancelled. When I realised this at 5.58am this morning I fearlessly hopped on the 6am train to Bristol (despite having a via London only ticket) hoping to pick up a Virgin Cross Country train to Basingstoke, then struggle back to Wlaton on Thames via there.

This time the cancellation wasn’t due to the air crash at Stafford, but a massive power failure around the Watford/Milton Keynes area which stopped all services out of Euston for all of Sunday. After a long discussion with the very helpful ticket inspector (or Customer Service Enforcer or whatever her job title is) Gail, we decided this would be fine and the trump card in any discussion with any Virgin or South West Trains person who thinks my ticket is invalid because I’m not travelling the stated route is that I am actually travelling a cheaper route by going through Reading and therefore if there’s any excess to pay, they should be paying me.

And anyway Gail wrote on the back of my ticket (see below) requesting my free passage through Berkshire and Hampshire in special official Virgin Trains felt tip, so I can hold this aloft as I pass through their ticket barriers and all will fall back in wonder.