Travel Nightmare to/from Blackburn

[thatgicamoment]

Yesterday Virgin managed to surpass even their own very low standards. I don't want to bore you with the complete painful story but I got to Blackburn an hour later than I should have done but luckily I had allowed extra time for my journey so I still got to the match in plenty of time. Some people who got the next train which should have got to Blackburn at 2.11 didn't actually get to the match until half an hour after kick off!
Going back was worse. Many of you went back via York which hopefully worked out okay. Unfortunately I was one of those who went via Preston. At Preston we were kept waiting for 30 mins and then told they didn't have a crew for the train (apparently they were in London!) so they advised us to get a train to New Street and a connection from there.
The train to New Street arrived on time but wasn't a particularly pleasant journey as loads of really obnoxious Birmingham fans got on at Wigan and proceeded to sing loads of anti-semetic songs (which I hadn't heard for ages) when they realised there were Spurs fans on the train.They also nicked a load of stuff from the shop so it was closed for most of the journey.
I got to New Street to discover that the next London train, the 9.33 was cancelled, there were no other London trains on the board and no-one to ask for any information so I decided not to wait on the off chance there was going to be a train running sometime after 10.00 and walked to Moor Street. When I got there there was a Marylebone train waiting which I managed to get and even got a seat so I did get back to London okay but 2 hours later than I should have done.
There didn't seem to be any other Spurs fans on the train so I just wondered did the rest of you manage to get a train home from New Street and how long did it take? Obviously if you're still stranded in Brum you won't be able to respond to this message!!
At least we didn't lose which is a bit of a novelty for an away game and we even played a left back at left back for part of the game which is highly unusual for us!
After that experience I'm really not sure whether to risk the trains again for the similar journey to Wigan, although not being a car driver I don't have too many other options.
Anyway, moan over, I feel better now....

 

[millhouse]

I once missed the entire game one Sunday on the way to the Lane

 

[ade316]

gees m8, feel for you. glad a made the decision to drive

 

[Gin+Tonic14]

The railway system is a national disgrace.

 

[TheChosenOne]

@ Thatgicamoment, I'm proud of your efforts to support our team and sorry you had a shitty travelling day.

The biggest joke is that the Gov want the public out of cars and onto public transport, when near enough every weekend the services are down for repairs etc and they can never seem to finish maintenance, or a plethora of other poxy excuses.

I only live about 10 miles outside of the M25, this town has two train stations and buses going more or less everywhere, its just they dont go anywhere at a suitable time.

To get to my daughters house in Cheshunt by car would take approx 8-9 minutes, but by public transport possibly 2 hours.

Motorists are treated like shyte by the greenies but the taxes and duties paid by motorists keep this country going.

 

[theburtonshelf]

The railway system is a national disgrace.

it works well most of the time but stories like this are all to often, ive had my share myself, but i get the train just about every week to spurs and rarely have trouble.

 

[millhouse]

it works well most of the time but stories like this are all to often, ive had my share myself, but i get the train just about every week to spurs and rarely have trouble.

I've been going for nearly 4 years and only had serious trouble twice.

 

[thatgicamoment]

@ Thatgicamoment, I'm proud of your efforts to support our team and sorry you had a shitty travelling day.

Thanks for your kind words. Unfortunately I'm too dedicated or too stupid to not go next time regardless of how much pain it causes (and that's apart from having to watch another lacklustre away performance by the team!) and there are a lot of us that feel the same so the train companies will always be laughing all the way to the bank, however diabolical the service they provide is.

 

[tommo84]

I've always been lucky with trains so far, but due to the extra time added on by taking trains I recently made the decision to drive everywhere. Petrol ius still cheaper than train tickets and I have to pay road tax anyway so i figure fuck the environment I'll be dead before it starts to matter!

 

[marion52]

I only go to home games but 95% go by train. Vary rarely any problems.
Except Boxing Day when of course there aren't any!

 

[tommo84]

I do agree that the network is ridiculous if you're going anywhere other than London.

After uni i tried to keep my relationship with my girlfriend going by doing the long-distance thing from Milton Keynes to Peterborough. As I couldnt drive i had to go by train from MK to London Euston, across to Kings Cross then up to Peterborough. This took 3 hours and cost about £30 for 1-way. By car it takes an hour and 15 mins and requires about £10 of petrol for the round trip.

The country is run by idiots.

 

[DC_Boy]

deffo sympathy to you thatgicamoment - and big cred for your spurs supporting - I don't do much long distance supporting now - but I remember when I did - it was really hard work sometimes - though great fun too a lot of the time

there's no doubt that the govt needs to provide more assistance for public transport - but it's hard to know how properly to do it - because simply chucking money at the rail companies often doesn't produce effective results

Probably giving more priority to buses trams and coaches on roads and motorways and subsidising them more to provide extra services might help, but hey I guess this is the wrong forum for this

 

[TheChosenOne]

I've said it before (and I don't mean to hijack the thread) but when my company relocated from Buntingford Hertfordshire down to Waltham Abbey, the local council (right on!) said the company could only have limited allocated car parking on site as the local authority wanted people to car share or use public transport.....
... conveniently forgetting peoples' shifts finish at 10pm,12am,2am,4am,6am - all times when there is no public transport for people needing to travel 40-50 miles.By the time they would have got home they would have to come back again.

Twerps.

 

[nipponyid]

The railway system is a national disgrace.

Re-nationalisation then?

 

[llamafarmer]

I went out in Vauxhall on Saturday night, but drove up to St Albans first to meet a few mates.

Drive to St Albans = £30 round trip
Train/Tube to Vauxhall £25 round trip

Had I done it by train it would have been about £60 for the train ticket alone, despite it being a far shorter route. Add to that buses to and from Bath station and tube tickets when in London, it gets bloody ridiculous!

I don't actually mind train journeys that much, it's the local public transport at either end that pisses me off. And the fact that trains are still usually more expensive than driving means I'll keep taking the conveniance of a car all day long!

 

[Netty]

When I go to WHL I get the train & have never had a problem yet (apart from missing my train last week but that was Dougal's fault, not Virgin).
I tend to drive to the North West away games which I did on Saturday, I must say I was very impressed with the police who were diverting traffic after the game, we parked in a school car park along with hundreds of cars & thought it'd be a nightmare getting out but the police were top notch. Was back home at 6.30pm. Nice.

 

[whatsappnin]

The railway system is a national disgrace.

don't quite think so mate.

 

[whatsappnin]

I do agree that the network is ridiculous if you're going anywhere other than London.

After uni i tried to keep my relationship with my girlfriend going by doing the long-distance thing from Milton Keynes to Peterborough. As I couldnt drive i had to go by train from MK to London Euston, across to Kings Cross then up to Peterborough. This took 3 hours and cost about £30 for 1-way. By car it takes an hour and 15 mins and requires about £10 of petrol for the round trip.

The country is run by idiots.

you should learn to drive> idiot! lol