18:00.

What? Starting a rolling blog at 18:00 I hear you say? Well, yes, because the day’s taken an unexpected turn…

There was me, quite content to be working from home, when in the space of am email and a whatsapp call I found myself myself agreeing to head off to South Wales on another adventure – and adventure it is! Right now I’m sat on a Northern service from Sowerby Bridge to Manchester in order to catch a train to Cardiff. Of course, nothing’s simple, due to the recent storms. Some trains are cancelled whilst others are running late, including this one. In theory, the 17:23 to Chester would’ve got me to Manchester in time to hotfoot it across the city in order to connect with the 18:30 to Cardiff. Only, we’re running 16 minutes late after leaving Todmorden, so that’s not going to happen. That leaves me waiting for the 19:30 to Cardiff, which will get me to the Welsh capital at 23:09. Only the inbound working from Carmarthen has now been cancelled due to trees on the line. Fortunately, Transport for Wales are running an extra service from Shrewsbury in its path, which means I should still make it to Cardiff today. Just as well the hotel I booked at the last minute is right next to the station.

At this point I must thank my long-suffering wife Dawn, who’s just had her next two evenings changed at very short notice – and who dropped things at even shorter notice to drive me to the station in order to try and catch an earlier train.

Why am I venturing to Wales you may ask? Well, I’ve been contracted for an assignment at the new railway test track near Neath, which is where I’ll be spending the next couple of days. But more of that when it happens. Just getting to Cardiff is going to provide enough entertainment for now!

19:30.

Remember I said about entertainment? My Northern service arrived into Manchester 19 mins late, so – as expected I missed my connection. But more fun was to come. Despite what the National Rail Enquiries said about trains running through to Cardiff, the opposite proved to be the case when I got to Manchester Piccadilly. The main Indicator boards showed a 19:30 to Cardiff, but when I got to platform 9 the 19:30 was shown as only running as far as Shrewsbury. Well, I have to get there so I had no option to board the unit when it arrived and await the next instalment – which was soon provided by the Conductor, who announce that the 19:30 would indeed be terminating at Shrewsbury as the line is blocked between there and Hereford. So, from Shrewsbury we’ll be loaded into coaches which will take us to Hereford, where we’ll be put back on a train to resume our trip to Cardiff. What time will I get there? Who knows? I’ve no problem with any of this – other than the lack of up to date information available when I checked NRES and Real Time Trains. It’s not RTTs fault as they take the information direct from the railway’s systems, but you’d think something would produce a red flag on National Rail Enquiries when you enter the journey.

Right now I’m enjoying a nearly empty train as we head South. I’d planned to have settled down for a few hours of work, but that hope’s out of the window now.

20:00.

I’ve just had a good chat with the conductor who told me what the problems are. Apparently, there’s two sections of track near Craven Arms and Leominster where the ballast has been washed away and level crossing and signalling equipment damaged. Network Rail are doing their best to repair the damage as quickly as possible, but they keep discovering more problems. Ho hum…

20:15.

We’ve arrived at Crewe 7 minutes down due to more disruption around Sandbach. For such a busy junction the station’s strangely quiet. Thankfully, this train is again too as the squalling baby that’s been trying to burst its lungs all the way from Stockport has departed the train here. Maybe my ears will stop ringing by the time we get to Shrewsbury…

20:30.

Whilst I’m stuck on the train, I thought I’d have a look at the NRES website to see what it says about my journey. Now, our Conductor has assured us via several announcements that road transport will be laid on between Shrewsbury and Hereford. But this is what’s on the NRES page.

Looks like my trip is going to get even more interesting when we get to Shrewsbury. This trip’s really starting to feel like a bit of a lottery. Meanwhile, the day draws on…

21:10.

Phew! The coach sevice to Hereford does exist! The few of us travelling were bundled on to a rather careworn coach and left within minutes. I count four other passengers besides me.

23:00.

-…and relax! We made it to Hereford by 22:38. The young lady driving our coach did a sterling job getting us from A-B via all the normal station stops on the route. No-one got on anywhere and only a couple got off leaving three of us to disembark at Hereford. The station was deserted of staff, which wasn’t too reassuring, especially as the building was locked up, but I spied a TfW service with lights on in the platforms and managed to find the night entrance to get across to platform 2. Now I’m sat in the warm, sharing a very dirty train with a handful of others. Admittedly, the bins on these 197s aren’t very prominent (or large) but it’s depressing to see just how many people can’t be arsed to tidy up after themselves, leaving the train looking like a shit-tip.

I’d hoped to have got to Cardiff by 21:50. Then it was 23:09. Now it’s 00:25, but at least I’ll get there.

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