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The train system was on top form today...
After getting to the station we had about 10 minutes left until the scheduled time of my train, so I got a ticket and we found some seats. Five minutes or so later I checked the board, noticed the train was due to be about 10 minutes late, thought 'oh well', and went and sat to chat with Sath again. Not so long after that we saw a mass exodous from Platform 1 to Platform 2, and an announcer said that the London trains had been diverted to Platform 2. When there was 5 minutes until that time left, I went and looked at the board again, and it was only one more minute delayed, so I hugged Sath goodbye and went up to the platform (noticing there was yellow and black striped tape across the stairs to Platform 1, and that my train was scheduled for precisely the same time as one apparently going to Platform 1).
I waited a while on Platform 2, and a train for London came and went, and my train was next on the board. Then it disappeared without arriving, to be replaced with one for Ipswich. Eventually when that turned up I decided to take it, 'cos it was stopping at Witham which was at least in the right direction and I thought I stood a better chance of getting to Braintree from.
So after getting off the train at Witham, I saw on the display that the next train on the correct platform was the one to Braintree I wanted, and it was only 22mins delayed which didn't look like it was at all bad, given that they had a trackside fire at Colchester and one at Chelmsford (on Platform 1 apparently although I couldn't see any evidence from Platform 2 which is only just across the track) and a freight train broken down to cope with. So I sat down and prepared to wait. Not so long later the person on the bench next to me asked (well, yelled at) the guy sitting in the office-thing about where the train to Braintree was, and it'd been delayed another 9 minutes. About two or three minutes later it'd been delayed another 5 minuites. I began to have serious doubts it'd ever get to Witham.
Eventually a train was scheduled to turn up at Witham, but they were planning to just turn it straight back round 'cos the Witham-Braintree service obviously just isn't that important to them. So we (as in, all the people who wanted to go to Braintree, or rather me and a random girl and the yelling guy) cornered the poor old guy in the office and demanded to know how we were meant to get to Braintree now. We were told there was a 'service bus' we could use our tickets on coming in about ten minutes, or coaches arriving in about half an hour. We gathered up all the others trying to get to Braintree and went to get the service bus (I kind of talked to the random girl, traditional essex-girl material (well, the socks were sane, but apart from that) who said 'innit' a lot and swore quite a bit and was smoking a cigarrette and wielding a teen magazine thing, well when I say talked I mean I let her moan at me and reminded her where the bus stop was 'cos I'd actually been listening). The bus got very full, but I got a seat eventually (not to start with tho).
At about 3:15 I phoned my mum's work 'cos I thought she was working late today there - no, that's Thursday, today she was in Colchester, so I confused the person that answered the phone a bit and then rang home, where she was. I thought (silly me) that the bus would be sane and because it was a 'service bus' we could use our tickets on would go to Braintree Station at least (I didn't hope for Cressing). No, it left us at the bus station and I proved I still can't get between the bus station and the train station in Braintree (I think I know Chelmsford better now... scary). Thankfully my mum phoned and rescued me, but it was a less triumphant return home than yesterday's - under much more adverse conditions tho, and I could have got home easily, just not to the station where I'd sent my mum.
All in all, it took two hours to get home...
After getting to the station we had about 10 minutes left until the scheduled time of my train, so I got a ticket and we found some seats. Five minutes or so later I checked the board, noticed the train was due to be about 10 minutes late, thought 'oh well', and went and sat to chat with Sath again. Not so long after that we saw a mass exodous from Platform 1 to Platform 2, and an announcer said that the London trains had been diverted to Platform 2. When there was 5 minutes until that time left, I went and looked at the board again, and it was only one more minute delayed, so I hugged Sath goodbye and went up to the platform (noticing there was yellow and black striped tape across the stairs to Platform 1, and that my train was scheduled for precisely the same time as one apparently going to Platform 1).
I waited a while on Platform 2, and a train for London came and went, and my train was next on the board. Then it disappeared without arriving, to be replaced with one for Ipswich. Eventually when that turned up I decided to take it, 'cos it was stopping at Witham which was at least in the right direction and I thought I stood a better chance of getting to Braintree from.
So after getting off the train at Witham, I saw on the display that the next train on the correct platform was the one to Braintree I wanted, and it was only 22mins delayed which didn't look like it was at all bad, given that they had a trackside fire at Colchester and one at Chelmsford (on Platform 1 apparently although I couldn't see any evidence from Platform 2 which is only just across the track) and a freight train broken down to cope with. So I sat down and prepared to wait. Not so long later the person on the bench next to me asked (well, yelled at) the guy sitting in the office-thing about where the train to Braintree was, and it'd been delayed another 9 minutes. About two or three minutes later it'd been delayed another 5 minuites. I began to have serious doubts it'd ever get to Witham.
Eventually a train was scheduled to turn up at Witham, but they were planning to just turn it straight back round 'cos the Witham-Braintree service obviously just isn't that important to them. So we (as in, all the people who wanted to go to Braintree, or rather me and a random girl and the yelling guy) cornered the poor old guy in the office and demanded to know how we were meant to get to Braintree now. We were told there was a 'service bus' we could use our tickets on coming in about ten minutes, or coaches arriving in about half an hour. We gathered up all the others trying to get to Braintree and went to get the service bus (I kind of talked to the random girl, traditional essex-girl material (well, the socks were sane, but apart from that) who said 'innit' a lot and swore quite a bit and was smoking a cigarrette and wielding a teen magazine thing, well when I say talked I mean I let her moan at me and reminded her where the bus stop was 'cos I'd actually been listening). The bus got very full, but I got a seat eventually (not to start with tho).
At about 3:15 I phoned my mum's work 'cos I thought she was working late today there - no, that's Thursday, today she was in Colchester, so I confused the person that answered the phone a bit and then rang home, where she was. I thought (silly me) that the bus would be sane and because it was a 'service bus' we could use our tickets on would go to Braintree Station at least (I didn't hope for Cressing). No, it left us at the bus station and I proved I still can't get between the bus station and the train station in Braintree (I think I know Chelmsford better now... scary). Thankfully my mum phoned and rescued me, but it was a less triumphant return home than yesterday's - under much more adverse conditions tho, and I could have got home easily, just not to the station where I'd sent my mum.
All in all, it took two hours to get home...
