Paul Wilkinson Photography Blog

I love train travel. No, seriously, I really do.

I love the sensation of hurtling across our beautiful country. I love the gentle sway and the chit chat of passengers.

I love the excitement (as with all long journeys) of knowing in a few hours we’ll be somewhere completely different, somewhere with a different outlook and scene. And today that somewhere is Newcastle, so it’s somewhere with a completely different accent as well.

But why do train operators manage to introduce failure when all else is so good? Our seat booking has worked perfectly. Me an’ Sarah are sitting happily exactly where the paperwork said we would. And that, frankly, is somewhat of a relief as there are an awful lot of people without reservations who will no doubt be sitting/standing/sleeping by the doors for the next three hours. The seats are comfortable and there is power (Sarah is currently engrossed in Series 5 of ‘24′ while I type this) and we have the wonder of 100mph wireless. Very cool.

But then, just when I thought all was well in the world, I went to grab a sandwich and a cup of tea. Tea? Yes. Sandwich? No. Uh? How can we have paid as much as we have for tickets for a journey that will take 6 hours from start to finish and there is nothing savoury to eat. Mars Bars. Yup. Kit Kat. Oh yeah. Muffins. Plenty. But something as simple as a flipping sandwich? Nope. Nothing.

Now call me old fashioned if you will, but surely if they can get their heads around the technology of booking systems and in-coach wifi infrastructure they can muster up some bread, margarine (I would prefer butter, but let’s be real here), a few wilted leaves and a bit of cheese or something long-dead to create the simplest of lunches.

We are now stuck in a fast-moving steel tube with hundreds of people who, like us, got on a mid-morning train that doesn’t arrive until 3pm, thinking (wildly optimistically as it turns out) that food would be something that National Express (yes, I’m more than happy to name names) might just have considered.

Anyway, end of rant. Back to my tea and Kit Kat.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 11th, 2009, 11:58 am and is filed under Chat, For Website. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.