In the October newsletter that I receive every
month summarising what has been going on at the County Council, I notice that
there is an item about the Suffolk Rail Conference that took place earlier this
week.
High on the agenda apparently was the issue of
improving rail infrastructure (track capacity, signals etc.) in order to
support the promised new rolling stock that is to be provided by Abelio Greater
Anglia as part of the new rail franchise that the company, somewhat
surprisingly, won in August.
Recent experience suggests that some new rolling
stock is certainly needed! I went down
to London yesterday, taking the first possible ‘cheap day return’ train from
Sudbury to Liverpool Street. We all changed at Marks Tey onto the main London line, and all went
well until we got to Chelmsford. Then
the train went quiet and there followed an ominously long wait. We were eventually told that the train was
going to terminate in Chelmsford owing to a ‘train fault’.
We waited for about half an hour and then piled on
to the next London bound train which was something of a squeeze. The new driver then informed us about the nature of the
‘fault’. Apparently an unfortunate customer
had got stuck in the lavatory on the train and had pulled the communication
cord. It seemed that releasing him or
her had defeated the railway staff and it had been decided to cancel the
service while assistance from elsewhere was sought.
The astonishingly cheerful group of passengers with
whom I found myself on the later train were generally of the opinion that a
passenger stuck in the loo was a much better excuse than the usual autumnal bleat about ‘leaves on
the line’.
