The day before my trip, I'd managed to book train tickets online, after some difficulty with the booking 'apps'. Government advice was strongly recommending social distancing (and mask-wearing in crowded locations) so I decided to travel First Class.
I took the first bus from Brewood to Wolverhampton at 07:30, which meant I had plenty of time to walk to Wolverhapton's new and rather incomplete station which still fails to impress me. I couldn't help compiling a mental 'snagging list' of features I came across that were either not yet finished or had already broken in use. My childhood visits to the station were to a rather run-down station after the exigencies of WWII but it still provoked a sense of anticipation quite lacking in the 21st century version. There are short posts describing that period here and here.
Wolverhampton Station entrance hall showing the new ticket gateline giving access to platform 1
The departure was from platform 4 and the previous operators of the service, Virgin, had a First Class Lounge there but there isn't one currently. The Avanti website says "Most of our First Class Lounges are currently closed. To ensure safe social distancing, we’ve also reduced the available space in our open lounges".
The train arrived on time - a Glasgow to London via Birmingham service operated by a Class 390 'Pendolino'. I found my reserved seat and settled down. There were only a couple of other passengers in my coach. We departed a couple of minutes late and the on-board staff quickly provided a cup of tea and an instant porridge, which I selected from the rather limited menu. Both were served in cardboard containers with wooden cutlery. In the age of Covid-19, a reasonably 'proper' breakfast served with metal cutlery is a distant memory. The ride quality was not particularly good and I wondered if the fact that I was in the leading vehicle was a factor.
The journey was uneventful and the driver had no difficulty in maintaining the fairly generous timing to London Euston, arriving in platform 16 at 10:33. As we slowly ran in, I had a good view of the adjacent major civil engineering works for HS2, the new high speed railway which will initially link Euston to a new station at Curzon Street Birmingham. The former Down side carriage shed and associated sidings have been removed and the site is being prepared for the new line. I'm a great believer in railways but can find no justification for proceeding with HS2 when many parts of the country are crying out for more investment on existing, conventional routes.
Euston in 2013 with the disused Down Side Carriage Shed in the background.
The present Euston station has become rather down-at-heel, despite periodic refurbishment. Some years ago, a major rebuilding was promised but this will presumably coincide with the eventual completion of the first stage of HS2, whenever that is. There's a short post from 2008 discussing Euston, St. Pancras and King's Cross here. The concourse area at Euston has escalators leading directly to Euston Underground station but, at present, a detour is needed. All passengers are first directed outside, make their way along the outside of the building, then re-enter further along to reach the escalators. Builder's partition walls ensure this detour. I found the signage rather inadequate and the impression conveyed is that 'Customers' (as the railway prefers to term its passengers) are really rather a nuisance.
It was quite busy in the ticket hall of the underground station, mainly people apparently bewildered by the array of automatic ticket machines along one wall. The 'Oyster' contactless ticketing system is now extended to to allow 'touch-in' by credit card, allowing me to avoid the confusion and descend to the southbound Victoria Line platform where a train arrived after less than a minute. Despite the drop-lights at each end of the coach being lowered for ventilation and noisy fans in the ventilation system apparently turned up to maximum, it was a very warm journey to Victoria and I was quite relieved to return to ground level and the comparatively spacious concourse at Victoria.
Even today, the history of Victoria station as two stations side-by-side is apparent in its layout and architecture. On the eastern side, a pleasant arched roof covers the 'Chatham' lines (shared by the London and Chatham Railway and South Eastern Railway prior to their amalgamation). To the west, there's an impressive range of station offices built to serve the 'Brighton' lines of the L.B.S.C.R. which feature the heraldic shield of Sussex but the platforms themselves are now permanently without natural light following the construction of a modern building overhead.
London Victoria: Heraldic shield of Sussex featuring six martlets on the western range of offices on the Brighton side.
There's a brief article about the origins of Victoria Station here. I joined the next 'fast' train to East Croydon and within a few minutes we were on our way. We made the single mandatory intermediate stop at Clapham Junction which I've briefly described in a earlier post here. Around ten minutes are allowed from Clapham Junction to East Croydon but we were brought to a stand by a red signal just after Selhurst and then again just before East Croydon.
East Croydon: View from platform 4 looking towards Brighton in 2016
A short taxi ride then completed the journey to visit my friend - a visit delayed by almost 18 months because of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The following afternoon, I returned home. This time I decided to catch the bus from my friend's to East Croydon station. The next train to Victoria was running a few minutes late and by the time it arrived, the platform was crowded, adding more passengers to the already-full train. I decided to remain standing for the journey to London. There were more people swarming around Victoria station than the previous day. When I reached the underground, I found an alternative access route was in use from the ticket hall to Victoria platform level, necessitating a fairly long detour through pedestrian tunnels. The train was well-loaded but I found a seat and, once again, the underground journey was hot and noisy. I arrived at Euston main line station in plenty of time for my booked train, then was pleased to discover that the Avanti First Class Lounge at Euston was still operating, providing a pleasant haven for a few minutes and offering drinks and snacks served by friendly staff. I was booked on the Edinburgh via Birmingham service which would deliver me to Wolverhampton without a change but, on making my way to the platform, I found two diesel-electric 'Super-Voyagers' (Class 221) units coupled together rather than a single electric 'Pendolino' (Class 390) unit.
I'm not sure whether this was a 'substitution' - certainly the reservations for a number of passengers (including the writer) had gone wrong but the on-board staff got everybody in my coach seated with some empty seats remaining. With underfloor diesel engines along the train, 'Voyagers' are always noisier than the 'Pendolinos' but what particularly annoys me is that the diesel-electric trainsets would be travelling "under the wires" from London to Scotland but using diesel fuel. This is because successive UK governments have declined to 'grasp the nettle' of comprehensive railway electrification despite a stated commitment to "de-carbonise" the economy. Instead, we now have the ultimate 'cop-out' of the later Hitachi 'Azuma' trains built for the UK (the Class 800 series) which are 'Bi-mode' and can run on overhead electrified lines or on non-electrified lines using diesel engines and electric generators. When running on overhead electrified routes, they suffer the weight penalty of lugging around unused diesel engines, generators, fuel tanks and fuel. When running on non-electrified lines, there's the weight penalty of the high-voltage switchgear and transformer. The increased complexity of 'Bi-mode' adds to both initial and maintenance costs.
In 2020, when rail journeys for non-essential purposes were prohibited by law, I remotely monitored movements at Euston a few times during the reduced 'Covid-19' timetable using Railcam UK (described in my post Watching The Trains Go By). There are two posts on those observations here and here.
By September 2021, more trains were being run but still fewer than in 'normal' times. However, the pair of Class 221s got me back to Wolverhampton on time. Rail travel in the age of Covid-19 is a little strange but at least it's possible.
