All-Line Rover, Day 9

After several long days exploring Wales and the Westcountry, I didn't have any firm ideas for today until this morning. I decided to keep it relatively simple and do a few things in the South East that I'd been meaning to do but hadn't got round to.

1010 New Beckenham to London Charing Cross, arr 1039
Distance: 9.5 miles, walk-up return: £4.10

District line, Embankment to Victoria

1115 Gatwick Express from London Victoria to Gatwick Airport, arr 1145
Distance: 26.75 miles, walk-up price: £11.15
(Headcode 1D60, operated by Southern (Gatwick Express) using 460001)

Scenery: 1/10 - Not the point of the journey. Nothing to see here, move along...
Punctuality: 9/10 - Half a minute late into Gatwick, possibly caused by a slow crawl through East Croydon.
Speed: 8/10 - Very good for such a crowded main line, though it is still only 54mph average.
Comfort: 9/10 - Plenty of room for luggage, decent seats, reasonable legroom, and a good trolley service.
Staff: 1/10 - See below.

I first decided to sample the Gatwick Express, linking Gatwick Airport non-stop to London Victoria station in just half an hour, with trains every 15 minutes. Once a part of InterCity under British Rail, it was a franchise all of its own until Southern took it over in June 2008.

This service is every timetable planner's worst nightmare. It uses the mainline from London to Brighton, which is very nearly full with commuters. Furthermore, it insists on using particular platforms at both Victoria and Gatwick. In particular it uses platforms 1 and 2 at Gatwick, which are on the west side of the station (nearest the airport, in fact), while the lines it uses immediately north of Gatwick are the two easternmost ones.

Somehow, it works. Just. Until recently it functioned completely independently of the massive commuter flows up and down the line; from last December, six morning services from Gatwick and six evening services to Gatwick have been extended to Brighton to ease somewhat the severe overcrowding.

In spite of being taken over by Southern, it still appears to function independently of Southern. It had a much larger contingent of staff than any other half-hour train would have, all out to make sure that the foreign-language travellers with lots of luggage get safely to and from the airport.

At least, that's the theory. The ticket inspector, however, didn't seem particularly friendly. I presented my all-line rover, and she stared intently at it for a good fifteen seconds before moving on, wordlessly, apparently satisfied. No "thank you". Not even "okay". She seemed almost disgusted that I didn't have to pay for a ticket.

Most operators in the South East have penalty fare systems: you have to buy a ticket before you board the train, otherwise you may be liable to pay £20. Gatwick Express believe, quite sensibly, that we shouldn't prey on unsuspecting foreigners who have just landed on the red-eye, and go as far as allowing you to buy a ticket - at no extra cost - on the train.

The by-product of this is, however, that the fares are really quite expensive. A single in standard class costs £11.15 with a railcard or £16.90 for full-fare adults. That's 63p per mile.

However, when you get to Gatwick Airport station, you can start to see why. Once you go up the escalator from platform level to the concourse, you are literally inside the airport concourse already; the station is completely integrated into the South Terminal, and indeed it was one of the first airports to have an integrated railway station all the way back in 1950.

Still, at that price, a little courtesy ought to come free.

1201 Gatwick Airport to London St Pancras
Distance: 29.5 miles, walk-up price: £5.90
(Headcode 1T20, operated by First Capital Connect using 377213+377507)

Scenery: 4/10 - The maze of lines through London Bridge is eye-opening, but otherwise nothing of interest.
Punctuality: 5/10 - Five minutes late into St Pancras, either due platform congestion at London Bridge or problems further up the line at Bedford (or both).
Speed: 7/10 - Not bad for what is, essentially, a commuter service.
Comfort: 4/10 - The train I was on had a few teething problems; that doesn't excuse hard seats with poor visibility.
Staff: N/A - Driver-only operation, no onboard staff.

From Gatwick Airport I proceeded back towards London on one of the greatest ideas for a service anyone's ever had: Thameslink.

The basic principle of such services is simple: instead of having lots of services to the suburbs of London running out of lots of different terminal stations, join the lines up with tunnels and run the suburban trains through the tunnels to the other side and have them continue on the other side.

There are two huge advantages of joining things up: one, it gives the passenger a choice of which central station to use, and thus spreads the load of passengers; and two, it massively reduces the demand for platform capacity at the London termini, and thus allows for more trains.

Thameslink was dreamed up in 1985, when someone noticed that there was a former mainline tunnel through central London which was now disused which ran from St Pancras through the City to Blackfriars. Reopening the tunnel allowed the BedPan service between Bedford and St Pancras to be joined to services south of the river, principally London-Brighton services.

The idea was so successful that a huge expansion of Thameslink is currently underway. A new junction is being installed to allow access from the central tunnel section not just to the Midland Main Line but also to the East Coast Main Line, thus permitting services from Peterborough, King's Lynn, Cambridge, Hertford, Stevenage and Welwyn to run through to the south of the river.

The number of through platforms at London Bridge is also being increased from 6 to 9, thus allowing many more services south of the river to run through to the north. The net effect will mean that the number of services through the central tunnel will *triple* from eight trains per hour to 24.

The whole expansion was initially called "Thameslink 2000". For various reasons it got delayed - planning permission and funding being two major stumbling blocks - and it will only be half-completed by the time of the Olympics in 2012. It's now known as the "Thameslink Programme" and will be completed - hopefully! - in 2015.

I happened to be on one of the first wave of new trains (class 377/5s, in this case 377507) being introduced to cope with a vast increase in through services. Unfortunately, they seemed to have a few teething problems; the only toilet I could find was out of order, and when I tried to move to the next carriage to find another the door failed to open. I know most of the users will be commuters, but that doesn't mean they should get second-rate trains: sort it out, First Capital Connect.

Prior to 2007, Thameslink trains didn't use the main King's Cross or St Pancras stations, but instead used King's Cross Thameslink, a cramped station about 15 minutes walk from King's Cross proper. Fortunately, when St Pancras was rebuilt to take Eurostar services, they added a brand-new station directly underneath the Midland Main Line platforms which is much more spacious and easier to access.

Every time I visit St Pancras it seems to become more grand. This was my first time here since all the shops and faciliites had been completed. You know you're doing something right when Guillaume Pépy, director of the French railways (SNCF), says "St Pancras is probably the greatest station in the world right now". Open question: when was the last time the French deferred to the English on matters of architecture? Scratch that, when was the last time they deferred to the English on anything?!

Barlow's magnificent single-span arch roof has been lovingly and beautifully restored, with the undercroft formerly used for storing beer barrels from Burton-on-Trent having been converted into the main concourse. One of the platforms under the main roof was removed to bring natural daylight to the concourse below, which connects the old part of the station with the new extension to the north which houses trains to the East Midlands and the Thameslink platforms, as well as platforms for the high-speed commuter services to Kent.

I got some lunch in the excellent Camden Food Co. They sell an excellent range of sandwiches, both hot and cold, pastries, cakes, fruit and drinks. They have many excellent twists on classics: my favourite being the ham ploughman's, a normal ploughman's sandwich of cheese, pickle, lettuce and tomato, with ham. They are, without doubt, the best station café company there is; look out for them next time you're in St Pancras, King's Cross, Liverpool Street, Fenchurch Street, Victoria, Charing Cross, Euston, or Birmingham New Street.

1315 London St Pancras to Leicester, arr 1429
Distance: 99.25 miles, walk-up price: £30.35
(Headcode 1D37, operated by East Midlands Trains using HST 43081+43060)

Scenery: 4/10 - Some novelty value but otherwise bland English countryside.
Punctuality: 10/10 - Bang on time. Well done.
Speed: 7/10 - Not as slow as the Great Western, but suffers from underinvestment compared to the WCML and ECML.
Comfort: 7/10 - The seats were a bit worn and the padding was compressed, but the visibility was superb; the buffet car wasn't too bad, but disappointed me (see below).
Staff: 7/10 - Just the one ticket inspection; none between Market Harborough (our only intermediate stop) and Leicester; friendly buffet car staff.

I had never been on the Midland Main Line proper until today, where the InterCity services are run by East Midlands Trains. As the line is not electrified, the majority of services now use Class 222 Meridians, which are similar to the much-maligned Voyagers used by CrossCountry and Virgin Trains.

Given that I hate Voyagers, I expected to hate Meridians, so I chose carefully and got on one of the few services still operated by HSTs. However, I don't understand why this was being operated by an HST, since the service was ludicrously quiet - perhaps half-a-dozen people per carriage. Giving this service to Nottingham an eight-coach train while much busier services - particularly those to Sheffield - languish with four- and five-car trains is bad planning.

Unlike the three other major users of HSTs (FGW, NXEC and CrossCountry), East Midlands Trains (EMT) have not refurbished their Mark 3 coaches. I was thus hoping for the same level of comfort as I got from unrefurbished Mark 3 coaches of NXEA or WSMR; unfortunately those used by East Midlands Trains seem to have been used rather more intensively, and the padding had been badly compressed to make the seats more uncomfortable than they ought to have been.

The line itself is pretty busy: Thameslink services play leapfrog with each other while trying to keep out of the way of the mainline services. This does restrict the speeds at times, and we averaged 81.6mph to Leicester - not bad, and better than the Great Western (where trains are also still not electrified), but it is often overlooked for investment compared to the West Coast and East Coast Main Lines.

The buffet car once again failed to provide any healthy options, and the bottles of water were ludicrously small (£1.30 for a 330ml bottle!), which was disappointing. Fortunately, Leicester station provided plenty of opportunity to refill. The station itself seems a little run-down in places, though the station frontage is still well-kept and looks very nice indeed.

1517 Leicester to Stansted Airport, arr 1745
Distance: 113.5 miles, walk-up price: £27.35
(Headcode 1L44, operated by CrossCountry using Turbostar 170116)

Scenery: 5/10 - Some nice English countryside, but quite flat really.
Punctuality: 4/10 - A crew change at Stamford left us about six minutes late, which grew gradually to 10 minutes late at Cambridge; we arrived just three minutes late into Stansted.
Speed: 5/10 - We averaged just 46mph, which for a major cross-country route ought to be better.
Comfort: 1/10 - Not nearly enough legroom, and the seats were not designed to be sat in for two and a half hours; see below.
Staff: 8/10 for Leicester-Stamford, 1/10 for Stamford-Stansted - see below.

The Birmingham-Stansted service, via Leicester, Peterborough and Cambridge, is a rare example of an east-west cross-country service south of the Pennines. Like the Liverpool-Norwich route I sampled on Day 1, this is a long, twisting route with few people going from one end to the other.

On this journey, however, there were noticeably more people using the service than used the Liverpool-Norwich; it was, in fact, busiest east of Peterborough, especially from Cambridge where we were essentially full of people going to the airport.

It's good to see such a service well-used, but CrossCountry provide terrible trains for the journey. The Turbostars they use have very little legroom indeed - not quite as bad as the single-carriage Class 153 Sprinter (see the Heart of Wales line on Day 8), but being in an airline seat for two-and-a-half hours was the least comfortable I've been on a train in years.

The staff didn't really help either. The first crew, which got off at Stamford, performed regular ticket checks and the trolley went up and down at least twice in an hour. Then it all started going downhill. First the trolley was removed at Peterborough.

Worse, however, was that I didn't see the ticket inspectors once between Stamford and Stansted. On a route on which so many people got on and off this was nothing short of scandalous. Even if there are automatic barriers at most of the stations en route, I have no doubt that some people will not have paid the fare.

Maybe if CrossCountry actually got all the fares they deserved they could afford better carriages than the Turbostars.

I arrived at Stansted Airport, a station I'd visited just once before, five years ago when I travelled to Cambridge for an interview there. (I didn't get in.) Unlike Gatwick, while the airport is connected to the station, I seem to recall the walk at Stansted taking a good ten minutes or so. It's not a place to spend any time, though, so I got immediately onto my next train.

1800 Stansted Express from Stansted Airport to London Liverpool Street, arr 1848
Distance: 37.5 miles, walk-up price: £12.55
(Headcode 1B99, operated by National Express East Anglia using 317710+317881)

Scenery: 1/10 - Again, not the point of the journey. Nothing to see here, move along...
Punctuality: 8/10 - A few minutes late at Tottenham Hale, but just a minute late into Liverpool Street in the end.
Speed: 2/10 - Both too slow and too fast. See below.
Comfort: 5/10 - Lots of legroom - almost too much - but the seats weren't very nice.
Staff: 2/10 - The trolley came down the aisle once; otherwise I saw no staff. I expected at least one ticket check.

I finished the day with another airport express service. Stansted is used by leisure traffic rather more than business traffic, and while the service runs every fifteen minutes with eight coaches, there can't have been more than half-a-dozen people per carriage on my Stansted Express train. This was in complete contrast to this morning's service to Gatwick, and it makes me wonder if the Stansted Express is viable as a service. I appreciate I'm not comparing like with like in terms of times of day and direction of flow, but nonetheless it was very empty.

One thing that probably doesn't help is that the journey time is at least 45 minutes; Gatwick is just 30 minutes from Victoria and Heathrow is just 15 minutes from Paddington. So on the face of it perhaps the Stansted Express just isn't "express" enough.

However, on the basis of this experience, I am inclined to say that perhaps the service is too fast. The quality of the ride was appalling. We were jolted around like we were going over a cobble-stone road at 60mph. Even though the track was continuous-welded rail, it felt like we were going over clackety-clack jointed track much, much too fast.

Not an experience I'd care to repeat. I gratefully alighted at Liverpool Street, where I got a little shopping before heading back to Ian's.

Circle Line, Liverpool Street to Cannon Street

1926 London Cannon Street to New Beckenham
Distance: 8.5 miles, walk-up price included in morning trip

So, today's statistics:

Total time on trains: 6 hours, 38 minutes.
Distance travelled: 324.5 miles.
Walk-up price: £91.40.

All in all a pretty short day. However, it's ridiculous to think that I spent nearly twice as long on trains on Saturday and would have paid considerably less (£78.60 vs. £91.40). East Midlands Trains stand out as being particularly expensive: more than £30.35 for an off-peak ticket to Leicester (with a railcard!) is much more than you'd have to pay even with Virgin, with which an off-peak single to Coventry is just £25 with a railcard. The Gatwick Express is the worst, though; I appreciate that you're paying for the convenience, but it's still ridiculous.