Not MMISoftware related (other than the fact that I travel by train a lot on business) but….

Looks like my post of the 26th November was close to the mark (post). It appears that GNER is failing and they have (or will) lose their franchise to run trains on the east-coast mainline in the UK in 18 months because they cannot meet their franchise payments to government. What will happen next? Surely things can only get better!

Full story is available at the BBC: GNER may lose its top train route

I have decided to keep a list of reasons for delays on trains:

30th November 2006
GNER – first train delayed due to ‘plastic bag on overhead lines’
GNER – second train delayed (a different train from the one above) due to ‘weather in the Aviemore area’ – if there wasn’t ‘weather in the Aviemore area’ I would be even more concerned

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Not really MMISoftware related but I travel a lot on business and when I can, I travel by train. Over the years I have personally heard (or read about) a number excuses, my favourite is ‘leaves on the line’ and the best two I have read about are ‘wrong sort of rain’ (an excuse given for delays in Manchester a few years ago) and ‘wrong sort of pollen’ (last summer (or the one before), pollen released from Rape (a yellow flowering plant grown for oil) fields clogged air filters on trains causing the engines to overheat) . I have therefore decided to keep my own list of reasons for delays on trains, and the first one is:

26th November 2006:
First Trains – going to London – signals struck by lightening, missed our arrival time in to London (as we were delayed), therefore no platform free.

I travel a lot by train in the UK, and I have recently noticed a lack of food on GNER trains. You go to the buffet and there is nothing. A few pieces of cake, a couple of rounds of tired old sandwiches, and that is it.

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I travel a lot by train in the UK. And I spend a lot of time on GNER trains.

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