Traumatic travel day
Jun. 3rd, 2009 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steverogersonI had to go to London today to attend a press conference.
This should have been a fairly straightforward affair as Nottingham is less than two hours by train from St Pancras. All was going fine until the train sped through Bedford station, a mere half an hour out of London. As we went through the station, there was a bang followed by the train wobbling uncertainly and then the driver hit the brakes and we came to a sudden halt just south of the station. The burnt smell from the brakes was very evident. An announcement came rather quickly saying that there had been an incident and that we would be here for some time, and drinks at the buffet are now free. They don't normally give free drinks away that quickly, so it was obvious something serious had happened, confirmed shortly afterwards when a procession of paramedics walked past the window on the way to the front of the train. It was as we suspected, someone had gone under the train, whether a suicide or an accident I still don't know.
We did eventually get to London - after they'd removed the body and found a reserve driver - some two and a half hours behind schedule. I rushed to the now finished press conference and managed to get a private briefing. The tube journey back to St Pancras was long due to signalling problems on the Piccadilly Line. And when I got to St Pancras it was chaos as a knock-on from this morning's incident. The railway staff talking to passengers were clearly frustrated as no-one had given them any information about which trains were going when and from which platform. I eventually caught the train I had a ticket for, though somewhat late.
This should have been a fairly straightforward affair as Nottingham is less than two hours by train from St Pancras. All was going fine until the train sped through Bedford station, a mere half an hour out of London. As we went through the station, there was a bang followed by the train wobbling uncertainly and then the driver hit the brakes and we came to a sudden halt just south of the station. The burnt smell from the brakes was very evident. An announcement came rather quickly saying that there had been an incident and that we would be here for some time, and drinks at the buffet are now free. They don't normally give free drinks away that quickly, so it was obvious something serious had happened, confirmed shortly afterwards when a procession of paramedics walked past the window on the way to the front of the train. It was as we suspected, someone had gone under the train, whether a suicide or an accident I still don't know.
We did eventually get to London - after they'd removed the body and found a reserve driver - some two and a half hours behind schedule. I rushed to the now finished press conference and managed to get a private briefing. The tube journey back to St Pancras was long due to signalling problems on the Piccadilly Line. And when I got to St Pancras it was chaos as a knock-on from this morning's incident. The railway staff talking to passengers were clearly frustrated as no-one had given them any information about which trains were going when and from which platform. I eventually caught the train I had a ticket for, though somewhat late.
