Shortly after returning from my summer holiday I attempted to travel on this service as I had noticed that it appears on the time table to run once a day at this time to Guildford, Monday to Friday. That time it terminated at Epsom so today I was attempting the trip again. I had checked the performance over the last couple of days, it was not encouraging, it was 12 minutes late on Thursday and last Friday it was cancelled.
I purchased my ticket on the way to work and was determined to demand a full refund should it be cancelled tonight, well it wasn't and it was advertised to depart from one of the new platforms at London Bridge, number 14.
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| Platform 14 |
I must admit I was not overally impressed with the new platforms, mind you there's still a lot of protection in place so you feel very enclosed and the platforms as a result are not very wide.
The train departed on time, Beverley phoned to see if it was running and I think she was a little disappointed to learn that it was, apparently it was her train I could see leaving from platform 1.
The trip to Guildford was I uneventful, there was quite a crowd waiting to board but I think most of these were for the more local stops as by the time we arrived at Guildford a couple of minutes late I counted about 20 passengers disembarking. On route I was treated to quite a nice sunset but each time I attempted a photo the train went behind trees!
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| The 17:29 at Guildford |
I was intrigued to find out what would happen to the train once we arrived at Guildford, the result was that the train formed 19:04 for Sutton. A handful of people boarded the train and again I had an uneventful journey, I watched John Betjeman's Metroland on and off as I dozed off and on.
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| Return destination |
Arrived at Sutton at 19:49 and the train departed as empty stock to London bridge, now that would have been a useful link as it was I caught the 3 minute late 20:03 to Victoria and changed at Clapham Junction.
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| Sutton Station |
I was taken back a bit when I had to take a double take as I thought my nicece Frankie was on the train, why would she be travelling to Victoria from Sutton, but of course it wasn't just a very striking resemblance.
On this trip I was treated to self important American women who had a really annoying voice, putting to right the wrongs that her companion was facing, And explaining in great detail how she had sorted out the problems of the world. Then there was a guy with deep voice complaining that his staff where being sacked whilst he was away and asking the person on the end to keep a eye on his desk, go into the office and sort it mate!
As an aside I must say the Southern trains I've travelled on are very smart, clean and smell very new, unlike the Bexleyheath pukemobils.
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| Very Smart trains |
Having changed at Clapham Junction I immediately caught a connection to Waterloo where I had about four minutes to catch my connection to Falconwood at 20:35 and just made it. I was home 21:15.
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