After four weeks of working abroad in Azerbaijan and Germany it feels great to be home. Both the European Games and Pentathlon Worlds were fun but nothing quite compares to a proper English summer; warm weather, glorious long evenings, Wimbledon and train strikes. This week, however, I am not about to embark on another tirade about the inefficiency of public transport - I want to talk about the unforeseen positive effects of train strikes.
My first week back in the UK was manic to say the least. I was working all over the country and clocked up some serious miles in the car travelling back and forth. On Thursday I had to travel up to London for a meeting at 10 am so I booked my train tickets well in advance hoping to get some work done on my journey up from home. After a terrible trip back from Germany, my heart sank when I heard on the news that both the train and underground would be on strike that day with passengers advised to expect severe delays. I got up extra early on Thursday morning to catch the earliest train possible and braced myself for the worst.
What actually happened came as a pleasant surprise. The train I caught up was relatively empty and arrived on time. Clearly many commuters had been put off by the doomsday warnings of travel Armageddon. Yes the underground was closed but I packed a pair of trainers and enjoyed a brisk walk to my meeting – it was great to see so many people out enjoying a healthy stroll to work in the nice weather. Once my meeting was over, I hurried back to the station eager to avoid rush hour and boarded the first train I could. This one wasn’t too packed either and to compensate the passengers for the ‘inconvenience’ of the industrial action we were all given free ice lollies and biscuits. My kind of strike!
Monday, July 13, 2015
Rant over
I warn you in advance that I need to get something off my chest. You might think I would be a seasoned traveller by now and take delays in my stride, I usually do. I’m not sure if it is the affect of being away for four weeks or the fact I have a job to rush back for; I am stuck in an airport and really annoyed.
I was up at three thirty this morning to catch the red eye flight from Berlin back to Heathrow; you can imagine my frustration when I received a text to inform me that my flight was delayed by thirteen hours. ‘How is this possible?’ was my initial reaction as I headed to the airport determined to get to the bottom of this and find an earlier flight home. I had a work engagement to get back for that has been in the diary for weeks and one I could not afford to miss.
It transpires that after spending the last seven days melting with temperatures hitting the high thirties and no sign of a breeze the storm we had all been hoping for arrived the evening before my flight. Consequently the aircraft I should now be flying home on is stuck in Dresden. Apparently no British Airways staff work at that airport so once the passengers had disembarked nobody was allowed back onto the airplane and even the luggage is still onboard.
As inclement weather conditions are deemed an act of God and not the airline’s problem no alternative flights were offered. I have now bitten the bullet and purchased another flight from an airport on the other side of Berlin that will take me into Luton. I still have two more buses, two trains and a taxi before I'll be home in time to shower and rush back out the door.
I was up at three thirty this morning to catch the red eye flight from Berlin back to Heathrow; you can imagine my frustration when I received a text to inform me that my flight was delayed by thirteen hours. ‘How is this possible?’ was my initial reaction as I headed to the airport determined to get to the bottom of this and find an earlier flight home. I had a work engagement to get back for that has been in the diary for weeks and one I could not afford to miss.
It transpires that after spending the last seven days melting with temperatures hitting the high thirties and no sign of a breeze the storm we had all been hoping for arrived the evening before my flight. Consequently the aircraft I should now be flying home on is stuck in Dresden. Apparently no British Airways staff work at that airport so once the passengers had disembarked nobody was allowed back onto the airplane and even the luggage is still onboard.
As inclement weather conditions are deemed an act of God and not the airline’s problem no alternative flights were offered. I have now bitten the bullet and purchased another flight from an airport on the other side of Berlin that will take me into Luton. I still have two more buses, two trains and a taxi before I'll be home in time to shower and rush back out the door.
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