Today was a complicated day. My elderly brother who lives in Lincoln wanted to visit our sister in London, but is unable to travel by himself. So I arranged to travel down to Lincoln, meet him at the station, on to London and then, after seeing our sister, we’d take the evening return train to Lincoln, but I’d jump off at Newark North Gate and get the Edinburgh train just 8 minutes behind us to get back to Morpeth.
That needed 5 LNER trains: Morpeth – Newark North Gate, Newark to Lincoln, the return working Lincoln to London, then in the evening London to Newark and Newark to Morpeth. It can only be done on a Friday since on other days the final train terminates at Newcastle and does not proceed on to Edinburgh with the Morpeth call..
The week before, the morning LNER into Lincoln and its return to London had been cancelled, though that was in the wake of the LNER weekend strike, called off too late for the full weekend timetables to be re-instated (though why that affected Friday morning trains was not clear). I knew my brother would not cope with bus substitution from Lincoln to Newark (as has happened the previous week), non-direct routes via Peterborough or Grantham, or loss of reserved seats if we were obliged to get a train other than booked. And of course, a late arrival into London would not have given us the time we needed to get across to Romford, visit my sister in a Care Home then get back to Kings Cross for the evening return to Lincoln
It required meticulous planning and I was a tad nervous when I set off on the 07:13 from Morpeth armed with my sausage sarnie and mocha from Green’s café at Morpeth station. But all 5 of my LNER trains ran exactly on time and I experienced no problems whatsoever. I had been particularly concerned about my 13-minute connection at Newark North Gate on the evening return. I had figured that provided the Lincoln train left Kings Cross on time, the later Edinburgh one would not be able to overtake it, so even if we arrived say 10 minutes late at Newark, my connection would be safe. But I had overlooked the need to hop across from platform 1 to platform 3 and was concerned that would be my downfall, but in the end there were no delays and I made it with ease.
So full marks to LNER. Everything went exactly as planned. If only years of strikes, disruptions and “advice not to travel” had not put such a large doubt in my mind.
Train details:
Depart Morpeth 07:13 arrive Newark Northgate 09:19
Depart Newark Northgate 09:27, arrive Lincoln 09:52
Depart Lincoln 11:27 arrive London KX 13:22
Depart London KX 19:06, arrive Newark Northgate 20:33
Depart Newark Northgate 20:46 arrive Morpeth 22:55
