I travelled back from London on the 16:00, sadly this time only standard class. I had carefully chosen my seat at a table, enabling me to work on the train. But the air-conditioning in my coach wasn’t working so (given it was a very hot day) I had to drag my suitcase through the train to coach B though I was unable to find another free table. So much for the usefulness advance seat reservation system! I tried to report the faulty air conditioning but unlike other operators, no phone number or website is displayed in the coach – LNER seem to believe the entire population has twitter – as this was the only fault reporting option provided. However I was able to report it to the Conductor who, credit to him, immediately issued an apology over the public address system, advising other passengers to move seat too, and told me he had reported the fault himself.
Sadly the train was delayed by 16 minutes, not reaching Newcastle until 19:05 which made my connection on to the 19:09 Northern to Cramlington rather tight. This meant dragging my suitcase back through the train to coach F ready to jump off right by the footbridge. No helpful announcements as to departure platforms for connecting trains, just the derisory “consult station staff”. I made my Northern train with seconds to spare, the Travel Safe Officer helpfully alerting the Conductor to the fact someone was running up the platform with a suitcase, and we pulled out on time, only to wait 5 minutes at Manors whilst the delayed LNER overtook us. “Why couldn’t we have waited at Newcastle” I thought to myself. It would have given me a few more minutes to get across the bridge, and we would not not have left the other interconnecting passengers behind.
