The Train from Leicester to Manchester but…

…there is no train from Leicester to Manchester. 

The track is there but it ceased to be in service way back in the 1960s. The only way to get to Manchester by train these days is a tortuous challenge of timetable checks and clashes. 

We took on this very challenge last week to visit our lovely granddaughter and family. We declined the Birmingham option because it takes about an hour longer and we declined the Sheffield option which involves the Trans-Pennine Express as it is anything but express. We opted for Nuneaton but our connection was almost an hour late and the waiting room had an ‘Out of Order’ sign on the locked door. How can a waiting room be out of order? It was cold on that platform. There was an evil wind whipping at my ears no matter which part of the platform I paced along.  What a shame they haven't yet developed the technology so I could be like Captain Kirk in Star-Trek and cry, “Beam me up, Scotty!”

The Manchester train departs from platform 3 but platform 3 is the route taken by an almost continual barrage of non-stop bullet-like trains. The woman over the loudspeaker kept warning us to stand well clear and to hold onto bags and pushchairs. She wasn’t kidding. I could almost feel my hair tugging at the roots. How do they avoid daily or even hourly fatalities? There should be protective screens. They have them on the new London Underground lines... at least I think they do... but there was not a screen in sight at Nuneaton.

I tried to take photos of one of the offending high speed monsters but my phone couldn't cope wih the velocity so I've created a cartoon instead. 

Getting to Manchester by train was stressful but perhaps marginally better than the stress of me driving, Mind you, the sight of our granddaughter and husband waiting on the platform for us when we arrived made it all worth while.