The Joys of Rail Travel

[f4f3]

I am such a sucker for gimmickry - I just had to try the wifi internet that GNER is touting on its trains, and in return for 8 quid I've had the pleasure of taking one hour to get on to livejournal.

Still, at least this is my first post from Berwick on Tweed...

Comments

[pshtaku.livejournal.com]

That'll teach you!

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

It is working now, kind of, sort of, and still quite slowly

[morgaine-x.livejournal.com]

Joy + rail travel in the same sentence? I don't think so. ;)

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Rail travel used to be quite fun. It's hard to think of anything else that has deteriorated so much in such a relatively short time.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I'll be a contrarian - GNER is actually quite good. Plus I can watch everyone in the "quiet" carriage being pissed off by the guy across the aisle snoring.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I'm getting to like it - the train is generally on time, I travel at odd times and usually get a table to myself (like tonight) and I don't have to drive. To be fair, though, GNER is quite a bit better than Virgin, isn't it?

[pshtaku.livejournal.com]

The new Virgin trains are quite nice, but the cabins are a bit claustrophobic, and it has a funny smell.

The GNER trains I've been on to Leeds I think were old Eurostar trains!

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I usually enjoy the view on the East Coast line out over the sea, but it was foggy tonight. These are the new carriages with power points to charge your phone/laptop, and the broadband seems to be working now.

[blonde222.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean: that's New Train Smell.

[pshtaku.livejournal.com]

Yup - it's disgusting. It's the only time I get travelsick when I'm on a brand new train!

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since i've been travel sick - last time was on a ferry I think.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

I used to get this all the time, though it was on older trains. I finally worked out what it was when someone with me was able to identify the smell as upholstery cleaner. Dreadful, dreadful smell.

In spite of this, I commute to work by train now and I love it. I was loving it less, but then I bought an iPod and a pair of huge circumnaural (sp?) headphones, and now I'm happy as Larry :)

[pshtaku.livejournal.com]

To me the smell is like burning brakes or rubber or metallic...

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

To me it was coffee and ham sandwiches, but not in a good way.

It may be that we are talking about completely different smells! God bless olfactory subjectivity ;)

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Burning brakes, rubber, metallic, coffee and ham sandwiches -

- must be a malt whisky.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

LOL But which number?

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Someone on tonight's train was wearing a pair of them - I had my tiny in ear things, and I thought we were a fine example of divergent evolution.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

*g*

There are two reasons I went for my big headphones. First, I don't want to bother everyone with the noise (which in-ear ones do, particularly if the train is loud and you have to turn it up). Second, I don't want to damage my hearing (big headphones keep sound out as well as in, so I can have the volume lower).

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I eventually went for the ones you plug into your ear - after the gigs I've been to my hearing is probably already well screwed up anyway :-)

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

We have some of those for the gym - Sonys, I think? - and they're not bad, actually.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Sony's at the moment, although I want the new Senheissers.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Sennheiser do an in-ear model? :-D

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Announced last month - you can get it from the States (or eBay) although I haven't seen them here yet.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Oooh :)

[morgaine-x.livejournal.com]

I've enjoyed myself greatly on trains, on occasion, and it shouldbe fun. But after 19 years of it - I don't drive, remember - I have to say that the overall experience probably took a couple of years off my life. From pre-privatisation British Rail announcements where the girl announced loudly "Bing-Bong!" because the bell wasn't working, to travelling to & from London the day after Potter's Bar, to businessmen who sit in reserved seats & refuse to move, to unvisitable, unmentionable toilets, to football hooligans and train staff who either remain unseen throughout the journey or else refuse to give their name.... to being harrassed by drunks who think it'll be a good idea to get off at your stop on a deserted station to "catch last orders" - well, I can't say I'm bidding it a fond goodbye.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I can see your point - but as a novelty it still works for me: roaring down from Alnmouth now, with Tom Waits doing "The Long Way Home" on my iPod and the broadband working finally.

[morgaine-x.livejournal.com]

Indeed - it is was always like that, I'd have loved it.

And you've reminded me - fancy a mp3 of Townes covering Springsteen's "Racing in the Streets"?

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I'd swap it for him doing "cocaine blues" live at the Old Quarter Houston...

[morgaine-x.livejournal.com]

Sent, to your hotmail account.

[deililly.livejournal.com]

Definitely. I quite like GNER service between Motherwell and Edinburgh.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Hee - that's the one I was on, since I was too lazy to change at Edinburgh.

[blonde222.livejournal.com]

eight quid! that's a scandal of usurious proportions. I'd ask for my money back if I were you.

[pshtaku.livejournal.com]

that's what I said!

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

I wondered what their famous wireless was like. Well, now I know ;)

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

It got better once we left Dunbar, and was very nearly ok after that.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Any thoughts as to why that was?

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Well I switched from Safari and Firefox to Explorer, so there might have been something in that.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Huh. Weird!