Late May Bank Holiday I could not find, today I found, close by the public piano, near the lift.
House Blend I am familiar with.
I expected something akin to Notes or Caravan, especially as open until late.
Takeaway only.
Which cup size? There is only one size, the correct size.
Flavoured beans. Yuk. Cannot be taken seriously when offered flavoured beans.
I added two boxes of capsules to my order, house blend.
Pleasant ambience, even though only takeaway.
Sporting body cams, patrolling the train, scrutinising every ticket, harassing passengers.
No ticket, fare dodging, no, wrong train, wrong time.
When I travel by train, my ticket does not state the train, the time. But that is when I buy a ticket at the ticket office. Book using the LNER website and it specifies the train.
It beggars belief , brainwashed people dta no ding in a queue for a ticket machines when they could have bought a ticket from a human in the ticket office.
Use the ticket office, not the machine.
I had no choice. Twenty minutes on the not fit for purpose LNER website, to then be directed to a train station to collect my tickets from a ticket machine. It would have taken no more than a couple of minutes to buy from the ticket office.
RMT went on strike to safeguard train stations. The least you can do is use them.
LNER website is a pain to use, their posts on social media are misleading, they are engaging in massive profiteering.
LNER: No booking fees.
There are no booking fees if buy a ticket at a ticket office.
I decided to pay a visit to the York Food Festival, questionable at best, but it was going to be a pleasant day for a trip to York.
Early hours of the morning I checked the train times and prices. The single fare to York was what I expected, the fare from York over ninety pounds, with a warning the train was to be very busy. I’d this an example of airline profiteering?.
I decided to check with the ticket office, a split ticket via Doncaster, Railcard 1/3 discount Cheap Day Return £27-85.
I checked for the following week, the single fare from York £23-50.
Unfortunately I missed the train from York and had to catch a train an hour later. Chatting with a fellow passenger, she said she found a price difference when she checked with the LNER website and the LNER app.
Thirty minutes to change trains from King’s Cross to St Pancras. Doable?
Climb up steps to the entrance. Walk in. No information, no staff.
Take a lift to a lower level. None the wiser.
Take lift back up. No not working. Eventually it works.
Ask. Told go back down to lower level. Lift not working. Find another lift.
Platform I require, long walk, a lower level.
I arrive to find train departing.
Gatwick Airport has no ticket office at Gatwick Airport Station. Second busiest airport in the country, a very busy train station (currently undergoing expansion, and no ticket office.
This left me with no choice Tuesday evening of last week than to try and book on-line.
Several attempts, half an hour later, and I find I have paid for two sets of tickets, full price and Rail Card discount.
Now second nightmare , I am engaged with a robot. I ask for a human being. After several times of asking, I am told the office is closed.
And to add insult to injury, I am told to collect my tickets from the ticket office.
I try twitter. I am told to cancel my ticket. This I succeed, after a couple of attempts.
If I have to collect my tickets from a ticket machine, I may as well buy from the machine.
I head off to Gatwick South Terminal to use a machine.
I ask a pig-ignorant Indian by the name of Harold who is incapable of speaking intelligible English to operate the machine. He refuses. He refuses to help other passengers who speak his help.
Back into the terminal building, I once again battle with the LNER website. I can find no option for Railcard. I pay full price
Back to the station, battle with the ticket machine, and manage to extract three tickets.
Had I paid for my tickets at a ticket office, it would have taken mea couple of minutes.
Next morning when I go to catch my train, I find a long queue at the ticket machines.
The time shown for the train 1046. My ticket and the website 1049.
I thought I would join the RMT picket line outside Lincoln Central train station.
There was no RMT picket line. Lincoln Central was closed, no trains.
I guess if station closed, no trains, no need for a picket line, if can deploy resources elsewhere.
But I would argue there is a need to have a presence, to explain their case and counter government propaganda.
I thought leaving Oxford at 7-30 I would catch the same time train as I did a couple of weeks ago leaving at 6-30. Either I was too late or no CrossCountry train, which I had assumed runs hourly. Wait until 2006 and catch train for Paddington which stops at Reading.
Train ran slow. I just missed a train from Reading.
Next train at 2235, no trains for two hours for what is a service of two trains an hour.
What of trains to Gatwick, planes to catch, what alternative transport has been arranged? Nothing, no information, no announcements.
I was told to find a Duty Manager.
A train to Basingstoke, leaving at 2107. I could go a very long way round. Guard and driver see me not looking very happy. Asked what’s up, I told them. I asked could I catch the Basingstoke train. They said yes.
At Basingstoke just missed a train. Have to cross to a central platform to see display for trains, then cross back again. A girl came in late from Salisbury, next rain to Reading cancelled.
She asked did the train I was waiting for go to Woking. I said yes, then told her she had just missed a Woking train.
On reflection I realised if she wanted Reading, she wanted Wokingham not Woking.
I caught the train to Woking, then bus. Arrived home 2220, 15 minuted before the train would have left Reading had I waited two hours.
Nightmare. Go out anywhere, never know if will get back home. Last week stranded at Alton, no trains, all trains cancelled, no information.
Situation is not helped by stations not manned, or at large stations like Reading, no staff to be, no announcements, no apology. And no one cares, at least the train companies do not care. The staff are almost begging for the trains to be taken into public ownership as they a see on a daily basis how bad the service has become.
Stations are places where do not get great coffee, in general it will be undrinkable coffee from one of the corporate coffee chains. There are though exceptions, Small Batch kiosk outside Brighton Station, FCB kiosk on Guildford Station (though depends very much on who is serving), a kiosk around the side of King’s Cross Station.
Portsmouth Station a strange station, end of the line, and yet a small station with two lines. At least it was, now a parallel elevated line runs past the station onward to Portsmouth Harbour. Portsmouth being a major port, begs the question why the original line did not run to the harbour?
At Portsmouth Station, Canvas Coffee. A quick look, nothing worth eating, I decided to pass and asked of Hideout Coffee, a few minutes walk away.
Not too difficult to find, past the Civic Offices, across a square polluted by a massive TV screen, like something out of Brave New World or Nineteen Eighty-Four, carry on, down the side of Starbucks. A strange battleship grey building only darker.
A sign Hideout and a locked door. On the door
this is not a coffee shop there is no coffee sold at this address
I banged the door. No response. Out of sheer cussedness, rang a doorbell for an office, no response.
Back to Canvas Coffee.
Canvas Coffee gives every impression of a pop up shop, dark and gloomy, unfinished business. When I arrived off the train it was empty, now busy.
A cookie and a cappuccino. A fiver for a sandwich got to be joking.
The coffee was at best mediocre. From The Roasting Party, as used by Coffee Lab in Winchester and a kiosk at foot of Hungerfood Bridge on the London South Bank, it should have been far better than mediocre.
Canvas Coffee is a social enterprise, it lends people a helping hand. The people I talked to were friendly and helpful. I do not wish to be too critical on the coffee as it could be someone being given a helping hand.
On sale coffee from The Roasting Party and from Sunday Coffee Roasters. Not heard of. Their own roast. They only roast on a Sunday. Having tried a coffee, I decided to give the Sunday coffee a miss.
It was then either Hunter Gatherer or Southsea Coffee, both in Southsea, a bus ride away.
I usually give myself an hour to get across London to catch a train from King’s Cross, if lucky I can do it in half an hour. Today I gave myself an hour and a half. Why? I wished to visit the street food market and a coffee stall located somewhere behind the station.
I was looking for Noble Espresso. All I could find was a wooden counter with Craft Coffee written across it. Was this declaring what they served or the name of the stall?
Craft Coffee is the name of the stall. Nobel Espresso has sold up, moved on, and Craft Coffee had taken over their pitch.
Was their coffee as good? They hoped so.
I was served an espresso. It was excellent. A single origin coffee from Brazil roasted by Notes.
I asked why was their stall tucked behind the station not as would logically expect with the street food market. No gas or electricity which they need to power their stall.
Keithpp's Blog 