Its that time of year again in the UK, when all the trains are delayed by leaves on the line. For 2 weeks or so each year during autumn when the wind and rain combine they strip all the autumn leaves off the trees in a very short period of time which for railways is a fatal combination. The weather in the UK over the weekend had been wet and windy so...
This Monday I landed at Luton on time and the shuttle bus was waiting to take me to the railway station, so we got there nicely on schedule, I just had time to buy a ticket and a sandwich before the train arrived. Then it started, "First Capital Connect is sorry to announce...." and then three trains in a row were cancelled or severely delayed, so instead of arriving at the office at 2:00pm it was after 3:00 when I finally arrived. Travellers were confused as first one train was scheduled to arrive then suddenly it is changed to another. Luton Airport Parkway station may be unique in suffering from too many public announcements, the automatic announcements are so loud that you cannot hear the ones made by the station controllers, so you are none the wiser.
There was also chaos at London Bridge in the evening as well as trains were delayed or cancelled there were changes of platform, and a total lack of announcements about the situation as the destination boards flipped back and forth trying to keep up what was going on on the ground or should I say rails.
To be honest we really do not know if it was leaves on the line or something else entirely as nobody told us, but as it appeared to be so widespread we can only assume that leaves were the problem.
oh the joys of being a London commuter, why don't we give it all up and move to France..... ah....
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