Places to Go is a NationalRail.com regular feature, written by Alex Nelson a former stationmaster. Alex usually discusses his trips around the UK with the cheapest train tickets, but this month it’s something different.
Before all this madness started I was at King’s Cross, and spied a sight I had never seen before. Six new Azuma trains lined up on platforms 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, and not a LNER 225, Hull Trains, Great Northern, Thameslink or Grand Central train in sight. Eventually it will become commonplace. I used to go to London most weeks, sometimes twice a week. Very occasionally three times. Now it’s video conferencing, and I chaired a meeting for 17 people today in my study and have another video meeting tomorrow at 4pm. Some of those London trips will still be necessary, but not as many, I suspect. Two minutes after the meeting normally in London ended, I was enjoying a coffee with my wife in Chester-le-Street. Until we discover how to fax people, I imagine video conferencing will substantially reduce the need for travel.
But for leisure, of course, you can’t beat the train. A few weeks ago, on 31st January, I stayed at Pendley Manor in Tring in Hertfordshire which, had I been able to explore the area, would have made a great article. I was going to Amersham for a meeting at London Youth and travelled there from the hotel by bus to Tring station, train to Berkhamsted, bus to Chesham and another bus to Amersham. Hard work? Maybe, but these trips inform my work as a judge for the UK Bus Awards. Another hotel I really want to stay in is the Gothic mansion Brownsover Hall near Rugby which has been on my bucket list for years. My planned stay on 25th March had to be cancelled when the events connected with the stay fell apart by virtue of the Coronavirus. Another time, perhaps.
I had three trips lined up for this column: Langho in Lancashire for Northcote Hotel and its cookery school; Silverdale in northern Lancashire for the walk to Leighton Hall through the Leighton Moss bird sanctuary; and most of all (following a successful trip to Bute) a two day trip to Ardrossan Harbour, ship to Brodick and the Stagecoach bus round the Isle of Arran. Often described as Scotland in miniature, I would stay at the delightful Lagg Hotel at the south end, visit the new distillery there, and continuing to the north of the island and the other distillery at Lochranza, returning to Brodick for the ferry and train home. For now it’s timetables, websites, maps and daydreams.
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