21 July 2010

Getting On With A Virgin

A recent quickly organised trip to Scotland found me unable to book cheap flights through my usual mode of transportation "sit down hang on and shut up" airline Ryanair....so on the spur of the moment like 2 a.m. the morning the day I was considering travelling I thought of train travel to north of the border...

This had been on my mind for a while as when driving back down the M74 to England in the past the motorway and the mainline north and south come close together..So much so that my son and I witnessed the Virgin Trains Pendolino speeding southbound leaving us and other motorway transport in its wake...

So with tickets booked and collected at my local departure station I headed to London Euston for my trip north to Glasgow...the experience was not as planned as we had to be diverted through the West Midlands due to a body being found adjacent to the line near Lichfield...

Weirdly my son was on his way to Bristol via rail the same day and someone had decided earlier to end their life using a train..This caused delays obviously and alot of disruption but he finally got to his destination albeit later in the day...

Anyway my journey took an extra hour to Glasgow Central but the experience of a tilting high speed train was something new and I found it extremely stress free and relaxing in comparison to flying and those pre flight procedures at an airport even though the train was busy...

On my return journey we accelerated out of Glasgow Central at 11.40 a.m and arrived in London Euston at 16.03...the Virgin Train made only 3 stops Carlisle Penrith North Lakes and Preston in those 4 hours and 23 minutes..with plenty of seating and not too busy the air conditioned journey was awesomely fast and enjoyable and relaxing..then when in London using the underground and Southern Trains naturally reality kicked in again...

If you ever get the chance to experience high speed train travel give it a go as maybe as the advert says "it beats flying"...



video courtesy of trainfreak101...many thanks...