Room 101

[JohnS]

Over Easter and the early May bank holidays weekend there are no direct Avanti trains to Euston and I’ve had to change my arrangements. Not sure about the late May bank holiday. Weekend travel arrangements often lag many weeks behind mid week travel although National Rail tends to be better when it comes to advertising long planned engineering work.

[zxDaveM]

The 'late May' BH is in early June this year, to tie up with the Queens Jublilee BH

[Anon2]

@Jan McNulty is there any information on the Planned Engineering page for Avanti trains on the Sunday you plan to travel? 

[Jan McNulty]

Yes Jane, there is nothing listed for that weekend!

[alison]

Cote Brasserie.  I've just popped into my usual "go-to" Saturday night branch, where I know I can always get a meal without it being booked out, unlike in Theatreland, only to find that they've done away with the Prix Fixe menu at weekends.  On checking their website, it looks as though this now applies to all London branches, even the ones in the West End.  It used to be so good to know that you could get a reliable, quick couple of courses pre-theatre somewhere

[Jan McNulty]

On 17/03/2022 at 13:54, Jan McNulty said:

Avanti Trains!!!

 

I am booked for a weekend in London in May.  Hotel booked and paid for.  Tickets well and truly booked.

 

I can get to London but Avanti are not showing any trains at all for Liverpool on the Sunday coming home.

 

It is incredibly stressful!!

 

The saga goes on!  Tickets for the Sunday have now appeared but ... you can't reserve tickets either way as the tickets have sold out!!!

 

I am now going to see my friend who lives near Gloucester and travel from there on GWR.  I have been able to book a first class return with reserved seats for less than Avanti wanted to charge me to travel cattle class without seat reservations!!  The added bonus is spending some unexpected time with my best friend.

[JohnS]

Jubilee weekend hotel prices and minimum stays. I’ve found it impossible to book a one night London stay 4 June. The hotels I tend to use have more than doubled their prices and I see some hotels are insisting on minimum stays of 4 nights! I’m afraid it never crossed my mind that there’d be such issues so I’ve changed my Like Water for Chocolate booking.

[alison]

Avanti are quite ridiculous.  £200 return London to Birmingham, even for trains arriving beyond the morning rush hour??!!  Are they operating on the basis of "pick a number, then double it"?

[alison]

And you've reminded me that I wanted to dump whoever's responsible for remodelling the roads around Aldwych, in London, in Room 101 too!  (For those who are blissfully unaware, while the "semicircle" bit of Aldwych still exists, and is now two-way traffic instead of one-way, the straight section forming the "diameter" of the semicircle - and where the buses used to stop - is being pedestrianised.  I can't really see the logic of this, because the area in question is pretty much the frontage of Kings College and Somerset House, and what is the good of pedestrianising that?  It's not as if there are loads of restaurants there which could spill onto the pavements.  What about (ambulant) disabled access to the buildings I've mentioned?)

 

Anyway, I don't know whether this is just a transitional stage or the final version (I fear the latter), but at the moment all the pedestrian refuges and so on have been stripped out, and there are just lanes and lanes of traffic to be negotiated, all in one go, with nowhere to stop between traffic going in different directions.  I wanted to get back to Temple tube station the other night after going to the Peacock Theatre, and found it downright scary - it felt as though I was taking my life in my hands trying to cross the road!

[taxi4ballet]

Train prices are ludicrous. It is cheaper to fly.

[MaddieRose]

I can't complain about train prices. I do think they're expensive, but I have a Disabled Persons' Railcard, so it's not quite as bad for me. Me and my Mum are getting down to London and back to East Midlands Parkway for £60, which is not as expensive as I thought it would be. 
 

What I can complain about is last minute platform changes. When I saw Casanova in Sheffield the return train's platform changed as it was coming into the station. I know it's difficult to schedule these but I feel like they could given us a bit more of a warning. And since the next train was in an hour I had to run up the stairs, over a bridge and down the stairs to make it onto the train, as did everyone else. I had used the lifts before, and my legs are still aching from that run nearly two weeks later, even though I haven't left the house since then. 

[Jan McNulty]

On 07/04/2022 at 13:52, alison said:

Avanti are quite ridiculous.  £200 return London to Birmingham, even for trains arriving beyond the morning rush hour??!!  Are they operating on the basis of "pick a number, then double it"?

 

Avanti are an absolute joke!  I never thought I would say this but come back Virgin, nearly all is forgiven!!

 

Have you thought about London Midland (I think that is what they are now called) to Birmingham @alison?

 

One of my ideas originally was to drive to Stafford and get the train from there.  Coming home I could book a London Midland train way before the Avanti trains came on line.  Meanwhile I could see the Avanti prices going up daily!

[alison]

I went home on London Midland (or whatever they are) after a BRB matinee once, and vowed never to do it again!  It was pretty hellish.  And long.  And did I mention hellish?  Chiltern Trains from Moor Street into Marylebone are better value, but Avanti are fast - and this was a business trip ...  (And I did get an off-peak return for less than £70, which was a distinct improvement - albeit about 1/3 more than I'd paid pre-pandemic)

[zxDaveM]

1 hour ago, alison said:

I went home on London Midland (or whatever they are) after a BRB matinee once, and vowed never to do it again!  It was pretty hellish.  And long.  And did I mention hellish?  Chiltern Trains from Moor Street into Marylebone are better value, but Avanti are fast - and this was a business trip ...  (And I did get an off-peak return for less than £70, which was a distinct improvement - albeit about 1/3 more than I'd paid pre-pandemic)

 

I always go from Marylebone when going to Birmingham, or visiting relatives in that part of the world. Euston is just my idea of hell on earth! If booking in advance, you can get really cheap fares too - and I find that it takes 5mins less than the standard Midland route from Euston (though more than the express route (formerly Vigin trains) of course - nb the express route would take barely 10-15mins more than the much vaunted, and even more loathed HS2 route, but having the advantage of not being dropped in the middle of nowhere where you'd have to pay extra, plus extra time, to get to the airport or central Brum)

[zxDaveM]

entering HS2 into room 101

[alison]

Very good idea.  I never could see the benefit of all that upheaval just to shave a few minutes off what is a pretty fast journey anyway.  The other (now cancelled) end of the route is another matter entirely.

[LinMM]

Agree about the Aldwych at the moment Alison!! 
But have worked out a safe way to cross the road now at the traffic lights at the junction of Aldwych and Kingsway. I’ve been using this route from City Thameslink station down to get to City Lit. 
It must be a real nuisance for some of the Waterloo buses now going round the houses to cross the river!! 
The first time it all changed I was on an 11 bus and had no idea where it was suddenly going or where it was going to stop next so ended up getting off in the Strand. It was only a bit further to walk really but just very annoying as had no idea at the time (after a few months gap) that all that was going on around there. 
It seems there is a fortune spent on changing things which seem to offer no benefit to anyone either cars or pedestrians in the end 😬
 

[Fonty]

I would like to put into Room 101 those smart watches with ENORMOUS dials that get brighter as the wearers move their arms.  I was sitting two seats away from someone wearing one of these watches last week, and it was so bright, it was really distracting.   As bad as a mobile phone in terms of brightness.

 

Still, at least I could see what the time was very easily.

[alison]

Sadler's Wells?  Yes, me too - although possibly not "enormous" dials.

[Fonty]

11 hours ago, alison said:

Sadler's Wells?  Yes, me too - although possibly not "enormous" dials.

 

Yes, Sadler's Wells.  This one was huge, I've never seen such a big watch face.  

[alison]

Into Room 101 goes the bloke in my carriage whose mouth doesn't seem to have an Off switch.  I've been on the train for an hour now, and he's barely stopped talking.  And to think I booked a special offer First Class because I wanted a restful journey home ...

[LinMM]

I had somebody like that in the” first class” carriage at the back of the Thameslink train ( this is always declassified by the way First class is only applicable to the Front carriage on Thameslink) last week. Spent nearly the whole journey from Brighton to London Bridge talking very loudly to various people on the phone. 
 

[bridiem]

As a Liverpool supporter, the whole of yesterday evening can go into Room 101. 

[Anon2]

Today I put in neighbours with petrol strimmers and bonfires 

[LinMM]

As am also a Liverpool supporter Bridiem I sort of agree. The way the fans were treated was disgraceful but the French Police are rather notorious for being heavy handed ….I was in Paris in 1968!!!!….but interesting that the Madrid entrance side didn’t have any problems🤔
In terms of the match it was obvious that Liverpool did have the better team but it just wasn’t their night and the Madrid goalie put in a tremendous performance. Disappointing result to be sure but the match itself was okay I thought. 

[bridiem]

4 hours ago, LinMM said:

As am also a Liverpool supporter Bridiem I sort of agree. The way the fans were treated was disgraceful but the French Police are rather notorious for being heavy handed ….I was in Paris in 1968!!!!….but interesting that the Madrid entrance side didn’t have any problems🤔
In terms of the match it was obvious that Liverpool did have the better team but it just wasn’t their night and the Madrid goalie put in a tremendous performance. Disappointing result to be sure but the match itself was okay I thought. 

 

I had a suspicion that when we hadn't scored within the first 25-30 minutes we weren't going to win. I wish I'd been wrong.

 

Fortunately a lot of journalists etc witnessed what happened outside the ground.

[Jan McNulty]

2 hours ago, bridiem said:

 

I had a suspicion that when we hadn't scored within the first 25-30 minutes we weren't going to win. I wish I'd been wrong.

 

Fortunately a lot of journalists etc witnessed what happened outside the ground.

 

I was speechless with rage this morning when I was in the waiting room at physio.  Sky News was showing statements by a couple of French ministers - it was all the fault of Liverpool fans - the police were not aggressively violent - there were no French people goading anyone - the Real Madrid fans were perfectly behaved...  The fact that people in wheel chairs and children were pepper-sprayed says volumes to me.

[LinMM]

It felt to me that Liverpool…as English fans….were targeted in some way. 
It should have been obvious from inside the ground that something was wrong when there were loads of empty Liverpool seats ….can’t all have had “fake” tickets 🙄 

At least they did delay the game to let as many in as possible in the end though some still didn’t make it until half time apparently. 
There was a French football fan on LBC this morning who said he observed Liverpool fans waiting in exemplary style and he put the blame squarely on the Police ( for blocking roads with vans) so it took ages to reach the turnstiles on that side and even some locals trying to get in the game without tickets as this was what he himself observed. 

[bridiem]

19 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

I was speechless with rage this morning when I was in the waiting room at physio.  Sky News was showing statements by a couple of French ministers - it was all the fault of Liverpool fans - the police were not aggressively violent - there were no French people goading anyone - the Real Madrid fans were perfectly behaved...  The fact that people in wheel chairs and children were pepper-sprayed says volumes to me.

 

Same here very early this morning when the BBC World Service radio reported that the problems were caused by 'ticketless fans' trying to enter the stadium, with the context clearly implying Liverpool fans. It felt like Hillsborough all over again - I still remember my outrage about the reporting of that and shouting at the television. Today I shouted at the radio.

Edited May 30, 2022 by bridiem

[MaddieRose]

I was speaking to someone this morning who had been there. He unfortunately was among those who had been tear gassed. He said they were following what information they'd been given, and everyone around him had official tickets, but that nobody seemed to be able to give them a concrete answer on what they were supposed to do to ease the crowding. From what he said it sounds like it was horrendously handled by the stadium officials and police. 

[Jan McNulty]

Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram had his phone stolen!

 

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/metro-mayor-steve-rotherams-phone-24101500

 

[alison]

8 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

I was speechless with rage this morning when I was in the waiting room at physio.  Sky News was showing statements by a couple of French ministers - it was all the fault of Liverpool fans - the police were not aggressively violent - there were no French people goading anyone - the Real Madrid fans were perfectly behaved...  The fact that people in wheel chairs and children were pepper-sprayed says volumes to me.

 

An almost Putinesque depiction of reality there, by the sounds of things

[alison]

I meant - probably not for the first time - to add Thameslink trains to the mix. Got on a train for a business trip to Brighton today which had probably come all the way down from Cambridge, so, maybe 2.5 hours potential total journey time?  No Wi-Fi.  And no power sockets or tables, except in the alleged First Class compartments, which are very small.  Such poorly equipped rolling stock might have been acceptable last century, but it certainly isn't this century Pathetic.  Even my local trains have Wi-Fi.