Two Trains, A Tube and a Bus to Home
Miles to Bucharest
Time to escape The High Life and head back to the ground and home. And find a train heading north.
Also, a bus might be useful too.
In this adventure
- The Last Gasp of Silver (or British Airways did us all dirty)
- Off to Heathrow and the wonder of Terminal 3
- Lounging around Terminal 3 with Cathay Pacific and Qantas
- BA886 London Heathrow to Bucharest Henri Coandă (Club Europe)
- Exiting Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport and into the City – Of Trains and Trams
- The Mercure Urinii – An Accor ALL Hotel
- A Nighttime Walk with an iPhone
- A Morning Exploration around Central Bucharest
- Back to Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport and the Visa Satellite Lounge
- BA887 Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport to London Heathrow (Club Europe)
- Two Trains, A Tube and a Bus to Home
- Silver retained. But a New Battle awaits
After following the signs out of the aircraft, I popped out near Gate 9 – where this adventure began the day before.
The resting aircraft
From here, it was a matter of following the signs to UK Immigration – with me remembering the route is more than a little different (as I’m used to taking the route from the 20 upwards gates, rather than from Gate 9).
Once more unto the breach dear friends
Immigration is this way… maybe.
Arriving at the border, it was empty for 6 pm in the evening, with no queues for the biometric gates, or the manual border control.
Choose your adventure.
Quiet eGates
With a year or so left on my passport, it’s still valid (even if the chip is not in the mood to talk to a lot of people these days), so the manual queue is for me.
And yes, I’ll hang onto my maroon passport until it is time for a new one.
After a light questioning by the border agent, I was let through and back into the UK. From here on in, it was an easy street. As I had no luggage, I could head straight to the exit.
Well, almost. There was one stop to make. You don’t need a picture of it.
With mind and body refreshed, I headed for Customs and to the public area.
Customs
Arrivals
Once in the public area, it was a case of heading for the steps down to the tunnels towards the train station at Heathrow Central. I could have saved some money and taken the Underground (and to be honest, it’s only slightly quicker to take the train all things considering I was heading to Euston), but at least the Elizabeth Line is “good enough” as a rapid transport connection.
Under the roads of Heathrow again.
After reconfiguring the Express Transit connection in Apple Pay, it was time to travel.
Tickets, please!
Heading down to the platforms, it was busy – not surprising as it was Friday evening. Continuing through the crowds some of them got on the first train – which was a Heathrow Express. Most people waited for the Elizabeth Line.
The costly express
The wallet-friendly Elizabeth Line
I chose a carriage near the front of the train, as I would have to make a connection at Tottenham Court Road.
London Heathrow – Tottenham Court Road (Crossrail)
Elizabeth Line
Class 345
Price Paid £13.30 (Including Zone 1 transfer to Euston)
Traverse seating
With a journey of 35 minutes or so, I sat back and watched the world go by, as the train loaded up on its way into Central London. There were no ticket checks en route, just people getting on and off the train, as people arrived and departed.
Arriving at Tottenham Court Road, it was time to make tracks. It’s always interesting to me that the architecture changes, as you leave the cavernous Elizabeth Line stations for the smaller traditional underground stations.
Again, this being the back end of the rush hour, the tube train was solid. I snuck onboard for the three-stop ride up to Euston Station.
Getting off at Euston station, I checked the time – with two minutes to go, it was looking like I had an extra 30 minutes at Euston, whether I liked it or not.
To the exit.
For me, that’s fine – I needed to find a supermarket for a bottle of water (and I’m sorry, I’m not paying WH Smith’s price of £2.69 for a litre of water).
Eventually, I found a Sainsbury’s Supermarket on the west side of the station (given the M&S that used to be at Euston Station is long gone). I found some fizzy water that wasn’t overpriced- with a two-litre bottle for £1.
Taken later on.
This is why I’m an advocate of having high-street supermarkets at train stations and airports – they allow competition for those passengers who have a few minutes but don’t want to be held to some of the higher prices food outlets pay (and in a way, I’m disappointed that Boots was removed from Euston station to create more space).
At least the big departure board at Euston station is a major improvement compared to the banks of departure boards in the middle of the concourse.
There were lots of crowds – when I was travelling, Storm Éowyn was passing through – so services north of Preston were curtailed, and the rest of the service pattern was disrupted.
I eventually saw my train pop up – with a platform number. It was time to get moving.
Heading to the platform, there was no gate staff, and more importantly – no Euston rush, where people were running, just to get a seat.
I could deal with this.
London Northwestern Railways
London Euston to Birmingham New Street via Northampton
Class 350/1
Cost: Free.
Heading along the platform, there is a fine balance between where to sit and where to get off later. However, there’s also a side that comes out hard – my train nerd side.
On this evening, London Northwestern Railway chose to operate eight carriages to Birmingham – that’s good, as that means they’ll be at capacity. The bad news, the front four of those carriages were made up of a Class 350/2, whilst the rear four were made up of a Class 350/1.
The big difference between these two classes is that one (350/1) has 2-2 seating throughout. The other (350/2) has the less desirable 3-2 seating installed, for more local traffic.
The 350/2 trains are also up for being replaced, whilst the 350/1 have had their refit, with new seat covers and power outlets installed.
I found a bay of four seats to get comfy in. I was joined by another person who sat diagonally opposite, thus there was plenty of space for both of us.
On time, the train pulled out of Euston. I chose this time to get the laptop out to try to do some editing.
And I’ll be honest, I mostly failed. While the mind was willing, the fingers that typed the content you see on this blog were nowhere near trying to convert a Lufthansa PR into something human-readable.
Whilst I do like London Northwestern Railway as a method of getting to and from london – mainly because of the price of £20 for a single ticket), I’m not a fan of how “local” this train operates – with the train taking the Northampton loop on its way to Birmingham – with an enforced 17-minute stop in Northampton itself, thus elongating the journey.
If I wanted quicker, I would need to spend a bucket load more cash – be it with Chiltern (around £32 for a single) or Avanti (£38 for a single). And I’m trying to keep this on a budget here. This brings me to how much this train ticket cost me.
Free is a lovely thing – especially when you win a ticket from a spin-to-win event. I was lucky and had a choice of a ticket to see something in Liverpool or an all-day train pass.
Whilst it was not the best value (I could have had a full day trip it, or explored more of the network), at that moment in time, it was a saving – and I was taking it.
Eventually, the train entered the west midlands, crawling past Coventry, Birmingham Airport and finally Birmingham New Street.
Thankfully, the nearest exit was behind me, so it was a matter of heading up the stairs and through the ticket barrier.
Outside New Street and Grand Central
With that done, I could have cheated one last time and taken a taxi home. Rather, I headed for the bus as I knew there was one in the near (and I mean under five minutes).it was easier than grabbing a cab – even the price has gone up to £2.90 for a bus ride these days.
The bus meandered its way around the city centre loop, with a few stops on the way, then exited, heading down the road near my home.
I jumped off at the appropriate bus stop and walked home to the flat.
After dropping off my bag, I headed back out again.
I wasn’t in the mood to cook.
Finally:
Silver Done. Now what? Chaos. Absoulte Chaos.
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