Metroland Walk - Rickmansworth 6 mile circular by train

Gill and I took the Elizabeth line from Forest Gate then the Metropolitan to Rickmansworth to begin this Chilterns Society Walk. Only 1 hour 20 and as well as being low carbon, was much cheaper and relaxing than driving. 

A 6 mile circular "easy" walk with little climbs and no stiles. While not classic "Chilterns" (no hills or remoteness) it has lots of walks along attractive rivers, canels, moorland, greenways and ancient woods. 

Rickmansworth is also a lovely, historic and well worth a visit. The railways made this part of South Hertfordshire accessible to London workers who wanted to live in the countryside.

Hat tip "More great walks in the Chilterns" and Ordnance Survey app

"We called you Metro-Land.
 We laid our schemes
 Lured by the lush brochure,
 down byways beckoned,
 To build at last the cottage
 of our dreams,
 A City clerk turned countryman again,
 And linked to the Metropolis by train"

JOHN BETJEMAN

Check out more photos on my Facebook page.

Love Trains: Hate High Fares Valentine’s Day Action

"Kick off Valentine’s Day with our action for low fares.

On 2 January, rail fares soared above inflation for the tenth year running. They have increased almost three times faster than wages and are now 26% higher than they were before the recession. Is it any wonder we pay more than anywhere else in Europe? Our #FareFail campaign took to the streets and stations of Britain and thousands of commuters got involved to express their view. The actions also received great friendly national and local media coverage, and a very positive reaction from commuters, who took up thousands of our campaign postcards.

The government response was to turn a blind eye to rail passenger anger. Transport minister Norman Baker told us fares were “not nearly as expensive” as presented! On 9 January the government defeated a parliamentary motion opposing the fares increase.

Well, we don’t know about you, but we’ve had enough. If we want change we’ve got to keep the pressure up.

On 14 February, the international day of love, we’re going back to the travelling public with one simple message:

“Love Trains, Hate High Fares!”
And we need your help to do it.

And as it’s Valentine’s Day, why not pledge to bring a loved one with you too!
We can only stop the era of rip-off fares if we show those in charge how strongly we feel. Please get involved with the campaign today.

We want to be at as many railway stations as possible on the morning of 14 February, between 7.30 and 9.30am. If you can volunteer, register here:"

Normblog on train travel

Sound coaching "Returning south yesterday after completing on the sale of our house in Manchester, I arrived at Piccadilly station just in time for the train about to depart for Euston, and so got on the first carriage I saw with an empty seat. It was Virgin Trains' Coach N - the 'noisy coach'. I assumed that the 'noisy' in this designation was permissive rather than mandatory, and settled down quietly to read, while all about me a terrible racket prevailed. One guy was calling across the length of the carriage to a friend of his at the other end; they were bewailing the poor fortunes of Liverpool FC. Opposite me a young person was listening to music that leaked out of her earphones. And in the seat next to mine a man was speaking into his mobile thus: 'Daphne, hi, it's Nick. Please set up a meeting between me, John, Tracy and Attila - for next Thursday. I want to scope out a proposal.' Despite my difficulties in concentrating, I read my book. But not for long. I soon discovered my mistake. Noisiness in Coach N isn't an option, it's an obligation. In no time half the people there were shouting at me to stop being so quiet. 'Who the bloody hell do you think you are? Make a noise, will you.' At first I demurred; but the conductor was soon called and he made it plain to me - loudly - what my duty was. What's more, he said I now owed the other customers an apology.

This I uttered, or rather muttered, but evidently too quietly. A woman in red shouted back at me, 'In Coach N a quiet apology is no apology.' So, raising my voice, I repeated, 'I'm very sorry'. 'Louder,' they all cried. 'SORRY!' I yelled now at the top of my voice. I was evicted from Coach N. My yelled apology, though loud and noisy enough at last, was held by the assembled shouters not to count, since though it met the noise-requirements of the coach, it wasn't any longer in the proper spirit of an apology, since an apology loses its persuasiveness (as genuine) once yelled. Readers, imagine my humiliation. Evicted.

I did the only thing I could in the circumstances and made my way to Coach Q, the 'quiet coach'. Here, to my horror, there was no less noise than in Coach N. One guy was berating another for snoring in the quiet coach and a woman was shouting into her iPhone, 'Hello Nick, yes it's Daphne. Attila can't get there on Thursday; he's making sausages. He asks if it's OK for Cecily to stand in for him - well, sit in.' I became more and more irritated. When Bearded Bob pulled out a guitar and started to give his rendition of 'Never On Sunday', I in my turn demanded an apology - for so much noise in the quiet coach (ha ha ha). No apology was forthcoming. My fellow travellers, if such they can be called, all insisted - decibels flying - that an apology from them was bound to be worthless because, if quiet, it would not be heard, and if noisy, it wouldn't be in the true spirit of an apology.

I reflected on the perils of train travel and from then on kept my own counsel, but noisily enough to avoid getting into further trouble".

Brill. Been there Norm as well and got tee shirt.  Mind you sometimes (when younger) I've been one of the noisy ones.

The Joy of the London Commute

Off message but I thought I’ll share my journey this morning to remind non-London folk that life is not all fun and games in our great metropolis.

I missed the 08.07 rail overhead train to London Liverpool Street so I waited for the 08.23 (big gap for rush hour?). It arrived on time but you could see from the front coaches as they passed that it was packed to the gills. I managed to get on and stood cheek by jowl with other travellers. So squashed that we could not move or even turn around.

Such is life in London but since most of us expected to change to the Central Line at Stratford in 4 minutes we thought we will put up with it.

Before the train set off the driver did announce on the PA that passengers should not obstruct the doors and that there was another train right behind us. If I could have got out then I would have done and waited for the next train. But I was stuck solid in the crush.

After 2 minutes the train stopped at Maryland station and somehow even more people got on to our carriage. Big mistake. Our carriage doors closed but our train driver kept reporting on the PA that there was a fault because people were obstructing the doors. He next announced that there was a fault with the doors which could be serious. He went out and walked along the train (some 15-20 carriages) testing each door to fix the fault. He came to our doors checked them from the outside then walked down to the next. It was by now beginning to get quite unpleasant and claustrophobic in the carriage. Passengers were mostly quite calm but some of them were beginning to be rather distressed. The train driver came to our door again and appeared to check it then walked away. It was very hot in the train since we were all wearing winter clothing. We asked people seated near the windows to open them and I asked people standing in the isles to move up and give us some room and take pressure away from the doors. There wasn’t a very particularly good response to this but the windows were opened and we had some fresh air.

After about 15 minutes in total the driver announced that due to passengers obstructing the door there was a fault which he could not fix and he would have to take the train out of service so everyone would have to leave the train. I think at that stage people were just relieved to know they could get out of the train. However, the doors were still closed. We could see people coming out of the train elsewhere and walking out of the station. Our carriage doors would not open. Passengers near the door pressed the open buttons but nothing happened. Some people began to get distressed. Others were asking us standing near the emergency handle to use it to open the doors. I thought about this and asked if anyone is feeling ill? To which an elderly lady replied that she was feeling very faint and asked me to use the emergency handle so she could out of the carriage quickly. There was no sign of anyone coming to open the doors from the outside so I pulled off the plastic cover and pulled down the emergency handle to open the doors. Nothing happened. I pulled the handle down again more forcefully and an orange light went on and the doors opened. Everyone streamed out and the lady who was ill thanked the Lord for being “rescued”.

Most of us had enough of trains for a while and we all walked to Stratford station (only about 5-10 minutes from Maryland). What was interesting is that everyone seemed to know the short cuts through the housing estates to Stratford station. So this sort of experience for commuters is not unknown. At Stratford I got on a peak hour Central line train which wasn’t that badly crowded but within 30 seconds we were deep underground for that long boring stretch from Stratford to Mile End.