Celebrating

After a day at work a taxi ride with washing to the flat  for dinner with #3 son, #1 girlfriend and their friend C and to start a glass of something pink and bubbly to celebrate the impending new arrival.

Much talk of trains at dinner.  #3 son used to work at the station during his uni holidays.  He doesn't like talking about trains.  The rest of us love this topic.  So many stories and of course the latest one of Mr Corbyn en route to Newcastle. Now  I travel that route quite a bit.  I know how it works.  I know that often seats are reserved but that the passenger has chosen not to travel on that train so the seat is available and in addition there is at least one carriage that has unreserved seats for 'walk ups'.  I know that the 11 a.m. train from King's Cross to Edinburgh, non stop to York, is not a commuter train.  And had he sought my advice I could have told Mr Corbyn that travelling on a  London to Edinburgh Eastcoast service without a prebooked ticket and a seat reservation just before a) the second weekend of the Edinburgh Festival and b) the last weekend before the end of the Scottish school holidays was ill-advised.  Given he was going to a prearranged hustings in Gateshead his journey presumably wasn't a spur of the moment decision so why hadn't his staff booked him a ticket and with it a seat?  I could also tell him that the 4 p.m, London - Aberdeen train a week later was half empty.  I supported the continuing public ownership of the East coast service.  I can also remember in the 'good old' British Rail, pre privatisation days having to stand from Peterborough to Edinburgh on a train with that had absolutely no available seats, and had run out of water.  There are strong arguments for privatisation.  I don't think in this case home movies help make them.