Forth Bridge

I felt like I got up in the middle of the night.  I had to be in Edinburgh early to get a train to meet a colleague, to get a lift go to a meeting in Dundee.  It all went well until I got to Waverley Station just after 7.30am.  I knew as soon as I walked into the station that there was something not right as there were far too many trains/carriages sitting on the platforms.  I walked past a platform and noted that the train was delayed, then saw that lots of trains were delayed.  Undeterred I went and bought my ticket and went out to the main concourse – which was packed full of dazed looking people.  The rail network was at a standstill due to a train which had broken down between Edinburgh Waverly and Haymarket (which a friend of mine was on!).  After a while all the delayed trains disappeared from the board.  They just didn’t exist anymore! At this point I tracked down a member of staff (there weren’t many around, and the information desk was closed), to be told that they didn’t expect anything to happen till 9.30am at the earliest.

At this point my plans changed to getting a tram to Ingliston where my colleague could pick me up.  We then had a hideous drive up to Dundee with low visibility due to sleet. We made it just in time – and were both quite stressed by what the morning had already thrown at us.

Meetings done, we headed back down the road in brilliant sunshine.  She dropped me at Dalmeny Station and headed home, and at last I was able to use my train ticket back to Edinburgh.  I was only in the office for half an hour, but did manage to finish a piece of work off.

My train home was slightly delayed and didn’t have enough carriages.  They had the cheek to make an announcement apologising for the late-running and the cramped conditions, blaming an incident earlier in the day with a broken down train!!  I’m really that Scotrail got good mileage out of the incident/excuse.

A late running train means  I am home later with less time to feed BB and get him back out to cubs, but we just made it.  I was parent helper, so I went too!  My job for the evening was to help them make Christmas decorations for the forthcoming Christmas fair.  That all seemed to go smoothly, though as sweets were involved they all wanted to eat the sweets.  I handed BB over to TT and then headed to the PTA meeting at school.  I eventually got home about 9.30pm.  It’s been a long day.

I see that the train incident was discussed at Holyrood and the FM has apologised.  I can guarantee that she wasn’t waiting at Queen Street station on the train to her office in Edinburgh!

Here is the Forth Bridge from Dalmeny railway station. A UNESCO world heritage site which is part of the rail network.