In transit

The day started well - our Transpennine 10.24  train was running and it left on time. We settled down as we left Manchester only to be told it was terminating at Preston. 

We waited there an hour - a station I was familar with when I was external examibet at UCLAN and made regular trips down - and caught a delayed Avanti West Coast Train to Waverley. Needless to say it was busy but most people got sears.

It was becoming clear that the chances of getting a Scotrail train further north were extremely low so we booked on a bus. Our Avanti train encountered further delays - at one point the driver had to stop and get out to move branches - but we arrived with plenty of time to get to the bus station. 

I was surprised the bus station wasn't busy and there were even spare seats on our service. 

We eventually got into Piltlochry just after 6.  It was great to get off bus and head home.

Now relaxing after an easy tea and thankful we at least have power - there are some outages in the town.

It's been an interesting experience - we were fortunate in many respects in that we were able to book hotel, didn't have to pay for bus tickets etc. The most frustrating aspect was poor communications and having to go to several websites to get or to try a get information.