Rail failures

Not the best journeys to and from Cheltenham today.

I dragged myself out of bed at 5.10am to be in time to catch the 7am train from Temple Meads. And I was happily sitting in the nice, warm carriage, with the engine running, waiting for the clock to reach departure time. But then...

"We are sorry but this train is cancelled because we do not have a train manager," boomed the intercom.

The rail companies have been so incompetent over the years that we've become blase about incidents like this.

But this is a very busy training taking a large number of people to work in Cheltenham and Birmingham - all of whom, like me, would have been late for work. And it was all because one person didn't turn up for work and the train company could not be bothered to have cover arranged. It's appalling, when you think about it.

Eventually this perfectly functioning train was taken back to its shed while we all squeezed onto an already busy service and texted our bosses.

Meanwhile, the journey back, which involves walking a total of 2.5 miles to and from railway stations, was so wet I think I nearly dissolved. But there was enough of me left to take the photo on the way back from Temple Meads.

The good news is that the bit in the middle - the work bit - went pretty well. Now that's worth celebrating!