London - National Rail

I have now officially returned to London after nearly two years away in Asia. It's great to be back. Seeing exciting new places is loads of fun, but it's good to finally be home. I'm also back at work at a new job. The fun part of the job is getting to work. I've been trying out the National Rail system. It's much hated by everyone, but I kind of enjoyed it.

I"m working in an industrial park about an hour's drive west of home. It's not exactly the sticks, but it's not a big metropolis either. For the first week, I drove to work, as it's a pretty direct route. It was OK going to work, but getting home was a nightmare. There's nothing more annoying than sitting on a motorway going 20km/h! Action was called for - I was going to get the train to work!

Due to a planning decision by the Victorians, all the train stations in London are located around the periphery of the city. I'm talking about the Queen Victoria Victorians here, not people from Melbourne. I think this was done so that it didn't affect the business of the horse drawn carriages. Anyway, it means that my nearest station, Paddington, is a tube ride away. That's right, before I can even get on a train, I had to get on the Underground!

Arriving at Paddington, the scene is a bit mental. There are thousands of people in a mad panic to be somewhere. There was no-one wandering idly about, except for me. Everyone was on a mission and had a well practiced routine for how to get in and ot of the station in as short a time as possible. I felt a bit like a country bumpkin wandering about looking for a ticket machine. I remembered not to drool when looking at the big iron horses! :-)

Once I'd bought a ticket, worked out where to go to get it, my train promptly departed. I literally missed the train by about a minute. D'Oh! Not a good way to start the trip, but it gave me a chance to wander about the station.

I've always thought Paddington station was a rather nice building. It was one of the first railway stations in the world and is made from a rather grand cast iron framework, much like the ribs of some great beached whale. It's always busy and always full of people.

It was also at this station, where Paddington Bear was so cruelly abandoned. There's a statue of the bear in the main concourse. People usually sit on it or use it as a convenient place to put their rubbish. Poor Paddington!

I finally got on my train and away we went. The train was a semi express service, so it went at an impressively fast speed out of the station. Within a few minutes, we were out of London and into the countryside. It's summer at the moment, so the countryside was amazingly lush. There were big bushy trees everywhere, as well as a lot of wheat fields whooshing past. It reminded me why I like the English countryside so much - it's just so pleasant! Sure, the nicest parts of England are never by train tracks, but it was rather nice seeing nature on the way to work.

I finally arrived at my station after about an hour. It was a very relaxing experience. Once I was aboard, I sat by my window and looked out at the scenery. Most of the commuters are going in the opposite direction, so it was very quiet on the train - an almost perfect commute!

The trains themselves have a few interesting features. Geek wise, they have wireless internet! I must try that out one day. I'm sure it's massively expensive, but how cool! The other fun feature is the doors. On the older trains, the doors only have one handle and it's on the outside of the train. To get off the train, you have to open the window, stick your head out and grab the handle. Whoever thought that was a good idea really needs to be shot!

A lot of people complain about the national rail system as being old, inefficient and generally crap. As a one off experience going to the opposite direction to most people, I found it quite pleasant. It actually inspired me to do some rail trips. My train went all the way to Cardiff. I was sorely tempted to skip work that day and go off to Wales. Next week maybe...