fbb's oldest little boy (pictured above, no, really! that's the one who's 35 and does clever things with confusers at Oxford University) was helping with a Charity project in Birmingham on Boxing Day and on 27th. Innocently he decided to travel from home in Wantage to our delightful second City by train!A quick surf to the national rail website for trains after 0730 on 26th December revealed a half hour frequency by Cross Country Trains (Donner und Blitzen, das ist Deutsche Bundesbahn!) with a convenient first departure at 0800.
Plans were made - the boy's wife would kiss'n'ride from Wantage to Oxford and all would be hunky dory. Details were duly reported to the guy in charge of the project who, somewhat hesitantly, expressed something of a passing concern.
"I don't think there are any trains on Boxing Day."
Was the journey planner wrong? No! It, being a brainless computer, [did you know that computers have a core capability of adding 1 to 0? - pretty thick, then!] answered the question correctly.
The first train from Oxford to Birmingham after 0730 on 26th December was, indeed, at 0800 ON 27TH DECEMBER! fbb's boy had not read the page IN FULL and thus had not spotted the date.
Two thoughts.
1. Mayhap the website OUGHT to have said "no Trains on Christmas Day or Boxing Day" for the benefit of the innocent and for senior managers at British universities.
2. Mayhap our Railway Companies ought to be running at least a "basic" Boxing Day service - in response to the massive oodles of so-called Government money lavished on them. It's not "Government" money, by the way, it's MY money and yours which we all kindly agree to donate to the HMG charity via our taxes. It would be nice to be able to use the trains we pay for.
Hauptbahnhof Oxford but NOT with a Cross Country [DB] train.
P.S. He went by car!
P.S. He went by car!
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