The planned Isle of Wight blogs are postponed.
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It All Started So Well ...
Yesterday, the 1032 from Ryde Esplanade came and went, fbbs aboard) on time. The new ticket gates at Ryde Pier Head happily accepted their 'orange stripe' rail tickets ...
... so on they strode for a massive 12 yards until ...
... the ferry boarding was impeded by another barrier. Then a door was unlocked and those waiting in the ex cafe now spartan waiting room ...
... pressed forward to another barrier hidden round the corner. Once the guard dogs released the waiting room waiting people from barrier 3, the staff member returned to release, inter al, the fbbs.
Wightlink's finest sped our adventurous aged ones across Spihead (Note : for pedants, it is NOT 'The Solent" at this point) to Portsmouth Harbour station.
But Deteriorated Very Quickly
At the top of the Wightlink ramp, it was obvious to the perennially perspiicacious but portly parsonage of fbb that ...
... summat, as they say, was very up. Of the First Great Western train to Salisbury, sign was there none.
Full of rue, Mrs fbb was able to report that the train was cancelled. This would mean a TWO hour late arrival back at Axminster.
But it wasn't cancelled, like CANCELLED, was it?
The fbbs sat on a bench, disappointed, depressed and despondent! So much so that Mrs fbb toddled off to obtain an essential sustaining cardboard vat of caffeine; while fbb just wondered ...
... and soon realised!! Their GWR train had been turned short four mins down the line and run into the lower platforms at Portsmouth and Southsea. 
Had fbb twigged this in time, he would have heaved self, wife and luggage on to the London train, alighted at Fratton and smartly hopped on the GWR which should have followed it from the harbour.
But did it?
At 1154 we were told ...
... that the GWR train had left Fratton in time for such a connection from the Harbour, but, sadly, the fbbs had not twigged in time!
But, as they waited glumly at 1125, there had been a confusing non-recorded announcement, summarised by fbb below.
The 1123 GWR is cancelled
Passengers should join the 1128 to Victoria
Change at Fratton
... when they would have missed the retimed 1134 GWR ...
And take the South Western Railway
train to Southampton Central ...
... from where they can continue their journey.
Now fbb is not a professional railwayman and occasionally misunderstands the necromancy of the Working Timetable, but he did feel that grinding along on an all-stops train to Southampton would offer little benefit compared with waiting for the 1223.
So the fbbs waited on Plat 1 at PHB, anxiously awaiting the 1146 incoming GWR train that would form the 1223. Time passed by and no train appeared.
In a panic, the usually wise old man checked the incoming times on line ...
Why not platform 1, as usual?
So with increased panicking; and as nothing had arrived on 1, the two trotted creakingly to 3 ...
In this case, the panic was utterly misplaced as fbb had inadvertently checked times and platforms at Portsmouth and Southsea station - where all trains to Harbour DO use Platform 4. But this is what happens when the normally logical human brain meets the joys of disrupted operational chaos!
As fbb was considering the prospect of a cancellation for the expected 1223, the 1146 arrival duly rumbled in ...
... to platform 1 NOT at the on-screen 1150 but at 1210.
Isn't technology wonderful?
The fbbs settled gratefully on the class 165/166 knowing that, with the reduction of the train service via Axminster to every two hours, the creaky crocks would have plenty of time for the connection at Salisbury which is usually mega stressful.
The WiFi wasn't working.
So fbb logged on to his "paid for" WiFi to check one last thing. IF the fbbs had been quick enough to connect with the 'cancelled' 1126 at Fratlon, would they have caught the SWR connection at Salisbury.
Isn't technology wonderful?
The displays on the 1650/166 GWR unit were displaying, but the management of the display was silly. On leaving from Portsmouth Harbour, we were told the train would be calling at ...
... Portsmouth, followed by ...
... Southsea, then Fratton etc.
Isn't technology wonderful?
The East Southsea ...
... branch from Fratton closed in 1914!
The GWR train arrived at Salisbury at ...
... 1254, 12 minutes late.
The SWR train to Axminster and Exeter had left at ...
... 1248 on time!
So they would have missed the connection and still arrived at Axminster two hours late.
Wearily the fbbs arrived Axminster at 1614, as the clock on the SWR display showed ...
1703. Isn't technology wonderful?
The whole journey was a poor advert for the technology-led railway and none of this shambles would have happened; indeed if that freight train ...
... had not been allowed to run in front of the GWR 1046 arrival.
Next Weekend Variety blog : Sat 17 Oct
