Hi, again,

Anne and I had already purchased our train tickets to Edinburgh.  They mailed the tickets to us and we had them ready.  There was nothing more to do but find the train and get on it.    It wasn’t until about a week before our trip that I noticed some disturbing details.  The train itinerary looked like this:

We were leaving  Harwich  International  at 10:33  and were told to sit in any vacant unreserved seat except first class.  Then arrive in   Manningtree at 10:50.

There was a change of trains and 22 minutes transfer time.

Then we were leaving Manningtree at 11:12 again to sit in any vacant unreserved seat except first class.  Then arrive in Ipswich at 11:25, leaving at 11:58 with a change, and 33 minutes transfer time.

We left Ipswich at 11:58 for the final change at Peterborough.  What I hadn’t noticed before was that in Peterborough there was a transfer time of 9 minutes.  

I wrote to the train line expressing my concern about the 9 minutes.  They told me that a Journey Care agent would get in touch with me and solve the problem.  I waited patiently and after a few exchanges of correspondence, time came to fly to Amsterdam.  I still was not sure about the train transfer thing.  After all, 2 not-so-young-anymore ladies; 2 huge suitcases; 2 medium carry-ons; a backpack and a dog.  Changing trains in 9 minutes.

Keep in mind that you don’t just get off one train, walk across the platform and get on the next train.  There are different levels of platforms and different sides of tracks.  The transfers required get the bags and exit the train.  Find the lift.  Go up the lift.  Cross a walkway. Find next lift and go  down.  Find the platform, and in one case, the correct end of the platform and get bags on train.  And, this is not The Netherlands, no one jumped up to help.

However, in every case, Virgin Trains Journey Care came through and the wonderful agents took us and the bags to the correct trains.  We even had 2 minutes to spare on the 9 minute transfer.  Thank you Ryan, William, Roger and Morgan. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Lesson learned:  Read the fine print carefully.  Second lesson learned:  Trust that it will all work out in the end.

See you next time.