I have been meaning to do the Marches Line for ages. This is the crucial line that links South Wales with North Wales, the Midlands and the North. It tiptoes along Offa's Dyke on the Welsh border and thus goes through some very scenic countryside (and towns come to that) before passing through Shrewbury and dividing into routes to Crewe and Chester.
This could all be done in a day - no hotels needed - so at 5.45am on Saturday 21 April 2007, I left the house for New Beckenham station. The train for Charing Cross left at 6.07am and seemed remarkably full compared to other times (of which there have been many) when I've caught this train. I'm in town by just gone half-six, with an hour and a quarter before the train. I decide to walk it, it's a pleasant morning and without the hordes it will be much quicker than it would be during the day. I feel my way to Paddington, it's only in Marylebone that I know the exact route. It takes 50 minutes, which gives me time to get all my tickets, buy a bacon roll, and find a nice seat on the train. We leave on time. My favourite train - the Inter City 125 - speeds us to Newport in under two hours. I marvel at the new refurbished locomotives - hardly any noise or exhaust - known as clag - nowadays. A great advert for the engineers and the railway's environmental credentials, though I can't help agree with others that there is something more exciting about a screaming smoky diesel train!
At Newport I watch the world go by while I wait for the Manchester train - due at 10.04. The contractors are rebuilding Platform 1 which has been of use for years - part of Network Rail's improvements package. There is also a gaggle of elderly trainspotters keenly noting 6 locomotives coupled together easing through the station. Unfortunately there is also a group of teenagers at the other end of the station, which I choose to keep away from as they're bound to annoy me. Right enough, they have to start kicking a bottle around getting in everyone's way, even going down on to the track to retrieve it at one point. I really want these kids to disappoint me one day and not live up to their modern image but they never do! Various trains come in and out, including a Holyhead train, which I contemplate getting on as it will take me as far as Shrewsbury, but as it's a short train I decide to stick with the original plan. A 3 coach 175 train comes in from Milford Haven to take me to Crewe. I find a decent seat, and despite being frozen by the air conditioning, enjoy the views. Some of it is familiar to me from last year's week on the west coast of Wales, but it was very early on that occasion! I'm in a better state to enjoy it this time. Ludlow is the picturesque town that I was expecting, though Leominster (pronounced Lemster) looked a dump. Shrewsbury was pleasingly free of manky concrete modern buildings, and boasted a signal box the size of a football terrace. We plough on through the Shropshire and Cheshire countryside, through several dubious urban-looking stations, then suddenly the overhead lines of the West Coast appear - we are at the famous railway centre of Crewe.
At this point my careful plans unravel slightly. The next train to Chester is a few minutes, but due to the size of Crewe and allowing for delays, I'd assumed I had no hope of getting it. In the event though, I make it walking. It's a one coach job, WHY do they throw away the train's ability to carry hundreds by wasting track space with a bus on rails? Anyway, this trip is one I've done a few times now, and seems quicker each time, nearly half an hour through pleasant but unremarkable countryside, a contrast to the mountains I've passed on the earlier journey. So I arrive at Chester about half an hour early. I like Chester station; it's a sprawling place, with lines heading in and out in all directions - including some 3rd rail electrics heading to Merseyside, something I usually only see in the south. The arches between the different areas of the station evoke the Roman heritage of the city and somehow the buddleia sprouting from the crumbling brickwork seems to be appropriate in these surroundings. I nip outside to find a pub and there are a couple of okay looking ones opposite. Sadly all the local brews are off and one of the perennials - John Smiths - has to suffice. I grab a sandwich at Smiths and head back to the waiting Shrewsbury train - a two coach 158 - but because I'm early it's actually a Birmingham train. The plans unravel - if I get this all the way to Birmingham, I'll be far too early for my train home, and I don't wish to be stranded there for hours. Also if I wait until I get there, I'm too far south, and it will cost me a fortune to get back to the north. I could maybe fit some of the Wirral lines in now? I grab available timetables and get on the train to think about it.
After seeing the famous APT in its final resting place, I work out that I can just about fit in the Wrexham to Bidston line, unfortunately I realise that I should have got off at Wrexham General just as we are pulling out! I don't know when the return train runs or how far apart the connections at Wrexham for Bidston are, so decide that I might as well stay on until Shrewsbury which at least is a vaguely known quantity. This line is another scenic one, passing an aqueduct at Chirk at a higher level, allowing you to see the boats passing from above. At Shrewsbury I have about 3 minutes to get my extra ticket and get to the Chester train going back to Wrexham. I also discover that to get to it I had to go through the barrier, outside the station entirely then up a staircase, which is a new one on me. I also have to explain that I am deliberately breaking my journey and I don't want the Birmingham train to the staff!
So back to Wrexham hoping that the connections will work out okay. Wrexham to Bidston is an awkward one from a line basher's point of view. The line from Bidston doesn't terminate at General, but splits off from the main line and terminates at Wrexham Central, two minutes along. I need to cover that extra stretch, but if the connection times between the two lines at General are short, I may not get the chance as I don't have time to hang around in case I miss the Bidston train. I need not have worried. There are 15 minutes to wait when I get back to General, time for me to leave the station and find Central station, to ensure that I have covered the "branch" section right at the start of the journey. It doesn't take long; just have to cross a couple of roads and down some steps. I can hardly believe that the branch has survived given that you can practically spit between the two stations. But as Central is now at the heart of a shopping centre, having two stations to serve two lines does balance the passenger volumes as well as help people carrying shopping back on the train – not used to experiencing such regard for rail travellers in the UK! Unfortunately Wrexham lives up to its reputation – a doyen of chavdom. I choose to wait outside as the platform is faintly threatening. A two coach Sprinter arrives – better than I expected – so I go right to the front, most of the local neds having got in the back coach.
This is an interesting line. After passing the famous Wrexham football ground we pass through suburban stops, where most of the shoppers get off, and quickly emerge into scrubby countryside. Shotton is quite a large town and the interchange for the North Wales line. Shortly after that we pass over a grand iron bridge over the Dee, from which I can see two other such bridges, and thus back into England not long after. I notice that most of the passengers now have scouse accents, and I reflect this is one of the amazing things about my travels. I've gone from Cockney to Welsh to Midlands to Scouse in the course of the day and its one of the things that stands out as marking out that you have actually moved away from your own postcode, so to speak. This is to be cherished in a country increasingly full of clone high streets. We hug the coastline as we travel across the Wirral peninsula and join up with the 3rd rail Merseyside Electrics at Bidston – a curious reminder of home, the south having the only other such electrification in the UK. It's strange to think of Liverpool being so close. Now that I've practically travelled the old Great Western route to Liverpool – through Birmingham Snow Hill, Shrewsbury and Birkenhead – I can see that it was a perfectly reasonable alternative to the West Coast – maybe something we should have thought of while it was being refurbished?
The train turns round in two minutes and back we go. We get back to Wrexham General and I have a chance to look around. The station has been refurbished recently and is a pleasant place to be. The driver of the Bidston train goes off shift and gets out a big Suzuki bike on to the platform, preparing it for the off. I feel a pang of envy as he roars off. The Birmingham train arrives on time – a two coach 158. I get a seat but it fills to bursting by the time we get there. The I-Pod comes into its own at such times!
At New Street I sort some food for the journey home and stop for a drink in the bar. There is one moderate sized bar at New Street – astonishing considering the size of the place – and it has just been refurbished so it's not as unpleasant as I remember. There are bouncers on the door which I presume are because of the hordes of football fans milling around, a couple of whom are refused entry because they are swigging from cans. It amazes me that people don't just follow the rules under these circumstances when you are clearly not going to win! I leave earlier than I want because it gets pretty rowdy in there but the train comes in a few minutes earlier than its scheduled time anyway
.
It's a Pendolino, the coaches dimly lit for some reason though this gives it a pleasant feel. I grab a seat in the Quiet Coach and it is largely observed all the way back. For some reason it is timetabled to take two and a half hours – why I don't know as it seems to goes along at a fair tilt. I manage to get some sleep after Milton Keynes which gives me some energy to do the final schlep home – a rush across the hideous new Euston to the tube, Victoria line to Victoria, and a train to Penge East. So keen to get to my bed that I didn't even get past the stairs – forgot to feed cat – ooops – and don't remember anything else!
New lines covered this trip:
Newport-Shrewbury-Crewe
Chester-Shrewsbury
Wrexham Central-Bidston
Shrewsbury-Birmingham
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