East Anglia 2003

This was my earliest bashing trip of any note. I bought an Anglia Rover, Anglia being the company for the Norwich and Norfolk/Suffolk local trains before it was replaced by the daftly-named One Railway. The whole trip was achieved in a day, East Anglia not being that far away from London.

Step one was to reach the western limit of the Rover area at Peterborough. I took a GNER 225 non-stop from London King's Cross. There was just a few minutes before the first connecting train, a single coach Sprinter that would take me into the heart of East Anglia. The first stop of note was at March in Cambridgeshire. This used to be a fairly significant junction for trains coming and going from all over East Anglia and Lincolnshire, but these days it's just a through station. You can get an idea of the former scale of the place from the number and shape of platforms there though. After this we cross the New Bedford River, a major part of the Fens drainage that prevents East Anglia returning to the sea. It's quite an impressive sight in terms of its width and depth, and the same goes for the girder bridge that carries us over.

Next stop is Ely and its magnificent cathedral. Because of the flat landscape you can see it for miles as you apparoach and depart the city. We then bump across the line that crosses counties from Cambridgeshire to Suffolk, passing through Bury St Edmunds where disappointingly little of the city is visible from the railway. Back on to the main East of England line as the overhead lines loom into view and we're at Stowmarket. This train continues to Harwich I think, but I clamber off here. Looking back, what's changed is that in those days I didn't really plan these days in anything like as much detail as I do now. This is partly a reflection of me getting used to the idea that everywhere does not have a train every 30 minutes like London, which took some getting used to. So I was actually quite lucky that I could get another train going north that quickly at Stowmarket. Some of the lines in this part of the world have an irregular service, so the day could have been a disaster.

This is an express to Norwich, at that time, one of the last loco-hauled regular services, a class 73 pulling mk3 coaches, and now in 2007 the only one, until the new Wrexham and Shropshire Company starts work. The main event of note was going to the loo and getting a quick eyeful of a lady who has forgotten to lock the door and is firmly enthroned. By the time we have sped to the capital of Norfolk it's lunchtime. I have a long gap until the next leg and no new journeys are available, so I get the train to Great Yarmouth, a trip I did in 2002, grab a sandwich and return, in time to get the 2 car 170 to Cambridge.

I notice we cross a swing bridge on the way out of Norwich. Can you imagine them leaving a swing bridge just outside Leeds or Manchester? The trip to Cambridge is across rural flatlands, and I am surprised by the length of the journey, though when you look at the map it is a longish route. I pass through Ely again, one of the couple of loop backs I will do today. Then we're in Cambridge, a station I am very familiar with as I have friends in the area, though interestingly I have never approached it from the north, and of course such a daft thing pleases me.

At Cambridge I just miss the Ipswich train, an unfortunate side-effect of not doing much pre-planning. Ironically it leave a couple of minutes late too. I probably went in the drab buffet (now a Marks Simply Food - no booze at Cmabridge at all now!) to wait the hour. I spot a vending machine on the platform Eventually I'm on a single coach Sprinter that is incredibly noisy for two reasons. One, it's full of schoolgirls, thankfully all of whom have gone by Newmarket. Two, some bit of the engine is thumping in a way that sounds like it needs an overhaul, and this goes all the way to the other end! Never mind. We then join the line from March and travel for the second time across to to the East of England line through Bury St Edmunds. This time I stay on through Stowmarket as I am going all the way to Ipswich.

There I have a half hour wait for the Felixstowe train. I think it was another single coach Sprinter but possibly it is electrified, so possibly it was a non-descript EMU - a 321 or something. This is double track but only for the huge amount of container trains going to and from the port. We pass a couple such trains and a sea of containers piled up like lego bricks before arriving at the minimal station in Felixstowe. I can see that the same thing has happened here as at many terminals - the large impressive station has been turned into a retail park and the line now stops far short of the original end of the line and has hardly any facilties at all. I suppose if it helps to keep lines open at all by lowering maintenance costs it's okay, but it is a shame. I'm too tired to look around so I get back on the return train, something I then felt reticient to do, but I'm keen to get home now.

At Ipswich I get on a London Express. Somebody talks loudly on their phone all the way home despite me glaring at them. Looking back it's sobering to think that this was quite rare in those days as they were still pricey to use. Now of course, someone's always on a mobile, with no regard for the other passengers. Why didn't I upgrade to the relative peace of first class? We arrive in London at Liverpool Street, and the notion that I performed a huge loop from King's Cross appeals to my sense of symmetry.

King's Cross-Peterborough
Peterborough-Ely-Stowmarket
Stowmarket-Norwich
Norwich-Cambridge
Cambridge-Ipswich
Ipswich-Felixstowe
Felixstowe-London Liverpool Street