It's enough to make you buy a car.....

Sunday I was through in Edinburgh (again) and went for lunch with some friends. After this I decided to head home, do some chores and prepare for the First Aid course on Monday. I got to Haymarket at 1631, one minute after (as I now know) a signaling cable serving the are North of Edinburgh, was cut by vandals /thieves, after the copper for it's scrap value.

After waiting around Haymarket for 65 minutes, it was obvious that tehre were no West or Northbound trains goibng to happen in the forseeable future. I went up to sort out some stuff I need from the tech kit for a wedding coming up soon. I then went for coffee with some friends...., well actually Tea (much poorer than the second offering at Tchai.... but with a more Bruntsfield atmosphere). Then I headed down by bus to Waverley.

I then joined the nice long queue for a Rail Replacement Bus which was to take us to Linlithgow and then we would catch a train from there to Glasgow...or that was the theory. We have now reached 2030 - 4 hours after I first started to go home. We boardd the bus about 9 and headed off on a FirstBus rattling double decker out to the M9 and up to Linlithgow. After waiting on the platform there until about 9.45pm, a train came in which was going to Dunblane. After it had gone, there were 7 of us waiting to go to Glasgow.

The driver train manager came over and told us he was booking Taxi's for us. The first one came and 4 people were loaded into a Skoda and set off Glasgow bound. Then after a further 10 minute wait a Taxi came into to take us 3 to Glasgow via Croy. Thus, I travelled from Linlithgow to Glasgow in a Jaguar XJ, and very nice it was too.,

The driver was very friendly and had previously been an Executive chef, and trained at the Savoy in London, before working in Edinburgh. He was a good raconteur and was ta;lking about the joys of his job as a private hire driver and dealing with top class clients and such like.

Itw as one of the most comfortable journeys from Edinburgh I have undertaken, but took 2 hours traveling time, and over 6.5 hours from starting home to getting to Glasgow.

However after traveling 300 miels by train in the past 4 days, it was the only delay. Another compenstaion form is winging its way to First Scotrail in Fort William now......