DAY 13 - Travel from York to London

Near the Shambles

Today was a travel day from York to London. We went to out into York early to take a final walk around. The weather was slightly better and the sidewalks seem to have dried. York in the early morning before the crowds arrived is very pleasant. The range of old and interesting buildings is quite extraordinary. I west back to the railway museum to quickly buy a book about Dickens' experiences with railways.

Minster

Minster

We checked out of the hotel about 10:30 and made our way to the station in order to catch the 12:02 LNER train to London. We had thought this would be one of the LNER Azuma trains, but it turned out to be a service originating at York with an older class 91 locomotive in push mode. The advantage was we be able to board the train 20 minutes before departure and enjoyed the first class service. We had window seats and the spacing of the seats in relation to the windows was correct.

Our locomotive was a class 91 at the back of the train

While walking down to our car a Lumo train went through. This is an Azuma in competition with LNER for the Edinburgh - London market.

The front of our train was a driving trailer.

We stopped at the principal stations to London Kings Cross and the ride was quite good. We arrived at Kings Cross a couple of minutes late and made our way to the hotel in Paddington. The station was busy and I noted a service was cancelled because the train had broken down.

The UK railways are in a mess what with train cancellations common as well as the number of strikes that occur sometimes with little warning.