Tonight gradually degenerated into one of those classic rolling shambles which characterized NXEA's running of the Greater Anglia franchise.
First up, an overhead line problem between Thorpe-le-Soken and Clacton meant some Clacton trains were being cancelled while others were terminating at Thorpe.
This meant a backlog of Clacton, Chelmsford and Colchester passengers at Stratford. As a result, I gave the Braintree a miss and got the 1806 for Ipswich, which doesn't stop at Chelmsford. I could change at Witham. Good thinking; or so I thought.
As it happened it got worse. There were no spare seats, the bulk of the additional passengers seem to have been for Colchester.
Next, we were held at a red signal outside Shenfield because another train was having overhead line problems. These were obviously insurmountable because as we dragged into the station there was an empty Southend-bound Class 321 on the down main-line platform. We had to use one of the Metro platforms to get through the station. However, the line controller, whoever they are, played a blinder. They simply replaced the knackered 321 with a Metro Class 315 which left Shenfield for Southend just before we were allowed to leave.
The 1806 tonight was scheduled to make an additional stop at Hatfield Peverel. As we left Hatfield, a berk who was standing across from me wearing a parka got his hood caught on the emergency alarm handle and managed to inadvertently pull it; the train slammed to a stop. It took another 15 minutes for the driver to arrive to reset it. Luckily we were in the front carriage of the train so it didn't take him as long to arrive as it could have.
We eventually pulled into Witham almost half-an-hour later than scheduled.
Fortunately, given the weather, the Braintree train arrived within 3 minutes. We finally got to Braintree around 15 minutes late.
Given the circumstances and the way events transpired, the evening was handled by GA far better than a similar set of cock-ups would have been managed by NXEA.
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