I'm skulking amongst the bike sheds
bike racks here at Guildford Station.
I've got a cold by the way. So the throat's a bit
(clears throat)
yeah, the voice sounds different.
Behind me is platform one at Guildford station.
Many years ago
I used to commute on a regular basis
from Epsom to Guildford.
And every day I would come in on that platform
and every evening I would then leave on that platform.
Guildford Southwest Railways, British Routers.
It was back then Netbook Southeast.
It's part of, you know
the commutersville, you know
trains in and out of Waterloo.
The same trains, the same patterns every day.
Nothing ever exciting really happens at Guildford Station
or does it?
Because I think what fascinates me about the railways
are those moments when you get like, you know
lease you stations and request stops.
Or unusual services.
And today at Guildford
we're catching an unusual service.
(background chatter)
Everyday you'd see the same train
type of train
normally a class 455
which is why what's exciting is when you saw a train
which wasn't that
which was different.
And one day back in the 1990's
I saw a locomotive pulling an intercity train
and that tradition is upheld today
and I could smell it.
I could smell the chemicals before I saw it.
I could smell the voyager of this Cross Country train
that's on platform six at Guildford.
Hello sir.
My friend John is here.
Hi.
Hi everybody.
Johno, come here.
Okay, all right, okay.
You live in Guildford?
I do live in Guildford, yes.
How long you lived in the Guildford? About 20 years?
26 years, I think.
You know, 26 years you've lived in Guildford
have you ever caught the Cross Country train
to or from Guildford?
Yes.
I had a work trip to Birmingham.
And this was perfect trip.
Although that was a weekday Cross Country train.
When it leaves at 6:00 AM? It leaves at 6:00 AM.
Let me get on board.
We're gonna discuss that the whole timetable.
But once a day from Guildford.
I mean one arrives and one leaves.
A hang over from an intercity service
that started in the 19
I wanna say 1979, 1980
cross country one train a day into Guildford
and one train a day out of Guildford.
So we get it.
One stop to Reading.
Bike storage.
Bike storage is good.
Where's your bike Johno?
At home.
Okay.
Amusingly, I don't know where John has gone.
We just got to chat to the driver.
I swear to you this is a one a day service.
Once a day, once a day, a Cross Country
leaves Guildford goes to Reading
and then goes up through Birmingham
whatever to Newcastle.
Then once a day
oh, hello.
Hello. Once a day, just like that
once a day
one comes down from Newcastle
gets to Reading and goes
does it look like a little spur?
Like a little dog leg down to Guildford.
Except of all the days to choose
there's works happening at Basingstoke.
So all the regular form of Cross Country services
are being diverted via Guildford, anyway.
I think they're normally hourly.
They've made them two hourly.
So up on the board
actually there's a 12:20 to Manchester Piccadilly.
That wouldn't normally happen.
There is just one a day normally.
Yes.
And you've got the six o'clock.
Okay.
Let's leave
and then we'll discuss the timing pattern.
You all right?
Yeah. It's nice to see you.
Weather's terrible.
Weather is terrible.
Straight through, first stop Reading.
The first thing we're going to do on our journey
is pimp John out.
How's your geography skills?
Okay.
How's your drawing skills?
Not so, okay.
So I have a list here of Cross Country
generally speaking
run four core services using HSTS and voyages.
They are, Edinburgh
like Scotland, Edinburgh
mainly at, Glasgow
down to Plymouth.
Plus the daily, the longest train from Aberdeen.
And a couple go Penzance.
So can you do sort of like, Edinburgh to Plymouth
as a line.
Hang on.
And then you need to do The New Castle to Reading
which is what this is.
It extends to Guildford.
And then there's Manchester to Bristol.
And then there's Manchester to Bournemouth.
Those are the
and then you had the little Cross Country trains
which at boeing across the stands still
and then Carrington, Nottingham.
But could you think you could draw those four core routes?
I can try.
All right, Johno.
Show us your map.
(laughing)
That's great.
Sorry.
You'll get an email from Cross Country next week.
I'll ask him to employ you as their new graphic designer.
So do you want to know the story of why this train exists?
In 1979, as a website that documents it
sir, I don't know who you are
but there's a man called Andy Gibbs.
Hello, Andy.
You run a brilliant website called 1s76.com.
That's on the screen now.
And it tells the story of the rise and fall
of intercity services before Cross Country was a thing.
This is still like British round days.
And in 1979
they started an intercity service
that went like down to Brighton.
It was mainly Brighton through London
through East Croydon, through Kensington Olympia
and then out through Birmingham, up to Manchester
up to Scotland.
Some services went from Kent
like Folkston and Dover as well
but then on a Sunday
and I know this cause I saw it once in about 1991.
I was at Guildford on a Sunday
and then MSA into Loco
pulling into Citycare carriages.
And I'm thinking, what?
None of this, this is Guildford.
You only ever get boring commuter trains
that go into Waterloo.
And something like that with this intercity train
sat right there. And I looked it up at an old timetable
and sure enough
what they would do is that is that the regular daily service
actually there are multiple daily services.
Like two or three at one point
like six a day.
But on a Sunday they'd route them. They turn off a Red Hill
and they would take it by Guildford
and you can get an intercity train at Guildford
up to Birmingham and Manchester and beyond.
And then the trains
they sort of came and went over the years.
Privatisation came along.
Cross Countries came in
originally with Virgin. They tried to up the service
and then a Reevo when they got the franchise
wound down the service.
And by 2008
it had all finished.
It's kind of a legacy.
It's kind of a hangover from this intercity services
of like for like 30 years.
That Cross Country go, oh, you know what?
Yeah, we'll just
we'll run one of our trains just to like to Guildford.
So you need to look at the website 1s76.com.
And it's got all the timetables and everything.
We're beginning.
We're going through something.
Like how useful do you think this service to Guildford
people actually is?
If during the week, if you've got work
I think it is very useful.
Particularly have to go anywhere up the west coast.
It saves you having to go through the bum fight of
commuter time in Central London.
So you can just bypass all of that.
It's much more relaxing.
You arrive in a much better mood
than if you'd had to find your way along the Underground.
Can we talk tickets? We can.
Do you have your ticket on you?
I do. I bought a paper ticket.
You bought.
I've got an electronic ticket.
Amazing value, by the way. Thanks Cross Country.
I'm assuming the GWR fare might cost more.
It costs me two pounds 20.
This is two pounds 20.
It's going to cost me 10 pounds to get back to Guildford
from Reading.
Hang on, what?
So how much was it?
So you bought two singles or return?
Because I bought a single
cause I'm going back into Paddington from Redding
and I buy a separate ticket.
A single bank from Reading.
So why is it two 20 going out
but then it's 10 pound coming back?
Because this is an advanced fare on a Cross Country train.
Whereas the return train will be just to schedule
a GWR service.
Ahhhh, okay.
Standard GWR prices.
So advanced fares across country quite good value?
Yes.
Sometimes they have like maps up, don't they
showing services.
I want to know if Guildford is on that all.
Here we go.
Hello, we're Cross Country.
Hello Cross Country.
Oh, it's got Guildford on there.
It shows they bothered to put it in.
Well done.
We've written down the times, by the way.
So if want to catch this train Monday to Friday
it's the 6:01 off of Guildford on a Saturday.
A few minutes later, 6:09 Sunday.
What we've done, is the 12:11.
If you want to catch it the other way
you find yourself Reading to the 18:22 on Monday to Saturday
getting into Guildford.
And on the Sunday, it's really late.
22:14 off of Reading gets to Guildford about 22:45.
What's up?
There's a lot of wobble on that.
Do you want the same post?
Are you're having trouble holding the camera, Johno?
You're having trouble.
You're having trouble holding the camera steady.
There's really, we're not
when I wobble the camera it really upsets people.
Really sorry about unnecessary camera movements.
Are we at Reading yet?
We've gone through the Reading dive under.
Why is that exciting?
Because trained from Guildford to Redding, GWR trains
don't normally go through that.
They just stop at the platforms over there.
And am I right in thinking that a Cross Country
from Woolworth would normally have to reverse at Reading
because we've come from Guildford?
He doesn't have to reverse.
He just goes
he just goes straight through.
So that's also unusual.
We're so nerdy, I love it.
Ladies and gentlemen
now arriving into Reading.
Take care stepping from the train to the platform edge.
Please make sure to take all your luggage
and personal items.
So really, really quickly, Johno
we just wanna compare
can we do a side by side comparison of your map and?
Exactly the same.
I think it's exactly the same. Yeah, yeah.
You can just stick that there and just be done.
It's a train.
It's a train. Have you got seen one before?
I haven't seen one of those before.
Is that your first time? Is that 82 or an 800?
What is it?
You tell me.
Well, it's either an 800 or an
it's an 800.
So normally the Cross Country services
it would come over on platform
over there.
Yeah.
And then reverse at whatever platform that is.
But instead we've come in on 13
and amusingly because we've chosen
engineering weekend to do this
the one up all the trains on boarding today
are coming up and giving me all coming up to 13.
Which is why that board up there
is actually confirming that.
But apart from that
that's it we're at Reading.
I'm wearing a t-shirt by the way, that says
Manument Bonk.
If you didn't watch the hilarious video
did you watch it?
I did watch it.
With me and Vicki.
I made a little double entendre.
I said Manument Bonk instead of Monmouth Bank.
People were like, put it on a t-shirt.
So we did.
There's a link in the description.
You're gonna buy one?
Yeah.
Thanks Johnny.
Say bye.
Bye.