Today marks the end of an era. I’ve just completed my last journey on the train from Ipswich for the foreseeable future, as my season ticket runs out next week. Now I don’t live in the Suffolk town, my new one runs from Chelmsford to London only. So now any journeys to the flat or mum’s in Lowestoft will be made by car, ending five years of travel down the mainline from Suffolk to the capital.
No more Intercity trains (which are luxurious when compared to the old Great Eastern rolling stock which run around the rails in Essex); no more 90-minute journeys which last 15 minutes more than they should; no more hideously long delays when trains run out of steam past Chelmsford; and no more being caught in the football crowds when Ipswich Town are playing at home mid-week (the Portman Road ground used to be part of my walk to the station).
Now, further down the line, I have arguably more crowded trains in the morning (they start further down the line, and Chelmsford is pretty much the last stop before London); smaller seats (the older, less plush Great Eastern rolling stock); and a 45-minute journey most mornings, which is still 10 minutes over what it should be, providing the service arrived on time in the first place.
There are good points, too, though. That shorter journey does help, but the daily delay doesn’t. The house move and shorter journey at least means that I get home much earlier, though, which has to be a good thing. There’s also no more journeying down on to Chelmsford on a Saturday morning as I sometimes used to, as I’m already there. Will I miss the day trippers who are noisier than commuters? I don’t think so.
So, that’s it. It’s now Chelmsford living proper. It won’t be the last time I’m in Ipswich for sure, as the flat still needs to be sorted for renting. But it will be the last train journey up the line for a while. And today was the kind of day we dream of: a sunny and bright one, when we get on a quieter train in the opposite direction to everyone else, rather than the crowded and unreliable trains run by National Express East Anglia usually.
I had the laptop out for the journey up today, but just sat and relaxed on the way back. Watching the flat and big-skied East Anglian landscape speed past the window, I thought about what had changed over the last five years, and how the twist and turns of life and fate have brought me to where I am now. I couldn’t decide what music to listen to on the return journey - which is a rarity - and couldn’t really settle either, so I flicked between songs that took my fancy.
A typically good off-peak on-time journey, as we pulled into a sunny and deserted Chelmsford station, the last track that had been playing stopped. What was it? Donna Summer’s Sentimental from the late 1980s was seemingly apt at least, if nothing else.
Tags: Journal
I felt very nostalgic whilst reading this blog! As you say Rich a long journey with many twists and turns over the last 9 years but as last you have found true happiness with a good friend and soulmate for many years to come. Good luck to you both and many more enjoyable weekend visits for us to come! That’s depending if you can see the bed yet in the spare bedroom…
Mum x