Charing Cross via Sidcup

24 Mar 2013

This week I’ve been doing some work at a building on Parliament Street, London. My usual commute is on the Southeastern High Speed service to St Pancras, this is great because it’s a short 15 minute walk to the office which means I can leave my door and be at my desk in about an hour. The problem with St Pancras, especially during peak hours is everyone is all trying to get on the tube trains at the same time, and of course everyone is going the same way. This make it a pretty uncomfortable journey that if you don’t push in right can take well over an hour. Not to mention the excessively long walk from the national rail services to the underground platforms! The solution? Going old-school on a Class 465 Networker. Why bother messing around with the tube when you can get a national rail service directly to where you need to be? Sure, it can take slightly longer but I’d much rather be sitting down on a warm train than fighting to squeeze on a Victorian underground tube!

I took the 07:58 service from Strood to Charing Cross via Sidcup, arrives for 9:16 giving me plenty of time to be at work in time. The train starts to get busy around New Eltham but it doesn’t really make much difference if you’ve got a seat!