Kings Cross Double Cross

June 21, 2024

My wife & me aboard the LNER to Edinburgh.
Whew!

 LNER; The London Northeast Railway. Our link on the British rail system to whisk us from London to Edinburgh, Scotland. 

At least that was our plan.

Being new this means of travel, that is riding a train to get from one geographic location to another, we worried over Google searches two weeks before we felt like we had a fair idea of what we needed to do and how to do it in order to get to Scotland.

We bough two tickets online with the LNER app. We had the QR code, we had assigned seats, we had reserved some of the few tickets remaining. We had done good. We thought we knew how to work the British rail system.

We thought wrong.

London hotel checkout was 11:00. We thought we'd checkout early and catch a train around 11:30 and have a few hours in Edinburgh to reunite with Grant and Kaileen that afternoon and then we'd all welcome Inga to Edinburgh the next morning as she flew in from Portland, Oregon.

No trains available to Edinburgh until 13:30. Earlier passage was sold out. We now have kind of a wasted morning in London; not enough time to sightsee, too much time before we board. Oh well, we'll just wile our morning away at the fabled Kings Cross Station. 

I scan the electronic board listing departures and boarding platforms. I see Edinburgh 13:30 [No platform listed]. I begin to see other destination cities shown as 'Delayed' and then some began to show as 'Cancelled' on the board. Not concerned; why should I be? Trains are not planes, trains are not subject to atmospheric conditions and who's ever even heard of train needing mechanical repairs? Besides, the weather is great.

Oh no. Edinburgh 13:30 - Delayed. Oh no, Edinburgh 13:30 - CANCELLED. Oh no in deed. Must we find another hotel in London for the night? Is our plan to meet the kids in Edinburgh dashed? We know nothing about rescheduling planes, trains or automobiles. 

Sue and I are pretty good with the language here in London. Perhaps I should stay with the luggage and send my wife to ask the Kings Cross information desk for answers and suggested alternative? Yes. I'll stay here, Lassie you go get help. Go girl!

Sue ques up as almost everyone has had their train cancelled by the looks of the big electronic departure board. [We hear that there has been a fire or wreck on the LNER line outside of London. Yikes! This is the proverbial (and literal) train wreck.

Information booth instructs Sue to go to Platform 4. She asks why? No clear answer is given, just go. Does not make sense to us. Lassie, I'll stay here and you go for help somewhere else. Go girl!

The ticket desk at the LNER suggests that things may not be working smoothly just now, so just wait awhile. Sue asks, "If we wait, for what are we waiting?"

The answer she receives seems to boil down to waiting for something to happen, maybe it will be good.

We wait. The formicating crowd grows, yet seems to be keeping the collective anger in check - but atypically British, the cues become untidy. We wait and we watch as the time passes with no obvious plan or alternative coming to hand or mind.

A colloquial definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I am starting to go insane in Kings Cross.

I tell my wife I am going to go and do the same thing she just did, ask some English people at the LNER about getting another train or some transportation or connection so we reach our reserved room in Edinburgh tonight. Maybe I'll get a different result.

I que up and get to the uniformed gentleman behind the LNER counter. I brandish my train tickets replete with seat assignment and QR code: "We had tickets for the Edinburgh 13:30 but it was cancelled. What might we do to now get to Edinburgh under these circumstances?"

The ticket agent keeps a stiff upper lip, but his left eye spells "dufus" while his right eye flashes "duh?" as he drolly tells me, just get on the next train.

I mumble something about exchanging my tickets and being reassigned a seat...

"Just get on the next train that is going to Edinburgh... [Like I just explained to you dunderheaded dufus]

We join the throng behind the impressive iron gates that open to Platforms 1 through 8. We wait. We chat with an Englishman hoping to get to Leeds. He explains things that we never knew we didn't know.

Like, the trains are bollixed up a bit today, so they'll send another train here to Kings Cross when they can get through and then if it's going where you want to go, just hop aboard.

The iron gates swing open. The departure board shows Edinburgh departing Platform 5. It is a caucus race. Boots, sneakers, wheeled luggage and a swarm of humanity bursting with pent up frustration surges toward the newly arrive train at Platform 5. Free-for-all, first come first serve. Find a seat if you can. I head for the end of the train. The conductor at the last car waves his hand, "This carriage is full," pointing us all back down Platform 5. I dash into the open door on the penultimate carriage, find two seats, throw my body across them and wedge my suitcase beneath. Sue joins me and we breath a sigh and shrug our shoulders; so, this is how it works, just grab any carriage that shows up and is pointing toward Edinburgh; tickets, seat assignments be damned. We just didn't know what we didn't know about train travel in the UK.

A few hours later we arrive at Waverly Station, in the heart of Edinburgh. I am unable to figure out the local buses and trams, so we walk 1 1/4 miles trailing our suitcases heading for our boutique townhome accommodations on the West End's Stafford Street.

We made it to Scotland.