If you book a fare for as cheap as a quid to go as far north as Huddersfield you may expect things not to run perfectly.
When your still stuck at St. Pancras station thirty minutes after it should have left but you have to pick up a transfer twenty minutes after you arrive in the Midlands and you hear the announcement "we apologise but the crew hasn't arrived yet, they are on their way", you have a right to get a touch nervous.
When your still stuck at St. Pancras station thirty minutes after it should have left but you have to pick up a transfer twenty minutes after you arrive in the Midlands and you hear the announcement "we apologise but the crew hasn't arrived yet, they are on their way", you have a right to get a touch nervous.
It started OK. You get your little Megabus Plus voucher to hand in at the gate, the train was there, we were let on and everything was clean and tidy. Except there wasn't a train driver. Bugger!
Eventually we were on our way to the new East Midlands Parkway rail station in the middle of nowhere, making up some time and being assured our coaches were going to wait.
And they did, because they didn't have much choice, 90% of the train, which was going on to Nottingham, got off. There was no one on the platform, bar a bloke telling us where the coaches were parked. Without the Megabus customers and a few people going to the nearby East Midland Airport it was a ghost station.
There's no one there, there's no one there......the glamorous new East Midlands Parkway rail station
This has not been built where you casually drop in from the high street. Glittering and spotless with the latest technology, I hope it's not a 24million white elephant.
Anyway, the three coaches were taking us on a tour of rugby league clubs, mine stopped at Bradford and Halifax before Huddersfield, and if you hadn't heard about the service that's because it only started on March 30. This was all very new and let's face it for a quid, and fares were still on sale at only a fiver two days before the game, it was pretty good.
As long as they can keep those fares down, and with a little imagination re the trains back, next season's northern trips could become cheaper.
West Yorkshire, it's not that bad
The trouble is getting back, but more on that later, for now we got into Huddersfield at 12.45 only ten minutes later than advertised, having driven past some gorgeous scenery, especially outside Halifax near Bronte country, and four hours after leaving the Smoke including all the early drama.
I then tried to find the Rat and Ratchet away from the station but losing valuable time, the A62 ring road kept getting in the way, I back tracked back to a couple of bankers both inside the railway station, not something you see everyday.
The first, the King's Head was packed full of guys dressed in full twenties Northern gear on their way to the National, one even had a toy whippett bless, with a train to Lime Street only two minutes from the bar! The choice of beer was amazing and I had something that was 5.4%, tasted great and was only £2.40, a good start to the day.
Walking thirty seconds to the Head of Steam which was packed full of Town supporters, Shrimpers and some bemused travellers waiting for the 13.27 to York. "The girl said she was coming to take my order and that was 50 minutes ago," said a Huddersfield fan next to me, who'd actually travelled up from London as well!
The glorious Head of Steam, which is better inside, unless you had a train to catch
Service was not their forte this particular Saturday afternoon. "I was only called in this morning, one off holiday, one off cold, it's chaos", said the only barmaid in our section.
Still, the beer was the thing and a large blackboard announced several on offer, I had three pints of a lovely beer that ended in Tornado, and it blew me away. 4.7% and priced at a strange £2.67, taking the VAT cut literally, good stuff.
A group of Shrimpers having just had the beer with a Bear in the title, following on from the Deuchers IPA, were now joining me on the Tornado. "Good stuff", I said. "We're going through the menu", one of their number replied. As I saw him being escorted from the ground half way through the second half we can take him at his word!
Luckily, one has just got to walk in a straight line from the pub to the ground, not easy probably for my new mate going through the menu, but twenty minutes later I was in my seat with the warm sunshine being replaced by a bitter cold wind blowing through the ground, affecting events on the pitch and making collars go up all over the away end which had become a wind tunnel.
As you know by now a fine Barny penalty gave us another three points and there's a full report on the game with player markings here:
The defence was outstanding, long throws landing on Clarkey or Dervite's head like missiles from the sky but dealt with relatively easily considering the conditions.
On came the old Huddersfield war horse Andy Booth on the hour, however, unlike last year, when appalling marking from a corner gave the veteran striker an undeserved equaliser, he was to make no such contribution to this game.
Moussa also had another good match, the gusting wind making the football side of his game in the first half difficult but he tried to start most of Blue's attacking moves and in the second period, when conditions eased, he helped break down several Huddersfield attacks, the ball was passed round with his usual verve, and it was his cross, after a nice touch of trickery, that led to the penalty.
Macca and Grant play far more defensively, especially away from the Hall and when we go one up, allowing Franck to strut his stuff behind Robertson and Barnard. A sort of England formation with the Moose our Gerrard, Tilly our Capello, Brushy our Pearce. I'll stop there.
Poor Theo and that miss, the Town reporter on FootyMAD mentioned it more than the winning goal, move on mate we won, though it was horrible.
But these things happen and kudos to Theo, he just kept running and running and was unlucky not to score after that with a couple of decent efforts. I'm not his greatest fan but his work rate cannot be faulted.
We were the better team, it was a penalty, the beer was excellent, (forgetting the plastic bottled Carlsberg at half-time, needs must), another away win, (our fifth in six games), the play-off dream continues, not a bad day out.
That was all the easy bit, now getting home. Until Stagecoach remember football fans and come up with a decent one pound service back South, I'm not greedy, one about 17.30 would be acceptable, it's not the perfect solution.
In these credit crunch days I went for a £4.10 single to Leeds, left 16.57 in at 17.25. Then a twenty minute walk to Leeds bus station where the 18.05 was waiting and a £5 trip back to London, on the tube by 21.40.
A fifteen hour day in all but with £11.10 only spent on transport, even adding ticket and beer money, this was a very cost effective trip up North.