Great Western Coffee Shop

I am escorting some 15 and 16 year old girls back from a gig at Hammersmith on Saturday night so thought I'd just check the train times today, even though I was fairly sure there was an 23.30ish departure getting into Maidenhead just after midnight which didn't stop at too many places, meaning less chance of drunk and rowdy people getting on and less chance of overcrowding, which would be just perfect..

However.. due to engineering works.. it's going to be the journey from hell.. We have a choice of the 23.20 stop everywhere and the 23.42 stop everywhere... I can hardly wait..The train before the 23.20 is the 22.45 so there is quite a nice gap between them for lots of people to arrive at Paddington and then get on the train.. Ideally I would have headed out to Ealing broadway with them as I'm sure the tube will be quieter in that direction, however I think there is a very high chance there that we won't actually fit on the train at that point and I don't fancy a long wait at Ealing Broadway... :(

Well this journey went as expected.... The girls were finished by 10.10pm so we went and stood on the District Line Westbound platform for 15 minutes or so (what fun) but no trains to Ealing Broadway at all.. so after that we decided there was no chance of getting the 22.45 from Paddington (22.54 from Ealing Broadway) so headed into Paddington..

When we got there, there was a 23.00 departure, first stop Slough.. So we got on that and, to be honest, the train wasn't overcrowded, however it soon became clear we were going to sit on the slow line and follow the train into Slough that we had been hoping to overtake and then get on, the same train that we would have got from Ealing Broadway had there been one single District Line train heading in that direction...We did however swap to the fast line just before Slough to add insult to injury  :)

So we arrived at Slough about 23.25, with a half hour wait for anything going west and stopping at Maidenhead so, due to having three tired 15 year olds with us, we decided we had to stump up the cost of a taxi home...It wasn't cheap...

Thanks must go to the District line for running no trains to Ealing broadway and also whoever is responsible for the lack of trains..

The winners must be, yet again, Slough taxi drivers  ;D