Uncharted territory

For a suburban rail company it's not often that you get an entire job where you never get to your main London terminus, and yet that's exactly what happened today.

The company has been very brave and almost completely re-cast the winter timetable, which now includes services to Stratford as well as Liverpool Street. This afternoon's job was actually a lovely little six hour turn with plenty of time at the end of each run. For me, it was an opportunity to drive over a route that I had never even seen before. Although it was a little daunting the first time through, it's not actually too difficult.

On the down side, the new timetable is going to take a little bit of getting used to. Not only are most of the passengers a little bemused as to the destination and routing of the trains, but the new (and not totally logical stopping patterns) are likely to catch out unwary drivers resulting in "failed to calls" or station overruns. More than once today I've had people coming up to the cab window either wanting to know where the train stopped or why it's not stopping at a particular station. The biggest shift seems to be for passengers on the Hertford East branch. Previously, the majority of trains called at all stations via Southbury and Seven Sisters. Now there are none in the week that follow that route, and now there are some that don't even go to Liverpool Street. After tonight's experience, I shall be countering this by making lots of loud and clear PA announcements so that no-one can say that they weren't told.

Chatting to my minder tonight, it seems that time is rapidly catching up with me. By our reckoning, it will probably only take another five or six weeks for me to complete the requisite number of hours before taking the final assessment. I have mixed emotions about this. I'm a little surprised as the time seems to have gone by remarkably quickly, while also being impatient to get it all over and done with. However, the primary emotion is fear about how much I have probably forgotten and will need to revise.

So, it's back to the books for me.