I arrived at Folkestone West in good time only to find all the trains were delayed due to trespassers on the tracks near Dover.
The information boards seemed up to date with slow trains, but not for the High Speed service I needed. "Delayed" isn't helpful.
When the boards did update, the 1601 High Speed service would not arrive until at least 1629. So I got the delayed by 20 minutes 1540 slow train to Ashford International. It crawled along.
It would be a tight squeeze to get from Ashford Platform 1 and across the Platform 5 for the 1640 HS, that had come via Canterbury and not Dover. On a good day I should have been stepping off the train at Ebbsfleet International...
In the end it was fast walk between platforms as we had been sitting alongside the rail works admiring the new German built equipment for cleaning the rails and removing the slippery leaves and ice, for ten minutes.
Platform 5 was packed. The announcements confused the late running 1616 (the one I should be on) and the on time 1640.
People got off and back on. One announcement was this train would run fast to London. But they meant the 1616! I asked one of the platform staff and jumped on as the doors were starting to close!!!
I finally got off the train at Ebbsfleet at 1659. Had I stayed at Folkestone and got the 1601, I would have still been at Ashford!!
Kick off 1730!
I walked as fast as my old legs would carry me and got in the ground at 1716. Time for a loo visit and buy a hotdog.
I will log a delay/repay claim for the original 1601 train!
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