It's gone.

I had to leave Helen today to dash back home to carry out some business. Once again I had a seamless journey by train and in fact managed to get home 30 mins earlier than planned.

Helen already had a list of shops she was going to 'visit' but on the walk to the station we passed the market so that will occupy here for a while. I'm sure that she wont even miss me. Stratford upon Avon station was built in 1861. The first line to pass through went from Cheltenham to Birmingham but the line towards Cheltenham was closed to passengers from 1969 and for freight from 1976. You can also get to London via Leamington and Warwick. There was a Stratford Old Town Station but this closed in 1952. In 2013 a new station was opened just outside the town called Stratford Parkway. It was built to reduce congestion as folk from out of town no longer needed to get into town. Traffic has increased on the railway. Some of the trains have several request stops on the route into Birmingham.

I had never used Birmingham Moor Street station when I lived in the area as it was closed. It's history is quite interesting, (well I find it so anyway). The Great Western Railways terminus in Birmingham was Snow Hill. This made use of the double track Snow Hill tunnel which passes under the city centre. Snow Hill became too busy for the traffic through the ntunnel and it was felt the expense of widening the tunnel too much. They therefore built Moor Street at the other end of the tunnel. There were no trains stopping before going through to Snow Hill so it was a terminus. As it was the last station to be built in the City it was hemmed in on all sides so they installed a transverser that shunted the engines side ways on to the next track rather than running up a length of track to some points.  The station opened in 1909 and the permanent buildings opened in 1914. There was also a goodsstation built on the site. It also had transversers and wagon lifts to lower wagons down to the lower level to go direct to the markets at the Bull Ring. The Goods Station closed in 1972 and is now under part of the Bull Ring Centre. The passenger side closed in 1967 with the trains running to New Street. Snow Hill was also closed as was the tunnel.  1978 saw Moor Street platforms open for local trains. Traffic increased in the 80's and the tunnel and Snow Hill station were reopened with new platforms being opened on the through line at Moor Street. This left the old Edwardian terminus redundant. Local activists saved it though which was just as well as by the 1990's traffic had increased once again and the terminus was opened again and services to London mean't that for the first time in it's history it was a main line station. It certainly has a very different feel about it and was well worth saving.

Birmingham New Street is called New Street but it doesn't actually have an entrance from New Street. It is the eighth busiest in the UK, the largest outside London with 35.3 million. It is also the busiest interchange station outside London with 5.4 million changes every year. The upstairs has now been opened and it certainly is more like an airport terminal than a station now, but is definitely much more light and airy than previously. The same can't be said for the underground platforms as they are dark and claustrophobic. There does seem to be some work going on bu they will have to work miracles to make it much better.

We got to Doncaster a little early which enable me to jump on a train half and hour earlier than planned This then allowed me to get an earlier bus once back in Hull so I was nice and early to start the task of working through the post and weeding out the ones that mattered. Not long to do all that is required and then back to the boat. Oh I did get time to find my razor charger and the get sufficient power into it to shave my beard off. It's gone, so very sorry ladies. A photo maybe tomorrow.