Where do trains disappear to?

Yesterday I was due to take the train from Peterborough to Doncaster at 1626. It was the last train that could get me to Doncaster in time to catch the last train to Aberdeen. Seconds after the 1617 to Edinburgh had pulled out (in fact, the last few carriages were still clearing the platform), the announcement came over the tannoy, and the boards flashed up telling me that the 1626 was cancelled. At what point was it cancelled? When did they know that I wouldn’t be able to get home? It can’t have been at that point, because it would only have been 9 minutes away from the platform, even travelling at 30mph, that would be about 5 miles.

We all know that Japanese trains, are of course, amazing. In the year 2003 to 2004*, JR trains had an average delay of 6 seconds including delays caused by natural disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons, and heavy snowfall *the only figures I can find at the moment.


British trains, on the other hand are a complete disaster, badly run and more often cancelled than not.

Or are they? Maybe there’s something more sinister at hand. Perhaps the train companies are covering up the fact that trains are disappearing. An unknown force is simply vanishing trains. So when it gets cancelled 9 minutes before it’s due, it’s because it has dropped off the face of the earth, slipped into a Peterborough triangle or been tractor beamed aboard an alien vessel.



The truth is out there.