On a deserted platform at New Street I waited for a train home. Leaving a meeting in Birmingham late afternoon it was wet, windy and cold. It was strangely nostalgic and emotional to do the station to station hop once more. I’ve spent so much time here over the years, and I left it behind, barely noticing. It was while downing a double espresso to pep me up for the push from Four Oaks that I took time admiring the night view of metalwork, lights and machinery from under the access bridge on platform eight. At least it seems alive again now, and you can get a coffee. Back then New Street in particular had become a hostile, unpleasant place with next to no commuters and very few services. Things are clearly a bit more normal now than when I stopped this time-suck of a journey at the beginning of the pandemic.

I miss it, I really do, especially the views, and the late-night feelings thing of railway stations at night I’ve written about before. It was a strange experience – how did I ever put up with all that waiting around? This is a journey I used o do twice a day, multiple times a month, but since the pandemic made trains such a strange experience I only really travel on them one way, between Wolverhampton and Telford in the mornings. I decided to cut my losses, and hop on the train to Brum, then change for another to Four Oaks and ride from there. Wednesday 16th February 2022 – The weather was stormy and unpleasant to ride in, and when I left Telford where I’d been working there was driving rain carried on a wind honed on Satan’s back step.

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