My journey from Cardiff to north Wales yesterday took 7 hours. This is only a grumble not a rant because I travelled (home, so I did sort of need to) knowing there was serious disruption on the north-south Wales line (i.e. the line was completely closed, being underwater). However, a detour via Birmingham should have only added 45 minutes* making it a 5 hour journey rather than 4 and a bit. Unfortunately the Cardiff-Birmingham train getting stuck in Gloucester for 30 minutes meant that I missed a fairly critical connection. Fortunately, a couple of coincidentally slightly delayed alternative trains and 3 separate station sprints to make connections meant I got home at midnight (7 hours) rather than 1.30am.
My secondary grumble is that I meant to buy food for the train, but the queue was too long, so I left it, believing that I'd have time to grab something in Birmingham. I didn't, and none of the trains (or the bus replacement) had food. Also, are the station staff in Birmingham specially trained to be unhelpful?
* It says something about the shitness of the Welsh line when a detour of that size only adds 45 mins