For the past year I have been travelling standard class to Norwich on
National Express East Anglia to get to City College to work on RUGroom.

This morning I am catching the (surprise surprise, late running) 7.07
from Witham to Norwich and might miss my connection for the last part
of my journey to Great Yarmouth.

Anyway, booking the tickets for the trip yesterday from
thetrainline.com it was more cost effective for me to travel First
Class on the way up, and Standard on the way back.

The ticket I have for this trip (which National Express will nodoubt
check the usual four times they seem to inspect) cost £16 First Class
as opposed to over £20 Standard Class purchased at the station (no
standard tickets were available for this train on thetrainline.com, I
guess the few limited discount tickets had already sold.

The return journey standard ticket has cost me £6.00, bargain.

This is the first time I have used thetrainline.com for a long time
after it became virtually impossible to explain a ticketing error to
various representatives in a thetrainline.com oversees call centre by
phone. Thetrainline.com might be a cost effective way to buy train
tickets cheap, so long as you make no changes to plans and stick to
the strict schedule you agree to at time of purchase.

The First Class carriage is almost empty, a National Express employee
is busy on a laptop near by and a dew seats ahead a young lady has
just joined the train at Manningtree.

About a month or so ago, colleague Hal MacLean and I travelled
standard class from Kings Cross to Doncaster. The seats were
comfortable, carriage was clean, bright and modern and there was free
wireless Internet and power plugs at every seat. Yet here on the
train I'm on at the moment I'm in First Class with none of that, and
the train is opperated by the same company, National Express.

Although the seat I'm sitting in right now is roomy, its not very
comfortable, but atleast it is quiet (I somehow usually end up in the
carriage with the screaming toddler).

I also tried booking some tickets through raileasy.com and won't be
using them again.