Derbyshire – On 14th August 2026 we set out for a few days of holiday in Derbyshire, staying in a ‘holiday cottage’ – a ground floor flat in the centre of Matlock.
Our journey there by train turned out to be a small nightmare. We had booked to travel via Reading, where we were to board a CrossCountry train to take us to Derby for the local service to Matlock.
Unfortunately we arrived in good time at Reading Station only to find our train on the Departures board with the word CANCELLED. I looked for the information office, but though Reading is a large and very busy station it seems not to have one, so I approached a member of railway staff on the platform and asked for advice and was told to take the next train to Birmingham New Street and change there for Derby.
It was another CrossCountry train, and as usual had too few carriages for its passengers even without extra people like us – who had of course lost our seat reservations. Fortunately I only had to stand as far as Oxford before I got a seat – about half and hour in very overcrowded train. A little over an hour and a half later we arrived in Birmingham New Street – on the minute the next Derby train was due to leave.
Birmingham New Street is the station from Hell, with poor signage and we rushed across and down what a sign had suggested was the right escalator to find an empty platform. Fortunately I spotted a train at the other end of the platform and we rushed onto it, managing to squeeze past people already standing in the crowded vestibule.
We managed to find a ledge we could perch rather uncomfortably in the luggage area at the end of the carriage. I couldn’t quite sit up straight, but it was better than standing for the 33 minute journey, though windowless and a little dark. But of course we arrived at Derby a few minutes after the train for Matlock had left – with over 50 minutes to wait for the next hourly service.
CrossCountry Trains used to be owned by Deutsche Bahn but was bought in 2024 by an ‘infrastructure investment company’. Under both it has had a terrible record. I’ve never been on a service which wasn’t desperately overcrowded with trains only having four carriages where really at least six were needed. And their services have often been cancelled or running significantly late – once 4 hours late.
Our delay on this journey was only 60 minutes – and the only good thing about this journey was that this should enable us to get a complete refund. Though it did take me around ten attempts to fill in the compensation form before it was completed without ‘unknown errors’ or refusing to accept that I had booked two ticked on the same booking reference and other silly things.
Anyway, we got there and were soon sitting in a nice small flat a short walk from where one of my sons and his family live. We spent the next four days with them, going to various places in Derbyshire, though I did also go on a couple of walks on my own around Matlock and Lumsdale. We also visited Ashbourne, Wirksworth, Bonsall, Whitworth Park and Youlgreave, and drove through many villages I remembered from my visits to Paul Hill’s ‘The Photographers’ Place’ in the 1970s – which you can see more about in http://buildingsoflondon.co.uk/pm/darbis/ Darbis Murmury. I was inspired and set going in the right direction by Raymond Moore and it really was the start of my real life in photography.
We left Matlock on Tuesday by bus to Buxton and from their onto Mancester by Northern Rail. More from our stay there in a later post. But we hadn’t finished with Cross Country Trains, and on Saturday came back from Manchester to Reading on one of these.
This time we were lucky and there was a train and we had our reserved seats and it ran more or less to time. But as usual it was only four coaches and there were many having to stand. Fortunately we had decided not to come home on the following day as Cross Country Trains cancelled ALL services on the Sunday. A total shambles of an organisation who should never be allowed to run any public service, certainly not a railway.
I haven’t captioned the pictures, but some will recognise some of the locations and may like to comment…
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