Snaking over the Snake

I've been working in Sheffield a lot since returning from leave. After a week, I got bored with using the train. I was never a train person to begin with, but I've been converted to the benefits over long distances. Sheffield's pretty local though, so this week I thought I'd give driving another chance.

What brought me to this conclusion was the time it was taking on the train. Ten minutes to drive to the station and park, a half-hour wait for a train, something like a 55 minute journey and another 5 minute walk at the other end. About 1 hour 40 all told. I was convinced driving would be quicker *and* more convenient.

So Monday morning I set off, dropped Nikki at work around 8.20 and headed round the M60 to the M67. I expected the main queues to be coming the other way - into Manchester - so I wasn't prepared for the slow traffic heading into Glossop, or the long line of cars stuck behind the articulated lorry which was negotiating the Woodhead Road on its way to the M1. I didn't have an opportunity to pass it until after the Flouch roundabout and by then it was only 5 minutes or so before I hit the tail-end of the rush-hour traffic heading into Sheffield.

Not only was the journey painfully slow, I found the closest car park to the office was a 15 minute walk away. I was not best pleased when I finally arrived at my desk at 10.40. Total journey time 2 hours 20: a full half an hour longer than the train and about a hundred times more stressful.

I couldn't even claim to be saving the company any money doing the journey that way. The car park in Sheffield is almost as expensive as the station car park in Manchester, and the train ticket only a pound more than the mileage allowance. I decided Monday would be my last journey by car, but going home I took the more scenic route via the Snake Pass and Ladybower reservoir. The road was much quieter going back and the journey only a few minutes longer than the train. My morning determination was swayed by the easier return journey and I made up my mind to try again one more time, using the Snake Pass both ways.

I needn't have bothered. Once again the Glossop-bound traffic snarled up the M67 interchange and once I'd cleared Glossop I found I was stuck again behind a slow-moving lorry, this time with NO passing places. The journey over to Sheffield this morning was marginally better than Monday at 1 hour 55, but still no contest with the train. Added to that, with the research into the timetable that Nikki has done, I can now arrive at the station either end minutes before the train departs, so the door-to-door journey by train has been shortened to about 1 hour 20 minutes.