Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast Tuesday the 6th of June and guess what I'm sitting on a train but it's not moving anywhere. This is the 1111. The express train from Frederikstatt in Norway all the way to Gothenburg in Sweden except that it doesn't appear as though it's

going to be going to Gothenburg it looks as though it might be going to a border station called

Halden and then possibly onwards from there we shall see here comes a driver I'm in the

silent coach good morning

yes it is silent class there's no first class on these trains just silent class and and normal class. I'm in silent class,

but nobody else is, so that explains why things are just a little bit quiet. So utter chaos

and confusion. It reminds me a bit of some Sundays in the UK where you've got no clue about

what's happening with your rail replacement buses.

But I'm afraid it is very much in tune with everything else which has happened to me while I've

been in the far north. I'm now actually south of Oslo. But let me talk through what happened.

I left you at

Luleo station which is on the Gulf of Bothnia the armpit of Scandinavia between

Finland and Sweden I was there very very early in the morning and the idea was

that I would be travelling on the train how lovely across to Narvik well

the train didn't turn up there was apparently emergency engineering works

eventually a rail replacement bus turned up it was bright yellow when it did and I'm

not sure what's happening behind me but please excuse the noises off When it did, and I'm not sure what's happening behind me, but please excuse the

noises off, when it did, it travelled via various random stops in the middle of nowhere to a place

called Bowden, which I've never heard of except in the context of clothes shops. That Bowden,

which is a big Arctic railway junction.

There was actually a train waiting.

Here comes the driver again.

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