train travel

funnily enough, the very day that Pip and I went on a train journey by ourselves and I planned to write about some tips, Gill at Baby on Board, wrote a post about it herself. now, Pip isn’t a toddler (yet!) and we travelled just the two of us, so I thought I’d go ahead and write the post I’d planned anyway as I think it adds some extra info, especially about travelling solo with a baby. hope you don’t mind Gill!

the first thing that makes me a little anxious about solo train travel with a baby is the buggy. essential for when we are there, so it has to travel with us. and we have to get to the station. for some shorter trips, to Brighton for the day, say, I’ve just taken Pip in the sling. that was fine when she was a little baby, and lighter, but now, I like her to nap properly in her buggy and it gives me back ache for her to be in the sling for too long. Kings Cross is brilliant; it has plenty of lifts. Euston, however, has none. in order to get to my parents in law this week, I would have had to haul the buggy up three escalators from the Victoria line. even if I wasn’t scared of taking the buggy on an escalator, I wouldn’t have managed with all our luggage.

the second thing that makes me anxious is the amount of luggage. even ‘packing light’ and buying all food and nappies at the destination, I still had the following with me: bag of my clothes, bag of Pip’s clothes and so on, nappy bag, rucksack of toys/food etc for the journey, buggy, bag of buggy stuff which lives in the basket (rain cover, snooze shade, bear suit, phone charger, blanket etc -and should have included Pip’s coat, but didn’t, so we’ve had to go out and buy her something else), car seat for car travel at destination. oh, and the baby.

I’m pretty organised with packing and bag selection by now. my bag and the buggy bag fit in the basket. the nappy bag hangs on the handle bars. Pip’s bag hangs on a buggy hook (bag carefully bought so as it is the right height not to drag on wheels). rucksack on my back. baby in sling on front to contain her. car seat sits in the buggy seat (we need both as Pip is verging on moving out of the baby car basket and for a week or so stay, I don’t want her only buggy option to be a car seat). that combo doesn’t bode well with buses, tubes or escalators. so we got a taxi.

anyway, after that long and exceedingly possibly boring intro, here are my tips (esp for solo train travel):

. check mumunderground app for info on access to tube stations and so on (and leave LOADS of time, as often the lifts at underground stations require an enormous amount of walking and is rather time consuming, especially at larger interchanges where people use the lifts with lots of luggage too). remember to look at the platform signs up above or note where the platform is raised up so you can wheel the buggy straight onto the tube carriage.

.(or), ask the taxi driver to deliver you to the disabled access entrance to the station to avoid unnecessary steps

. leave plenty of time at station to access baby change facilities which are behind barriers and require an assistant to open gates etc. change nappy before boarding train as easier in a locked cubicle in station than having to leave behind items at seat and use facilities on the train.

. travel in the disabled carriage (I always ask the guard for info as to which carriage and whether any are booked before boarding). you can park the buggy and the baby can remain in the buggy safely secured for the journey. (I usually choose, where I have a choice, the option where the buggy can be parked facing backwards to direction of travel in case of emergency braking).

. don’t be afraid to ask another (able bodied, luggage-less) person for a hand lifting the front of the buggy up the steps onto the train. particularly Virgin trains have a high step.

. investigate whether calling the train assistance line would be useful. they do offer help to parents with children in buggies. I’ve seen people being assisted round the lift system at Birmingham New Street. (and obviously, pre-book your ticket)

. take food on board with you for yourself. it’s easy to forget that you can’t just nip to the buffet car and it’s a real pain having to take the baby with you and decide which stuff to leave in your seat. I find it easier to pack everything I might need for the journey in a separate bag so that I can leave most bags under the buggy and just take to the seat the one with what I need.

. try, if possible, to travel at a time which might coincide with a nap time (or even bedtime). even if the baby doesn’t sleep, they might be calmer and more willing to travel in the buggy.

. pack a sling, so if the baby doesn’t want to remain in the buggy, you can secure them to you and then stand up and/or pace to keep them calm.

.pick and choose where you change trains, if you have a choice. visiting my sister in Wales, I choose to change at Swansea as it is an end of line station so all the platforms lead to a concourse at the end so you just walk round and have no lifts to deal with, like, at say Birmingham New Street or Wolverhampton (where there are lifts but they add a big connection time and sometimes that isn’t possible to arrange on a pre-booked ticket with a short connection time). sometimes, however, changing at a small station with only a few platforms can work, like Hove, where you get off one train and then get on the next one, without a platform change.

This is what has worked for me so far. my journeys have been between 1 and 2 hours plus travel to and from station but also as long as 5 hours travelling to West Wales. obviously, Pip is not yet walking, so I expect all of this to change, but, I hope this might be helpful for anyone contemplating travelling with a baby, especially solo.