Surviving the Campus Circus: 6 lessons I’ve learnt from my first milkround

As the (relatively new) Business Development Manager at Sanctuary Graduates, part of my role is meeting our clients and attending careers events around the UK. Over the last 5 weeks, I’ve trekked from Glasgow to Exeter and everywhere in between, travelling mainly by train with a few overnight stays in some… interesting… places. This morning, sitting on the 7.10 from London Waterloo, I reflect back on the things I’ve learned from my first milkround on campus.

1. Phone signal on trains is a joke

This is the single most irritating problem with trains when travelling on business; you have important calls to make and emails to send, yet it seems getting any decent stretch of track not covered by tunnels or in the middle of remote countryside with ‘No Service’ is near impossible in many parts of the UK. Train wifi, even in first class, is far from reliable and, fed up of trying to connect, I usually use my phone as a wireless hotspot. Not ideal.

On my way to Wales one day, I attempted a conference call with Australia – never a good idea! The train wifi wasn’t working and my 4G signal was patchy at best. To top it off, the end-of-carriage door was broken and jammed open, which not only created a cold wind through the carriage, it was extremely noisy and impossible for the microphone to pick up anything I was saying. Brilliant.

2. People are more generous than you think

Last Thursday, my alarm rang at 5.30am for a red-eye departure from St. Pancras. Once aboard, I made a beeline for the food trolley, only to find out the card machine wasn’t working and that I didn’t have enough cash on me. Schoolgirl error. Rather than let me face a 3-hour journey without breakfast, the staff very kindly offered me some porridge for free, saying: “no one will moan about £2”. Best trolley man, ever. But surely a one-off?

On another early departure, as I let the passenger sitting next to me out of his seat, he asked me if I’d like anything from the food bar. I politely declined his offer, but he returned with 2 exotically flavoured porridge pots. Apparently, I looked hungry and needed to eat… Thanks, I guess? The award-winning coconut & lime porridge was very nice, but I think I’ll stick to honey or jam.

3. Just because you’ve bought a ticket, doesn’t mean you’ll get to campus

One cold morning up north, my Aberdeen-bound train was terminated at Newcastle-upon-Tyne due to cable theft north of the city, which had caused a total signalling blackout in the area. A bacon butty and an hour of standing on a freezing platform with crowds of disgruntled passengers later, a crackly announcement advised us that the next train on platform 1 would be continuing to Aberdeen. Due to the damage, Network Rail was only allowing 2 trains through the damaged track area per hour, so there was another hour of waiting on the train. Further into the journey, outside Berwick-upon-Tweed station, the train stopped sharply as there were trespassers on the track which the Police were dealing with. We waited in that position for a further hour ½ before we could proceed.

There was no water on the train so the staff had resulted to handing out free Cokes and wine (at 11.30am!), but more annoyingly …sort of… the power sockets weren’t working and my work laptop died.

By this time, the event I had intended to go to was nearly finished and due to the total delays, all passengers were advised to get off at Berwick and return home. I then encountered all the same signalling delays on the way back and spent a total of 7 hours travelling on trains that day.

4. People outside London actually talk on trains!

I’ve met some interesting people on my travels around the country, from an elderly lady who couldn’t understand why leaving her suitcases unattended on the platform while she went to the toilet was a problem, as she’d been coming to that station all her life; to the director of a recruitment firm and a man who spent most of the journey trying to remember the word ‘parsnip’. He let me help him in the end, describing it as a very large, spicy carrot…

Sitting opposite me in First Class on a Virgin Trains service to Birmingham, was a deaf couple from Kent on their way to a caravan show. Through miming and note-writing I was able to help them order breakfast and give them some warning when their stop was approaching. I’d never properly contemplated the challenges of being deaf and I suddenly felt a real sense of appreciation for something I take for granted every day.

5. Don’t trust the pictures. Always read the reviews.

I organise all my own travel and accommodation, but hotel selection is clearly not my forte. On my travels I stayed in a Pastoral Centre for a Catholic Diocese (image below), which also has guest rooms and a conference centre (by far the cleanest and friendliest place I stayed in and the breakfast was lush) and a shared room in a hostel with some angry Italian tourists. I also stopped over in an inn in a tiny, remote village a good taxi ride out of the city I was visiting. When I arrived at the inn at 8pm after a long train journey, the staff informed me the chef doesn’t work on Monday’s and so there was no dinner being served…

Another place, which looked very stylish on the website, was in fact a pub with rooms above it and, as I arrived late that evening, there was a projector displaying the local football derby over the entire back wall of the packed bar. The check-in desk and door to the upstairs was, to my horror, just below this screen and as I waited in agony to get my room key, I cast a great, black shadow across the entire centre midfield. Let’s just say, the fans were far from amused and I didn’t leave my room until the next morning for fear of crossing the projector during a penalty shoot-out!

6. You can’t always rely on Über

Any hour, day or night in London, you can pretty much guarantee a taxi is an app-click away. I know in advance how much it will cost, I haven’t got to worry about not having cash on me and I can see exactly where it is. The rest of the UK though is playing catch-up and while some cities are covered, I found myself waiting in queues 20 people long, Googling local taxi firms on my phone, calling sometimes up to 5 numbers without success and eventually walking or hopping on a bus. I hated the uncertainty of booking a taxi the night before for an early morning train departure and not being able to trace its location or get in touch with the driver if it didn’t show, so I even booked it for half an hour earlier than I wanted it, just in case. It arrived and on time.

So what did I learn for next year?

All in all, it’s been an eye-opening last few weeks. Public transport is great, but not always reliable as delays and cancellations have cost me meetings and wasted time. I’ve learned to read hotel reviews and not just go off the pretty pictures and to always have some emergency cash on me. It’s a good job I love porridge..