Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II began on Monday at 11:00 am local time in London’s Westminster Abbey. Stay up to date with these live updates: Here’s everything you need to know about how, what, and where to watch Elizabeth’s final memorial services. The funeral is set to begin at local time (), but Monday's events will start at when the doors of Westminster Hall are set to close in preparation for the coffin's procession.The state funeral is a service reserved only for monarchs or extremely important British figures, meaning it is the grandest and most honorable service the palace has to offer. The queen's will be the first state funeral in the United Kingdom since the death of Winston Churchill in 1965. Heads of state and foreign royals will begin the day at the Royal Hospital Chelsea and travel together to Westminster Abbey, where the funeral is set to take place.
I got the 6:35 train from Manchester to London - and it was virtually empty
30.08.2022 - 20:15 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk
If you want to make sure that you get a seat on a train from Manchester to London, you can bank on the 6:35am service.
But what you might gain in the knowledge that you’ll get a seat, you’ll lose in cash. Overpriced rail tickets between Manchester and the capital are nothing new, but Avanti West Coast have stopped releasing tickets three months in advance following their decision to cut the London-Manchester service to just once an hour.
This leaves commuters with a tough choice. If you want to be in London before 9am, the 6:35am train is the last one that will get you there. But a return booked the day before would cost you just over £250 - a price that is just not feasible for most.
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Even while on board, commuters branded the service ‘too expensive’ for most to even consider. One woman, who said she gets it regularly, told the Manchester Evening News that the journey had become far more difficult since Avanti slashed the route's timetable, but the busiest times tend to be in the evening.
"It has been worse [since the timetable was cut] - it's inevitable," she said. "But the staff have been really helpful and flexible. This time in the morning is normally quiet because its so expensive."
In several carriages on the train more than half the seats were empty and unreserved - a sight that seemed unusual for a popular commuting time between two major cities. Another passenger said he takes the 6:35am train every Monday and he hadn't had any trouble with the service since it was cut.
"I am surprised to see it this empty. I think that it is usually busier," he told the M.E.N.
If it's the cost that is putting commuters off,
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