Write reflections about journeys you go on regularly and then photograph them.

For the last eight years I have regularly travelled from my home in Cambridge to the company I work for which is based just outside Brussels. Although the end point has varied over the years, it is a journey I am very familiar with and quite enjoy. Usually it starts about 6.30am and I arrive at the office in Belgium around five hours later.

There is a rhythm, I order a taxi the night before and make sure I have my things packed and know where my passports are. The first leg is in the taxi from home to the station where I collect my train tickets from the self-service machines. The train to King’s Cross used to leave from platform one, very simple, through the barriers and turn right. These days the King’s Cross trains leave from platform seven, which means turning left after the barriers, going up the stairs and over the tracks. I feel this is an unnecessary inconvenience! I am not normally bothered about which carriage I sit in as I don’t have far to go when I arrive, but I do have a preference for which seat I sit in. Ideally, I like to sit in a twin seat, facing forward on the righthand side of the train. Although this means my view of the development around Addenbrookes hospital is impaired as we leave Cambridge, it also means I avoid the harsh, early sunlight on sunny days. Visually this first leg is unremarkable as it is all so familiar, however, during the period I have been making this journey the area around Cambridge station has changed significantly, and not necessarily for the better, as it has undergone major redevelopment.

Once on the train we pass through farmland and alongside the A10 before stopping at Royston and, usually, Hitchin. I usually try listening to music or a podcast with my eyes closed, however, if I am staring out of the window the landscape gradually changes from rural to semi-rural and then as we approach the outskirts of London it becomes suburban. I think Potters Bar is the point at which the scenery changes and once the train has crossed the North Circular, I think I am in London. As the train gets nearer to King’s Cross I can see familiar landmarks, Alexander Palace, Finsbury Park mosque and lastly the Emirates Stadium, before entering tunnels and emerging a minute or so later outside King’s Cross station.

At King’s Cross it is literally across the road to the Eurostar platforms at St. Pancras. I am aware that there has been, and continues to be, massive development around the area but I am not interested in looking at it as I am focussed on checking in, getting through security and passport control. This is usually straight-forward and once through I can contemplate how much simpler it is taking the Eurostar than flying whilst waiting in the frequent traveller lounge.

As the Eurostar leaves St. Pancras there is a brief opportunity to see the redevelopment that has taken place behind King’s Cross, the gasometers that have been built into flats. However, this part of the journey is punctuated by tunnels and loss of mobile signal and it is not really until the train reaches Rainham that I look out of the window to see the marshes. Because of the speed that the train travels at the landscape is a bit of a blur and it is only crossing the rivers Thames and Medway that are notable as train leaves Essex and travels through Kent. The train slows down slightly as it approaches the Channel Tunnel and this is followed by half an hour or so of darkness. I have done it so many times that I don’t think how incredible it is that I can get on a train in London and just over two hours later arrive in Brussels, having gone twenty or so miles under the channel.

Exiting the tunnel in France the scenery changes. Towards the horizon are wind turbines but the most obvious feature is fencing, miles and miles of fencing. This is something that has changed over the eight years I have been making the journey and it is a sobering reminder of the problem of illegal migration.

The journey through northern France whizzes by and I must admit that I do not pay much attention to the landscape through the window. When I do look out the view is mainly agricultural with little in the way of signs of population. Sometimes the train stops at Lille, but I have no feel for the town as the train pulls into the dark concrete station and all that is visible is a Carrefour supermarket and Primark.

Soon after leaving Lille the train crosses into Belgium and slowly the landscape changes as we head towards Brussels. The rural landscape become slightly more industrial and as we near Brussels we pass landmarks, such as the Audi plant. As the train nears Brussels-Midi it passes through a mass of train tracks branching off in all directions, the golden dome of the Palais de Justice, complete with scaffolding appears on a hill to the righthand side. The scaffolding has been there as long as I can remember and shows no signs of being taken down.