Great Western Coffee Shop

London Flyer

It is with great regret that the London Flyer will be discontinued at the end of August.  As you can imagine, after 30 years, this decision has not been taken lightly.

 We will continue offering the service as normal until this point.

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Baker Dolphin are a long established coach company based in Weston Super Mare. Since 1983 they have run a daily return journey to London picking up at Gordano services M5, Bristol City Centre, Eastville Tesco and dropping off at Earls Court Knightsbridge and Marble Arch. for around ^20 return
PLus early and late evening return journeys.

For those of us  that have lived in the area all that time, it has always been an option to save going into Bristol early in the morning.
Apart from economic considerations, I think the travelling time into London has increased over the years, which surely hasn't helped. Its now either National Express from Bristol, or FGW into Paddington , or if you don't mind the extra hour of travelling time, the much cheaper alternative SWT from Bristol TM to Waterloo via Salisbury, that runs 4 times a day.

Be careful with that statement...!

You are referring to the direct trains? You can make that journey far more often by changing trains at Salisbury. Salisbury - London Waterloo has as near as dammit a half hourly service ;)

Yes, you are absolutely right. I was referring to the 4 direct services from Temple Meads. I quite like to be kept awake by the  jolt at Salisbury as our ' slip coach' is joined up to whatever comes up the line from Exeter and the warning at Pad, to travel in the front four  coaches for Westbury Bath and Bristol, before we are 'vacuumed apart' at Salisbury.

Hopefully a good loud warning then, for those actually waiting at Waterloo?   ;D

Paul

Lol! Thank you Paul. A senior moment par excellence !

Or to break into song...

Oh! Paul the  Porter, what shall I do,
I'm stranded here at Paddington,
when I should be at Waterloo,
Take me back to Bristol, as slowly as you can
Oh!  Paul the  Porter what a silly man I am!

Since I know that this forum likes to be accurate with facts, I should point out that there are only 3 through trains via Salisbury from Bristol Temple Meads Monday-Saturday.

Not to forget Stagecoach's Megabus sevices from Bristol to London also. There's also now Megabus Gold where the vehicles used on the overnight London<->Scotland services are pressed into use on day services betwen major destinations. With Megabus Gold you get power sockets free wi-fi, leather seats, complimentary newspapers and an at seat steward service of complimentary refreshments.

Currently can be had for as little as ^5 each way if you book far enough ahead.

http://www.megabusgold.com/

I remember the days when Turners coaches also operate a daily Bristol-London and Bath- London service. I would imagine these services stopped quite sometime ago.

I wondered who was going to spot that one too! It would have been rude to flame chuffed completely... :P

However to their credit... There is that South West Trains Bristol Temple Meads - Salisbury service at 22:23 ;) Which of course you can connect to another London Waterloo service at Salisbury at 05:15 the following morning ;D

I have split off the discussion about Berry's Superfast from Somerset to London into a separate thread at
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=12855.0

It seems that's a well established and indeed growing service, and I felt it merits its own thread rather than being hidden under news that someone else's service is about to cease.

Edit to add   I didn't want to leave it here because it would be buried / berried .... the pun has just been pointed out to me and would be too good to loose!

I think the point about Bakers Dolphin for me is that they offered a direct London service to a town not served by rail - i.e Clevedon.  Anyone arriving back at Yatton after 18:25 needs a taxi, a good friend with a car, or get off a stop early and await the hourly and very circuitous bus from Nailsea & Backwell.  However, it cannot have been profitable to rely on my occasional use of the coach at ^22.00 when I was avoiding the eye-watering peak fares back from Paddington.  I shall miss the cheese and pickle sandwiches made to order by the hostesses.  :'(

Megabus Gold daytime services are being withdrawn from May 4th 2015. Seems the coaches will sit doing nothing all day in London between overnight workings from/to Scotland.

It's been a few years since I last used an overnight coach service. It was Eurolines London to / from Paris. Not sure I could handle sitting and sleeping in the same seat for 12 hours now. Unlike Megabus there are no beds or hammocks on those coaches. I'd rather pay an extra ^20 or ^30 for the plane or train. I'm getting older and can't rough it like I used to. Besides nobody wants to hear my snoring...

The Telegraph reviewed the Megabus Scottish sleeper service this week.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/11550202/Megabus-Gold-luxury-sleeper-service-seven-things-you-need-to-know.html