Great Western Coffee Shop

Hi all, I have been helping a family get their son from Cardiff Central to Reading. The rest of the family are driving down the A34. Their son is currently on the 1L38 service on the east bound journey. He will get of the service and they will meet him outside the 3 pigeons (doesn't everyone love a pub as a landmark?!). They are then driving on to a family event in Surrey. The plan is to drop him off at Reading tonight  so he can return to Uni in Cardiff

Thinking about it on the return journey it would permissible (within the T&Cs of the ticket) to drop him off at Didcot where he can start his journey from there?

I believe this isn't an advance purchase ticket...just an off peak return.

Thanks all

BB

Yes it would be perfectly permissible, unless it was an advance ticket.

Thank you - he is a nervous traveller (as are his parents by proxy!) so want to be sure of my facts.

Thanks again

As it should now just about be history, I hope that worked, despite there being no 3 pigeons at Reading. There are a few others it might be - e.g. Guildford, apart from that being some way from the station and on a traffic-free road. More likely you meant the 3 Guineas at Reading station. It's currently closed and boarded up for a major renovation, not that that stops you meeting outside it of course. There's no car access to in front of it though; the "southern drop-off" is just out of sight to the west.

Fortunately the mobile phone has rendered the noble art of arranging a reliable rendezvous obsolete!

Stuving, I am indeed a muppet! I was getting mixed up with a pub in Banbury which indeed was called the 3 pigeons!

I believe they have been re-united so my ale-ography  knowledge - or lack of - didn't cause a problem!

Thank you for correcting me...I am know off to offer an apology (assuming they are not still walking around Reading looking for a non-existent pub)

Thanks for that news - I didn't know that, occasionally break my journey there for a Fullers pint or two to make a change from the Mad Bishop and Bear at Paddington.

......it's worth strolling 2 mins or so from Reading station down the road to the Greyfriar, excellent pub with lots of local ales.

Thanks for the recommendation TG but the advantage of the 3G was it was easy to find for a nervous traveller arriving by train and some drivers who were not that familiar with Reading.

But I will bear your recommendation in mind :)

This all reminds me of the time, around 1980 (so many years BMP) that I was arranging to meet someone who as visiting Edinburgh. I suggested we meet at the Abbotsford, a bar in Rose Street. After I'd been waiting an hour, I started wondering where he could have gone by mistake. As time wore on I settled on one main possibility, and went to St Mary's Street where I found him waiting in the Waverley (now closed, I hear). What was left of the evening was largely taken up with his telling I was an idiot, as apparently I had muddled the two Scott-related names.

Sadly, I have to report that such lapses of memory (or whatever else lapsed that time) are even more common now than when I was half as old. But, now, at least mobile phones can rescue us from that source of embarrassment.

You wouldn't want to pick up outside that one either - right on the corner of a busy cross-roads!

Well, yes and no Chris...at rush hour the traffic doesn't move very quickly!

Thanks everyone for your help the pick up from the right pub happened at the right place in the right town!

At rush hour, the traffic tails well back, and you couldn't time your arrival for a red traffic light....just wouldn't be possible at any hour.

It is indeed, and the owner who is mate of mine would I'm sure welcome the support :-)