Great Western Coffee Shop

Wrestling with the National Rail timetable, it's not nearly as straightforward as it was to sort out train times for a journey between stations east of Bristol into Cornwall.

The online timetable is optimised for the shortest journey time, so will tend to present a leg to Bristol, then onto a Crosscountry service to perhaps Plymouth and then onwards by a GWR service. This with a fair wind might make for an ok journey but can get hairy for reasons of overcrowding & reserved-seat-musical-chairs among other things.

The timetable obscures the GWR through trains between Bristol and Penzance - but even though they do stop practically everywhere and run without catering they'd suit people looking for a more straightforward journey. The timetable also will not list options via Westbury, probably sensibly as through trains to Cornwall no longer call at Westbury and the service to Taunton is gappy which rather cuts down said options...

Thinking of Taunton, a single change there and then through to Cornwall makes for a sense of progress, but trains from east of Bristol to Taunton are very limited.

Thankfully, the service that saves the day is the 6am from Paddington via Swindon (6:55) Chippenham (7:10) and Bath Spa (7:21) through to Penzance, though with the disadvantage that Monday to Friday it's a peak time service, though the fare per mile isn't what it is in the opposite direction. It's good to have a morning through train to Cornwall in the timetable once more, its ancestor which ran slightly later in the morning was rather missed by the people that used it.

Thankfully, the return service continues to be underpinned by the end-of-the-afternoon train from Penzance back to London via Swindon - though on Sundays its routed via - and actually calls at - Westbury, which is rather letting down the set of people who work Monday to Friday, live in Bath, Chippenham, Swindon and would appreciate it if the railway provided something for them too.

Looking ahead, if the new line east of Oxford to Bedford takes off, then that's going to present the railway with further opportunities to boost travel across Bristol and out to the west country.

Mark

That early train from Swindon to Penzance is a very useful one and I have often caught it.   It also quite often catches people out because it doesn't call at Totnes.

Not just on Wednesdays, either.  ::)