Great Western Coffee Shop

8 hours, 11 pieces of public transport. All GWR trains unless otherwise stated.  Not rushing but grabbing loads of photos and experiences

Penryn - joined train at 09:55
Truro
Bodmin Parkway
Totnes (to XC)
Newton Abbott
Starcross (to ferry)
Exmouth (walk ferry to railway station)
Exeter St Davids (to XC)
Taunton
Westbury
Bradford-on-Avon (to bus)
Melksham - left bus at 17:50

Lots of buses call at the station in Penryn, including those that will bring you up from the harbour and centre
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Sign on door says "sleeper passengers only" and yet a different dignity gives all day hours. It was reading and puzzled and a staff member appeared and explained it's also available to other first class passenger.  Not being first class, not for me.
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Attempting to take a picture of Lostwithiel signal box, but photobombed by this old girl,
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Bodmin Parkway (and Totnes) have lovely signal box cafes.  Disappointed at the very thin service indeed from Bodmin Parkway to Bodmin General - no (heritage) demand, not enough volunteers, or a potential not yet exploited?
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Look around and there's a surprising amount of old stuff - this at Totnes
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The old pumping house at Starcross is worth a look - probably - but doesn't seem open to the public unless you come on a Tuesday evening and sign in as a guest at the sailing club.  There may be other opportunities but closed, shuttered, unwelcoming yesterday. Pity.
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As seems routine in the peninsular, buses call near the station and either buses or trains (or both) are frequent enough to make multimode journeys practical.
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The ferry from Starcross to Exmouth ... a lovely run; daytime, hourly, in summer.
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Exmouth - about a mile from the harbour jetty to the station through the Town Centre.  My ex lives in Exmouth (befitting of the name of the place?) and I half wondered if I would bump into her and her new family. Very unlikely indeed, of course - a quiet town centre apart from tourists. I doubt the residents risk going down there too often.
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A connection that shouldn't - a quick hop over the bridge and as I trotted down the steps, the Edinburgh train was pulling in
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Good to see platform 5 back in use at Taunton
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Westbury - Warminster train waiting at Platform 2, Portsmouth train just arrived at Platform 1, and behind me the Weymouth to Gloucester train was coming in to platform 3.  Stuffed station.
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Bradford-on-Avon.  In Wiltshire now, and the connecting bus does not call at the station - so I walked down to the Town Bridge. Fortunately I don't use a wheelchair or mobility scooter
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Real Time bus information - could have done with this to be working in Newquay - and with the "direct" or "via the coves and villages" flag on Truro services the other day
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Buses arrived in Melksham, around 17:50. That's over an hour earlier that the advice given by train staff when I asked about the quickest way back to Melksham from Westbury by public transport.  Joined up and correct transport network information would be useful from those who should be ambassadors for public transport as a whole.
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And so those final few hundred yards home - 30 mph limit but people go along there much faster.  There is a SID (Speed Indicator Device) hidden in the greenery but I don't think it's working.   Reported to the Town Council who assured me that it IS - just that it only comes on when people are speeding.  I don't believe that answer, and now that a party-affiliated councillor has reported a similar problem on another SID, they are looking into it.  In any case - stupid place for the device just coming off a mini roundabout. I am so glad I'm no longer concerned - except that I am as speeding along here creates accidents waiting to happen - as they have in the past.
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