Great Western Coffee Shop

Has anyone ever visited the pub on Platform 3 at Bristol Temple Meads?  I've got a 45 minute wait on Friday so need something to keep me busy!

Are the prices reasonable or would it be worth breaking my journey and walking to the Knight's Templar (Wetherspoons)?

Don't know why, but I quite fancy the idea of drinking a pint whilst sitting in the main train shed.

TIA

The pints are expenisve and I prefer to go to the Weatherspoons pub round the corner from the station which is a pleasent pub with a tv showing departures form the station which is handy. I will admit however the price of food is reasonable if you have a friend with you.

The Knights Templar  ('Spoons) can be horribly overcrowded from 5pm for a couple of hours on Friday night, so I would avoid that time if I were you.

I remember the 'good old days' when you could get a decent pint of Bass in the Travellers Fare buffet on Platform 10!

Hmm. In days long gone, you could get a decent pint of Bass in the George Railway Hotel, too ...  ::)

However, if you want real ale, I'd suggest the Reckless Engineer, at the bottom of the station approach road.

Otherwise, I can only agree that the beer in Bonaparte's (the rather bizarre name for the 'pub' on platform 3 at BRI?) is grossly overpriced - but, as you say, you can sit outside and watch the arrivals and departures on the nearest platforms.

The ale choices in Knight's Templar are usually quite good. Reckless Engineer always strikes me as tatty.  Bonapartes is okay if you're time limited but still want a pint, but you will pay over the odds.

It's a little late for this trip Brucey, but for future use, may I suggest getting a BiTE (http://www.bitecard.co.uk/home.asp) card? 20% off at a whole host of on-station catering outlets (including licensed premises).

I was just offering an alternative to Bonaparte's - the Reckless Engineer is indeed rather tatty (but cheap and cheerful!), while Knight's Templar will probably be rather hectic on a Friday?

The classic quintessential dichotomy: you pay your money, and you take your choice!  ;D

Pedant alert!

The dichotomy in this case Chris, needs reversing - You take your choice then pay your money.  ;) :P ;D

In the Reckless Engineer, you take your chances - and still pay your money!  ;D

Thanks.  I'll have to see how much time I actually have on the day but Spoons sounds good to me!

I'd vote for the Reckless Engineer too, particular if you like real ale.  Beer always good in there from my (limited) experience.

Never got a chance to do anything on my journey yesterday :(

Arrived at Redland station and the train was showing as 6 minutes late.  The platform was packed with school children.  The train arrived and it was full of workers from the docks at Avonmouth.  For the entire journey, the guard remained in the rear cab and only came out to open the doors.  He made no attempt to check/sell tickets.  I arrived about 15 minutes late and ticketless at Temple Meads.

So, off to the excess ticket desk by the gates.  The queue was quite large and the man was attempting to talk to a police officer whilst serving customers.  About 10 minutes, it is finally my turn.  "Can I buy a ticket from Redland to ...".  "Go to the ticket office".  And he points me to the ticket barriers.

A little confused, I go to the manual gate and explain to the lady there and she lets me through (surely this is a very easy loophole for fare evaders?!)  Queue at ticket office was awful and the clerk's computer was very slow.

In the end, I had about 5 minutes left to wait so no opportunity to do anything else.  However, I did learn that a ticket from Redland to anywhere will open the barriers at BTM.

I would describe that as an "astonishing tale" except that I've had similar ... it's enough to put people off travelling by train.

Isn't there a five minute service target somewhere?  It seems reasonable, but that five minutes should (IMHO) be the sum of all the times you spend waiting while not travelling.

FGW's Passenger Charter states:

You will be able to purchase a ticket with cash, cheque and most credit and debit cards. A list of accepted cards will be displayed clearly at each ticket office window. Ticket office opening hours will be displayed at each station along with alternative methods to purchase a ticket. When purchasing a ticket from our ticket offices you should not have to queue for more than 5 minutes during peak periods, and no more than 3 minutes outside of peak periods. (Peak periods are busier periods of the day when customers are travelling to and from work, e.g. between 0700 and 0900.) Regular checks will be carried out to ensure that these standards are consistently met and any shortfall rectified.

Makes no mention of being unable to buy on board, or queueing* at the gateline though.

As an aside, I note that FGW have 'Customer Services' yet their charter is for passengers!


*Anyone else know of a word with five consecutive vowels?

He won't have helped the passenger numbers on the branch then.  >:(

How many guards are going to check tickets on a train packed with screaming brats? He'd only get abuse and be led on a wild goose chase "my ticket fell out my pocket" etc

Euouae. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euouae (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euouae)

Also found this: http://www.rinkworks.com/words/oddities.shtml (http://www.rinkworks.com/words/oddities.shtml)

Thanks. I had a feeling it would be you, TJ, that came up with an answer. Must remember Euouae for my next Scrabble^ night!  ;D

OOooh those are carefully written words  ;)

Looks like they weren't breaking any of their targets by not selling you a ticket on the train, then having you have to speak to three different people and take - what - 15 to 20 minutes of your "change time" to get a ticket which, frankly, you should have been able to get earlier but couldn't through no fault of your own.  Cheeky to use the work "ticket offices" - deliberate loophole?

I can recall a broken ticket machine and no staff at Hungerford, a Train Manager who's machine was also broken, resulting in a half hour queue for me at the "sin bin" window at Paddington through no fault of my own.  How interesting to read that FGW don't apparently consider such an enforced detainment on the platform to be a shortfall in their service.

BiTE cards are valid in Bonaparts ;D makes the prices semi reasonable on the hot drinks anyway ;D as for booze, I wouldn't know as I don't drink ;D

I made my return journey today.  Had a quick look in the pub whilst I had a few minutes to spare.  Didn't look at the drinks, but the food is mainly "pub grub" but at slightly higher prices.  Burger & Beer is ^7.50 (^6.00 with Bite Card, which really isn't too bad).  Some food items are guaranteed to be ready in 13 minutes, presumably so you don't miss your train!

My main concern today was ticket checking/selling on the SVB line.  I noticed that after 17:00, the ticket barriers at Temple Meads were left open and unsupervised.  At no point on my journey (to Redland) did the guard come round to check or sell tickets.  I observed at least 12 adults who would have been ticketless, between Lawrence Hill, Stapleton Road, Montpelier and Redland.  A loss of at least ^18.  It was a different guard to Friday and makes the sceptic in me wonder if someone is trying to fiddle with the figures for the line?  Or perhaps just lazy guards?  Either way, it is something that I'll be raising with FGW.  Every passenger's money is very important to keep a service running on that line, especially if we want an increased Sunday service.

I don't suppose the argument about the train being overcrowded would have applied today?

No, it was a two coach Class 150 which was probably between 10 and 20% full.

Given that Bristol City Council subsidise the service I think they would be a bit upset if they knew that FGW staff made no effort to sell tickets on the branch. Maybe you should tell your local councillor as well as FGW.

I agree with John R: tell your local Bristol councillor - and also let FOSBR know about both of your travel experiences: http://fosbr.org.uk/news/0910-saveourtrainservice.php

To be fair, on the Weekday Peak workings... There are normally at least 2 FGW staff checking tickets... (Guard and RPI).

However it's not just SVB lines that are affected. Pax getting on at Trowbridge for example after the ticket office closed could quite easily get to Warminster without paying, as from my experience, staff aren't always checking tickets after Bradford-on-Avon.

There are exceptions, don't get me wrong... But in the evenings for example... There is normally a ticket check after bath and then nothing more till WSB!

Another one that really gets on my goat is the 22:38 Bath > Salisbury train on a Friday Night. I buy a First Class ticket for this train and the amount of times i've had the drunks barge their way in and Put their feet on the tables, shout and swear, throw abuse just because you looked in their direction, and generally making a thorough nuisance of themselves... Where is the guard...? Nowhere to be seen >:( Infact, out of the 30 - 40 times i've caught that train, I could only have been ticket checked (and drunks removed) about 6 or 7 times!

A guard I decided to complain to simply said, buy Standard Ticket, sit in First and pay the upgrade on the train if the guard comes round and ticket checks as they sometimes declassify First on that train >:(