Easy! Yes. I could have my life back if there was a direct service.

It used to take the BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)), Bath and Chippenham commuters, who travel to Oxford each day, about 30 mins less to do their journey under the old timetable. So if we got a Bristol-Oxford service or something that does the same thing, meaning we would miss out on the ridiculous changes at Swindon AND Didcot, that would be great.

Thirty mins is a considerable amount of time when the journey is 90 mins. Mornings are not too bad since the slight amendment in Jan, but there are hardly any trains that now stop at Didcot and call at Bath. If you are on a day trip to Oxford, having paid less than 30 quid for your ticket, you are fine, with trains stopping at 1441 and 1541. But if you are a commuter and have paid over ^3000 for your ticket, the next train after 1541 that stops at Didcot and calls at Bath is at 1741. That's a wait of 2 hours! The next one is at 1841, another hour. So to get home, you have to go to Swindon and then get on the train that whizzed through Didcot!

The increase inthe amount of time it takes to make these journeys are because of the lack of trains that call at Didcot and bath, but also the mess FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have made with the connections. Here are some examples. Connection times under the old timetable were sensibly about 10 mins. This take upp any slight delay and give you enough time to walk to the other platform. Now the connection times are 25 mins, -1 mins, 35 mins, 5 mins. Needless to say either too long or too short. Despite that fact the FGW said that they would improve integration since they have bought the Thames Trains franchise, the integration between the Thames Trains services and the FGW services has deteriorated to non-existent. Our only saving grace is the staff at Didcot station. They will hold a particluar train if they see its connecting service coming. We have spoken to staff at other stations but they don't want to know.

I know of about 15 people who do this commute! I only know of these people as they stand by me on the platform. There are others who travel at different times, but am not sure how many.