Do you travel early, "Just in Case"

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From an interesting discussion that underway in the Cotswolds area {here} - worthy of wider discussion

Hmm. On a smaller, more local, scale: I, too, tend to aim for the train before the one that would get me into Bristol on time for any important meeting there - just in case ... 

On the other hand, I'm perhaps a bit spoilt, in that we have a half-hourly service from Nailsea, so that's not too onerous. 

[Phil]

I have a lifetime behind me of almost always getting to the station just in time to catch the train BEFORE the one I'm aiming to catch.

Well, not at Melksham, obviously, but anywhere where there's an hourly or less service.

Unlike chris from nailsea, above, I wouldn't claim to "aim" to catch it: I'm just the sort of person who never likes to be late for anything and invariably over-compensates by being ridiculously early...

[broadgage]

I would normally get the train before to be almost certain of a punctual arrival at anything important.
The exception being if lost time can be made up latter in the journey, for example by taking a 10 minute taxi ride instead of a 40 minute bus ride from the arrival station to the venue in the event that the train is cancelled or badly delayed.

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

Me too, I would always aim for the train before the one I need to if I'm going somewhere where an on-time arrival is essential.  As a compromise I always check Live Departures before I leave home: so I might go for the last train if it's showing on time, or the previous one if it's running late. I'm less than 10 minutes from the station with a half-hour service, so it's relatively easy to make last minute decisions.

It's important to check Live Departures after the last junction etc.  For up departures from Pangbourne the train can show on time leaving Oxford and arriving Didcot, then up to 7 late leaving Didcot if a freight train's around.  That can be crucial if you've got to get from P10 to P3 at Reading for a XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)).

And of course LIve Departures is always wildly over-optimistic in predicting how a late-running train will make up time along its journey.

[grahame]

When travelling from Chippenham - my most commonly used railhead, I almost always go for "train before the one I really need". There seem to be just too many occasions where a service "amendment" seems to mean that Chippenham and Bath, or Chippenham and Swindon, are skipped, which counts as a cancellation and a serious problem if that train was being relied upon.  And that's before you consider late running and other problems en route.   Chippenham does seem to draw the short straw an awful lot, and the "one train ahead" approach is usually only 30 minutes.

From Melksham, I'll use the train if I can and clearly not go for the previous one.   But in common with most of the long-established users, I have a backup plan and healthy margin of time in which to implement it.   Much of that is historic - until a couple of years ago, if *anything* was cancelled it was the TransWilts service, but that has greatly improved and these days it runs even if someone has dropped their hat.  Big thank you to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) on that aspect of the service, and on the improved at-station information and contact point which are streets ahead of what we used to have and essential in providing the comfort that people need to be persuaded to use the scant service.

[LiskeardRich]

If i was going for a flight i'd probably go 2 hours early at least to be safe, and there is always plenty to do at gatwick/ heathrow anyway. anything else i'd aim for a previous service to allow some spare time not to need to rush around on arrival

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

I am not a frequent long distance traveller but last June on the day that the CL redoubled track came into use I was travelling from the CL to Cornwall. From Charlbury it seemed I could catch the 08.30ish train to Reading and then a 09.30ish connecting train from Reading westwards. As I was booking seats, I decided that caution should be the word and decided that I would rather spend an hour plus watching all the trains passing through Reading and catch the 10.30ish Cornish Riviera instead. How glad I was when the 08.30ish HST^▸ (High Speed Train) from Charlbury was  delayed first by a drunk on the line near Hereford and then cows on the line at Ascott, both cases over which FGW^▸ (First Great Western) had no control so that we arrived at Reading after 10.00.

On the rare occasions I am travelling by air I always aim to be at the airport about an hour before the opening of the two hour checkin period whether travelling by rail to Gatwick or Elmdon or by road to any other airport.

Incidentally this summer there will be a new airport departure point at Oxford for short flights by ManxAir to the Isle of Man and to Jersey = daily departures at very civilised times and at very reasonable fares. Travellers from the CL could find this very useful and go to Hanborough where it is a less than 4 mile taxi journey to London Oxford Airport - see http://www.oxfordairport.co.uk/

[grahame]

Poll closes just after 10:30 p.m. tonight - this is "last chance afternoon" to vote.

[EBrown]

I generally travel to arrive slightly early - it would depend where I am travelling from. Reading having a good service to Paddington means I would generally get a service around 20 minutes early.

If I had less flexibility, I would take the train to arrive just on time/slightly early. I would however keep an eye on journey check/twitter and if I saw a potential problem (and where possible) I'd take an earlier train.

[grahame]

The majority of you - by a substantial margin - travel one train before you need - 70% of you.   25% travel on the train that gets you where you want to be "right time".   I noted (with some amusement) that the figure was even higher early in the voting - I guess that people who travel early also tend to vote early in a poll such as this. As I read it, the result does not indicate that most people always travel a train early - I phrased it to give the distinct impression that I was asking about the occasional and important event, rather than the daily commute.

I'll admit to being rather surprised by the result.  I'm surprised that most people travel ahead, and I conjecture that it shows (a) a lack of faith in the train company's performance to get you there on time and (as an effect) (b) an awful lot of wasted time with people hanging around at destination waiting for appointments.  Good for the coffee shops!

Should I have been surprised?   In hindsight, probably not.  On each of the four last Thursday afternoons / evenings, I've travelled from Chippenham to London and back.  On one occasion my train was "cancelled" [not officially - but it failed to call at Chippenham].  On a second occasion, we were 32 minutes late back into Chippenham.   On a third occasion, 6 minutes late back [but I'm sure the train was back on time by the end of its journey).  Only on the fourth occasion was I able to leave Chippenham and arrive at Paddington within 5 minutes of schedule, and also leave Paddington and arrive in Chippenham within 5 minutes of schedule on the way back.