Melksham to London - 24th March 2025

[whole diary]

[grahame]

06:45

Early morning up, from home at 06:07, walk to station.  Met friends along the way - walking dogs, and also walking to station to join train too, which arrived a couple of minutes early, 8 got on, 1 off - which ain't bad that early in the day, and when due time 06:32 came we left. Cheerful train manager checked tickets, flow of passengers off at Trowbridge and on and here we are as I write arriving in Westbury with 10 minutes to change to the London express at 07:00

The switch from 06:36 to 06:32 has made a massive difference - people able to catch the onward connection at Trowbridge to Bristol and starting to get into the habit of doing so.  Much more reliable London connection at Westbury now - again, use being made of that.  Onward to Weymouth - now usually possible, but a gamble. Supposed to be 06:48 (arrival) to 06:50 (departure to Weymouth) and it worked with an early arrivakl this morning.  The train from Melksham carries on with new crew at 06:55 to Southampton so very much "connections all around".  All we need to do now is to ask if the train from Melksham can carry on to Weymouth, and the Southampton can start at Westbury - same times.  That way would complete the connection matrix.

07:05

London train arrived and left on time. I may as well sit in my reserved seat - even though announced ""No seat reservations on onward train - due to a "computer error""" but I suspect it's supposed to be 9 not 10 cars which has mucked 'em up. Another of those lovely seats which does not align with the window - not as bad as LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about).  Good laptop space. Ticket check even before we left Westbury - "All tickets from Westbury" he says, but accepts my ticket from Melksham

Supposed long day today - so booked 1st class as it was sensible in price in advance for this morning. Good to have table space for the laptop.  Announcements say that catering is available. 

07:22

Trolley passes through from standard class towards very front, no offer of service.  I really need a coffee - would have bought one at Westbury if I wasn't on supposed complementary today.

Good number of people joining train at Bedwyn, and cars lined up all along the fence.  Clearly more users here than walking to the station.

07:33

Hungerford ... and ... At LAST - a ... small ... coffee and a bite of flapjack. Rationed today ;-)

07:45

Newbury, and the throbbing of the diesel engine has stopped and yet are just accelerating away again - ah - the of electricty.

And - at 07:52 - coffee fill up and a pastry - "Something more substantial" I asked for ;-) ... and at 08:00 we underfly the flyover at Reading and pulling in - my goodness - to platform 14. Long way North and no crowd on the platform!  Another IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - the now official name for the replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) has just pulled in headed for London to the south of us  (11?) - big crowd on the platform for that

[IndustryInsider]

London train arrived and left on time. I may as well sit in my reserved seat - even though announced ""No seat reservations on onward train - due to a "computer error""" but I suspect it's supposed to be 9 not 10 cars which has mucked 'em up.

There does appear to be a more widespread data issue with the reservation system on IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train - the now official name for the replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) today as multiple cases of them not loading have been reported.

[matth1j]

Cheerful train manager checked tickets

...and senior railcards

The switch from 06:36 to 06:32 has made a massive difference - people able to catch the onward connection at Trowbridge to Bristol and starting to get into the habit of doing so.

Not yet a 'habit', but yes, now it's a much more viable option, and I'm seriously considering changing my alarm setting.

Also, are there more carriages in the Trowbride-Bristol train than there used to be? The fact I was unlikely to get 2 seats to myself used to put me off, but this morning it looked like the first 2 carriages were pretty sparsely populated (didn't see the others). Loads of room.

[grahame]

I was planning to do updates though the trip ... but as members know from 06:00 on Tuesday I was rather involved with the server in addition to ... well - lots more. See my week at https://grahamellis.uk/blog1548.html