have you or known any one who has missed the last train london to Bristol?

[whole diary]

[infoman]

I was talking to some one who had missed the last train from London to Bristol.

They told me he got on the train from London to Newbury

but there was no connection to anywhere except back to Reading for a service to Didcot

I said to them COULD you not have gone to Heathrow via Heathrow express and pick up a coach back to Bristol?

Didn't "think of it at the time" they said.

So I decided to have a look if my info WAS correct,OOPS!

Having said that, IF the last train was missed,suggest catch the first local train from London to Reading and pick up the 00:50am Megabus service direct to Bristol

It might not suit every one but I would prefer some one to pick me up(in the middle of the night) from Bristol if I lived in Bath or maybe Melksham

Not sure the taxis costs would be to your home from Bristol coach terminus.

Could some one check if any of my up to date advice is correct.

[grahame]

Mid-week ... there are three coach arrivals into Bristol and here's how to connect into them (thank you, Google)

23:32 - GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) train, 01:06 (I think that is changed from normal on the say I checked due to engineering)
23:36 - Elizabeth Line change Southall onto 105 bus, Heathrow onto National Express, 02:35
23:51 - 36 bus via Victoria Coach Station then National Express, 02:50
00:45 - GWR train to Reading, Megabus, 03:25
05:23 - GWR train, 06:58

[TaplowGreen]

Mid-week ... there are three coach arrivals into Bristol and here's how to connect into them (thank you, Google)

23:32 - GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) train, 01:06 (I think that is changed from normal on the say I checked due to engineering)
23:36 - Elizabeth Line change Southall onto 105 bus, Heathrow onto National Express, 02:35
23:51 - 36 bus via Victoria Coach Station then National Express, 02:50
00:45 - GWR train to Reading, Megabus, 03:25
05:23 - GWR train, 06:58

Looking at those options I think I'd find an all night cafe/get my head down in a quiet corner and get the 0523!

[grahame]

Looking at those options I think I'd find an all night cafe/get my head down in a quiet corner and get the 0523!

Depends what you are going home to and/or consequences of being out overnight?

I wondered about doubling back on the sleeper, but then it would require quite a quick decision if you missed the 23:32

[JayMac]

I never miss 'Last Train to London'

It's track one, side two, on the vinyl release of the Electric Light Orchestra's 'Discovery' album.

[grahame]

I never miss 'Last Train to London'

There is always another the next day ... or in the case of Pilning the next week.  Last train to Padstow was 30 January 1967 - that would have been a sad occasion to miss.

I have only ever done three "lasts".

One was the last 4DD run from Charing Cross to Dartford; it had probably had its time and it was a little sad.

The second was the last return commuter train from Swindon to Melksham just after 17:30 one friday evening in late 2006.  The utter disgust as fury of the passengers on that train ... which took until 2013 to get back.

The third was the last through train from Waterloo to Bristol Temple Meads and that withdrawn for reasons that still make my blood boil. There remains logic in running such a service - far more logic than in not running it.   

[broadgage]

I missed the last train from Salisbury once, due to excessive drink and forgetting the time. Had to stay overnight in a VERY basic pub B+B.

[JayMac]

I've never really missed a last train.

Did once board the last fast train to Bristol from Taunton after an evening's partaking of several glasses (okay... it was a couple bottle's worth) of an agreeable Merlot. Was awoken by train cleaners at Birmingham New Street. The 'railway' got me home the following day at no additional train fare cost. The hotel was on me though.

[grahame]

Have the last trains got later or earlier over the years?   The days of the extensive sleeper network and newspaper trains - was the network characterised by thinner spread services during the day but a sprinkling, now virtually all gone, though the night?   I recall a journey (end to end) on the 18:58 Aberystwyth to York, changing there onto the Glasgow to Colchester service.

[PhilWakely]

I wondered about doubling back on the sleeper, .........

A major risk in itself! Any guarantee the sleeper is running?

[Witham Bobby]

Have the last trains got later or earlier over the years?   The days of the extensive sleeper network and newspaper trains - was the network characterised by thinner spread services during the day but a sprinkling, now virtually all gone, though the night?   I recall a journey (end to end) on the 18:58 Aberystwyth to York, changing there onto the Glasgow to Colchester service.

In the early years of me being a WSR volunteer while living in Evesham, I would attend one of our interminable meetings in the Black Horse, on Station Road, in the upstairs room with a shaky floor and a paraffin stove that I felt sure would choke us all, get on the last train to Bristol, and thence on the 0110 to (??) Leeds as far as Cheltenham.  Always a grubby BCK^▸ (Brake Composite Corridor (carriage)) or two attached to a long parcels/mail train for insomniac or inebriated passengers.  Class 45xxx up front, and a long wait at Gloucester Eastgate loading and unloading traffic.  Them was the days

[infoman]

Did you ever meet Harry Webber (or might have been Evans) who boarded at Gloucester for his shift which started at 06:00am?