Where was I today? (17.12.2024)

Yes - Greenford - perhaps the last outpost of Semaphore signalling in London, and without any passenger trains running on those lines now that the Chiltern "Parley" to Paddington or to West Ealing ha gone (technically still open but running as a bus?). I was up there having accepted an invite from GWR^▸ to take a ride on the battery train from West Ealing to Greenford and back, A separate thread to follow on the battery train and the infrastructure - this is the journey as a whole.

Outbound:
10:02 at Melksham - Swindon
Swindon - Paddington
walk to Lancaster Gate
Lancaster Gate - Greenford
Greenford - West Ealing

Battery Electric Train, West Ealing to West Ealing via Greenford

Inbound:
West Ealing - Southall
Southall - Maidenhead
Maidenhead - Reading
Reading - Swindon
Swindon - Melksham at 18:00

All trains left on time. Longest delay into Paddington - RTT^» reports train up to 6 minutes late due to delay through Didcot, but only 2 late into Paddington (good to see so much new there). Seated on all trains - busiest in terms of passengers per carriage was the battery train (and good to see so many old friends there). Second busiest were the IETs^▸ between Swindon and London / Reading. Quietest by a long way was the Greenford to West Ealing service.

Longest waits - at Swindon for the train to Melksham, and (because I chose to dally there) at Greenford for West Ealing. I would have been very tight into West Ealing for the ride had I caught the next train at 12:33, so the 10:02 it was and a cup of coffee in a cafe under the arched at Greenford, with this "mobile office" I am typing on at the moment using the time there. I could have caught a bus from Melksham a bit later (but it doesn't go to the railway station in Chippenham) and got back perhaps a few minutes earlier on the bus too.

Around a dozen on so getting onto the train at Melksham, perhaps 3 or 4 times that number already on board. Similarly on the way back, around 60 off Chippenham with perhaps 15 to 20 off at Melksham. No longer the big peak, and no longer the queue of cars out of the car park. In fact no cars at all from the car park - that business has not returned after Covid, but 4 cars picking people up that I counted and the rest on foot. There ARE no buses to Melksham Station.

Most trains reasonably comfortable; I still find the seats on the IETs the least comfortable of the lot. I am particularly sensitive this week - just recovering my back and indeed it was my first trip out of Melksham in 10 days and indeed my first beyond a 5 minute walk from home over the same period. Glad there were no buses involved for that reason too.