Melksham to Penzance, 28th January 2025

[whole diary]

[grahame]

A wonderful trip yesterday - all the way from my home on Spa Road in Melksham to Penzance and St Ives toward the tip of Cornwall and all by public transport. Only practical - as a are so many other regional journeys - on the public transport service we have today, and which simply were not do-able 18 years ago when I helped set up the "Coffee Shop" online forum which celebrated the 18th birthday of the first post yesterday.

As well as the journey and the destination, the other wonderful thing about the trip is the people who have helped, the people met along the way, and the people who keep the system running. I celebrate them, and I celebrate what the improvements do for them and for hundreds and thousands of others who I don't happen to have met.

From home at 06:00 and a walk though town for the first train of the day - the 06:32.  Our first success story.  It's been retimed to connect properly into Bath and Bristol, and carries on to Southampton.  Even at that early hour, there almost as many people joining the train as joined all the trains here together when we started in 2007. 

A passenger I have known for many years joined with me, headed (as he does most days) for Southampton - arriving there at quarter past 8 in time for work.  He was contrasting the train this week to last week when we had rail "Replacement" buses - but not really a replacement since he wasn't able to reach Southampton until after 10 O'Clock - that's two hours late for work and for him a shabby alternative. And he had a similar story about his return.

06:32 Melksham to Trowbridge. Turbo train, on time.  I saw no-one else on foot as I walked the 25 minutes to the station, but a cluster jointed and the train - naturally one of the quietest of the day - carried around 20 people which is what we have been asked to achieve as an average over the whole day.

5 minutes to change trains in Trowbridge and a chance to buy a coffee to take on the next train. Friendly lady on the coffee van in the car park - known her for a while and a coffee pick up at station is so welcome. Pity that the setup we had at Melksham isn't running at the moment.  The five minutes at Trowbridge is enough for what that should be - which is a quick pickup on the go; no time here for a gourmet quality breakfast - the coffee is good, and snacks and cakes available in a minute.

06:46 Trowbridge to Bath Spa - on time and pleasantly busy, more joined at Bradford-on-Avon.   What a contrast in numbers joining to Melksham - one smaller and one larger town there; it goes to show just how much potential we have, and not just for the passengers but also for the benefits to the area.  On time to Bath, perhaps a quarter to a third of the seats occupied.  Didn't notice any joiners in our carriage at Freshford, and I was not in the front (single door opening) to observer at Avoncliff.  On time into Bath - lots off, lots on, and I was left as the only passenger on the platform waiting for an onward train - 07:11 to 07:24 wait.

Friend and fellow Coffee Shop moderator Mark joined me ("last minute decision") at Bath, for the day, and as we awaited our train - the only through train of the day from Bath to Penzance - we grabbed a further cup of coffee each and a bacon butty.

07:24 Bath Spa to Penzance  - planned, due 11:40 but terminated at Plymouth at 09:45 due to the line being closed at St Austell.   More about that anon.   Of note on the journey - pleasantly busy but a far lower seat occupancy rate than the turbo into Bath Spa - large flows on and off at Bristol, Bridgwater (interesting to note that), Taunton and Exeter.  Lots off in Plymouth as we arrived, even before we knew it was going no further.

And so in Plymouth - because of the "incident" at St Austell (never told what it was, but police involved / asked for closure) we were asked to transfer to the 09;12 - still there waiting - only some trains going through because of congestion. We chose to stand on the platform while that train was "delayed" too - looked uncomfortably busy in the 2 + 2 halves of standard class.(IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) 5 car).  A few minutes after 10, that train was cancelled too and everyone turfed off, and it was the labelled as the 10:15 and cancelled, and people were told to stand back because the "fast train approaching does not stop here". IET shunted out, then a 10:15 re-instated and in comes an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) / Castle.  "Don't rush to the platform - well wait for people" and indeed we did and it left 13 minutes late.

Noted the people looking for First Class, but when Mark and I told the there wan't any happy that it least it was a train.

10:15 Plymouth to Penzance - 13 minutes late from Plymouth, 16 minutes late into Penzance.  Made up some minutes along the way but paused 6 minutes at Par for unknown reason. Wonderful Swansong journey for me on one of the old girls. 12:28 into Penzance versus 11:40 due - I guess I could put in "delay/repay" but then on a £12 single from Melksham ...


Greeted on the Platform by GBM - lovely to meet you and the next step in my writeup.  I have 4 appointments / things the rest of the day which are far less pleasurable, far less effective, but need to be done for a couple more months.   Loads of pictures to share too!

[grahame]

 Loads of pictures to share too!

Outward journey

[old original]

Unfortunately there was a fatality at St Austell yesterday (28th)

[grahame]

Unfortunately there was a fatality at St Austell yesterday (28th)

That was what we thought was probably the case, but we got a heavy dose of vagueity which lead to us being am=lmost sure (though not quite 100%) that it was something like that.

[grahame]

Piccies from Penzance (1st visit - 12:28 until about quarter past one; second visit from about 16:15 to 17:50)









Left to right - grahame, GBM and Mark A

[Mark A]

**snip** Friend and fellow Coffee Shop moderator Mark joined me ("last minute decision") at Bath, for the day **snip**

An aside on ticketing. Graham was travelling on very good value advance single tickets from Melksham through to Penzance and back.

As to my spur of the moment decision, an on the day anytime return Bath Spa to Penzance is £79.25. Many people used to peak time travel to London would expect that to be far more expensive as it will be more than twice the distance.

With my destination undecided, from the ticket office I bought an anytime return to Taunton, and then the train manager was happy to sell me an anytime day return from Taunton to Exeter, ~£11. Then, the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) app sold me an Exeter-Plymouth day return for another ~£11 and as the Penzance train terminated at Plymouth, the booking office there sold me a Cornwall day ranger which allows travel from Plymouth to all destinations in Cornwall and for good measure, the Gunnislake branch. In my case it covered the leg to Penzance and then back to St Erth and to St Ives. So, £54ish in all for the day's rail travel.

Does anyone on the forum collect railway tickets by the way?

Mark

[grahame]

As to my spur of the moment decision, an on the day anytime return Bath Spa to Penzance is £79.25. Many people used to peak time travel to London would expect that to be far more expensive as it will be more than twice the distance.

With my destination undecided, from the ticket office I bought an anytime return to Taunton, ...

That is with a railcard. The whole ticketing business is crazy.   But a lot of people (I think) still pay a peak fare when only a tiny part of their journey - in the morning - is in what is defined as a peak period.

From the departure board at Bath Spa while we waited, I noted that the 08:13 to Paddington is "Peak Tickets valid ONLY" which strikes me as odd -my understanding is that there are "Anyime", "Off Peak" and "Super Off Peak" tickets available - and that there is no such thing as a peak ticket that it suggests you must have!



If I was being super-pedant, I would question whether the word "Only" would be better on the start.  As written, doesn't it suggest that this is the only train on which the mysterious "peak tickets" are valid?