| BTH to Carshalton, or Clapham Junction, or Waterloo with added engineering works Posted by Mark A at 17:54, 26th December 2025 |     |
tl:dr - online timetabling is becoming more strange.
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This is for Sunday 4th January, out and back in a day. GWR is out of action east of Reading until 11am, while via Salisbury will not work out as Basingstoke to Woking is a bus and in any case the first Sunday train Bath to Salisbury is 09:36.
Leaving aside the ticket, the routing advice from National Rail is... fickle.
Using the 07:58 from Bath Spa, with Clapham Junction or London Waterloo as a destination, the system doesn't mention the direct trains but offers changes at Reading, Basingstoke, with a bus between Basingstoke and Woking, then Clapham Junction at 11:57.
Put e.g. Carshalton as a destination out of the same train, the system offers Reading to Clapham Junction direct at 10.57, so, an hour earlier.
With Clapham High Street as the destination, this throws up a 'Direct from Reading to Clapham Junction' option, but rather than Basingstoke, recommends changes along the way at Staines and at Barnes to give the traveller the experience of travelling via Hounslow and an 11:32 arrival at Clapham Junction.
(Plan 'A' is to ignore the National Rail routing confusion, have a ticket to Clapham Junction and use Oyster from there as it will offer flexibility of route)
Mark
