"Users squat, while holding onto handles."  According to my wife (late 50s, arthritis, dodgy knees) you do need to be fairly fit to use them so doesn't suit everyone.  On the other hand at the right event with a mostly youngish clientele they can indeed reduce queues, the alternative being to provide a greater number of sit-down cubicles which increases both cost and space needed.  Wouldn't work at my favourite festival (Cropredy) with a high proportion of us older folk, and the longest queue is often men of a certain age desperate for the male urinals.

 
  The delays in construction and the pandemic slowed the process but, it was predicted, indeed many local authorities such as RBWM, Slough planned for it; also you only have to see the amount of house building in the Hayes and Southall areas showing it is a popular line to live along, from my limited travel to the South East there is house building in the Woolwich and Abby Wood areas

Used to be called the 'sparks effect'

 
As webmaster, I get a number of emails from people looking to help us take the Coffee Shop forward, and a significant proportion of those are approaching us without taking even a perfunctory look at what we do ...



Amusingly off topic, cold approach invites are fun to read occasionally, but there's a much more serious side to taking the Coffee Shop forward too.   Yesterday's AWS outage did not effect the Coffee Shop, but I have taken a look at AWS for hosting our historic archive which contains a large amount of information which we don't want to lose, but each piece of which is only read once in a blue moon.

 

Thank you, ChrisB, for that vote. AGM topics there but irrespective of where the job we have been doing on the "excellence" scale fits, yes, it ought carry on. It fills / fits / tackles some important areas - niches - which are otherwise not or poorly addressed, and does so for the mutual benefit of multiple parties.

 

Indeed, with the advent of GBR in the rail sector, obtaining funding from the TOCs (as now) is likely to dry up, especially if the organisation isn't recognised in the Railway Bill as a consultee/stakeholder. The Bill should be published by the time that the AGM is held, so the meeting can be informed about funding from the rail side of things.

Money ought to still flow from the bus side of transport however, with a favourable wind. TWSW does an excellent job, and ought to continue!

 
For diary - 2 to 3 pm on 5th December 2025 - TWSW AGM ... online ... separate thread to follow, but noting here f.y.i. - standard form is that each year a three directors / a third are up for re-election; personally I probably have 2 years yet to serve as I was formally elected last December.

 
As the Elizabeth Line was being built, there were lots of informed people who were fairly convinced that on opening or shortly after, it would be serving Reading - it was necessary operationally, but it complicated the project business case didn't stack up with electrification costs, additional risk etc. so got set aside. 

Anyway, the day it was actually announced, the local estate agents repriced almost everything in their windows, adding another 20%. Mate was buying a house at the time and nearly had a heart attack!

Incidentally, my old terraced house near Reading Station sold earlier this year. Quadrupled in price in 25 years. 

 
Take a look at http://www.1s76.com - wonderful website, and with an update just a couple of weeks ago.   I have not been able to find the original poster ... not an easy search, but then knowing Mark A he will have checked all the obvious places before posting a request for help here.

 
Here’s a list of main destinations that have lost their cross country services in the past twenty or so years:

Brighton
Eastbourne
Gatwick Airport
Guildford
Kensington Olympia
Liverpool
Margate/Ramsgate
Newquay
Poole
Portsmouth
Swansea
Weymouth

There may be more as well as intermediate stations.

Direct services that no longer run:

Southwest to Glasgow via West Coast*
South coast to Glasgow via West Coast
South coast to Edinburgh via East Coast
Southwest to Liverpool
South coast to Liverpool

*Couple of direct services run via East Coast making for a long journey.

 
Good to see positive reactions here.  Click on the countdown image to go to the booking page





YES ...

However - I took a phone call yesterday from a long standing attendee, concerned that TWSW's other  activities are not what they were before covid.  Things have changed over the years - next year, TWSW is 25 years old and so much has changed over the years. 

General meetings can be seen as the tip of the iceberg of TWSW - two meetings a year is about the right balance; put it up to quarterly, and it's too much, down to annual and it's too little. But what the user groups see - two general meetings - is only a part of the work and "we" (talking a board member but not with official TWSW authority) have not been as visible and active otherwise as we might have been.  Personally, I would love to have / be giving it more time but don't feel I have delivered as I, and perhaps, my colleagues would have wished; an admission of personal failure, if you like - but identifying the issues is a good step towards dealing with them. 

We live in interesting times. TWSW is run almost entirely by volunteers; we have paid secretarial and admin support which is so appreciated and good, but very much limited in time available due to both funding constraints and our constitution of what we aim at doing.  What resources we have in funding  for the general meetings comes from travel and transport organisations who appreciate the utility of condensing so many user and specialist groups and local authorities into a single talking shop where they can efficiently reach and inform the wider tree, and where they can hear combined inputs from many places.   However, those organisations in the business are ever more required to be efficient / save money and this is an easy one for them to reconsider if they are even still in the business. And if they are not, where does TWSW funding come from?   Topics for the board, and the AGM.  For this week - we would love to see you along and help make it a great meeting.

 
And 06:35 Salisbury - Worcester Foregate Street "This service was cancelled between Westbury and Worcester Foregate Street due to an issue with the train crew (TG)".

 

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:09

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:09 will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster, Salisbury, Romsey and Southampton Central.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 
Not on it today, but I can see the 5:11 Gloucester - Southampton Central has a problem, after leaving Kemble 2 mins late. 'Information unavailable' for Swindon (scheduled 6:06), and 'delayed' for all stops after that (Chippenham 6:23, Melksham 6:32)...

 
Not doubting Davids comments about using it for day trips to Weston,but I thought the mini bus was not allowed to go out  outside of its designated local area.

 
Thanks for your post, broadgage - and I'm sorry to learn that you have suffered some medical issues.

May we wish you all the best for a full recovery.

CfN.

 

As discussed elsewhere  on these forums I have recently had a long hospital stay, and several shorter stays. I was most impressed by the service offered by the league of friends at Musgrove park hospital. Confectionery delivered to the bedside and a limited range of other goods including black ball point pens, of which there was a hospital wide shortage.
I appreciate that this is a very old thread, but the points raised are still relevant.

 
If you can't make it, JayMac, Finn will be very welcome.

 
I may pop along on Friday. I have a ticket but I'm undecided at the moment. It depend on whether Mum will be okay without me for a few hours.

 

I have absolutely nothing against Taunton personally - nor municipally, actually.

What gets me is that I have, several times over the years, been strolling through Taunton in company with grahame, when we've stopped while he takes a photo. I was standing next to him (out of shot, obviously) - but I was standing there at the time.

However, when grahame then posted that image out on the Coffee Shop forum, perhaps two weeks later, I honestly didn't recognise it - much to my embarrassment.

That is the origin of the 'urban myth' that I don't like Taunton: it is actually a lovely town.

CfN.

 

Many years ago, there was a temporary change to our local train timetable, such that we had a direct Cross Country service to Aberdeen.

I teased my manager at the time (she was based in Edinburgh) that I hoped I didn't inadvertently 'nod off' during my early morning train journeys into Bristol, or I might wake up only to find myself rather north of her.

 
A preliminary report:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20pg8pzp2no

 
Thinking of other cities/towns that have lost through trains to that number of destinations at a time when it would have been reasonable for the network to have been at the least, stable (or actually, for the railway to have increased through travel opportunities). Crosscountry's evolution from its first inception to the present has been... curious. Regional Railways interregional services seem to have been strangled, and was the issue with Transport for Wales that it was set up with a lengthy and inappropriate capacity-constraining franchise agreement, leading to its long distance services being grimly capacity-constrained?

Anyway, here's the Edinburgh through train at Bath Spa, just before 6am in April 2011. (I was heading for Leeds...)

Mark

 
What!?! ‘and the meeting being held in Taunton’. Please don’t shatter my illusions Chris, that one of the things that makes the TWSW meeting so special for you was that it’s held in Taunton!

Totally get the Voyager bit.

 
Watched the article on this evening’s Points West and was alarmed to hear David say that people were using it as their own personal taxi service to travel to Bristol Airport or for a day out to Weston-super-Mare!

Sad when things like this happen and it ends up getting cut for those who really do need it to travel locally, though the article also stated few were using it.

 
The first time I met grahame was some 17 years ago, on board a Voyager train from Bristol to Taunton, for me to attend my first TravelWatch SouthWest meeting there. Despite the Voyager, and the meeting being held in Taunton, we've been friends ever since.

These TWSW meetings are great: they offer excellent speakers, lively debate, enjoyable catering and good company - and all free to attendees!

We hope to see you there!

CfN.

 
Oooooo this is an interesting one, making me want to head up to the attic and pour over old all line British Rail timetables to try and find some!

I did use the train to Manchester once from Oldfield Park to travel there for a work related trip. A novelty for an Intercity service stopping at Oldfield Park as well it being a direct Cross Country service heading north.

Other than the trains you’ve listed I can’t think of any others off hand. Bath Spa had a good range of destinations provided by Regional Railways in the 1990s. As well as Manchester and Liverpool you had Tenby and of course Brighton and Waterloo. All sadly no more.

Possibly the extra summer Weymouths in the 1970s starting at Nottingham or Birmingham seems to ring a bell. I know a service to Derby from Weymouth went via but not stopping at Melksham (as the station had closed by then) then via Oxford. (Please don’t take what’s written in this paragraph as gospel as a visit to the attic would need to confirm/correct what’s written)

There have been times when Cross Country services diverted via Bath and Westbury when the line between Bristol and Taunton has been closed for engineering work have stopped at Bath Spa.

Also, when the line between Bristol and Birmingham was closed trains would go via Bath (not stopping) and call at Swindon and Oxford. But of course Cross Country can’t be bothered to do that anymore putting people on buses instead. They do still do diverts via Newport though.

Finally, I remember being at Edinburgh Waverley station a few years back and doing a double take when looking at the arrivals board seeing Bath Spa listed before remembering there was the early morning departure from Bath.

 
I've been to Marlborough once - many, many years ago. We were a group in a minibus, and eventually we found a place to park it - somewhere here:



We enjoyed the hospitality in a pub ... somewhere on the right in that image, I seem to recall.

Marlborough is a lovely old town: have a good day!