Presumably it is front two or possibly three coaches for Melksham on an IET?

 


Not a perfect evening - but good to see better measures coming into place when things go wrong.

 
I find the LNER website very good for ticket purchase - also remembers your seating preferences etc -  and they are excellent when it comes to delay/repay payments - often within 48 hours.

https://www.lner.co.uk/

 
A taxi did turn up at about 6.45, but by then there was the alternative option of the Paddington-Totnes IET which had been diverted due to problems on the Newbury(?) line and was scheduled to stop at Melksham. It wasn't due in to Chippenham until 6.55, but there was a good chance it would still beat the taxi to Melksham. So 4 of the Melksham group got in the taxi, and 3 of us took the train.

Just over an hour late in the end, but the new experience of taking an IET to Melksham made up for it

 
Would any one known of any forums(Australian based) that deal just with Australian train issues only?

Thanking you in advance.

 
I find Realtimetickets (same place as Realtimetrains) useful for seeing actual ticket types.

 

And after TEN years what has happened ?
Improved trollies has changed from a commitment, to an aspiration, and now sunk without trace.
Hot food in standard class, also sunk without trace (after a brief trial that produced the expected result that it was uneconomic)

 
The story is that it's a forced change for GWR (and some others) as their supplier, Wordline IT, is withdrawing from this market. However, Wordline do use the same engine on their own booking site, respottedhanky, at least for the time being.

 
All happening tonight!

 
I'm currently indirectly benefitting from First's withdrawal from Cornwall, as many of the buses have been transferred to the optimistically-named Berkshire and Thames Valley area (really Slough and surrounds). They now have more buses than they know what to do with and have introduced 2 frequent new routes forming a High Wycombe-Uxbridge-Slough triangle in a fight to the death with GoAhead's Carousel operation.

 
I have long used the GWR Mixing Deck booking site to buy my train tickets. This now seems to have vanished. Can anyone tell me of another site which tells me exactly what TYPE of ticket I am buying for my money/planned journey ? Is Mixing Deck still available - I fear not, its too simple and gives too much useful info away !

Every other site I have tried so far gives me a fare but doesn't detail whether it's "anytime", "off peak", "super off peak", "evening out"   or what ever.

What I am trying ascertain is: if I turn up at my station to catch the 0740 to ?? what is the cheapest ticket I can buy for that service at that time ? That would be handy to know - in case I need a bank loan for when I get there !

Mixing Deck told me that, clearly and simply - the "new" websites are very glitzy but don't tell me what I wish to know   

 

 

 
...and now cancelled. But there's a fleet of SUVs on the way, apparently...

 

 

I think that is the first one to make a special call at Melksham in the down direction.

 

 

 
...and the 17:35 from Swindon hasn't departed yet, "Delayed"...

 

This certainly applies to the 08:56 Great Malvern-Paddington. The Trolley always stays in hiding on this service.

 

 

The signs on those proclaim them to be "Staff storage room". This strikes me as a great idea - when the train is held awaiting a driver, they can just get a spare one out of the staff storage.

 
Ironically, given St Piran was Irish, he'd probably be regarded as an "incomer" these days, God help him if he purchased a holiday home or drove an SUV! 

 
I would hope when they are retired we get the ones Mr Rule hinted at, but then didn’t deliver.

 
Keep thinking the title of this is 'Shy and retiring on-train trolleys'. Tempted to name those cubicles found on IETs that unexpectedly contain one, the 'Drawing room'.

Mark

 
It must be less easy to tell now: here, and at Bristol Temple Meads, in the past, would a bike locked and on the station platform pretty well guarantee a 1:1 correlation with a rail passenger?

Anecdotally, locking the bike at the station and on to a train was very much a thing for me until the cycle storage was moved from the platforms, the perceived (and actual) security of the replacement cycle parking around Bath Spa has put an end to that (and along with it some of the rail travel).

In London, and centuries back, cycling to the station as part of the daily commute was very much a thing for one of the household, but only a single instance of a security issue with that - they arrived back at the station one evening to find a set of bikes had been secured together with a cable - presumably a would be thief had the intention of returning later and stealing the whole lot. The episode resulted in a phone call to summon the appropriate resources to deal with the cable and all was well once again.

Bikes on trains, very much enabled with the more widespread availability of things that fold, though I'm suspecting that the IETs are a challenge even for those, thanks very much, Department for, er, Transport.

Mark

 
From the BBC:

 
A bit like the replacement Cowes chain ferry, buy something new and flashier then find you can't use it part of the time.

 
Or maybe recent publicity raising questions about BTP attitude to cycle theft at stations.

 
It doesn't necessarily work well in the long term either if it tends towards monocultures. Nature's more resilient when the environment's peppered with microclimates and niche species. Something which applies to economies too?

Mark