Great Western Coffee Shop

I'm shamelessly quoting from another thread which has inspired me to poll.


You are a commuter with a 25 minute train journey home to your town from te city where you work, and you live just over a mile and a half from the station.   When you get back home to your home station, how would you consider getting home?


Please check as many boxes as you wish of options that you would realistically make use of at least once a week on a daily commute.

I've gone for Walk hypothetically in the scenario you mention.

In reality I live 200-300 metres from the station, so walking is the only option really.

That's good, thanks ... I am indeed looking for / happy with hypothetical answers - in particular people's feelings about bus  / car / cycle etc balance for commuters and regular users to locations that are beyond "walking is the ONLY sensible way" distance.   

Weather, time of day, and time of year dependant - all factors in decision to walk or drive.

I've voted walk, lift or taxi. As I live only 3/4 mile from the station it is usually walk to and pick up from station especialy if pick up late at night. Sometimes if it's raining I drive and park (free in road).

When I was regulary commuting it was walk in the morning and pick up most nights. Sometimes if a neighbour was being picked up and I didn't have a lift I would go with them.

There is also a taxi firm on the station, so if it's belting down and my lift is not available I might use them.

if we are talking hypothectically at a 11/2 miles from the station I'd love a tram rather than a bus.

Totally agreed ... I tried to phrase the question to learn what people might use on 20% or more of their journeys.   Multiple answers allowed / encouraged.


I considered adding a "Tram" option.  As I'm evidence gathering for a specific place / location, I concluded that I should only add things that are coming or have been talked about and could be realistic.   I would suspect that a change to "light rail" would be very popular indeed, but it ain't gonna happen!

I ticked: Walk, Take connecting bus, Take connecting bus which waits for train and Get lift from station, as all those are options I would take depending on the suituation.

I currently live too far from a station to walk, but do occasionally walk home from my nearest bus stop (it's mostly downhill, I get a lift in the other direction). I've never commuted by rail but commute to university by bus, often having to change to a connecting bus (which normally won't wait) halfway.

On my industrial year, I was in a much more densely polulated area (Sale, near Manchester) and I wouldn't want to travel on the trams at peak times. In such an area I wouldn't want to commute further than I could walk (which was the commuting mode I used).

For connecting buses, that depends on your definition of connection. For my university commute, that's 5 (idealy 7) to 12 (ideally 10) mintues between services, since I generally trust the service to be no more than 5 minutes late. With rail services, I don't trust the punctiality so would shoot for 15-20mins, but I don't consider that an acceptable length wait unless there are facilities to keep me warm (something fully-enclosed to stop the wind, a bus shelter will not do). I would however apply the 5-7 minute rule (with a bus shelter being acceptable) rather than 15-20mins if the connection will wait. I wouldn't want to trust any connection that won't wait if it is the last service of the day or there's a very long wait until the next one.

Sometimes I have used rail, then the bus as far as it goes and then a lift.

Walk, cycle or bus for me.

There are factors that determine the decision. How tired I am, whether the bike is in running order, and the weather.

From my home station to my home it is technically walk and bus. I have to walk ^ mile from Shirehampton station to the bus stop in Shirehampton village.

Also my 'home' station may be Clifton Down where onward public transport is more frequent and closer to hand. Plus I'll regularly shop at Clifton Down before heading home on the bus, or occasionally, taxi.

I responded to the scenario presented, but since others have mentioned provisos, perhaps I should as well.  I always prefer the public transport option, but there is (as BNM acknowledges) a difference between arriving at Clifton Down and Yatton (chosen only for the sake of illustration and my knowledge of both).

Walking depends not only on weather conditions, but street lighting, the state of pavements and footpaths, the number of people around to give a sense of safety...and so on.

Cycling might depend on facilities at the station and the state of the roads between there and home.

Catching a bus depends on reliability in practice (not just on paper), the fare and the proximity of one's home to a bus stop.

The practicality of summoning a taxi at stations in rural areas or parts of the city away from the central areas would also affect a decision about that option, but I suppose a regular pick up could be booked by those with the wherewithal to pay for such.

That's the interesting thing about a poll for me - I always want to add qualifications and ask questions.

When I lived in Redland and couldn't make a Severn Beach Line service for whatever reason, it'd be a 50:50 split between the bus and walking.  Generally took the bus when the weather was bad, it was dark or I had large luggage.  Otherwise I'd walk.  St Michael's Hill (oh, how I don't miss that) was always good to bring out a sweat when walked briskly.  I didn't have a car at the time, so things may have been a little different.

When I commuted to London from my parent's house near Havant (somewhat more than 25 minutes, I hasten to add), I'd drive to the station.  With the train leaving at 06:47, it allowed me to wake up around 6am and still have a the three S's.  Too early to get a bus, too expensive to get a taxi everyday and too long to walk.  Occasionally a taxi when I'd consumed a little too much ethyl alcohol on the way home.

I don't drive, but I also find the three S's and the earliness of the hour determining my transport choices!

I couldn't agree with you more ... and yet at the same time I'm looking to ask questions that are of real relevance and use in their outcome and not to [ask/consult] for the sake of it.   So I HUGELY appreciate the added value of the responses. They help me move from formulating how I should react to various options and suggestions as to what do support for the TransWilts station where we're anticipating there would be the highest proportional traffic growth as / when / _if the TransWilts service starts   ... to being able to give background and reason to back up the view.

In the early days of a new TransWilts service, quick growth would be anticipated in traffic between Westbury / Trowbridge and Chippenham / Swindon, where the populations are to a great extent already rail-aware, and indeed commuter trains into Bath are (over)crowded and with traffic still growing, in part by people with this traffic.  Bradford-on-Avon people are happy with the relief it will provide, although the capacity released will - I'm sure - be re-used again very quickly.   But then there will be growth - slower to happen as it represents a modal change for many - from Melksham.  In the LSTF bid, journeys per day from the stations in the north and west of Wiltshire per head of population were quotes, and it was noticeable that Melksham's figure was dramatically low compared to any others.   If it were to rise to - say - just two thirds of the otherwise lowest figure, you've got quite a crowd and you need to take a look at how you will get them away from the station.

Melksham station isn't town centre.   It's in the top left of a map, near to some significant densely packed,and some older, housing.  So there's immediately walking traffic there. It's just off the A350 (bypass) and A365 roads, so immensely driveable without the need to pick through suburban roads or a town centre.   However, there is also significant housing at the bottom and right - and much new housing going in there; that's my "just over a mile and a half"...

The bus choices I offered you are not fictitious, though neither are most of them real yet.

* Public bus services pass the top of the station approach (and stop about 300 yards away!) in a pattern that's clearly not designed to connect with the proposed train times (how could they?)

* There's a statement in the LSTF document concerning extending the town bus to start earlier, finish later and serve the station to connect with trains

* An alternative suggestion was made of a demand responsive bus, which read as being  bus that runs if it's booked, through I'm not sure how far ahead that would need to be done

* And the final possibility again uses the town bus, but specifically has it run from the station 10 minutes after the train actually arrives, to a single town centre stop then a loop around the right and bottom with limited stops - one for each neighbourhood.   You'll note I'm guaranteeing the bus to wait; because the station is in the middle of a long single track section, the limited stop loop route followed by a run around the bypass will get it back to the station for the next train which will also be late if the previous one was and they're closely scheduled.

I live about that far from my station. I'd also have chosen bus had we got more than an hourly service.. I just tend to walk  these days.

I used to live around 2 miles from the station, and whilst I didn't commute I'd say I used the train on average of 2 times a week. 90% of the time I would walk, no matter how late or early, and in most weather conditions. I would occasionally catch the bus, which as it so happens was a 20 minute frequency if I was particularly tired, had lots of luggage or the weather was especially foul. I'd probably be more inclined to use the bus late at night, but it didn't run late enough, and I didn't trust the service to be reliable enough when it had snowed so I ended up walking through the snow, heavy luggage and all.

Halfway through this poll - and it's already provided me with some enlightening results - which I won't post about it public just yet as I want others (yes YOU if you haven't voted yet!) to add your opinions / votes.

I have responded with 'walk' but I must add that I did use the 234 bus a few times during First's totally unpublished (at the station anyway) recent year of terminating at Frome station before reverting to Sainsbury's due to 'lower than expected usage'.