Great Western Coffee Shop

Update - "On this Day", 25th January 2022 ... I will add on the end of the thread
At: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=13495.msg317610#msg317610

From the  FGW Website (http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Your-journey/Travel-connections/Rail-Fly)

I didn't notice them building the Heathrow western link - and right onto the apron as well! Presumably they have a special bridge to get straight from an HST to the plane  :)

Par to Noumea  ;)

Kuala Lumpur to Melksham  ::)

And before you wonder at that last one ... it's a frequent journey to us!

What about split tickets.... ;D ;D

"What about split tickets" indeed!

Takes the whole art to a new level....... Melksham to Kuala Lumpur - split at Swindon and Dubai.  Anyone know where to find the Singapore Airlines Fare & Routing guide to check if a flight actually has to stop for a split to be valid?  ;D

Think First already have a link with Singapore BUSES! I asked them this week if the refurbished luxury interior, free wi fi specifications of the X2 X3 Bristol Portishead buses actually included heating .....because I have yet to travel on a bus with any heating yet, so far this winter. Their reply was, that it could only be done by the mechanics at the depot. I did ask sarcastically if the buses had been imported from Singapore....

*secretly hopes this means job shares and we start seeing Singapore Airlines stewardesses working on FGW trains...*

Gimmick.

I'd much rather see FGW offer integrated travel/tickets with local bus operators on a more consisitent and passenger friendly basis. If it can be done with international airlines then it can't be beyond the wit of man to do so with buses running in the same country.

Point well made BNM

Something like.. PlusBus?

How does one get that at the start of one's journey by bus? Same applies to combined Rail/Bus tickets.

How does someone living in an area served by buses, but not in a PlusBus area, benefit?

I'd like FGW (and other TOCs) to do more locally, rather than gimmicky tie-ins with international airlines which get them a few column inches, but probably little extra custom.

Interesting... http://rail-fly.com/
Anyone have any inside info on the SaverExpress, FlexiExpress & BusinessExpress FGW/HEX fares?

I notice that "online check in" for the rail portion is done at http://www.accesrail.com/checkin/, who appear to already have tie-ups with DB, Renfe and Trenitalia.  Therefore I am assuming the rail ticket is issued in the form of an electronic ticket to print at home.

Admit it's not available for all areas, but it is a growing scheme.

As with any of our tickets they can be bought in advance from station or over phone/internet - downside would be you need to have it posted if you're not able to collect it before needing to use the bus.

I'm not sure how you would have an alternative way of processing the ticket though. Unless the bus company was able to sell train tickets too, but I think that may confuse things further for a bus driver who doesn't have long to deal with a transaction at the side of the road.

Pay the bus driver a fiver for a "Plus Bus Starter" ticket, to be taken as credit towards your plus bus journey ticket purchased from the station counter when you switch from rubber to steel?   Of course that assumes a counter will be open at the station and you won't find that you're faced with just a TVM.

Or just a TM (train manager), if boarding somewhere without ticket issuing facilities. Maybe that'd be the answer, let passengers board and buy from the guard if they have a 'bus starter' ticket?

You always hear excuses from the rail industry as to why further integrated ticketing between bus and rail is not possible. It is not impossible currently, and with smart card technology it gets even easier.

I'd prefer transport providers in the UK to concentrate their efforts in this area, make the existing offers easier to purchase and expand them further. I cannot, for instance get one through bus and rail ticket from Lawrence Weston in Bristol to Curry Rivel in Somerset, despite the opportunity to travel throughout with one parent company, First.

Even where it was possible to travel to relatives in another part of Somerset with a Rail/Bus ticket, I still needed to get to Bristol Temple Meads, as the particular fare was not available from my local station. At Bristol Temple Meads I could only get this ticket from the ticket office, and even then I would regularly encounter problems, with clerks telling me, variously:

• "There's no station in Dulverton" (I know)
• "Dulverton Bus is not a valid destination"
• "I don't think I can sell that"
• "It won't be accepted on the bus"

With, on one occasion, a flat refusal to even sell the ticket despite the clerk agreeing it was in the system.

When I regularly used this ticket I never faced a problem with bus drivers.

Let's have integrated transport (or at least through ticketing) sorted in this country before we start gimmicky tie-ins with long haul airlines.

For the record - here is the liveried power car in its proper environment...

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/swafly.jpg)

Seven years ago!


and a picture from the publicity video at the time. Came up "on this day"

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/fgwsing.jpg)

In the new era, how did this link get on?   Is the connection still there?  Is it a way for the future?

I notice looking back that the original thread headed of to talk about integrated tickets with buses rather than planes, which strikes me as a much more often-sought requirement ... and I have started to think forward to long distance expresses using the Old Oak to Euston link with perhaps a rapid transit just along the Euston Road for interchange with "London Main Station".   Melksham to Munich by train?  (and , yes, I have done, but the ticket wasn't available from the machine!)

Well the website is no more and the HST power car with the livery is now in Scotland.

Rail replacement plane?

....or plane replacement train!

I'd like to see a HST set make it to Singapore!

Actually, thought experiment. Could it be done wholly by rail? Ignoring geopolitics. 4ft 8 1⁄2in all the way. Say, Swansea to Singapore...

I suspect you would need to switch go a bit further north into 5ft 3in land.

"Race Across The World" season 1 was Greenwich to Singapore.   There were significant road and water sections on it, but at least some of them were forced by intermediate checkpoints, or in some places passenger rail being so much slower than long distance coach.

There is now a continuous railway, but a few changes of gauge along the way. Once Russia decides it's had enough of 1520 mm, that could change. Or there could be more of this:

(https://i.insider.com/542bed496bb3f746288eceb3?width=960)

More what - railway museums? If you hunt the origin of that picture, on Wikipedia, it is captioned:

... which does at least tally with putting a ruler up against the screen!

Yes, another couple of thousand miles to add to the 100 metres or so in existence.

Looks like that though booking opportunity is no more ...
... unless anyone knows a new name / location for the facility?

Edit to correct quoting