Great Western Coffee Shop

A young couple, Geoff and Vicki, are on a marathon journey around Britain with the aim of travelling to or through every National Rail station.  They are being supported by the Rail Delivery Group and crowdfunding and are posting their travels on Twitter and daily videos.

They started in the far South West at Penzance but the video I'm linking to here is day 3, Liskeard - Coombe Jn - Looe - Plymouth - Paignton - Dawlish - Chapelton.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjdgSwUA4aA . 

Their main website is http://allthestations.co.uk/ and their Twitter is http://twitter.com/allthestations

Having been watching this couples progress on YouTube
I thought some here might find it of interest ,here is the website. &links to other media platforms
http://allthestations.co.uk

As first mentioned here (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=18274.0)

I had looked and used the search option before posting
Must have missed it somehow
Perhaps a kind Mod might merge or tidy up a bit
Thanks WP.

Current latest post (posting this 29th June). Day 45 / June 20th London to Hereford

Looking forward to seeing 22nd June when the visited the TransWilts - though I know there are gaps in the coverage so there may be little or nothing said.

................he certainly knows how to show a girl a good time!  :D

Geoff and Vicki tend to make something of the 'slightly awkward station of the day', which I expect Melksham falls in to.

It may depend on whether they covered Dilton Marsh on the same day  ;D

A few years ago I might have put MKM into that category, but I think there are quite a few much more difficult ones these days (thankfully).

Any of the halts on the one-each-way-a-day service on the Cotswold line

Their awkward station turned out to be Pewsey ... scarcely a mention of Melksham though they had to divert from Swindon via Trowbridge as they headed for Bristol to visit.   Growled "Melksham" under their breath in the tail of the video - which rather shows that it's distinctly an awkward place that needs to be served!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XmNCalJy5M&list=PL4PdgT_AV_nXshM-I7xjYpXG-C_2tH1W9&index=1

Interesting edit in that video at 4m35s. It makes it look as though the HST passing through Bedwyn is only 2+2.

- just out of interest, how much would this trip have cost them? Would they be able to use some sort of Rover ticket?

They're using All Line Rovers which allows them travel on pretty much all services (with the odd exception). It's £745 for a week.

They're certainly getting their money's worth!

Probably buying 14 day rovers at £1148.

One of their videos confirmed "14 days at a time"

Which raises the question: if you travelled constantly 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, without worrying about the train actually stopping at every station, is there enough time for you cover the entire passenger network in the period of a 14-day All Line Rover? Or, to put it another way, if you add up the fastest journey time for each stretch of track how manys minutes/hours/days/weeks/months does it come to?

I'd suggest it's not possible in 14 days. Even more so if you can only travel by rail (eg so can't travel from Mallaig to Kyle of Lochalsh by road).

9800 miles on the network - works out at 29 miles of new line to be covered every hour over a 14 day period. Don't think it's practical once you add in the need to get back (or on) from some of the remote places you end up like Bromley North, Newquay and Fishguard Harbour ...

Also need to define "network" if you're going to try for a record, Rhydgaled - do you include sections such as New Beckenham to Beckenham Junction, and how about Brixton to Victoria via Stewart's Lane?

I am not familar with either of your examples, but if you want a definition of 'entire passenger network' for the purpose of this discussion then I would suggest all stretches of track which are booked to be used at least once a week for a period of at least ten weeks a year by scheduled passenger services that appear in the public timetable of any franchised or open access train operating company. That means Okehampton (summer Sundays only) counts but I'm not sure about the Swansea avoiding line behind Landore depot. The latter only counts if that is the normal booked route for one (or more) of the services that avoid Swansea; if it is only used once in a while as a diversionary route in the event of the Swansea District Line being closed for maintainance then it doesn't count.

If I may ,the project is called All the stations and not All the lines .
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BPTxYWRxjI8.

Probably because "all the stations" is much more easily defined than "all the lines"  ... we morphed into a "what if" in reply no. 16!

And the stations are the interesting passenger "things" too for the general public ...

The killer would be the regular suburban branches - you'd eat up an amazing amount of time going to the likes of Bromley North, Chessington, Hayes, Chingford, Milngavie, Paisley Canal, Kirkby and West Kirkby to name just a few.   At a finger-in-the-air guess, I think it would take at least six weeks.

They's made yarksher ... where the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-40768142/pair-on-quest-to-visit-all-british-railway-stations) have interviewed them ... and mislabelled their report to say they're going "only by rail" ... err, no. Taxi from Pewsey to Bedwyn as I recall, and across some line end links too.   But it would be churlish of me to point out the misreporting ....

They're doing well. Some interesting videos with a slant to the more difficult stations. And aren't I glad that Melksham wasn't "difficult station of the day" ... would have been five years ago!

Now done - with my apologies for the delay.  CfN.  ;)

Congratulations on their completion.   Although this thread went quiet, I carried on watching from time to time to Wick.

A set of pictures to represent the whole journey at RailStaff (https://www.railstaff.uk/2017/09/25/visiting-2563-railway-stations-looks-like-14-pictures/) web site

Yes indeed, and there is more to come.  I managed to meet Geoff and Vicky for 30 seconds when they first started out.

But there has been a lot of bitterness surrounding this venture.

I worked with Geoff many years ago (Hi, if you read this) and remember chatting to him about his preparation for visiting all the London Underground tubes stations in the fastest time. Glad to see he's continued the theme and aimed higher.

I've just posted in All around the West board that he's asking for help this Sunday in SE London - needs over 100 people to form a human old BR insignia of the arrows....

Anyone watching the Ireland version?

I've just viewed the latest one and have to say, they are much more interesting and entertaining than Michael Portillo. I like the balance of presentation - not too slick and professional, neither too amateurish - it comes across as two people just genuinely enjoying what they are doing and sharing it with the rest of us.

I hadn't been ... but you've sent me on a diversion.   Fond memories of my trip to Tipperary!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhZ3pNHYjb0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d0PGGtKuec

Last day today.

I've always wanted to go to Ireland and as usual, they've made me want to go even more.

I have had the pleasure of travelling on about half of the network on the (island of) Ireland - over about 5 days for the most part.  Throughly recommened.   I did post a few picture here but I suspect most members found them to be foreign or out of gauge and response was muted