Great Western Coffee Shop

London to Reading - but NOT London to Reading!

If you were a (regular) user / commuter from Reading to London (perhaps you are  ;D ), where might you be tempted to travel west of Reading for a leisure trip - a day out or a holiday, for example.   

Background - putting together a display table (and I'll be looking to get leaflets too) for Community Rail in the City in May.  Looking for 'sensible' trips from Reading by train - days out, not through London.  Great (but not mandatory) to use Community Rail lines / services as the community is everywhere, great to also include connecting buses.  But really looking for places not individual single attractions.

I have a list of ideas - indeed if I lived in Reading I could probably find a different destination for every weekend day from now until Christmas - but I would love your ideas.

Well, for the commuter who's also a rail enthusiast, then...

Didcot Railway Centre
Cholsey and Wallingford Railway
STEAM, Swindon.

Lands End or St.Ives.

Bath is a good day trip
Bristol and Cardiff
Gloucester
Oxford
NEC
Birmingham ...........

The list goes on
 

There are so many place

Bournemouth is quite popular from here, for days out or holidays

Day trips to Oxford and Basingstoke as well.

Newbury races.

For holidays you could add Gatwick and for days out you could include Windsor or Ascot. (But they are east  :))

Bath is always a favourite. Not a personal fan of Oxford but I know others like it (in fact too many do which is part of the problem).

Bradford upon Avon looks interesting although I don't know if there's enough to do for a day.

Chichester is somewhere I go to fairly often as well.

If you don;t mind bus or taxi as part of the journey there's a lot of interesting places within reach of Evesham or any of the Cotswold stops.

Looking good and keep 'em rolling ... a couple of 'duh - of course' ones.

Yes - there is plenty to do in and around Bradford-on-Avon; you probably want to be good on your feet.

Having lived in Reading or the immediate neighbourhood for the best part of 30 years I can remember making trips to Clifton by way of the Severn Beach line.  Days out in Weston super Mare, Gloucester, Cheltenham and Cardiff.  

As you say so many to choose from.  Possibly link in with Great Way West tickets now we think we know where they are valid!

Basingstoke  :o :o

Paul

Taunton...... ::) ;D

Seriously though, I suggested St.Ives as it can easily be reached by a day trip from Reading in reasonable hours and is probably one place most people SHOULD visit once at least.

Lands End is a bit more difficult, and you would probably only have an hour there after travelling some 7.5 hours in each direction.....but lots of other scenery to see on the way.

Is the price reasonable though?

But remember I'm looking for weekend and long breaks too, so St Ives becomes more centre stage.

Not forgetting Weymouth and the Jurassic coast

£191.50 Day Return (according to GWR.com).  I'm sure BNM would be able to do it much cheaper  ;)

The bus to Portland Bill is pencilled on my list - a particularly good trip.  Sadly, ticketing (especially if you want to go out via Pewsey and back via Micheldever) looks quite complex and can be costly.    The sort of thing we really should be promoting to help our friends at Heart of Wessex.

Blenheim Palace and Woodstock by using the bus from outside Oxford station.
Bicester village if people like that sort of stuff.
Leamington Spa and Warwick.
Portsmouth historic dockyard and Gunwharf Quays. Change at Basingstoke or Winchester, or go via Guildford and change.
Winchester.
Stratford upon Avon. Not sure how easy this is anymore, we used to have a direct train.
Some of these only use a GWR train part of the way, but there is the adventure.
Oh and don't forget, we might be bigger than most cities in this country and look like a modern one but we're still a town and proud of it (some of us). Provincial town number 1! :)

And personally rarely do I travel from Reading (General) towards the big london, always more likely to go anywhere but.

Cheers

Looking at Weymouth, the journey planners give some strange results. Generally the route is Basingstoke, Salisbury, Suothampton, Weymouth (don't ask me why) although I have found one return via Southampton & Bath and one via Yeovil stations and Basingstoke.  Perhaps the routeing guide will through some light on this.

I've done a couple of day trips from Westbury to St Ives and I got some very good fares by splitting Advance singles - esp 1st Class.

St Ives would always be on my list, but also Topsham, more easily doable as a day trip but good for a weekend break aswell.

This summer the Reading - Salisbury direct on Sundays should be included.

Sorry to bore on cycling, but some could probably be walked.

Didcot for the Hanson Way to Oxford, covers part of the old Abingdon branch.
Fareham for the old Gosport branch, now busway to Portsmouth.
Portsmouth for a trip along the sea front to the Hayling Ferry and up the old Hayling Island branch to Havant.
Bedwyn through the Savernake Forest to Marlborough and the old railway line to Swindon
Andover for the old railway line and Test Valley way to Romsey, and possibly return via Salisbury
Southampton for Cowes, take the old railway line from Cowes West through Newport and on to Sandown

There are others, and also options going east of Reading.

That’s a very good point about the new Sunday Reading to Salisbury service. 

I plan to try that from the Salisbury end.

Yes... and to the others snipped too. I wanted to comment on the above and in general.
* I fear I have opened a door slightly and found a great hall within.  Yikes!
* Information is disparate to put it mildly!
* "What train ticket(s) do I get" is a nightmare - let alone when you add bus connections in!

On Bedwyn - from a walking / fare viewpoint, the Kennet and Avon Canal to Pewsey is a good trip, noting Crofton Pumps on the way.

I know where this passes through Marlborough (there's a bridge under the A4 on the hill heading east out of town), but would be interested to know/find where it actually leaves the B&H - I assume somewhere a bit west of Crofton?

The Swindon to Marlborough line didn't really join the Berks and Hants as it headed south - it crossed the Canal and Berks and Hants railway just to the east of Bruce (Canal) tunnel, yes - that's west of Crofton, and headed south to Ludgershall and Andover.   A separate Marlborough to Savernake line joined the Berks and Hants a little further west, and there were two stations at Savenake, various crossovers and shares over the years.  Too much for this thread, but I can tell you at Reading on 15th May if we have no customers  :D


Edit to add - attachment - Scribblemap showing layout

It is possible to cycle most of the Kennet and Avon from Reading to Bedwyn.

Might want to suggest the Kennet Horse Barge from Kintbury (might also want to warn them/ask for leaflets) http://kennet-horse-boat.co.uk/ (http://kennet-horse-boat.co.uk/).

For buses in Hampshire try http://documents.hants.gov.uk/passenger-transport/HampshireMapandFrequencyGuideJun18.pdf (http://documents.hants.gov.uk/passenger-transport/HampshireMapandFrequencyGuideJun18.pdf). I found it when I got a paper copy from Lymington Town.

Most of the ones I suggested only require one ticket, apart from Andover - Romsey, and Bedwyn - Marlborough - Swindon (general public might not trust an easement).

Perhaps this should have been entitled "Going t'other ways from Reading. Here goes, all accessible from Reading without going via London -

1 - for those looking for gentle or not so gentle walks from local  stations -

Pangbourne or Goring and Streatley for the Thames Path, Goring and Streatley for the Ridgeway, Cholsey for the Fair Mile

Aldermaston, Migham or Hungerford for pleasant Kennet & Avon walks

2 - a day at the seaside -

Direct trains to Bournemouth, Weston super Mare and many Devon resorts, or a change of trains at Basingstoke or Southampton for Weymouth

3 - urban days out -

Bristol (you can fit in an open top bus trip, a boat trip around the harbour and SS Great Britain and be back in time for tea). Bath, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Worcester, Hereford, Winchester or Oxford.

4 - a little further, usually more than a day trip  -

York, Durham and Newcastle, or with one change of train, Edinburgh or Inverness.

Or take the train to Exeter, stay there and see many parts of Devon and Cornwall by train

5 - to catch a plane -

Gatwick, Southampton or Birmingham International

6 - some sporting venues -

Newbury Racecourse, Twickenham, Ascot, Millennium Stadium, (and the Mad Stad when they eventually build Green Park)

7 - just for the ride -

Berks & Hants to Taunton, North Downs (once you have passed Ash), the Golden Valley to Gloucester.

8 - for rail nuts

GWS Didcot, STEAM at Swindon, Cholsey & Wallingford, or haul down to Devon for Dart Valley or Kingswear from Paignton.

I hope you have got a very large set of display boards! How about one of those circular interpretive displays you find at view points that highlights all the places you can see and how far away they are, possibly substituting time to get to each destination on quickest not via London route?

Thanks for this Graham. I should have put this all together as I recently watched the Hastings Diesels Cab Ride of the B&H from Hungerford to Westbury on YT (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcBX3YC4Fh0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcBX3YC4Fh0)) and all of this is visible and well explained.


It is indeed, and to carry on west to Pewsey, although I had to carry my bike up the path over the hill where the canal goes through the aforementioned Bruce tunnel.

Thank you. There is huge sense is sorting by type of trip / colour coding a map.   Gathering a really good amount of data;  my mind / time on other stuff for a couple of days.

Going t'other ways:

Taplow - Windsor following the Jubilee River (Thames flood relief channel), can return to Maidenhead along the Thames.
Slough Branch of the Grand Union Canal, can follow through to Paddington Basin.
Basingstoke Canal, can do all or parts; Winchfield station to Ash Vale station. Ash Vale station to Woking station or Woking station to Byfleet and New Haw station.
Chichester Canal, a circuit from Chichester station using another ferry to Bosham station

Maybe this is getting a bit too watery

Soon to have direct trains to Salisbury on Sundays, courtesy of SWR  ;)