Great Western Coffee Shop

Long Article from the BBC at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55937512

From the Cambrian News (https://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/article.cfm?id=135174)

grahame to the rescue?



Perhaps not then!

 With about  one train every two hours in each direction its hardly Clapham Junction!

It has been pointed out that the house is right on the main road and next door to a builders merchant so it was probably not a rural oasis before the station.

Well at least the aggrieved homeowner wont be troubled by newts or bats as these creatures are rendered locally extinct by railways.
If the line is ever electrified then exploding pigeons will be a new problem.

AFAIK no one has yet mentioned a cow ?

Eh?  Get that man some port!

Is Bow Street anywhere near to Bow Road?   Sound quite the party place for Mr Jones ((here)) (https://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/crime/police-raid-on-illegal-rave-7798888)

An old argument against railways and the smoke breathing, fire snorting iron monsters that inhabit them, was that cows would yield sour milk, or none.
As well as the extinction of horses, the destruction of crops, and other disasters too terrible to contemplate.

It's every 2 hours at the moment - plans have been to move it up to hourly and extra have been building up - last summer (before services were abandoned due to Covid) the only xx:21 (ish) gaps into Aberystwyth between 05:21 nd 23:21 were at  10:21, 14:21 and 16:21.

But - looking at another thread and long distance community for just one or two days a week. Live in Bow Street, office in Central Birmingham. Roll out of bed when awoken by the 05:14 and get on the train the other way at 05:33 - into the office for a full day ... 18:10 back from Birmingham and back by 21:10. 

And now there's light pollution at Dovey Junction - from the Powys County Times (https://www.countytimes.co.uk/news/19218934.opinion---dyfi-bridge-railway-junction-lit-like-blackpool-tower/)


My opinion - he who's opinion is presented (? or is it "she" - name is "Staff Reporter" and I'm not sure if 'Staff' is a boy's or girl's name) would do better to get the name of the station correct, and to learn that you change there as you travel from Aberystwyth to Abermaw.

Reading the article, it becomes apparent that the writer is actually a local farmer. "Staff Reporter" is a traditional journalistic tool used to grant anonymity to contributors who do not wish to be named.

As an aside, grahame could experience the light show experience in Dovey daily, AND finally end that search for his railway retirement home by buying his very own farm (https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/56124298/) just 1 mile away from Dovey Junction!

Not sure whether "Staff Reporter" is the seller though...

9.5 Acres is a bit much for us ... and whilst I grant you that passenger numbers at Dovey Junction are reported at around 4,500 per annum (rather more that the 3,000 that the ORR told me for Melksham when I first enquired how busy the line was), I think it would be a tough call to get passenger numbers like we have in Melksham.   "Travel to Swindon for shopping or to work" has bigger mass transport potential than "come to Dovey Junction to see the Ospreys".

Dont be too hasty, grahame...Remember you recently got that electric bike, and Transport for Wales do a sterling job of talking up the new cycling facilities at Dovey Junction here. (https://www.countytimes.co.uk/news/18530836.machynlleth-dovey-junction-stations-get-cycling-boost/)

With Active Travel now all the rage, Dovey Junction's star has never shone so bright.

Oh wait...

Is it the computer I am using, or do some local journals have problems turning pictures so you don't have to crick your neck, or have problems getting your bike on the top two racks.

Of course, another way of looking at it would be that Dovey Junction currently has 10 direct services per weekday to Shrewsbury, which while not quite having as big a population as Swindon, is nonetheless the commercial centre for Shropshire and mid-Wales, with a pre-Covid retail output of over £299 million per year. By comparison, Melksham currently has 9 services per weekday to Swindon.

Also, 8 of those 10 services per weekday from Dovey Junction to Shrewsbury extend through to Birmingham. By contrast, Go-op's proposal from around a decade ago which would have seen some direct services from Melksham to Birmingham was widely ridiculed, and current aspirations for such services only exist as an option of a 2019 consultants report (https://swlep.co.uk/docs/default-source/strategy/rail-strategy/swlep-rail-strategy-final-09-05-2019.pdf) which appears to have little or no prospect of being implemented any time soon, despite apparently being a "High scoring option addressing a wide variety of issues".

Finally, there are also 8 direct services from Dovey Junction on Monday-Saturdays to the popular seaside resort of Pwllheli, and 5 on Sundays. Melksham however, despite many attempts of varying effectiveness over the years, currently only has 1 direct service each way per week to the popular seaside resort of Weymouth.

It is when reminded of such comparisons that I am also reminded of the huge importance of continuing to back the efforts of grahame and others to progress their local and regional transport proposals, and I am proud to do so. It's been 15 years since the Save The Train campaign was formed, 10 years since the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership came into existence, 5 years since Option 24/7 was born, and in a couple of years time we will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the introduction of what was then just about an appropriate TransWilts Rail service. The fact that - aside from a handful of very welcome individual service improvements - the overall structure of the TransWilts timetable today does not look all that much different from the one that was introduced back then means that it is a case of "Much to be proud of, but much still to be achieved".

Anyway, I have taken this topic somewhat far away from Bow Street, so I will leave it there  ;D

Indeed, a long way from Bow Street.  But some key points in there and a hook onto which I can hang a further, full, important set of writing.  Gimme 24 hours.