Great Western Coffee Shop

Good to see people out and about yesterday afternoon (Friday 25 March 2022) ... ten people waiting on the platform at Melksham for the Westbury train and about ten got off - around 50 people in total on the train, with many off and on at Trowbridge too.   Picture here - Westbury - when the train had arrived in Platform 1 at around 16:00 (note - no other trains using this platform - all people to / from the TransWilts train)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/gsoa1.jpg)

Plenty joining the London train too at Westbury ...
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/gsoa2.jpg)

... and at Reading, where I stopped overnight (my first hotel in 2 years?)
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/gsoa3.jpg)

The metric of travel ARE changing though - not a single car in the car park at Melksham station, and only one drop off / pick up in the short stay bays.    And my first train journey from / to Melksham in a while - I've connected by bus to Trowbridge and Bath because (sadly!) GWR haven't run any trains at the times I have needed to go.  Different matter once I got to those other stations - plenty of trains, even if a bit longer wait than normal in come cases.

Lack of masks is becoming really obvious on public transport - I notice this here and on trips to/from Plymouth over the last couple of weeks - people really think COVID has gone away don't they?

Interestingly I notice more younger than older people wearing them now.

I feel more people are wearing masks on our local bus service latterly.
Yes, there's a hard core of students who were 'exempt mate' when masks were compulsory, and who are still not wearing them.
Maybe a third of students now wearing masks, and perhaps 60% adult now wearing masks.

I still feel with the massive rise in BA.2 cases locally (said to be second highest in the UK) masks should be compulsory.

Certainly Paddington was the busiest I have seen it for a while when I was there this week.

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/padchil2.jpg)

Travelling to Wales, where until Monday, face coverings are still compulsory there was no mass donning of masks as we went through the Severn Tunnel.   Slightly more wearing them on local trains and buses in Cardiff but from my experience the majority were not.  (Don't get me started on the one who got on without a mask, shut the windows and then put his feet on the seats!)

Oh - I wonder if that's the same one who didn't have his railcard, didn't have a card on which to pay his upgrade (refundable when he contacted the folks he bought the ticket from) or any ID, and wrote his name illegibly for the Train Manager when being given an unpaid ticket notice?  Almost looked like a well practised routine from both parties!

Perhaps I can add a few observations from someone who has been a one day a week commuter for just over a month.

I have been travelling my Goring-Guildford route every Tuesday - sometimes also taking an onward train to (or from) London Road near where the office is. The proportion of mask wearers has been steadily reducing, although where space permits passengers seem to be mostly exercising social distancing measures. I agree with TG's observation that it is no longer the young who don't and the older who do wear masks. I continue to do so, and I likely to continue to do so until I retire at the end of next month, especially as infection rates have increased considerably in all areas west and south west of London - and I have been pinged twice for being close to someone subsequently testing positive for covid, although the "contact" was a week before on the first occasion and 5 days before on the second.

The station car parks remain less full than before, but the trains I am travelling on seem back much closer to the level of use before - are the shorter distance (into Reading or Guildford) commuters returning faster than London commuters? Train cleanliness still seems better then before lockdown, if not quite at the level it was during the initial remissions from lockdown.