Great Western Coffee Shop

I took a couple of rail replacement buses while doing my Interail trip last year - Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia.  In each case, the incoming train arrived at the point from which the line was closed, passengers transferred to the bus that drove to the station where the train restarted and then passengers transferred to the new train which then left smartly. Worked well.

I also have experience in the UK of a different system. The incoming train arrives, passengers transfer to the bus which drives to where trains restart, but it takes longer than the train would take and by the time through passengers arrivae at the restart station, the ongoing train has left.

Both systems have their place.  Where traffic is predominantly local within each section of the running service, where services are frequent, where there are operational issues such as limited paths or staff availability, those elements may prioritise keeping both legs on time at the expense of through passenger delays.  But is IS frustrating to arrive in at the station where yourly onward train runs from 5 minutes after it has left, and have to wait 55 minutes for the next train.

Reading comments here at face value (and quoting from another thread):



Do I take it that Cross Country are using the British system, and bringing people into Oxford shortly after the train to the North East has left?  I suppose there is some sense in that, in that passengers from Northallerton to Darlington (for example) really don't want to be late because of a bridge failure in Oxfordshire.  Not really sure what the solution is??

The planned sequence at Oxford for each two-hourly train turn-round is:
xx17   train arrives
xx25   bus arrives from Didcot
xx30   bus departs for Didcot
xx39   train departs

Yesterday the trains were all on time except he last one which arrived at 2125 - just within tolerance. Bus times are not, of course, recorded in railway systems. Thus how much allowance is built into their timings, and whether it's enough for Oxford's traffic just now, is unknown without another source of reports. However, if that timetable is based on "normal" route timings it isn't likely to work, is it?

The driving time allowed is 45 minutes each way, with similar connection times to the trains at Didcot. To make the numbers fit the trains stay for 55 minutes, but I can't see that extra time helping with connection reliability.

The other thing to note is now Botley Road has closed (for work on the station bridge) there is a slightly longer walk to and from the bus pick up point.

How are journeys affected for passengers that want to travel from, say Southampton to Birmingham who don’t want to go via London and would normally enjoy an hourly direct train taking just over two and a half hours?

The other challenge here is that a missed connection will result in a significant delay.

The other northbound options are via Worcestershire Parkway which, again would be missed if the bus was delayed by 15 minutes (easily done in peak Oxford traffic), or GWR to Banbury and change adding an hour and 20 minutes on. In essence, this will result in XC running a service for which there will be no revenue thanks to Delay Repay.

My understanding from a friendly staffer yesterday was that all XC connections did actually work pretty seamlessly. Lets hope that continues

Here are three screen captures from Southampton Central to Birmingham

1. Today, now

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sob001.jpg)
The 3 hour 15 minutes is one change at Bristol Temple Meads
The 3 hour 26 minute option is via London


2. Today, now, specifically asking for "via Oxford"

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sob002.jpg)

3. For one month from now for comparison - noting that direct services are on offer via Reading and Oxford, even though it seems unlikely that the line will be open again by then

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/sob003.jpg)

GWR reported that planners can only be uipdated with revised timings a week ahead currently. So thise month-ahead times are the ‘standard’ timetable timings & tickets. My understanding was that Advance tickets had been suspended thru to June 10

That figures, Chris - that's why I used the May 12th offerings to give me a "control" showing what the timings should be for this journey, but did not comment on fares which for May all seem to be regular ones.

Which all looks sensible - so I've taken a further look back.

Catch the 14:15 XC from SOU today and arrive DID at 15:30 - too late to connect into what is normally the "same" train at 15:39 from Oxford into BHM at 16:51.    Instead, the next Cross Country train off Oxford is 17:39, 18:51 into Birmingham.

This journey with changes at just Didcot and Oxford is NOT offered, even if you say "via Oxford", because you can leave Southampton later - at 14:30 - and change at Winchester, Basingstoke, Reading and Didcot to pick up the same service at Oxford.

Very attractive alternatives!

If I had to make the journey this week (SOU to BHM) I would probably elect to do so via Bristol, probably enjoying 3 + 2 seating for the first half of the journey. Split ticketing should help reduce the cost too.

But, seriously, last Thursday Lisa and I (and around 2500 others) arrived into Southampton laden with luggage.  In normal times, SWR provide services to London, GWR services to Bristol and South Wales, Southern to Brighton, and XC to Coventry, Birmingham, and Manchester with connections on to Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle.  Often, the platforms at SOU are sprinkled with people with heavy luggage with fancy colourful labels, headed home.  Lots of Northerners, lots of Welsh.

* This was not just a flow last Thursday - in the winter, there are ships at least a couple of times every week, sometimes several on the same day, and for the rest of the year there are more - it's quite rare for there to be a day that there are no cruises arriving or leaving.

* Only a small proportion of cruise passengers use the train.  Many drive, others use the cruise provided coaches, some take taxis over medium distances and some fly home.  Train is probably 5th in the list ... but I do think it's underrated.  Works well for us.