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Journey by Journey => To Oxford, Didcot and Reading from West => Topic started by: grahame on January 18, 2011, 08:52:19



Title: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: grahame on January 18, 2011, 08:52:19
I'm in Oxford for a couple of days next week ... travelling from West Wiltshire (Melksham).   

<rant>Now ... you would have thought that with five trains an hour from Swindon via Didcot, and about 4 an hour via or passing Didcot for Oxford, there might be a chance of some connectivity, even though I have a very limited service indeed for the first leg of the journey.  But it rather looks as if the timing couldn't be much worse even if someone set out to make it hard - 07:19 from Melksham connects to Oxford at 09:15, with 23 minutes to wait at Swindon and 27 minutes at Didcot.   Quite starkly put, First are not offering me any way of actually making my journey without using car or taxi.  I did also check the first First bus ... and it gets to Chippenham at exactly the same time that the train calls there. Not exactly an alternative</rant>

Oh well - another road trip by the looks of things.  There's a hefty stick waved to keep private cars out of Oxford ... give me a carrot that provides a practical alternative and I'll use it.


(For anyone new to the journey, it's about 60 miles - so from my train leaving Melksham to arriving in Oxford I would be averaging a princely 31 m.p.h.)


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: philvr on January 21, 2011, 15:54:41
I'm in Oxford for a couple of days next week ... travelling from West Wiltshire (Melksham).   

I just had a look at options for the route on Monday! Thinking it would make a nice day trip. Leaving Melksham at 7:19 arr Oxford 9:15 with return trip leaving 17:36 arr 19:10.

Ticket costs are ridiculous! ^51 as two singles or ^87 anytime return!!

This is plain crazy!


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: IndustryInsider on January 21, 2011, 16:04:19
According to Avantix it should be ^38 anytime return (NFM06 prices, via Didcot) - another case of an error in the online booking systems?


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: devon_metro on January 21, 2011, 16:24:11
Defo a journey planner error, seems to be forcing you via Reading.

^41 Peak Day Return (Route Not Reading)
^87 Peak Return (Route Not London)


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: Chris from Nailsea on January 21, 2011, 17:50:48
Welcome to the Coffee Shop forum, philvr!

Chris  :)


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: Bob_Blakey on January 21, 2011, 19:17:49
Would travelling via Westbury be a possibility?

Example
Road from Melksham to Trowbridge. TRO 0727-WSB 0734 & WSB 0751-RDG 0850 for ^21 plus RDG 0911-OXF 0934 for ^7.80 making a total of ^28.80.
You can make the trip from MKM by catching the 0641 service, and it is slightly cheaper at ^25.30, but the wait at WSB is horrendous (54 minutes-although I would consider it if a decent breakfast could be procured at Westbury!)

Haven't looked at returns using the same route.


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: grahame on January 21, 2011, 20:42:13
There is
06:41 MKM - 06:57 WSB
07:01 WSB - 08:06 RDG
08:11 RDG - 08:34 OXF
And for an 08:45 / Oxford City Centre which is when / where I'm due, it's just OK.  But it's 60 seconds short of a connection at WSB and I've not costed it.

For return, Travelline gave me
18:31 OXF - 18:54 RDG
19:02 RDG - 19:16 Newbury
19:45 Newbury - 21:05 Melksham by National Express route 402
Which for my ideal 18:00 ex Oxford is - well - it would make a change!

P.S.  The AA says driving is 60 miles, and 1 hour 22 minutes.
So that is 7:00 from home - 8:30 in Oxford;  18:00 from Oxford, 19:30 home.


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: johoare on January 21, 2011, 21:51:48
I really like the fact that if I put Melksham to Oxford in NR journey planner with an 8.30am arrival Monday.. it suggests leaving Melksham at 19.52 on Sunday arriving a whole eleven hours early  :) ;)


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: grahame on January 22, 2011, 07:06:56
I really like the fact that if I put Melksham to Oxford in NR journey planner with an 8.30am arrival Monday.. it suggests leaving Melksham at 19.52 on Sunday arriving a whole eleven hours early  :) ;)

If you put in Oxford to Melksham for any day during the week for a morning arrival, it suggests 00:07 from Oxford to 06:41 at Melksham - 5 minutes at Didcot and 5 hours 32 minutes at Swindon.  :-\

As it's an officially recognised / recommended through journey, I've often been tempted to try it sometime, and use it to help generate publicity for the case for a  better TransWilts service.  I wonder is I could find a quiet, warm corner to sit / snooze / work on my laptop during the wait, and if I could find someone from the press to accompany me and take photos ...


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: grahame on January 27, 2011, 21:00:37
Posting from Oxford ... I drove in the end - just no practical rail-way, and I'm staying in a hotel up here overnight.  Awful journey on the road - about 2.5 hours, confirming there's a lot of traffic that heads up this way  ;).


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: Tim on January 28, 2011, 09:29:46
I know Melksham has its own special issues, but Oxford's connectivity from the West is in general not great.  It seems that loads of the mainline HSTs to Swindon stop at Didcot but many of them do not connect very well.  There are many times in the day when it is quicker to go via Reading which as well as costing more just shows how bad the connectivity is on what ought to be a much shorter route with a change at Didcot. 


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: mjones on January 28, 2011, 10:34:35
I agree. With at least two services per hour from Swindon to Didcot, and two per hour from Didcot to Oxford, connections ought to be good, but sadly Oxford departures are often a few minutes before Swindon arrivals, or so close after as to not be reliable, so only about one per hour is actually a workable connection. It is very frustrating to see Oxford trains that have often been waiting several minutes in Platform 3 start to pull away just as a Swindon train pulls into P2.

Let's hope Reading upgrade and electrification will allow a timetable with better connections.


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: Tim on January 28, 2011, 10:38:23

Let's hope Reading upgrade and electrification will allow a timetable with better connections.

I'd hope that this would allow some tweaking of the timing, but the other issue is that the wrong Oxford-Reading trains stop at Didcot.  I suspect that this might be use to Didcot pathing issues. 


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: mjones on January 28, 2011, 11:06:48
Withdrawing the XC stops at Didcot didn't help- justified by DfT on the grounds that there are "excellent connections" via Oxford which, a) isn't the case, again with lots of trains timetabled not to connect and b) ignores connections from the West.


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: Tim on January 28, 2011, 13:07:53
Withdrawing the XC stops at Didcot didn't help- justified by DfT on the grounds that there are "excellent connections" via Oxford which, a) isn't the case, again with lots of trains timetabled not to connect and b) ignores connections from the West.

absolutely agree.  Fortunately my regular Bath-Oxford commuting days are over.


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: willc on January 28, 2011, 13:35:40
 
Quote
the wrong Oxford-Reading trains stop at Didcot. 


Which 'wrong' trains would these be? The ones that don't stop are the FGW fasts and XC, which, in the case of South Coast services, are overcrowded much of the day.

And I think you might find that post-electrification, there's a bit more than 'tweaking' of the timetable. A complete recast more like, to take account of far superior acceleration.


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: grahame on January 28, 2011, 14:41:39
I know Melksham has its own special issues, but Oxford's connectivity from the West is in general not great ...

You've basically got two sets of issues in one journey.   West Wilts to Didcot ... (Warminster, Westbury, Trowbridge as well as Melksham) and how the service fail to connect (miss by five minute at Chippenham or dogleg at Bath) to get to Didcot in the first place, then when you get to Didcot ...

I was speaking with a journalist at lunchtime "are you commuting from Wiltshire to Oxford by train" she asked.  "No - I've stayed over in a hotel to avoid 4 hours of travelling round trip ...."  just 60 miles from home


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: grahame on January 28, 2011, 14:50:18
P.S.  ... of course, from December Goco are planning a direct Swindon to Oxford service; route now tweaked to run from Westbury not Yeovil, so somewhat more frequent, and this should improve West -> Oxford.   But with another open access operator just ceasing to carry passengers, it's probably not the most positive of weeks for those trying to set up other such operations.


Title: Re: West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?
Post by: eightf48544 on January 28, 2011, 16:04:16
It's funny West Wilts never seems to have been well served by either the GWR or BR.

I seem to recall reading in I think "Country Railways" that even when both the Calne and Malmesbury branches were open it could take around 2 hours to get between the two by train despite breing only around 15 miles by road.

Even being on the main line didn't give you a very good service particularly in later BR days hence all the small stations on the South Wales and Bristol Direct Line and the Main Line being shut. Leaving only Swindon and Chippenham open on the main lines.



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