Currently on 1S37 0520 Plymouth to Edinburgh leaving Temple Meads at 0730, stuck waiting on Platform 3 at Bristol Parkway as I speak.

Apparently there's been a points failure ahead of us which as far as I can tell from Realtime Trains is a points failure at Standish Junction, with at least one maybe two trains in front of us stuck too.

Just been told that this apparently happened at 7:25 and that Network Rail haven't been in touch at all so awaiting further information. Also no mention of this on National Rail Enquiries' Twitter feed or website.

Just in case anyone who's travelling through there or waiting for a train that needs to go through there today wonders why everything may be backed up...

Edit - update 8:37am
I have just passed through Standish Junction at full speed and seen a handful of Network Rail engineers in their orange jackets standing alarmingly close to the track! Hats off to them for getting into the countryside and getting us moving so quickly.

I knew I could count on this forum to know the reason why - was wondering myself as I noticed this a month or so ago!

I'm currently aboard a 170 forming 1V51 from Cheltenham to Bristol, going over said curve the 'wrong' way now; I'm sure this has been happening for a while so must be quite a serious fault!

Can I ask what plain lining is - at a guess is it something to do with being stuck in a certain position?

Hi all,

It's been quite some time since I've posted (where is time going?!) and I thought someone might be intrigued by what train I'm on at the moment!

I'm currently on 1V51 12:25 Cheltenham - Bristol (from Manchester) which is being worked short to Bristol Parkway. On my way to the station I couldn't work out why on earth such a train would be worked short, considering it's on time. Realtime trains still shows it working to Temple Meads (at the time of writing).

I had an answer when the train turned up - I'm currently on board a 170 (which one I didn't see, but standing room only!), which in my 8 years of catching the train between Bristol and Cheltenham I've never experienced before.

I know there's a lot of people that know a lot on here; so by any chance does any one know why perhaps a 170 can't continue to temple meads? Is it routing clearance, and if so, is there a specific reason why? And does anyone have a good memory as to whether a 170 will have been to Bristol before?

Realtime trains isn't showing any odd workings up to Manchester beforehand, so I can't seem to work out where this train has actually come from (again, anyone that knows how to find out more it would be interesting to know!), but I'm guessing it's replacing a voyager that is covering for all the delays that are happening round Sheffield at the moment (cited at the station as a broken down train, as opposed to all the delayed/cancelled trains to Plymouth being attributed to a signalling problem).

I'll try and get a picture at Parkway when we arrive in 10 minutes or so.

Cheers!

I had forgotten to post this up until now, but on Saturday 16/5 I made a return journey to Severn Beach and had a wander up the coast line on the public footpaths running between the two Severn Bridges. Nothing out of the ordinary...

until the train arrived at Severn Beach for the return journey.

The train was 150219 and it looks like it has been repainted on the outside (all the place names have gone and it's just dark blue with the pink doors, and the yellow ends are yellow!), and on the inside it looks like a new train; the seats look re-fitted, and the floors and walls (correct word?) were almost spotless.

They've also fitted new audio signals for the doors, which include 5 loud beeps when the doors are unlocked by the conductor, and also an automated customer information system on the inside including scrolling LED screens in the middle of the train with supporting audio announcements.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures but I wondered if anyone knew if this was being rolled out across the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) network on all the 150/153/158's etc? Or is it a one off train received from somewhere else? I would have thought it may be a one off, but then thought why would they go through the effort of recording FGW specific announcements for just one train, unless it's a trial?

Note to Mods - apologies if I've put this in the wrong place, feel free to move, or delete if a post on this already exists!

I am going to potentially be caught right up in this strike. A few friends and I have planned a bike ride across North Devon over this weekend which involves a journey by train from Exeter to Bristol on the Monday evening - we had planned to get back to Bristol at about 8pm.

While changing travel plans by train isn't normally too bad, we obviously have the added caveat that we all have bikes! I have been sensible and booked us all bike spaces on an earlier train getting back to Bristol a few hours before the strike is due to start, but I am wondering/pensive/cautious as to how early the effects of the strike may start to set in, and whether in such unusual circumstances, whether the reservations will be upheld.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) and XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) have not at the time of writing published anything that I can find to do with contingency plans for the strike... so it's a bit of a waiting game at the moment to see if I'll have to make a contingency plan for our contingency plan!


Could someone please correct me if I'm wrong (and I may be about to learn another new thing on here!) but is it so trains are in the correct places for the next day's service? As I always thought a Sunday evening service winds down so that trains are in the same place on a Sunday night as they would be on a Monday night for the next weekday? Or have I just made this up?

That for me explains the advance fare that's 30p cheaper than the off-peak single then. I suppose in XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise))'s eyes it's worth a shot to get the whole ^5.60 rather than perhaps having to share ^5.90 with FGW^▸ (First Great Western) (I'm guessing)... and I do know people that would get that ticket because it's slightly cheaper, and I guess if you did get that ticket every day (perhaps?), over a year I guess that is a decent some of money you would be saving.

Thanks bignosemac and CfN, you learn something new every day as they say!


I'm not sure I am overly concerned with 'gaming the system' like you say providing it's in the rules. And if I'm not breaking any rules, than arguably I'm not doing anything wrong? Plus, if the TOC's can do it to us, then by virtue we're quite allowed / entitled to do it back? Or does that mean I am stooping to their level by doing so?

E.g. whenever I get the train anywhere mid to long distance, the first thing I do is look to split my journey. I know off by heart that I can save ~^9 on a walk up super off-peak day return from BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) to PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) simply by splitting at DID^» (Didcot Parkway - next trains) (ensuring my train calls there, of course).

It did surprise me when I gave this advice to some friends, and they were more concerned with the amount of tickets they then had, as opposed to the money I'd saved them! 

I have noticed this before and thought it'd be interesting to show that it isn't just FGW^▸ (First Great Western) doing this... This is a regular from XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)):



This screenshot raises 3 points for me...

1) As has already been mentioned, why is there an advance ticket that is more expensive than the flexible off-peak day single? Not only by 20p or so, but ^1.50 - on this fare, that's a price increase of 25%!

2) I'd rather shell out the extra 30p to not be restricted on the exact train that I travel on (there is an advance for ^5.60 but flexible off peak for ^5.90)! I suppose this route is a short one so perhaps they can't offer a massively cheaper fare as an advance, however considering the difference is so small, I wonder if there's any point it being there at all? It would be interesting to see how many people buy this ticket.

3) I don't think this applies to just advance fares. There is an anytime day single ticket that is cheaper than an off-peak day single (^7.90 vs ^8.90). I know this route so suspect it has something to do with valid times (there are certain off peak tickets valid after 9am, then the cheaper one after 10am), but even so - surely it is not logical in any sense to have this scenario presented to a customer. Unless anyone may know a reason why an anytime might be cheaper than an off peak?

Edit: Upon further investigation it seems the more expensive off-peak fare is an adult only fare without railcard discount. Still confusing though, I feel.

Hi all,

Thank you for your welcomes and replies!

Thanks bignosemac for your detailed response! It's a shame they aren't doing delay repay now, but by the sounds of it from September everything will get a lot easier!


I see what you mean - it could have been the other way around and would have worked out better for me and not someone else... like you say, I guess there has to be a cut off somewhere!

Thanks again!

Hello all!

I'm Chris and as the name may suggest I'm based in Bristol and travel a lot from Temple Meads (I spent a surprisingly long time choosing my name, trying not to trample over CfN's title!!). I used to commute on the train, but now living and working here and still use the train fairly regularly. I have actually been checking and reading content on this site for quite some time now, and finally decided to take the plunge and sign up as I felt I finally had a good introduction post and wanted to try and contribute to something I'm pretty interested in!

Thank you for approving me as a member, and I must say this forum is a very useful source of information for trains and what is going on, and it's also very interesting to see how things work, what happens etc. from an insider's perspective too. It was thanks to a post in this forum I discovered Real Time Trains and have been using that site whenever I catch a train or meet someone else off a train since stumbling across it!

Now for my (hopefully) interesting conundrum...

I travelled by train from London to Bristol on the 12th April - the last day of the Reading blockade - and thanks to Real Time Trains and seeing posts on here, noticed that my journey would be a pretty unique one - using the Acton-Northolt line, going all the way up to Banbury, then reversing back down to Oxford to proceed to Swindon.

Since it was just over 3 hours I thought I'd see if I could make the most of it, and managed to get a first class advance ticket around 3-4 days before for ^21.10 (16-25 railcard fare) and I'm glad I did - certainly got my money's worth even at the bargain it was already! (I must say I am a fan of the new GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) branding and refit too - but that's another topic!)

Here is the link to RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) showing the train I was on - http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/V85377/2015/04/12/advanced - thanks to signalling problems at Princes Risborough we were held at Paddington for nearly 50 minutes and lost some more time along the way - so to finally get to the question...

I read on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website that they will refund the price of the single ticket for delays of an hour or more on HST^▸ (High Speed Train) services. My train arrived in Bristol 50 minutes late in the end, but was at worst 63 minutes behind around Banbury and Oxford (I remember the TM^‡(resolve) announcing we were an hour behind at Oxford too). Now, can I claim compensation on this journey? Because I was, at some point, delayed by an hour - and had my journey finished in Oxford, the hour mark had clearly been passed. However, am I not eligible because my end-to-end journey was only delayed by 50 minutes? And if not, is it fair that someone who may have been on the same train as me who finished their journey in Oxford could claim, but then I couldn't?

I hope I've put this in the right place considering it's a hello but also about my rights etc! Thank you for taking the time to read and for having me on here and I look forward to hearing what your thoughts are!