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All across the Great Western territory / Looking forward - after Coronavirus to 2045 / Re: Can / do your rely on the train these days?
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on: October 31, 2022, 08:29:56
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No, people should be able to rely on the train, was my answer. Not having a car at my disposal the alternatives are not great. As suggested elsewhere on the forum it helps to have a passable knowledge of the railway system, so you can create a get you home route (talk of upping penalty fares could make this difficult).
Work travel tends involved Reading going in the London direction, where the alternatives to GWR▸ , are the Elizabeth Line, South Western or for a very early start the 702 bus from Reading. Other points on the route, Maidenhead and Slough etc are doable in combination with the bike.
Non-work tends to be a case of don't do it, unless there is a bus alterative. If I want to go to Basingstoke it is a bus tour via Newbury bus station. Most other local towns are reachable direct.
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: Posted without comment ....................
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on: October 24, 2022, 07:10:52
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On Saturday at Reading the 10:51 to Bournemouth was cancelled (next service about 2 hours) because of a lack of driver, when it came in from Manchester.
The four coach train was decanted into the "Basingstoke Flyer", which just happened to be two coaches (?) on this occasion. A somewhat "cosy" trip to Basingstoke. At Basingstoke everybody went to platform one. Two minutes before the Southampton (and onwards) train arrived, platform alteration to platform two. Not exactly chaos but a certain amount of pushing and shoving.
Could be worse, but not exactly the way to endear yourself to your passengers. Fortunately rest of my connections to IoW were fine.
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