Yes, nos 2 and 3 are particular bugbears of mine.

I really don't understand why so many trains have announcements or even more often screen information that is both wrong and misleading. Often it is one or two stations out, and can easily lead to someone who does not know the area well (or isn't concentrating on looking outside) getting out at the wrong station. One train I recently travelled on had on screen information for a completely different journey displayed for the whole journey, and people would get on, look at the screen, assume they had got on the wrong train and get off again. We (the passengers) had to shout to them that they were on the right train.

I've raised these issues with on-board staff, and they usually haven't noticed themselves and say they can't control them.

Volume of announcements is rarely right. They seem to usually be just too muffled to be able to hear clearly what is being said.

And while it is slightly off-topic, why do large stations like Temple Meads have announcements on different platforms at differing volumes at the same time, so that one drowns out the one you are trying to hear on your platform?

The dog definitely looks like it is going for the ankle.

This was an issue I was going to raise, as it affects me amongst others. I don't have a driving licence as I have no wish to drive. I'm not actually that interested in hiring an e-scooter either, but the whole issue of driving licences being needed where some form of ID is required is a common problem for me, and I feel it is actually a form of discrimination.

Of most interest to this forum, I would have thought, is that Melksham will now feature in a constituency name (for the first time ever I believe), and as the first named in a new Melksham and Devizes constituency. As Melksham is central to the constituency, and Devizes right on the edge, and that it also includes Bradford on Avon and Corsham, maybe just calling it Melksham would be more sensible.

On the wider issue, the Boundary Commission has a thankless task, as whatever constituencies they come up with will cause grief in many localities. They are having to work within strict guidelines regarding population size, so inevitably many compromises will have to be made.

And on the widest issue, personally I support having a proportional voting system which, whatever method was used (and there are many) would inevitably have to be based on much larger constituencies.

Indeed it can be very divisive, as incidentally is much other cycling infrastructure.

However, the Ranty Highwayman is, at least to an extent, missing the point. Towpaths aren't owned or managed by councils, and historically councils rarely wanted to go out of their way to negotiate cycling access to paths that are managed by other bodies who, at least in the past, were very reluctant to open up paths to another use which they considered could lead to confrontation between users. But councils did eventually have these negotiations mainly due to the lobbying power of cyclists groups, which did include, in certain specific locations, for their opening up as commuter routes.

Where of course the Ranty Highwayman is correct is that councils always like to be seen to be extending their cycling infrastructure, and that if this can be done for the least time and effort, without having to build and resource new infrastructure and without taking away road space from other vehicles, that is what they will do.

It seems bizarre to me that all staffed stations, AFAIK^▸ (as far as I know), still have printed timetables up, even though in theory you could ask a staff member about later trains, yet more and more unstaffed stations have no printed information. I was at Keynsham, a well used station serving a town which is probably larger than Melksham, which has a large notice board by the car park entrance which always used to have a printed timetable on it. But no more.

Sorry to have taken this away from the lighter side. Perhaps it can be moved.

Yes, I was at a station yesterday and spent ages fruitlessly looking for a timetable to tell me when trains left there that day. Not one to be found anywhere.

A lot of the stations along that line will have views much like that. The one I usually travel to is Shoreham-by-Sea, and I'm sure the view down the line looking eastwards from there is just like that, so that would be my guess.

Have to agree with most of the comments above. It is a space with huge potential for an enjoyable bar/cafe/restaurant, but I've usually been disappointed whenever I've ventured into it. It was a good place to escape the cold winds that blow down Temple Meads' platforms, but sadly I found little else to entice me in.

Having just done a quick check on Google, it seems many others felt similarly.

I used our local service here in Bath today, and all the seats that have been taped off to prevent use are now available to be sat on.

I suspect this will take some getting used to, and some people will be nervous of having anyone sat next to them, whether masked or not.

I do wonder what might happen if someone puts their bag onto an adjacent seat to prevent others from using it, as it wouldn't surprise me if that starts to happen as buses get busier.

Thanks. I will do that, though the online form seems to require me to make a complaint against a staff member (that is the nearest box I can click on for what happened to us), which isn't what I want to do.

I'm posting this a) as a warning for anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation, and b) to see whether the collective wisdom here is that a delay and repay claim would be successful or not (I do intend to submit one).

We were travelling back today from Bangor to Bath via Newport, a journey we usually make at least 3 times a year, but due to the lockdowns, we haven't for a year. Often something goes wrong (usually a missed connection somewhere), and I was starting to think that this journey had been going surprisingly smoothly, until...

Having made our connection at Newport, we got on the rear carriage of the 3 carriage train, and found it was rather busy, so opted to stand to allow for social distancing rather than share seats besides strangers. The guard came to check our tickets, and said that the front carriage had plenty of spare seats. As we had folding bikes and luggage, we said moving down the train wasn't practical, but we asked if it would be ok to alight at Severn Tunnel Junction, walk down the platform, and get back on the first carriage. He said that would be  fine, and carried on down the carriage checking tickets.

We duly alighted at Severn Tunnel Junction and walked quickly down the side of the train to get back on. While doing so, the doors closed, and when we pressed the button to open the door, it wouldn't open, and the train then moved off, leaving us on the platform. Discussing it afterwards, we think the guard who checked our tickets may not have been the one who was controlling the doors.

Severn Tunnel Junction really isn't a station you want to be stuck on for an hour (the Portsmouth Harbour trains to Bath are hourly), as there is nothing there, and the noise from the motorway is constant, but fortunately there was a train in half an hour to Temple Meads, so we got on that, and found we had just missed a connection there, and the next train to Bath was indeed the next Portsmouth Harbour service in another half an hour, so we arrived into Bath an hour later than we should have.

So no trains were actually late, but we were delayed by an hour. Will my claim be successful?

Have just seen this thread, so congratulations to the 21 signatories mentioned above. Looks like the start of some low-scale guerrilla action from our Pilning activists.

As it was Angel Road station, did any of the 21 suggest some sort of heavenly intervention to fly the bridge westwards? 

This is actually the second or third week the farmers market hasn't been held at Green Park (it definitely wasn't there last week, can't remember about the week before that), and sadly, from what I've heard, it is likely there will be several more weeks of absences.

I don't know what work is needed to the roof, but I've yet to see any action taking place there, so there doesn't seem to be any rush on the part of the owners (who I believe are Sainsburys). Sainsburys have also said, rather ominously, that due to expansion of their business, they "need" the parking spaces that the market occupy each Saturday morning, so the market returning can't be assumed.

Did you discover the pie stall in the pub gardens at Avoncliff? We followed the same route as you last week as far as Bradford on Avon, but walking rather than cycling (as the canal path was very muddy then) and, having found everywhere else closed, we were very happy to find this.

I was cycling back towards Bath along the Two Tunnels a few hours after you yesterday, and a penny farthing came the other way, passing me in the darkest part of the long tunnel. I would have loved to have seen it out in daylight, as it is some years since I last saw anyone riding one.