Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 14:15 28 Mar 2024
- Man held over stabbing in front of train passengers
- How do I renew my UK passport and what is the 10-year rule?
* Jet2 launches first flight from Liverpool airport
* Easter travel warning as millions set to hit roads
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
28th Mar (1988)
Woman found murdered on Orpington to London train (*)

Train RunningCancelled
13:00 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington
13:26 Weston-Super-Mare to London Paddington
13:28 Weymouth to Gloucester
13:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads
14:13 Par to Newquay
14:19 Westbury to Swindon
15:10 Newquay to Par
15:14 Swindon to Westbury
Short Run
10:55 Paignton to London Paddington
11:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
11:29 Weymouth to Gloucester
11:48 London Paddington to Carmarthen
12:03 London Paddington to Penzance
12:30 London Paddington to Weston-Super-Mare
13:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
13:07 Salisbury to Bristol Temple Meads
13:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
14:05 Salisbury to Bristol Temple Meads
15:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
16:19 Carmarthen to London Paddington
Delayed
10:04 London Paddington to Penzance
10:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
11:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
12:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
14:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2024-03-25 Easter Escape - to where?
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 28, 2024, 14:22:34 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[142] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[80] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[56] Return of the BRUTE?
[46] If not HS2 to Manchester, how will traffic be carried?
[43] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[34] Reversing Beeching - bring heritage and freight lines into the...
 
News: the Great Western Coffee Shop ... keeping you up to date with travel around the South West
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: How is it doing? - Making use of the train to get to a meeting 35 miles away  (Read 3588 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« on: November 16, 2019, 13:38:45 »

I have a meeting today in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire.  It's just an hour – 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and I need to be at the venue, a 10 minute walk from Stonehouse Station about 15 minutes before the meeting starts. Stonehouse is 35 miles from home; I'm a 20 minute walk from Melksham Station.

Question – for my 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. meeting, 35 miles away, what time did I leave home?   What time do I expect to get back?

I left home at 09:15.  And I expect to get back at 18:25.  Yes, that's right – 9 hours and 10 minutes away from home for a meeting that's just 35 miles away. Why on earth does it take so long??  It's a compound of three things:
1. The trains at Melksham are infrequent
2. I have to change trains, and trains where I change do not match up
3. The meeting has been arranged at a time that is not conducive to a train arrival from my direction.
The perfect storm!

In detail

09:15 from home... 09:35 at Melksham Station (and thank goodness I allowed time – queue of 6 at the only ticket machine, with some people less than crisp in their selections!)
09:48 train Melksham to Swindon, arrived 10:18
11:16 train Swindon to Stonehouse, due 11:50
11:50 to 13:45 wait around including 10 minute walk

15:00 to 16:27 wait around including 10 minute walk to Stonehouse station
16:27 train to Swindon, arrive 17:04
17:36 train to Melksham, arrive 18:02
Walk home – 20 minutes, arrive home around 18:25 (may stop at chippie or kebab shop on the way)

There is a later train arriving at Stonehouse – 12:48, but no connection from Melksham. Similarly, there's a 15:27 departure, but no connection to Melksham. The journey can be done by other routes, but they are not permitted and the GWR (Great Western Railway) journey planner doesn't even tell you how to make the alternative journey – it just tells you it can be done with multiple tickets (and quicker too).

Net problem - Melksham has moved up from a useless service a decade ago to a service that's merely very poor now. Instead of 8 services each way on a Saturday, an intervals of 2 hours, at least  14 are needed to bring the service up to hourly.  Better connections would help too - especially "natural" ones (and the connection at Swindon is a natural one - indeed there are a couple of through trains this way on Mondays to Fridays).  It'll never be perfect, but if trains had run at the right time for me today, I could have had 4 more hours at home.

Passenger use on trains at Melksham has rocketed in past years.  34 people joined the train with me this morning, where 20 years ago that's about the number that would have joined trains in an entire week. If moving up from an unusable service to very poor service makes so much difference, just imagine what the usage might grow to if we had a train (or perhaps 2) each way per hour, with decent connections.  Melksham is no village - it's a town with a population of 25,000. Half the size of Chippenham, one twenty-fifth of the number of rail passenger journeys per annum. See how much latent demand there is.   See how much income the rail industry isn't collecting. See how much local residents are being help back.



P.S. Grabbing a lunch during my wait in Stonehouse as I write this; time not wasted, then.   My inbound train was 10 minutes late - not a problem as I hadn't risked timing it tight [[following train]] ... and was being caped at Gloucester due to train crew shortage.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
bobm
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 9809



View Profile
« Reply #1 on: November 16, 2019, 15:12:26 »

Slightly better in January - in that you can leave later and still arrive very early

11th Jan
Melksham   10:21
Swindon      10:54 11:30
Stonehouse 12:02

Stonehouse           16:27
Swindon      17:01  17:33
Melksham    17:57
Logged
TaplowGreen
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 7743



View Profile
« Reply #2 on: November 16, 2019, 16:13:47 »

I have a meeting today in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire.  It's just an hour – 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and I need to be at the venue, a 10 minute walk from Stonehouse Station about 15 minutes before the meeting starts. Stonehouse is 35 miles from home; I'm a 20 minute walk from Melksham Station.

Question – for my 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. meeting, 35 miles away, what time did I leave home?   What time do I expect to get back?

I left home at 09:15.  And I expect to get back at 18:25.  Yes, that's right – 9 hours and 10 minutes away from home for a meeting that's just 35 miles away. Why on earth does it take so long??  It's a compound of three things:
1. The trains at Melksham are infrequent
2. I have to change trains, and trains where I change do not match up
3. The meeting has been arranged at a time that is not conducive to a train arrival from my direction.
The perfect storm!

In detail

09:15 from home... 09:35 at Melksham Station (and thank goodness I allowed time – queue of 6 at the only ticket machine, with some people less than crisp in their selections!)
09:48 train Melksham to Swindon, arrived 10:18
11:16 train Swindon to Stonehouse, due 11:50
11:50 to 13:45 wait around including 10 minute walk

15:00 to 16:27 wait around including 10 minute walk to Stonehouse station
16:27 train to Swindon, arrive 17:04
17:36 train to Melksham, arrive 18:02
Walk home – 20 minutes, arrive home around 18:25 (may stop at chippie or kebab shop on the way)

There is a later train arriving at Stonehouse – 12:48, but no connection from Melksham. Similarly, there's a 15:27 departure, but no connection to Melksham. The journey can be done by other routes, but they are not permitted and the GWR (Great Western Railway) journey planner doesn't even tell you how to make the alternative journey – it just tells you it can be done with multiple tickets (and quicker too).

Net problem - Melksham has moved up from a useless service a decade ago to a service that's merely very poor now. Instead of 8 services each way on a Saturday, an intervals of 2 hours, at least  14 are needed to bring the service up to hourly.  Better connections would help too - especially "natural" ones (and the connection at Swindon is a natural one - indeed there are a couple of through trains this way on Mondays to Fridays).  It'll never be perfect, but if trains had run at the right time for me today, I could have had 4 more hours at home.

Passenger use on trains at Melksham has rocketed in past years.  34 people joined the train with me this morning, where 20 years ago that's about the number that would have joined trains in an entire week. If moving up from an unusable service to very poor service makes so much difference, just imagine what the usage might grow to if we had a train (or perhaps 2) each way per hour, with decent connections.  Melksham is no village - it's a town with a population of 25,000. Half the size of Chippenham, one twenty-fifth of the number of rail passenger journeys per annum. See how much latent demand there is.   See how much income the rail industry isn't collecting. See how much local residents are being help back.



P.S. Grabbing a lunch during my wait in Stonehouse as I write this; time not wasted, then.   My inbound train was 10 minutes late - not a problem as I hadn't risked timing it tight [[following train]] ... and was being caped at Gloucester due to train crew shortage.

Personally I would have taken the pragmatic approach and got in the car on this occasion. I (and I'm sure many others) simply don't have the luxury of spending 8 hours sitting around for the sake of a 1 hour meeting. It's a colossal waste of time.

We'd all like trains and connections to cater for every given scenario, however there are times when it patently isn't going to work and we are left to reflect on the fact that other transport options are available.

Alternatively, in most circumstances there is SKYPE, Conference calling, video conferencing or other options available rather than attending in person where logistics are an issue.

Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2019, 16:42:37 »

Personally I would have taken the pragmatic approach and got in the car on this occasion. I (and I'm sure many others) simply don't have the luxury of spending 8 hours sitting around for the sake of a 1 hour meeting. It's a colossal waste of time.

Beauty is that time wasn't wasted.   Have laptop, can work anywhere  Grin Grin

Car in Melksham for Lisa to make other use of it around town.

Quote
We'd all like trains and connections to cater for every given scenario, however there are times when it patently isn't going to work and we are left to reflect on the fact that other transport options are available.

Indeed.  But put the frequency up to hourly and you make a huge difference for a lot of people - not only in connections to other trains but also in meeting times.

Quote
Alternatively, in most circumstances there is SKYPE, Conference calling, video conferencing or other options available rather than attending in person where logistics are an issue.

You ... err ... haven't seen the mix and metrics of the group and I'm not sure - today - how the 40 or so people would have been able to meet, many for the first time, and interact purely online. In general, yes, these other options take precedence.

So - personally right to travel today. And the meeting overran like a railway build schedule ... lot of admin stuff before we even got started and the whole proceedings took twice as long as they should have done in the end.  So that's doubled the percentage of time actually in the meeting.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #4 on: November 16, 2019, 17:02:35 »

Quote
P.S. Grabbing a lunch during my wait in Stonehouse as I write this; time not wasted, then.   My inbound train was 10 minutes late - not a problem as I hadn't risked timing it tight [[following train]] ... and was being caped at Gloucester due to train crew shortage.

P.S.   So glad I didn't risk going 2 hours later and get into the meeting as it started.   That train was 20 minutes late ... a couple of folks walked in when it was (in theory at least) almost half over.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page