Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 13:15 29 Mar 2024
* Delays at Dover as millions begin Easter getaway
- Attempted murder charge after man stabbed on train
- KFC Nigeria sorry after disabled diner refused service
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
29th Mar (1913)
Foundation of National Union or Railwaymen (*)

Train RunningCancelled
12:30 London Paddington to Weston-Super-Mare
12:52 Bedwyn to Newbury
13:15 Swindon to Westbury
13:15 London Paddington to Cardiff Central
13:21 Newbury to Bedwyn
13:48 Bedwyn to Newbury
14:12 Newbury to Bedwyn
14:19 Westbury to Swindon
14:57 Bedwyn to Newbury
15:14 Swindon to Westbury
15:22 Newbury to Bedwyn
15:28 Weston-Super-Mare to London Paddington
15:50 Bedwyn to Newbury
15:54 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
16:15 Newbury to Bedwyn
16:23 Westbury to Swindon
16:55 Bedwyn to Newbury
17:36 Swindon to Westbury
18:37 Westbury to Swindon
20:13 Swindon to Westbury
21:16 Westbury to Swindon
22:30 Swindon to Westbury
Short Run
10:35 London Paddington to Exeter St Davids
10:55 Paignton to London Paddington
12:35 London Paddington to Exeter St Davids
13:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
13:42 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington
13:55 Paignton to London Paddington
14:36 London Paddington to Paignton
15:42 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington
16:35 London Paddington to Plymouth
16:50 Plymouth to London Paddington
17:03 London Paddington to Penzance
17:36 London Paddington to Plymouth
18:03 London Paddington to Penzance
18:36 London Paddington to Plymouth
19:04 Paignton to London Paddington
20:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
21:04 London Paddington to Plymouth
Delayed
08:03 London Paddington to Penzance
08:15 Penzance to London Paddington
09:10 Penzance to London Paddington
10:04 London Paddington to Penzance
10:20 Penzance to London Paddington
11:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
12:03 London Paddington to Penzance
12:15 Penzance to London Paddington
13:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
13:15 Plymouth to London Paddington
14:03 London Paddington to Penzance
14:15 London Paddington to Cardiff Central
14:15 Penzance to London Paddington
15:03 London Paddington to Penzance
15:15 Plymouth to London Paddington
etc
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 29, 2024, 13:15:39 *
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
[153] 2024 - Service update and amendment log, Swindon <-> Westbury...
[97] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[53] Travel for free on the m2 metrobus - Bristol - 4,5,6 April 202...
[41] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[38] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[37] 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: First journey out in a while ...  (Read 10825 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40692



View Profile WWW Email
« on: March 30, 2021, 13:14:28 »

First trip out after lockdown - an appointment that had to be personally attended in Trowbridge and would have been allowed even over the last months had it become due.  Out by train, back by bus (would have been a 2 hour wait for a train when I finished).   Couldn't help contrasting the train from a while back and the train today:





Grabbed a quick cup of takeaway coffee from the new Melksham Hub Cafe which, as per instructions, I enjoyed on the train.



Cafe open, Monday to Saturday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m; Hire bicycles there and now available.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
rogerw
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1336



View Profile
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2021, 16:03:20 »

Had my first trip on a bus today since November. Only a short ride from Worle into Weston and back.  Didn't feel at all unsafe.
Logged

I like to travel.  It lets me feel I'm getting somewhere.
Marlburian
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 689


View Profile
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2021, 16:53:13 »

My environmental tasks have resumed, with appropriate social distancing, sanitising of implements and so on. About twenty of us turned out today to clear bramble from a long hedge bordering a field soon to be populated by sheep and lambs. All of us were retired from work, of a certain age or more, and presumably had had the first jab.

I was one of those who looked a bit dubious when a tractor-drawn trailer turned up to transport us and our equipment the 800 yards or so between the car-park and the field. The trailer had seats down either side, a roof and open sides, but I was one of those who started fumbling for a mask. In the event, nearly of us set off to walk to the site, leaving just four to clamber aboard the trailer.
Logged
eXPassenger
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 547


View Profile
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2021, 17:42:53 »

Went for a walk on the Mendips today.  The car parks at the popular places were very busy, where we parked we saw very few people.
Logged
Red Squirrel
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 5191


There are some who call me... Tim


View Profile
« Reply #4 on: March 31, 2021, 11:17:49 »

I went to Sainsburys, for the first time in a year, yesterday. It was spookily quiet. After a year of having everything brought round by Ocado, Waitrose, Amazon and a dozen or so other services, it was really good to be able to flit like a butterfly through the brightly-coloured packages, dropping actual items into a real trolley! Another plus was that I was able to recycle a year's worth of plastic bags which, with the best will in the world, accumulate.

My daughter has become fully plant-powered during this past year, so I was on the lookout for vegan goodies. I wasn't disappointed. The rest of our family probably wouldn't describe ourselves as vegan, but going meat and dairy free has become the path of least resistance for us. Nonetheless it came as a real shock to me how stinky and vile the aisle full of chopped-up animal parts was!
Logged

Things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.
JayMac
Data Manager
Hero Member
******
Posts: 18896



View Profile
« Reply #5 on: April 01, 2021, 07:27:26 »

I'm out on my first railway journey in a while. A leisure jolly. Up bright and early. My first train, from Templecombe, is very quiet, as expected. More so for my chosen seating area - I'm treating myself to 1st Class.

The Govt. advice is to only travel if necessary. Is a leisure jolly to another part of the south west necessary? I did ask myself that. For me I've concluded it is. I've been under NHS house arrest for nearly 2 months. That hasn't helped my mental health. So today is mostly about mental stimulation. Doing activities I enjoy - riding trains and photographing them and the railway environment. Templecombe is lovely to walk around, but it gets dull quickly when it's the only place you can exercise.

Oh, and damn annoyed that the village Co-op was doing a stock take this morning and hadn't bothered to inform the community it serves. Should have been open from 6am. Really wanted that coffee!

I won't say where I'm going/I've been. There may well be a picture quiz later!
« Last Edit: April 01, 2021, 07:44:21 by bignosemac » Logged

"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of the day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

- Sir Terry Pratchett.
Clan Line
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 858



View Profile
« Reply #6 on: April 01, 2021, 10:00:59 »

I went to Sainsburys, for the first time in a year, yesterday. It was spookily quiet.

I've just been to Morrisons, to get some oranges......................"spookily quiet" it 'aint !! Absolute chaos in the store. Every aisle leading to an open checkout was more than half occupied by a queue of trolleys. Social distancing was nigh on impossible, as was trying to buy anything in those aisles.  I even had to queue to pay for my oranges at the self serve checkouts.  Funnily enough, no one seemed to be buying toilet rolls................
Logged
stuving
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 7156


View Profile
« Reply #7 on: April 01, 2021, 11:12:59 »

I went to Sainsburys, for the first time in a year, yesterday. It was spookily quiet.

I've just been to Morrisons, to get some oranges......................"spookily quiet" it 'aint !! Absolute chaos in the store. Every aisle leading to an open checkout was more than half occupied by a queue of trolleys. Social distancing was nigh on impossible, as was trying to buy anything in those aisles.  I even had to queue to pay for my oranges at the self serve checkouts.  Funnily enough, no one seemed to be buying toilet rolls................

I went to Tesco yesterday morning, which has become my habitual weekly slot. It is usually pretty quiet, especially by noon. But yesterday it was noticeably busier, though still tailing off for lunchtime.

And yesterday's Times had an explanation, at least in part, in this headline: "Vaccinated over-65s are a shot in the arm for in-store sales". Their source was this Kantar research:

Quote
Older shoppers returning to stores

Online grocery growth slowed in the past four weeks, with the first signs that shoppers are returning to physical stores. Online sales were 89% higher than this time last year, which is still impressive, but the channel’s share of the market dropped back to 14.5% from the record of 15.4% in February 2021. Overall, households made 13 million additional trips to the supermarket this month and we’re seeing growing confidence among older shoppers in particular, with 143,000 fewer over-65s making digital orders in March. Now largely vaccinated, this age group increased its trips to bricks-and-mortar outlets by 6.8% – more than double the national rate.

Tesco increased its sales by 8.5% and once again gained share to capture 27.1% of the market, up by 0.3 percentage points compared with the same 12 weeks last year. 
Logged
Marlburian
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 689


View Profile
« Reply #8 on: April 01, 2021, 16:09:07 »

... I went to Tesco yesterday morning, which has become my habitual weekly slot. It is usually pretty quiet, especially by noon. But yesterday it was noticeably busier, though still tailing off for lunchtime.

Or were the extra customers, like me, getting their shopping done before the bigger rush immediately before the Bank Hol?

Normally I would have done the Big Shop today, having enough left in the larder, as it were, and to fulfil the shopping list given me by my Support Bubble in anticipation of her visiting me today and cooking for me. But I reckoned Waitrose would be busier than usual, so I nipped down yesterday at 0730 when there still seemed to be 20% more customers than usual for that time in the week.
Logged
MVR S&T
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 438


View Profile
« Reply #9 on: April 22, 2021, 22:31:02 »

I have just been out for a work trip to Exbury Gardens and Steam Railway, Train from Hinton Admiral to Beaulieu Road, with the electric bike for the 8 miles from station to Exbury.
All good trains on time, a few pasengers though not empty by any means, a fair few students from Bockenhurst college on the return trip, but again plenty of space, the face covering is OK when sat down and relaxed. Can't have been too bad as after getting the bike and I home, went out to do some shopping on the train again. So thats my 13 months away from the train ended.
Logged
RailCornwall
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 642


View Profile
« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2021, 15:20:00 »

Perranwell <> Falmouth Town today, was a good feeling.
Logged
Marlburian
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 689


View Profile
« Reply #11 on: May 01, 2021, 16:10:30 »

On Wednesday I went into Reading by train (for a couple of routine medical appointments) for the first time in seven or eight months. Just six people boarding the 0927(the first off-peak service) at Tileshurst, four of whom were young. Just four people boarded the return service at 1323. Everyone seemed to be behaving sensibly, though on the return journey a young woman was sitting in a seat with "Not in use" above it and on the window - for social-distancing reasons. Likewise a couple of ticket machines on the Reading concourse were out of use.

Not very much activity in Reading town centre. I popped into W H Smith's and overheard a customer complaining to a sales assistant about the size of the signage advising that the Friar Street entrance/exit was closed; she explained that it was to stop people using Smith's as a public path from Friar Street to Broad Street. His point seemed to be that disabled people might belatedly discover the door locked and would have trouble with the extra distance involved in retracing their steps. The assistant dealt with the situation very sensibly and politely, prompting me to congratulate her after the man had left. It turned out that she was relying on a crutch to get around...
Logged
FarWestJohn
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 235


View Profile
« Reply #12 on: May 01, 2021, 19:17:43 »

I have used the train a lot recently in Cornwall but today for the first time ever I got off the train and used the bus at Redruth. From Penzance a three car 255 was very fairly busy with what seemed like no air con. It felt like a hot Covid breeding ground so abandoned it, never thought I would ever do that.
Logged
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