TravelWatch SouthWest - merged posts

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Lisa has my sympathy - Northampton doesn't offer much to a visitor. 

It did that day . ... mind you, we were at Gayton Junction by sunset and in 28 years have never been back.

[CyclingSid]

Some random ramblings.

Ferries
"There's a sprinkling of ferries across the South West which reduce significant land journeys to short water ones, and a few of them are useful in the public transport arena as well as for private cars."
I get the impression that ferries are not thought of being within the local government remit for public transport. There were issues with the Hayling Ferry about being expected to cover the full cost of the pontoons either side, despite being used by other users. Possibly a similar problem with the Hythe Ferry and others. The three local authorities (Havant, Portsmout & Hampshire) didn't want to get involved, despite helping to reduce their emmissions.

Cycles and trains
As you suggest, a contentious issue. Preferably no more hanging bike spaces (unless the can be adapted for the person who dreamt up the idea).
The booking of spaces basically doesn't work. If you book a space it is likely that when you get on the train the space will be full of luggage.

Prestige bus fleets
Reading Buses was an early adopter of the idea. It ceases to be useful or helpful when randon coloured buses are used to fill in because of vehicle maintenance etc. Also confusing for older people who are used to seeing a red coloured bus on their route.

St Erth for St Ives
"Getting more people to use the train will reduce road congestion" and environemtal emmissions etc.

Bus to train connections
Rarely spoken about nowadays, but practical multi-modal travel is essential. If I need to get to the hospital in Oxford it can be cycle (or use a bus) to the station catch a train (or a bus) to Oxford, at Oxford it is cycle (or catch a bus). You might well say that I live in a large town so have more options. But living in a rural area it is vital to have ANY options.
Credit to Reading Buses, services going to the station do show train times on the passenger information screen.

Plane, Bus and Train
It's just 95 steps from the platform at Southampton Airport Station to the checkin desk. Got me thinking about the picture of Gunnislake, first impression was are those steps down the the station. Accessibility is another vital aspect.

Pulling it all together - each in its on way
I would like to think that the picture shows a helpful member of staff telling passengers their various travel options. This ideally requires knowledge of other systems as well as your own.
The example that always springs to mind was somebody asking about trains to High Wycombe. Sensibly somebody should say go round the corner and catch the Carousel Bus (was Arriva at the time) direct to High Wycombe, certainly cheaper and possibly quicker.

[grahame]

Some random ramblings.

Indeed - and many / most agreed with.  What is astonishing is that the original post here is from seven YEARS ago and how little has changed - or changed during covid and reverted - in the intervening time.

There IS a great deal to be done - on customer experience and much more, and indeed much has been done, if only achieving a return to roughly where we were. In some ways, campaigning / fighting to retain the status quo has been and is a thankless task, but ...

We have retained (in my home area) a Sunday morning train timetable and an evening bus service that were under threat, and the direct bus each weekday to the Royal United Hospital

We have lost a town bus vehicle, resulting in the reduction of service 15 from the Town Centre to Berryfield, and to the new housing to the east (where a bus service should be marketed) to once a day borrowing time off the 14, and we have lost (thank goodness) the silliness of two competing operators running 2 minutes apart then a long service gap.  We have lost through buses to The Lavingtons - and that makes sense for a service with a smaller vehicle beyond Devizes.

We have gained (for the first time in nearly 20 years) a late evening train service and Sunday buses to and from Chippenham and Trowbridge.

[RichardB]

Plane, Bus and Train
It's just 95 steps from the platform at Southampton Airport Station to the checkin desk. Got me thinking about the picture of Gunnislake, first impression was are those steps down the the station. Accessibility is another vital aspect.

There is also a ramp at Gunnislake.  There's a photo of it on this page from 2005 https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ajlanes/interests/rail/stnpages/gunnislake.html

[grahame]

An update from TravelWatch SouthWest for Coffee Shop members - we (speaking on behalf of TWSW^» (TravelWatch SouthWest - website)) have a temporary domain and  email addresses while issues with the old one are sorted out.  It is at https://www.travelwatchsouthwest.org.uk  - that's an extra .uk on the end which is probably the right name for an organisation in Britain rather than International anyway. Once the proper domain name is back to receiveing emails and with updated content, both the old and new will be pointed to the same place so that you can bookmark either to your heart's content. Please note that at present emails sent to TravelWatch addressed WITHOUT .uk on the end are being lost in transit and not received.

Dates for your diary - 21st March 2025 for our next general meeting in Taunton. 13th and 14th June 2025 for the European Passenger Federation meeting at Steam in Swindon.

I have also been updating our Social Media - again links via https://www.travelwatchsouthwest.org.uk to those being actively maintained. There is so much social media around these days - Facebook remains obvious, but after that others are less so. The X / Twitter feed from TWSW was never particularly active and with its short messages really provided only pointers to other content.  I have added Blue Sky and Instagram feeds as dipping toes in those waters - no guarantee of their longevity but let's see.   There are also significant numbers of movers and shakers on LinkedIn and although TravelWatch SouthWest has only limited presence there as an organisation, I have included a link.



TravelWatch SouthWest members - please feel free to address questions to Bryony via the secretary address or to me or to Rachel or to David or other directors via - err - any email addresses you know EXCEPT the .org ones, as emails to there are lost in the ether at the moment.  And there is a lot of really good stuff on the proper page that will be accessible again and I'm hoping sooner rather than later.