Oldfield Park station - incidents, awards, timetable changes - merged topic

[whole diary]

[Lee]

The ticket offfice is rarely manned nowadays and the single ticket machine is inadequate, according to the blog (link below.)
http://oldfieldparktrains.blogspot.com/2008/09/ticketing-at-oldfield-park.html

[Chris from Nailsea]

Nailsea & Backwell: ditto. (Except we have two inadequate / defective / soggy ticket machines)

[Timmer]

If FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are reading this then something to look into. I too have been unable to buy a ticket at the Oldfield Park ticket machine when its pouring with rain so it would be worth installing a canopy of some description so it works more often.

Interesting to read that the Ticket booth is rarely manned these days. Its normally run by a bloke called Dave who is well known to all the regulars who use the station every workday morning.

[Graz]

Timmer, it's been the same for me. Every day this week except today the ticket machine screen was covered in rainwater and the 'touch buttons' didn't work - rather it kept going into different ticket buying menus itself.  That and whenever it rains the recess where you pick the tickets up from gets flooded with water.

Today, nice and dry but the machine was 'Out of Service'. Great news for the 100s of people using the station! And the machine alone, even when it is working, isn't good enough as so many people use the station to get to Bristol a long queue builds up.

[Graz]

After a day in Bristol showing my bro how to get to Uni from Stapleton Road(!!), when we got back to Oldfield Park at about 8pm, there was a HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) standing on P1 and crowds of people standing on Brook Road bridge over the station. People were all leaving the HST with crowds walking up the ramp out of the station and hanging around the bridge. The HST was empty. Any idea what was going on? No reports on FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website/NR^» (Network Rail - home page). Photo below...

[devon_metro]

It was an excursion returning from Totnes

[John R]

Curious. What sort of excursion? Why Totnes? Why Oldfield Park? Which railtour operator has discovered a niche market that others have obviously overlooked for years.

On the subject of railtours, I thought the Class 40 I saw storming through Nailsea tonight was rather impressive.   

[Graz]

Yes, definitely strange...I've never heard of an excursion setting off from Oldfield park before, especially seeing that people were all milling around the top of the station, none of which seemed to be leaving!

[devon_metro]

First Great Western Private HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) Charter
"Scouts Grand Day Out"
450 Scouts from Bath & Oldfield Park

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

I didn't know that f g w did charters like this ....let's do okehampton to minehead via yeovil LOL^▸ ('laughing out loud')

[grahame]

I didn't know that f g w did charters like this ...

It's very unusual in my experience.  It was certainly something that I looked into / asked about  at quite a high level last summer and was told [paraphrasing] that "it's all we can do to run the contracted services so we don't have resources - even on a Sunday - to run anything extra."   It may have changed a little this year, and an organisation such as the Scouts - who are not campaigning for changes in rail service provision - may have a much easier path to getting a special laid on than "Save the Train" / MRDG^» (Melksham Railway Development Group - about) / WWRUG^» (West Wiltshire Rail Users Group - about) ....

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks, Liam: you're quite right - and I was just as surprised at this as everyone else!

Thanks to very generous support from First Great Western we will be travelling to Totnes on our very own high-speed train and then by coach to the park. We will be leaving Bath Spa around 9.30am and arriving back at approximately 7.30pm (exact times to be confirmed).

For full details, see http://www.10thbath.org.uk/stuff/Invite%20YP.pdf

Chris 

[John R]

It would appear that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) supported this event. Good for them, I hope they get a bit of favourable PR^▸ (Public Relations) out of it.

[Graz]

I meant to post these earlier, but better late than never! Here are photos of the lovely floral displays at Oldfield Park this year taken with my trusty camera phone. Huge thanks to the great efforts to the team of volunteers who planted, looked after and watered the plants every day. They certainly brightened up the station and made it a really nice place to wait. The two displays on the platform embankments were "OLDFIELD PARK" on one side (platform 2) and a steam train the other side (platform 1), both outlined in stones and floral plants. There was also a line of plants and flowers on the approach ramp to platform 2.

Hope they brighten up your day

[bemmy]

They're great, congratulations to all who took part.

Btw does anyone know who was responsible for the plants which appeared at Parson Street station earlier this year? I wondered if it was part of First's belated charm offensive, or the work of volunteers. As well as looking nice, they make the place feel more welcoming and cared for, and the wooden sleeper surrounds are much more comfortable to sit on than the seats in the bus shelters (except when it's wet of course!).