A tale of missed connections - Oxenholme

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From the Independent

Oxenholme, if you do not know it, is the rail junction where the spur to England’s largest lake leaves the West Coast main line. Many passengers alighting from the express are keen to leave the main line, too, and head for Windermere.

It should involve an easy 10-second walk. But with imperfect timing, from their point of view, just as the doors on their arriving train open, the diesel of the Northern departure roars into life and leaves the traveller cursing its red tail lights.

This is not a rare occasion of accidental misconnection: it is a deliberate plan that, day-in, day-out repeats itself. At 10.21am the train from London and Birmingham arrives, and – all being well – at the same instant the train to Windermere departs.

Passengers are told that they must wait an hour on the platform (which thankfully has a small and cheerful cafe).

[eXPassenger]

In November my daughter was joining us from London.  The train was running 5 late and the guard announced that there would be a long wait for Windermere passengers.  They had asked for the Windermere train to be held but this was not possible.

When in the Lake District we always drive to Oxenholme not Windermere to avoid problems like this with the connection.

[Mark A]

Sounds as though the connection is crim (and Melksham to Bath via Chippenham I'm also looking at you) but certain of the Windermere trains run direct from Manchester, which, given that Crossscountry's Bristol to Manchester service is reviving, can make for a reasonably seamless journey between Bristol and the lake district.

Mark

[grahame]

Sounds as though the connection is crim (and Melksham to Bath via Chippenham I'm also looking at you) but certain of the Windermere trains run direct from Manchester, which, given that Crossscountry's Bristol to Manchester service is reviving, can make for a reasonably seamless journey between Bristol and the lake district.

Mark

Melksham to Bath Spa in the new timetable looks a bit better though there may still be occasions that we cross over at Thingley and pass the Bristol train as we pull into Chippenham.

My real "grouche" is the 06:53 arrival at Westbury that just misses the 06:51 to Weymouth.     

The new 23:11 arrival at Westbury from Swindon pulls in to Platform 1 as the 23:11 pulls out for Frome;   I will admit to not grouching about that - in fact I asked GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) to run the Swindon to Westbury 5 minutes later to be certain no twit was going to try to connect that late at night, and instead make the connection from London at Swindon more robust.  However, the London to Cheltenham Spa has been speeded up by a couple of minutes so that Swindon IS now a connection off the 21:31 from Paddington.