Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
No recent travel & transport from BBC stories as at 20:15 15 Feb 2026
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 21/02/26 - Inspiration Train, Salisbury
21/02/26 - Romsey Signal Box Open
24/02/26 - Portishead RAG AGM
04/03/26 - Routmaster Auction

On this day
15th Feb (1917)
Initial journey - Jellicoe Express (link)

Train RunningCancelled
18:48 Reading to Gatwick Airport
20:25 Gatwick Airport to Reading
21:36 Barnstaple to Exeter St Davids
Short Run
19:19 Exeter St Davids to Barnstaple
19:36 Barnstaple to Exeter St Davids
19:54 Llanelli to London Paddington
20:17 Exeter St Davids to Barnstaple
20:36 Barnstaple to Exeter St Davids
etc
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
February 15, 2026, 20:28:48 *
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
[241] Itchy feet - where have they taken me?
[82] A379 at Slapton Sands in south Devon - sea related incidents
[78] Mousehole, Cornwall: a bus route change (for the worse)
[56] Class 175s to Great Western Railway (GWR)
[30] Plus bus plus Rover
[14] Buying Tickets for Four Seniors
 
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 far from the station is the rail replacement bus stop?  (Read 1983 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 46342



View Profile WWW Email
« on: December 23, 2025, 20:15:38 »

From a Facebook post concerning Cynghordy  where the bus now calls (according to a comment) on the main road.


In the Great Western area, Avoncliff has become almost as bad - with the rail replacement buses calling in Westwood, some distance from the station and the walk to the bus is a significant uphill along a road under the trees that's very slippery in leaf fall season.   Are there any other stations where the RRB (Rail Replacement Bus) calls only a significant distance away?
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Transport User Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group Committee and TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
CyclingSid
Data Manager
Hero Member
******
Posts: 2258


Hockley viaduct


View Profile
« Reply #1 on: December 24, 2025, 06:37:51 »

Christs Hospital. Was on an RRB (Rail Replacement Bus) from Horsham and was dropped in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. Fortunately I was not immediately concerned about the station, just doing one half of the Downs Link on the bike.
Logged
Marlburian
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 840


View Profile
« Reply #2 on: December 24, 2025, 10:05:22 »

On a couple of occasions before Lockdown I turned up at Tilehurst on a Sunday hoping to catch the first train to Paddington, only to find there was a replacement bus. On the first occasion I naively assumed that the bus would draw up on the station forecourt where there was a delineated space for buses that at one time provided a service direct to the station during the rush hour. Only the first time the bus stopped on the main road. A year later there was also a replacement bus, so I hovered hopefully outside the station, only to see the bus whizz past me and stop at a regular stop 200 yards down the road - too far for me to run to catch it.  Subsequently the electronic board at the station did direct one to that stop.
Logged
Chris from Nailsea
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 21332



View Profile Email
« Reply #3 on: December 25, 2025, 13:16:15 »

We are fortunate at Nailsea & Backwell station, in that any Rail Replacement Bus services use the regular bus stops - both of which are within just a few yards walk of the railway station.

Perhaps even more fortunately, we seldom have any need for replacement buses, being on the Great Western main line and only 9 miles from Bristol. Trains tend to be put through here, almost no matter what else is going on. Wink
Logged

William Huskisson MP (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post (a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London), depending on context) was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830.  Many more have died in the same way since then.  Don't take a chance: Stop, Look, Listen.

"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner."  Discuss.
plymothian
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 882


View Profile
« Reply #4 on: December 25, 2025, 16:22:22 »

 Are there any other stations where the RRB (Rail Replacement Bus) calls only a significant distance away?

Courrour?

Berney Arms doesn't even get a RRB, passengers are told to go to Reedham or Great Yarmouth instead.
Logged

Please be aware that only the first 4 words of this post will be platformed on this message board.
eXPassenger
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 646


View Profile
« Reply #5 on: December 25, 2025, 16:52:08 »

 Are there any other stations where the RRB (Rail Replacement Bus) calls only a significant distance away?

Courrour?

Berney Arms doesn't even get a RRB, passengers are told to go to Reedham or Great Yarmouth instead.

I take it that a RRB for Berney Arms would be a Rail Replacement Boat.
Logged
welshman
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 283


View Profile
« Reply #6 on: December 25, 2025, 18:24:57 »

Dovey Junction is a mile along the footpath to the A487 - the nearest road.
Logged
Ralph Ayres
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 481


View Profile
« Reply #7 on: December 26, 2025, 10:46:36 »

Dovey Junction is a mile along the footpath to the A487 - the nearest road.
You'd reach the station along that road unless arriving by helicopter/parachute, so the bus stopping there does make sense!  Replacement buses serving the centre of a town/village rather than the station some distance from anywhere also makes sense, provided it's clearly signposted, along with warnings on journey planners.
Logged
CyclingSid
Data Manager
Hero Member
******
Posts: 2258


Hockley viaduct


View Profile
« Reply #8 on: December 26, 2025, 11:50:03 »

Christs Hospital. Was on an RRB (Rail Replacement Bus) from Horsham and was dropped in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. Fortunately I was not immediately concerned about the station, just doing one half of the Downs Link on the bike.

As in this case, there sometimes appears to be an assumption that people know where the station is. In this case I didn't, in relation to the local road system.
Logged
Chris from Nailsea
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 21332



View Profile Email
« Reply #9 on: December 26, 2025, 14:03:03 »

I tend to carry a copy of the local Ordnance Survey map when I'm out travelling. Even if I don't need it for geographic location purposes, it gives me something to read during any delays. Wink Cheesy Grin

Logged

William Huskisson MP (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post (a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London), depending on context) was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830.  Many more have died in the same way since then.  Don't take a chance: Stop, Look, Listen.

"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner."  Discuss.
LiskeardRich
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 3614

richardwarwicker@hotmail.co.uk
View Profile
« Reply #10 on: December 26, 2025, 14:36:07 »

St Keyne wishing well halt rail replacement pick up is a good mile up a very steep hill from the station.
Or in other words the station is at least a mile down a steep hill from the main road and village it serves.
Villagers who fail to check could find themselves walking a mile, to have to walk a mile back for the bus!
Rail replacement is more convenient for the village than the train. I suspect most villagers would use the 73 bus rather than the train.
Logged

All posts are my own personal believes, opinions and understandings!
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 46342



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #11 on: December 27, 2025, 08:22:03 »

Dovey Junction is a mile along the footpath to the A487 - the nearest road.
You'd reach the station along that road unless arriving by helicopter/parachute, so the bus stopping there does make sense!  Replacement buses serving the centre of a town/village rather than the station some distance from anywhere also makes sense, provided it's clearly signposted, along with warnings on journey planners.

Agreed - Dovey Junction (and perhaps Berney Arms, Altnabraec and Corrour) is / are the stations where it most makes sensed for pickups / droposffs to be at the nearest road, some distance on foot from the platform at which the train calls.   Though Dovey Junction is, I think, unique in being somewhere that people change trains.  It's my understanding that at Rail Replacement Bus times, Macynellth is the point at which you change between the train and the pseudotrain.     If, for example, the line onward to Aberystwth were closed, passengers from Shrewsbury would not take kindly to having to get off the Pwllheli train at Dovey Junction and walk up to the main road for their ongoing bus.

There is some sense in St Keyne Wishing Well, and Cynghordy, having a bus stop in the village as there's nothing much around the station; the occasional person is bound to get caught out and thus irritated.   Avoncliff is different.  There's a community within a short distance of the station - houses and even a couple of businesses, on both sides on the Avon.   And that cluster around the station is the source of/ destination of passengers there.  To have the buses stop "miles away" on the road through the next village is understandable for reasons of geography and efficiency (read also cost), but is a significant issue for the community.

Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Transport User Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group Committee and TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
Richard Fairhurst
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1359


View Profile Email
« Reply #12 on: December 27, 2025, 09:26:55 »

Charlbury is half a mile away up a steep hill. The two locations actually have different CRS codes: CBY for the station, CVG for the RRB (Rail Replacement Bus) stop. (The latter was derived from “Charlbury Village”, but it was pointed out that Charlbury is officially a town, so the stop is now called Charlbury Nine Acres Lane.)

The reason is that the road from the town to the station has a weak bridge over the River Evenlode, so buses can’t access the station without a long detour. In practice Oxfordshire County Council turns a blind eye to RRBs using the bridge, but for week-long closures the CVG stop is used.
Logged
Mark A
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 2550


View Profile
« Reply #13 on: December 27, 2025, 10:11:23 »

 Avoncliff is different.  There's a community within a short distance of the station - houses and even a couple of businesses, on both sides on the Avon.   And that cluster around the station is the source of/ destination of passengers there.  To have the buses stop "miles away" on the road through the next village is understandable for reasons of geography and efficiency (read also cost), but is a significant issue for the community.

Perhaps GBR (Great British Railways) could get back into shipping, the railways could contract one of the trip boat operators to timetable a rail replacement boat to serve Avoncliff, running a shuttle to and from Bradford-on-Avon.

Mark
Logged
Marlburian
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 840


View Profile
« Reply #14 on: January 10, 2026, 21:11:14 »

I was walking past Aldermaston Wharf this morning and went across the station footbridge. On either side was a small blue notice and a much larger yellow banner displaying a plan showing where replacement bus services for both directions stopped - about a hundred yards away
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 via admin@railcustomer.info. Full legal statement (here).

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page