What exactly is "loyalty" in railway terms:
   A regular commuter with no other sensible option?
   Someone who chooses rail instead of car for a four-times-a-year leisure journey?

Not advocating for any particular approach, but many business models seem to penalise loyalty, using a cheap "bait" rate and then switching to a higher rate later on. Why would that be a bad idea for rail and a loyalty scheme good?

 
Meanwhile a second additional service - a five car IET bound for Bristol Temple Meads - left at 17:27 and is reported full and standing.

 

One of the additional trains from Cardiff Central is a 12 car service to London Paddington timed to depart at 17:09.   It left a few minutes late, but given the game didn't end until 16:55 and the trophy wasn't listed until 17:09, I wonder how many made use of it?

 
Cancellations to services between Swindon and Reading

Due to a safety inspection of the track between Swindon and Reading fewer trains are able to run on some lines.

Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice
-
What has happened?
-
We have had a report of a defect with the track in the Swindon to Reading area. Trains may not be able to run over the affected line until it has been inspected or may have to run at reduced speed.

 
Finish off / tying up loose ends and calculating my Schengen limits

To Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and on to Denmark and Sweden, linked up with cousins. 2 x Harwich
7th to 18th May (12)

To Austria (yeah, plan was Croatia), toe dipped on Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and Germany with Lisa. 2 x Harwich
25th May to 10th June (17)

To France, Italy (Sardinia and southern tip), Switzerland, Austria, Germany. Newhaven and Snap.
16th June to 1st July (16)

To the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Czechia with Lisa. Harwich and Eurostar.
19th July to 5th August (18)

Total days - 63 out of 90 allowed.

 
Middle Chapter ...my log (hard to note and photograph as queueing / jostling for a bus

Melksham to Devizes (272 / single decker)
Devizes to Market Lavington (x2 - Salisbury Red electric)
%
Market Lavington to Gores Cross (Rouetmaster RM9)
Gores Cross to Tilshead (old Go South Coast No. 145, JAM145E)
Tilshead to Imber (Salisbury Read Electic dd / HV26CWF)
Imber to Warminster (LYR854 Open Top RT3435)
Warminster to Imber (WestLink XX66WKL)
Imber to West Lavington (Stagecoach modern double decker)
%
West Lavington to Devizes (87 - Optare Solo YJ66AOA)
Devizes to Melksham (273 / Double Decker)

And some general comments

I do have photos of the first and last buses to and from Melksham too. The first one was photobombed by a couple of joggers and became a picture of them rather than of the bus, and as they're probably local to me I should probably not add the picture. And as I was taking my phone out of my pocket back in Melksham, it sagged on a thread and would not come out until the bus was virtually a receding blurr.

I note social media grouches from the folks who arrived on the Hastings Diesel that there weren't enough Routemasters. Well - in my view there were plenty for everyone who wanted to have good rides on them, and muliple if they wished.  They are getting to be old girls and there is not a limitless supply; the newer vehicles were in about the right quantity - added the the variety for those of us enthusiastic for buses and trains, as opposed to old bus or train enthusiasts, and helped with queue-busting which - had it not been done - would have given our social media friend another grouch!

Also to note - I take far too much notice of social media - comment that Warminster has plenty of parking and that I should not encourage people to get to bus running day by bus or train. After arriving into Warminster soon after lunch, I walked through the admittedly extensive car parks between the railway and the High Street. Indeed they are extensive.   They were also full.  Traffic of the roads around was certainly very congested too.  I know there's another car park across / near the civic centre; not sure how full that might have been.  But I stick with my recommendation to use the bus from Melksham to the Lavingtons.   And that's in preference to the trains; why GWR were running trains with as few as two carriages on their Cardiff to Portsmouth service (which is long distance train that calls at Warminster), I don't know but the 2 car - and even three car - trains on that route were packed. On the other hand, I was the only one off my public bus in Lavington - I WAS early, and the only one getting on the bus going back - though there were several other choices at the same time.

And some piccies - others have done far better!

The buses I rode on













And some pictures out and about

 

They certainly are: really wishing that First / WECA didn't immediately treat the screens as a place to insert a carousel of other material unrelated to their primary task, it's disruptive. Ditto at bus stops.

Thanks for this comprehensive read by the way.

Mark

 
Thanks for the info, I'll have a read later.

Cheers,

Chris

 
My nephew caught the service the next day and toilets all working. He was also quite impressed with the service generally although he's not a great train traveller so probably not too much to compare it to.

 


An update - or even a new topic - on images with posts would make sense, and probably for me to write it with the technical server background I have.

In summary, there are two ways of sharing an image with(in) a post. The first is for you to host the image somewhere else (away from the Coffee Shop) and hot link it into your post.  The second is for you to use the forum's very limited attachment facility which you will find under "additional options" as you post.   You asked about "directions on image attaching"  and so I am, somewhat pedantically, pointing you at that, though it is by far the less flexible way of doing it.

You need the file you want to be attached on your local computer / posting device before you post, and when you "choose file" you can navigate locally and select it.  You'll note the size and number of images you can add in this way is limited, and unstated there are restrictions on the file type too,  as we don't want to be carriers of viruses and other nasties on the Coffee Shop.  I am - as I write this - attaching a picture of the 2 car 158 that called at Warminster on its way from Portsmouth to Cardiff at around 14:10 yesterday.

The presence of an attached image will ONLY be reported  / seen when you look at the individual post - so it won't be seen on things like "recents" or - as yet - on the responsive front end.   Neither will it be seen by forum guests - logged in members only.

Image hosting can take a huge amount of space we don't have ... and be a significant issue on copyright - see https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=32279.0 which highlights that.   We "attach light" here and it's far better if you can host using a service / server which is built for image hosting ...

 

Thanks for posting, chipbury (another Chris )

I'm digging around for some previous suggestions on how to add images to posts. This topic may help, but I'll see whether I can find some more definitive guidance - I'm sure we have discussed this before on the Coffee Shop forum.

CfN. 

 
Introduction and Context

Imber Bus Running Day has changed over the years.  And - for me - for the better. It remains very busy - indeed is seems to be getting even busier - which vouches for its popularity and draw.  A huge undertaking and a superb fundraiser for very deserving charities, but at the same time excellent value and no feeling of feeling "gouged".

So why is it better?   It is wonderful to ride on old buses, that was not changed.  And to catch up with old friends and contacts, and make new ones.  To that, add in the more modern buses that are now running too, which provide a showcase for their operators of some their current vehicles, and also add in some vehicles of intermediate age and not-RM/RT too. Personally, as a "bus day" I have taken to connecting into the Imber Bus using other (service) buses rather that swelling the crowds (and my own frustration at significant queuing) at the Warminster railway interchange pinch point.   So much learning on the way.

Chapter 1 - from Home to Market Lavington

I took the 08:01 bus, Faresaver route 272, across the road from my home into Devizes. Normally, I use online tracking so that I only have to leave when the bus is a couple of minutes away; as this one only starts in the Market Place, out there before it was tracking - but on time and just one other passenger when I joined it.   The timetable at our stop has disappeared - so we're into a "you need to know" mode - though online systems will give you a list of departures if you know which stop you're starting from and click on it.  Confusingly, 272 runs to two places on the app - "Market Place Bus Is" for the first services of the day, and "Devizes" from 11:29.   That's because the first three services of the day terminate on the north side of Devizes Market Place outside the Black Swan, and subsequent service terminate a few paces across the road outside the Pelican. As there's also a Market Place in Melksham, wouldn't it be nice if the destination town / city was always included?   Good run up to Devizes and - on past knowledge - into Costa for a coffee and a teacake, the latter selected as part of an advertised 'deal' on the counter. I know they have overheads, but my goodness the raw materials for the cakes, etc, on offer seem to be an ever-tinier part of the price.





Onwards to Market Lavington - bus services 2, x2, 3A, 3C and 87 make the journey. Two different operators, and no real time departure displays in even the key stops in the town.  None of the services is turn-up-and-go frequent, though together there are a couple of buses in most daytime hours.  I had used Google to give me the combined service, and selected the x2 Salisbury bus operated via Salisbury Reds at 09:00.

The x2 from Devizes to Salisbury is another more modern victory for common sense - a change for the better. It calls at Stonehenge (further) along the way - providing a service for visitors to reach that honey-pot attraction by public transport from the north / rest of Wiltshire.  There is no longer an absurd, impractical double back via Salisbury for people from Devizes and around looking to get to the stones.  That improvement took a decade plus of asking - not sure how they have solved the abstraction of bus income from lucrative the Stonehenge Specials which was what we were told the problem was.

The x2 turned out to be an electric bus - the first electric bus on a scheduled service I have used in Wiltshire.  Very nice.  Still bumpy in places with the state of the roads.  Also impressive is the amount of luggage, pram, wheelchair space on the vehicle - and seen on other recent vehicles during the day. Really good to see - and I really wonder what the difference is between bus provision - where these things seem to be thought through and the trains, where we seems to be travelling on UK trains where maximising seats seems to be the rule, rather than providing enough and appropriate facilities for luggage, wheelchairs, prams, cycles.



The direct route from Devizes to Stonehenge and beyond would have been via the Chocolate Poodle - avoiding Market Lavington.  However, Google suggested it diverted via Market Lavington and on checking with the driver he confirmed that it did.  Another passenger who joined a couple of stops along also checked with the driver some journey details - confirming the very real need for information systems and re-assurances for the occasionally travelling public over and above the information systems.  Later research confirms that all x2 services, most southbound 2 services ans a couple on northbound 2 services also run via Market Lavington these days. Google was a huge help, but really not easy to research!

In-bus indications of next stop are a massive step forward - really helpful, again, to newcomers to an area and others who are not geography/ surrounding aware.  "Kings Road" struck especially - we used to live at the far end of Kings Road - the back lane from Easterton; a help to putting it and the travel options around on the map and to public notice. But I did have one concern - "Kings Road", "Spin Hill", "Roman Way", "Park Road" - none is the obvious stop for the centre of Market Lavington, and rather like my earlier suggestion of putting DEVIZES on the real time bus tracker so we knew which Market Place, so add an indication (Roman Way, perhaps?) "for Market Lavington village"?



Anyway - I got off at Roman Way, in double plus plenty of time for the first bus up to Imber, and that's a good point to close this chapter, on local bus arrival.  So much good, yet so many areas where a few little tweaks would make it so much better.  The fact that there were constant flows of cars on the various road, and yet many available seats on the buses, suggests to me that we may have a product in our bus services that has a capacity to grow, and the issues I report should be able, in being fixed, to fertilise that growth.

Chapter n-1, where n is the last chapter - home from Market Lavington

At the end of the day, I took the bus from Imber via Brazen Bottom to The Lavingtons. But to where in which Lavington? As well as the 3A and 3C (which head from different stops in Market Lavington into Devizes) and the x2 (which goes from a different stop), there's the 2 which I mentioned in an earlier chapter and the 87 which pops its head up twice a day. Easy for the regular passenger and manageable for the public transport / bus geek.  No real time information on any of the stops, of course - and little indication is seen anywhere of "other buses available from the following nearby stops".

I - chose - to stay on the bus from Imber as it called into Market Lavington, that extra mile to West Lavington crossroad where 2, 2A, x2, 3A, 3C, 87 and 887 come together. Oh - sorry - a couple of new routes in there.   I got off the 23A from Imber at the crossroads, at 16:43, having previously established that an 87 was due from West Lavington to Devizes at 16:53.   But even in the very small area - where would it appear from, in which direction would it leave, and where would it stop?

My logic suggested it would appear from the west (after all, it was coming up from Westbury and that would be the road) and would leave headed north (towards Devizes).  However, looking on the myTrip tracker (it's Faresaver, so that's the app) that suggested it would appear FROM the north (having wriggled through Great Cheverell) and the leave to the east, headed towards Market Lavington.  OK.  The tracker said 6 minutes, but no little symbol on the map to show how it was doing.

And another worry - there was no bus stop I could see on the road approaching the crossroads from the north (I know there's a stop just beyond the crossroads headed south), and no bus stop I could see on the road it was leaving on.  A lay-by and a driveway where perhaps a bus could pull in, but no flag or anything to indicate the bus might stop.  Local buses and drivers are typically helpful, so fingers crossed?



Then a thought.  I crossed the road to the bus shelter and stop opposite - wrong side of the road - and it said "Bus Stop both side of the road".  Actually it said it 1.5 times (half of one message worn away) ... and it even confirmed that the 87 runs twice on a Saturday - at 14:02 and 16:53 - from "stop opposite" into Devizes.  And so it proved - I held out my paw from the unmarked lay-by and the bus stopped, pretty well on time, and picked me up as if it was the most natural thing in the world!   Oh - the "16:53" looked to be crossed out, but look carefully, move your eyes around, and you'll see that was just a dirt smudge on the 'glass'.





And so we headed for Devizes.  Now the timetable on the bus stop had said "via Easterton and Urchfont" but that turned out not to be the case - we went via the back of Market Lavington rather than the village centre, the Black Dog crossroads and Potterne, a very pleasant journey but not what was advertised on the stop.  It WAS as the myTrip app said - I get used to taking multiple data sources from all over the place, all supposedly official and accurate, combining them into a single set of most-likely views, having a "Plan B" and falling back onto that if need be.    There would have been an x2 (Salisbury reds) a few minutes later, and a 3C (Faresaver) from across the road, followed by a 2 an hour and a half later to end the service.  The Lavingtons have lost their evening services.

Uneventful run into Devizes.  Before we got to the Market Place, the onboard system seemed to be gearing up for the return trip with a couple of confusing indications.  And we arrived at the back of the bus island.

Prior knowledge suggested that the bus home to Melksham would run from across the road in front of the Pelican, though the online tracker for some reason had it absent.  With 4 stops in Devizes Market place, it's a bit of a game finding the service on the tracker and as per comments earlier, really good to have a "nearby" option - rather better than just a single set of data and other stops unmarked as just above in West Lavington.

On a Saturday at this time, there are buses from Devizes via Melksham to Bath 30 minutes apart. Daytime, the service runs past my home but I had missed the last bus on that route at 16:25. From an arrival at 17:10 I had only to wait until 17:25 for the 273 service, and I know it veers off around the back of Melksham and can get off at Pembroke Road from where it's only a short walk home.  The next bus truly home would have been Monday morning.   The 273 ran AOK - good journey and final walk home.

Chapter n, where n is the last chapter - Summaries

I travelled on 10 buses - 4 service buses and 6 on Salisbury Plain / bus running day, ate and drank in two establishments, had just a drink in one.  Met long standing friends Ann and Chris, David, Natacha and Phil, and made new friends and contacts in Tom, Sue and Barb.  I spend perhaps £10 on my own refreshments (thanks for the drink, Chris) ans just under £25 in total on 6 items I brought home. The four bus journeys above were paid for earlier in life, on my senior bus pass that comes to me as an OAP, and I paid £10 for my Salisbury Plain 23A bus rover. I visited several displays / museums - Market Lavington (where I need to go back) and Imber Church (which I have seen before) and I enjoyed briefly seeing some of the dinosaurs of Roarminster.

The 6 bus journeys on The Plain - the intermediate chapters - are still be be written up.   I don't know if anyone will read all of the above so far, but it flags / records very much the micro-issues that I noted as an occasional traveller on regular bus services which - I believe - with relatively little attention could help in the provision of a much more friendly, much more available, much more used service.

 
"..and so the decision has been taken to suspend...." like they had a choice

 
Yesterday was my first Imberbus, my wife and I got the train from Freshford to Warminster and joined the long queue at the railway station at 0915hrs.  It took about 45mins to get on the bus to Market Lavington (we could have gone to Imber a bit earlier).
We travelled all the routes on 6 different buses and arrived back in Warminster at 1530hrs.  We had a coffee stop in Market Lavington, and a lunch stop in Tilshead.

All in all an excellent day and one I can recommend to anyone whether a bus enthusiast or not (this is the first time we'd been on a bus day like this - we'd probably do another).
After a few beers and a fantastic pizza in Warminster (The Old Fire Station) we hot footed it back to the railway station to catch a suitable train as the next 3 we could use were 1 delayed and 2 cancelled! 

Can someone point me in the direction of an image attaching 'how to' for the forum please?

Cheers,

Chris

 
From the BBC:

 

..................but not to Looe or St Ives! 

 

Aaaaand he's off!   

 

Why?

If it relates to a contagious infection laying large numbers of staff low, totally understandable and accepted.  I just hope those staff have not been in contact with customers in recent days to spend the infection to the wider travelling public, and would wish them all the very best for. speedy and full recovery.

Please, GWR, if you are reading this, tell us why!

 
Several Penzance - Exeter - Penzance capped or short running.
A few Penzance - London - Penzance short running.

Poor day for GWR (Cornwall).

 
Cancellations to services between St Erth and St Ives

Due to a shortage of train crew between St Erth and St Ives fewer trains are able to run on the line.
Train services running to and from these stations have been cancelled. Disruption is expected until 12:00 16/08.

Customer Advice
Regretfully limited train crew are available in some Cornish regions today, and so the decision has been taken to suspend the St Erth to St Ives service until midday.

Double decker buses, provided by Dartline Coaches, will be operating along the route, and will St Erth and St Ives as close as possible to train departure times.

 

Hmmm, I never considered that and agree it could work. Obviously LNER already do this with their PERKS scheme, I don't know if any other TOCs, apart from GWR, offer something similar.

 
Cancellations to services between Liskeard and Looe

Due to a shortage of train crew between Liskeard and Looe fewer trains are able to run on the line.

Train services running to and from these stations have been cancelled. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice
Regretfully limited train crew are available in some Cornish regions today, and so the decision has been taken to suspend the Liskeard to Looe service.

 
I wonder if the decision is primarily driven by Virgin Trains' wish to concentrate on the establishment of their much punted cross channel service. They were awarded access rights, by the ORR, to the Temple Mills facility last October and it seems to have all gone quiet since then. There are however a few news pieces saying the service will commence in 2029/30.

 

Close.  I would prefer a railcard to become a loyalty card.  The devil, though, would be in the detail.   At present, different railcards have differing terms and conditions.  Can you use them in the peak?  Or before 09:30? Is there a minimum fare payable?  Do you have to take a child with you? Can they be applied to paper tickets?

 

Community Shield Final in Cardiff today (Arsenal v Man City), so suspect other services are being stripped back to provide as much capacity as possible.

As for the decimation of the Cornish branches (on a summer Sunday, utterly hopeless), one can only hope that the missing crews are BBQ-ing responsibly given the "tinder box" weather conditions.

 
Since it seemingly won't be very long before there is a Railcard to cover every sector of society why not speed up and/or simplify the process by scrapping all of them and implement an across-the-board fare reduction?

Discuss (from a safe distance obviously). 

 
And 40 formation changes ... including ...

14:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 16:02
15:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 17:05
16:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 18:02

All reductions - 10 to 9, 9 to 5 and 9 to 5.   10 to 9 is really no different ... 9 to 5 is serious.  And why were GWR running some middle of the day Cardiff to Portsmouth services with just 2 carriages yesterday.  Rhetorical question perhaps, but some of the trains at Warminster (I  watched rather than used) looked distinctly unpleasant ... and I wonder how those headed towards South Wales might have coped (or not) and they probably picked up more that they dropped off at places like Trowbridge and Bradford-on-Avon before getting some relief at Bath Spa

 
Happy Sunday - 68 full cancellations and a dozen short runs - almost all of them due to crew shortage.   GWR run - perhaps - 1200 services on a typical Sunday (?) - so I make it about 1 train in 15 (between 6 and 7%) not running properly.  Was it always like this, just that the stats are at hand these days to tell us?    Lots of service gone including multiple successive ones to places like Looe, with St Ives and Newquay and Falmouth all getting a dishonourable mention.   But then it's a Sunday, during school holidays, so the trains would have been quiet with no school traffic and no commuters, right  ?

 

I would ... suggest ... that Didcot to Swindon is something of an extreme case - perhaps not an extreme edge case, but certainly on the 95th or higher percentile.   Any time, any route (including HS1) Tonbridge to London is £90.50, NOT HS1 is £40.70. Swindon to Salisbury is an interesting case - the most flexible ticket ("Not via London") costs £174.20 anytime return and that used to be the ticket you required on the 06:15 direct train from Swindon.   However, GWR saw the logic in changing the "via Bath Spa" fare into a "via Trowbridge" fare and at current rates that's £50.70 - still above "northern rates" but a huge improvement, and thank you to GWR for helping to bring in this change.

Hebden Bridge to Manchester is a pretty standard sort of rate, I suggest, away from the South East / Home Counties. Try £11.90 Forres to Inverness, or Plymouth to Totnes at £12.60 / anytime day returns.   Brighton to Bognor Regis is £22.20 ...

Where you find astonishing inequalities is in the differenetial between anytime and restricted time fares, and between tickets from where you start to where you end versus multiple tickets bought in sections via intermediate stations.  I would suggest that there's a tendency for the anytime fares ("peak fares") to be proportionatly fare higher than "off peak" on London routes. 

Basically, the whole system has grown into an illogical morass based on local and regional issues - both in keeping fares low in the first place ( for the very people, perhaps, who are now requesting a railcard for the North ) and in increasing fares for a premium service such as Didcot to Swindon.