Recent content by Bristol Rover

Had my first experience of the 5A earlier at Marylebone. Can't say I was impressed. Kicked off with the usual Chiltern special of announcing the platform less than 5 minutes before departure time. The seats were hard, upright and half the tables don't seem properly aligned with the windows -...

Thank you

This time last year I travelled from Haddenham and Thame Parkway to Falmouth Docks. I caught the 08:17 from Hdm to London Marylebone, then the 10:04 out of Paddington which is direct to Truro. I booked a first-class off peak return with a senior railcard, cost £238.85. I'd like to repeat the...

16:20 out of West Ruislip. The last train to start at West Ruislip. That 17:07 ought to have stopped at West Ruislip - does anyone know if it did? Given there was no one at the station on hand to inform us, I gave up on the assumption it wasn't going to.

I was caught up in this farrago yesterday, about as badly as could be. Here's my day and a few observations, for those interested. I was on the 09:34 from Haddenham into London. The platform was busy as it was the first off-peak train in half term. The train was only 2 carriages and people were...

Today's update. Actually had plenty of time this morning so thought I'd 'risk' the Smartcard again for another trip to Marylebone. This time, I successfully managed to load the ticket onto the Smartcard within 10 minutes of purchase online. Nice quiet journey into London, although as usual the...

Perhaps - once in the six or seven journeys I've used it for is a fairly high error rate. For me, the whole point is buying a ticket at home on the card and then not having to rush to the station/worry about queuing. If I don't know whether the ticket I've purchased will load, I have to get to...

Yes, no complaints about the customer service. It does render the Smartcard useless for me though. The whole point was to save time/stress queuing at the ticket office/machine on the day of travel. If I can't rely it on to successfully load tickets, and find out that when there is a problem I'm...

Thanks for the advice. Typical British system that punishes people that try to do the right thing, or those that make an innocent mistake, while the genuine fare evaders get away with it most of the time! I'll be binning the Smartcard. It's not even that Smart even when it does work - e.g. you...

Hoping for some advice. Once or twice a month I travel to London Marylebone on the Chiltern Line. To avoid rushing/stress of missing the train while I queue for a ticket, I like to buy my tickets to travel before I get to the station. For day returns, I can either have an e-ticket (with...

Interesting - guards on the FGW trains round here have told me they can't accept them on the train!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33583904 Is it known yet whether holders of existing rail vouchers can swap them for cash? I've got about £100's worth, but the act of redeeming them is murder. My nearest station is un-manned, you can't use them on trains or online, and the only way I can...

Indeed, very much lifestyle connected. A 30 minute commute compared to a 50 minute one is very much more attractive. Does anyone know the reason why the eastbound journeys are quite a bit slower? Presumably they stop more. But why don't they stop as frequently on the westbound journeys?

I'm thinking of relocating to Newbury, and note the electrification of the Great Western Line will include Newbury (but alas not Hungerford or Bedwyn). At the moment, journey times from London to Newbury vary from 51 minutes to an hour eastbound, and as quick as 42 minutes westbound. What...

Excellent suggestion Romilly. I'm actually travelling from Bristol to Worcester and back (day trip), but the Bromsgrove diversion is only worthwhile on the return journey, so thought I'd keep the thread simple. I can buy an off peak day return from Bristol to Bromsgrove, break the outward leg...