JGurney
Member
When and how did forum members start using trains and other public transport independently?
Aged about 9 I decided to have a go at using buses and trains by myself. My parents home was between Twickenham and Strawberry Hill stations and near to several LT bus routes. I had been taken on local buses and trains and could make sense of the LT bus map. One constraint was cash – a return bus trip would absorb a good chunk of a week’s pocket money.
My first experiment was cautious: I walked away from home along a bus route for a while then caught a bus back past my home stop, getting off beyond but within walking distance back home thus paying only one fare. A week later I did much the same with rail, walking to Twickenham and getting a half single to Strawberry Hill. I moved on to making return and triangular bus trips when I had the money.
Rail was generally too expensive, although I recall an experimental trip from Strawberry Hill to Fulwell by changing at Teddington: changing trains was adventurous and I could walk home from Fulwell.
Another primary-school age adventure was first going on a non-London bus – a London Country service from Kingston to Berrylands, still within Greater London but going on a green bus felt like a big adventure.
I then discovered the Red Bus Rover, and found that the Underground was a lot cheaper than BR and was accessible at Richmond and Hounslow.
By the age of 12 I was accustomed to making day trips with Red Bus Rovers and about that time I got the LT 235 which still ran to Chertsey and Green Line 716A back to Richmond.
Into my early teens, pocket money was growing and parental constraints reduced. I began to use Green and Gold Rovers for days out on London Country and Green Line, then found Alder Valley rovers and services from Heathrow to Reading and beyond. Family holidays in Swanage led to discovering Hants and Dorset.
I made a few longer train trips, such as Alton, but when I turned 14 BR half-fares ceased and trains were unaffordable again until I was 17 and could get a student railcard.
Before then, the National Wanderbus ticket had appeared and I ranged all over the Home Counties with them, hampered mainly by the difficulty of getting timetable info. in the days before the internet.
Aged about 9 I decided to have a go at using buses and trains by myself. My parents home was between Twickenham and Strawberry Hill stations and near to several LT bus routes. I had been taken on local buses and trains and could make sense of the LT bus map. One constraint was cash – a return bus trip would absorb a good chunk of a week’s pocket money.
My first experiment was cautious: I walked away from home along a bus route for a while then caught a bus back past my home stop, getting off beyond but within walking distance back home thus paying only one fare. A week later I did much the same with rail, walking to Twickenham and getting a half single to Strawberry Hill. I moved on to making return and triangular bus trips when I had the money.
Rail was generally too expensive, although I recall an experimental trip from Strawberry Hill to Fulwell by changing at Teddington: changing trains was adventurous and I could walk home from Fulwell.
Another primary-school age adventure was first going on a non-London bus – a London Country service from Kingston to Berrylands, still within Greater London but going on a green bus felt like a big adventure.
I then discovered the Red Bus Rover, and found that the Underground was a lot cheaper than BR and was accessible at Richmond and Hounslow.
By the age of 12 I was accustomed to making day trips with Red Bus Rovers and about that time I got the LT 235 which still ran to Chertsey and Green Line 716A back to Richmond.
Into my early teens, pocket money was growing and parental constraints reduced. I began to use Green and Gold Rovers for days out on London Country and Green Line, then found Alder Valley rovers and services from Heathrow to Reading and beyond. Family holidays in Swanage led to discovering Hants and Dorset.
I made a few longer train trips, such as Alton, but when I turned 14 BR half-fares ceased and trains were unaffordable again until I was 17 and could get a student railcard.
Before then, the National Wanderbus ticket had appeared and I ranged all over the Home Counties with them, hampered mainly by the difficulty of getting timetable info. in the days before the internet.
