Recent content by Grecian 1998

I wouldn't advise travelling via Castle Cary if time is tight - the Exeter stoppers and Weymouth trains are both 2 hourly and connections are often sub-optimal. If you do miss a connection, the town's some way off and there's not much around the station. Weymouth has plenty of nice spots even...

A problem with ticket office staff offering splits on journeys they know about is that it probably wouldn't be long before people start coming in demanding to know all the possible options for journeys to Quintrell Downs / Georgemas Junction / Acle / Rhosneigr and getting quite aggressive if the...

XC still run a few double Voyagers on the SW - NE axis which seem to be spread out through the day. This is very useful if you're a leisure traveller like me - you can look at the formation on RTT (not guaranteed but pretty accurate) and plan your day accordingly. However I have noticed that it...

I've always found Derby - Sheffield to be very scenic - hilly country, some fine stone architecture in the surrounding towns and villages, the Chesterfield crooked spire and the ornate northern portals to the tunnels (just the northern portals for some reason). Further south I concede there...

Having travelled from Bristol to Exeter yesterday around 1400 and back today around the same time, the difference made by the overnight rain was very apparent. I travel regularly between the two and the amount of floodwater on the ground north of Exeter today was quite something - reminded me of...

I have a Video 125 'HST West' production from 1990 showing Paddington - Bristol - Exeter. There are two crew in the cab between Paddington and Bristol where the speed limit was 125mph, but only one between Bristol - Exeter where the maximum speed is 110mph (a short stretch between Highbridge and...

Britain did actually skip 11 days in September 1752 - people went to bed on 2 September and woke up on 14 September. This was due to switching from Julian calendar from Gregorian calendar and having to play catch up with the rest of Europe. Be a bit difficult doing that now. While it sounds...

Worth pointing out that the saving is only really on off-peak day returns - off peak monthly returns are almost twice as expensive. As has been said upthread, GWR significantly reduced a number of OP day returns when they took over the franchise around 2006-07. I think all day returns within...

I'm not aware of any current passenger trains that don't stop at St Davids (although there have been services that did in the past - I remember around 2004 an XC service bizarrely omitted it yet stopped at Newton Abbot and Taunton) and there's not much freight. Any passenger trains heading north...

Indeed - I was trying to make the point that even the type of stringent quarantine rules applied to scientists in Antarctica - people who are used to following the rules as breaches could have lethal consequences if you're based in the coldest place on earth - didn't consistently keep Covid out...

A very fair point - I completely forgot they worked regularly over the third rail around Liverpool. I'm still fairly certain they've never worked over regularly any of the third rail network in southern and south-eastern England, and I'm not sure they've been over any of it even out of service...

A grand total of 15 days passed between Italy's national lockdown on Sunday 8 March and the UK announcement of the lockdown on Monday 23 March (although it didn't come into force until Thursday 26 March). Italy was the first country in Europe to attempt to emulate the perceived success of the...

About a week of travelling by road will likely persuade them to return to the train if and when the service returns to normal. Heavitree Road - the most direct route into the city centre - moves at a snail's pace for large parts of the day, and Pinhoe Road and Topsham Road aren't much better. It...

Yes sorry - I meant the second option.

The options do seem to be: 1. Stop at Bath and have a complete free for all with large numbers of people unable to board throughout the day, many of whom do not take kindly to this and some of whom end up stranded at the end of the day; or 2. Don't stop there so the passengers you do have can...