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It's a fair and safe assumption that if there's any more than a thimblefull of rain, all the services in and around Patchway / Filton will be messed up. The official line is that a landslide at Chipping Sodbury has caused all manner of mayhem, you see.

Ha ha ha :D The textbook approach to f**k ups is this: "mistakes have been made, lessons have been learned, measures have been put in place to prevent re-occurrences". Straight out of every corporate press release.

Sorry if my accurate and truthful observations are a bit too painful for comfortable reading but the beauty of dealing with facts is they're indisputable. However, a genuine question in respect of your second observation; if nothing service-related is going to change irrespective of whichever...

I can't imagine a worse service than the one that is currently in operation? After all, to make a one train an hour service worse can only mean cancelling it? And I imagine SLA's won't permit any new franchise holder to do that. Ergo, FGW are just doing the bare minimum........now, call...

Are you posting here, hand on heart, proclaiming that FGW are the best thing that's ever happened to those of us subjected to what it claims is a "service"? Maybe I was just unlucky with frequent short-formed services allied to a one train per hour "service". I'm happy to accept that I was...

As a non-rail traveller now courtesy of having experienced what FGW were offering, I'd ask what's the point of putting anything on a ticket? When I used the railways, on the few occasions I was asked to produce my ticket I did so and the guard merely nodded and carried on? (When I was a kid...

Or circumstances. Services to/from Bristol to Patchway are 1 per hour. If the service from London Paddington rolls into Bath Spa several minutes late (as it frequently did when I used the railways) then it meant that getting the connection to Patchway at Bristol Temple Meads was tight, to...

Doesn't that lead to what I'd call "artificial padding" of timetables? I guess the industry term would be something different. I always remember back in the winter of 2010 that (from memory) the 17:24 service from Bath Spa was due into Bristol Temple Meads at 17:41......it was a HST (as I...

I imagine a retimed train is the TOC's way of avoiding having to pay compensation for their failures. A little like some recently introduced legislation that allows the Police to "de-arrest" you. Yep, they can arrest you with impunity and then, when they realise they don't have anything on...

Am I alone in believing that punctuality is secondary to reliability? I've posted here previously; I don't mind my train rolling in 3,4,5,6 minutes late as long as I can get on it. Shortforming is the biggest issue that I experienced whilst using the railways? Your mileage may vary...

The driver of the train rolling in, at a gentle pace, 30 minutes late whilst you've been stood around on a platform in temperatures of -7C really does take it personally that you make a pointed effort to stare at your watch as he trundles casually past.

As an impartial observer (I only used the railways for eight weeks or so and everything I say here can be verified by trawling through my datestamped previous posts). FGW are basically crap. Hopwood gave the middle finger to the local MP with regards to increased services. I observed...

On my brief sojourn onto the railways in the winter of 2010, I never bothered trying to find a seat; for the trip to Bath it wasn't necessary as I'm fit enough to be able to stand in that area between carriages for the duration. I did, however, observe, on one journey, a discarded partially...

Your figure is ok to me but you're overlooking the fact that (in this area at least) it's one train an hour if I'm lucky. My car is parked 12 feet away from me, I can go and get into it at any point I wish, I'm not dictated to by timetables. And I don't have to share my space (such as it...

I dealt with some London-based consultants a few months back in my line of work and the senior partner indicated that they had a vacancy due to taking on a new client and because of my knowledge of their product would I be interested? Patchway - London Paddington annual season ticket =...

Eh? :?

Patchway has nothing in the way of ticket-dispensing machines (they'd be vandalised within 30 minutes of being installed). But I could have got on at Filton AbbeyWood (where there is a ticket machine) and simply told the staff at Cardiff that I got on at Patchway?

A genuine question given that some of the responses above seem to imply a lazy guard rather than anything else. I get on at Patchway and travel to Cardiff (as I did a few weeks back). In my case, a very pleasant, smiling guard appeared just after Severn Tunnel Junction, we handed over...

Someone driving 12000 miles per year in a 3 year old Ford Focus 1.6 petrol car @ 40mpg will pay: £831 in fuel duty £24 in IPT (average premium £400) £4.95 of the MOT fee £150 vehicle excise duty £30 VAT on a £180 service (£150 service, 20% VAT) So over a grand a year to the Government...

I've posted this before; the whole "above inflation increases are needed to fund infrastructure improvements" does seem to be a lot of hot air. Services, from my limited experience, were regularly shortformed in 2010 and I have no doubt that if I wandered along to Patchway or Filton Abbeywood...