Minehead via a train/bus combined ticket

[kurtvonnegut]

Hello, long time lurker but my first post. I've always found the advice on here to be invaluable and perhaps you can help me out with this puzzle.

I'm trying to get back from an event at Butlins in Minehead this weekend. I need to get back to London on Sunday night and the last train leaves Taunton at 2142.

There's a sluggish but hourly bus service between Taunton and Minehead. I'd forgotten how poor bus journey planners are outside of London but here's the timetable. The last bus on Sunday leaves Minehead at 1830: http://www.somerset.gov.uk/irj/go/k...sporting Somerset/TT13 Taunton - Minehead.pdf

Obviously you can pay for a train to Taunton and a bus from Taunton > Minehead separately. But you can also buy a combined ticket from any UK station using the XBV code which is a tiny bit cheaper.

Here's the confusion. When I enter Minehead > London on a Sunday night it offers me a 19:06 departure (by bus) that gets into London on a train at 22:38 . This 1906 departure doesn't appear anywhere else in local bus timetables.

So what is it? How are they advertising it? I've spent a couple of hours planning this journey but if I was not au fait with the quirks of our transport system and turned up at the Minehead bus stop expecting a 1906 departure only to find myself stranded then I'd be more than furious.

 

[bb21]

It would appear that the bus might have been re-timed from 19th February (the date on the leaflet).

If you click through the itinerary offered by National Rail Enquiries, it redirects you to the timetable of First Somerset & Avon's 28 route, the last bus on which leaves at 1830 from Butlins on Sundays.

 

[heart-of-wessex]

0B00 is showing on system on 11/03/12 as 1858 Minehead Butlins - Taunton however, arriving at Taunton 20:13...:?

 

[bb21]

I think a telephone call to FGW might be needed.

 

[kurtvonnegut]

Thanks for your advice...

0B00 is showing on system on 11/03/12 as 1858 Minehead Butlins - Taunton however, arriving at Taunton 20:13...:?

How bizarre. Surely this is relatively major cock-up?

I grew up in the countryside, have lived in London for a year and now I'm horrified at the state of rural bus services, provincial interchanges, etc. It's difficult enough to get info without it being a ghost service!

 

[Deerfold]

It would appear that the bus might have been re-timed from 19th February (the date on the leaflet).

The date on the leaflet is 19th Febrauary 2012

And then inside it refers to it being the 2011 timetable leaflet...

 

[Noto450]

Also be aware the 28 from Minehead is not the world's most reliable bus so it may well run late. In summer it often runs very late due to traffic. Also to anyone planning to go the other way please be aware that due to works on the road outside the station the bus often doesn't serve the station platform stop so check with staff upon arrival.