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Which is your closest station/how do you get to it?

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1e10

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13 Jun 2013
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Parson Street is my closest station, 0.3 miles walk, takes about 5 minutes.

There is no ticket machine though so I usually collect my tickets the day before from Bristol Temple Meads, either walking to it which is 1.7 miles away taking about 35 minutes, or getting the bus.

When using the train I usually start my outward from Parson Street because the service is fairly frequent in the morning, avoids sitting in traffic on the bus and means I don't have to pay the £1 fee for collecting tickets at FGW station when travelling with XC because the Parson Street to Bristol Temple Meads service is operated by FGW.

At the end of my inward journey I usually finish it at BRI because the service in the evening can be terrible. Sometimes it's a 2 hour wait for a 7 minute journey from BRI to PSN so I get a PLUSBUS ticket and take the bus home.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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Mold, Clwyd
Spoilt for choice.
Several stations on the Wrexham-Bidston line are at 9-12 miles range, 20mins by car (Caergwrle, Hope, Penyffordd, Buckley, Hawarden, Shotton), but only Penyffordd has a decent (ie empty, cheap/free) car park.
But I don't often use this line as it is too slow/infrequent (1tph, change at Bidston).
I use Hooton (19 miles, 6tph) for Liverpool; Wrexham (13 miles, 1tph) for Shrewsbury; Flint (12 miles, 2tph) for Manchester; and Chester (17 miles) for long distance (because the local trains get sketchy in the evening).
I usually get to the station by car, but on a nice day I sometimes park-and-ride using the local Arriva buses direct to Chester station to avoid the exorbitant car park charges.
I have even railheaded to Gobowen (22 miles) because that's where the West Midlands Day Ranger starts, Welshpool (40 miles) for a day out on the Cambrian, and Birchwood (40 miles)for a through train to York.
But these days, I mostly start from Hooton or Chester.
I think this probably defeats any scientific modelling of my travel habits...
 

Gathursty

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Location
Wigan
Gathurst - 20 minute walk through the woods or 5 minute drive
Pemberton - 5 minute drive
Wigan North Western/Wigan Wallgate - 5 minute drive
 

SWT_USER

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Ashford Middx
Hanwell or Drayton Green are both around 5 minutes walk. Unfortunately the service to both is so terrible in the evening (and non existent on Sunday) more often than not I end up taking a bus from Ealing Broadway :(
 

Deerfold

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Yorkshire
The foregoing replies demonstrate how useless local bus transport is anywhere except in a big urban area.

No, it demonstrates your area is poorly served by buses.

I live in a village with 6-7 buses an hour to my local small town from where I can pick up a train service with 4-6 trains an hour in each direction.

The buses are very punctual and reasonably priced.
 

HowardGWR

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No, it demonstrates your area is poorly served by buses.

I live in a village with 6-7 buses an hour to my local small town from where I can pick up a train service with 4-6 trains an hour in each direction.

The buses are very punctual and reasonably priced.

Please enlighten us as I find it difficult to understand how a rural bus service justifies a bus every 10 minutes! I bet you are near a main road between a city and a town, otherwise it just doesn't add up I am afraid.:roll:

Lucky you, by the way.:D
 

Temple Meads

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Devon
Tiverton Parkway is my closest station, but it's still 5 miles away from the station is supposed to serve.

Usually go by car, bus is also an option (£2.10 single!), walking is also the only option sometimes though.
 

Deerfold

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Please enlighten us as I find it difficult to understand how a rural bus service justifies a bus every 10 minutes! I bet you are near a main road between a city and a town, otherwise it just doesn't add up I am afraid.:roll:

Lucky you, by the way.:D

Not all the buses are linking the same places - there's 3 half hourly services and a handful of low frequency routes but they all get me to one of my local stations and 2-3 an hour to another (with the others getting me within a 10 minute walk of that second station). About 3 miles out from the town, 2 of the buses go a different route, a couple of miles further and half the buses go one way and half the other. Except very early morning and late evening they're generally busy. One of the routes increased from 1bph to 2bph, partly replacing a withdrawn subsidised service a year or so ago - this route is less busy than the others. The service is less good than when I moved here 6 years ago with some late buses having been withdrawn but better than 15-20 years ago when I used to pass through the village fairly regularly.

I appreciate some places are very poorly served by buses (I've lived in some of them - including on a link between two large towns with 1 bus an hour and a last bus at 1800) but I deliberately choose a place to live with a view of fields/hills out of the front window but a good bus service (linking to a good train service).
 
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315804

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29 Jul 2013
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Bruce Grove (after 10 min journey by bus), or Tottenham Hale... though soon moving to Brentford where I will be less than 5 mins walk from the station :)
 

Indochine

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Depends on whether I am at home or at university.

Home: Kettering (15 minutes by car)

University: London Road (Brighton) (eight minute walk)
 

Liam

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The two closest stations to me are Markinch and Kirkcaldy. There are more buses to Kirkcaldy every 10 minutes, but they take twice as long as the 2 buses per hour to Markinch. But there are also more trains to Kirkcaldy. Markinch also has a later bus home.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Another planet...
Google Maps suggests I am actually closer to Hyde North than Stalyvegas :shock:

Indeed the nearest station is not always the easiest to get to, as with my example with Lockwood being nearest but in the next valley over! My old house in West Molesey, Surrey was technically closer to Hampton but the Thames was in the way- I'd have to walk/cycle as far as Hampton Court BR to cross the river!
 

1e10

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Tiverton Parkway is my closest station, but it's still 5 miles away from the station is supposed to serve.

Usually go by car, bus is also an option (£2.10 single!), walking is also the only option sometimes though.

£2.10 sounds like a bargain. In my area First are the only operator and £2.10 will get me about 2 miles, let alone 5!
 

ValleyLines142

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Gloucester
Waun-Gron Park is my local station, which is about a ten minute walk.

However, I just jump on the bus to Cardiff Central, which is a fifteen minute bus journey. If I go from Waun-Gron I have to change at Central anyway.

Oh, and buses run every three minutes outside my house :lol:
 

Butts

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Stirlingshire
Falkirk Grahamston .....10 Minute Walk or if it's a nice day :lol:....

Falkirk High.....20 Minute Walk
 

starrymarkb

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Exeter
Either St James's Park or Exeter Central. I'm pretty much half way between. Both are less then 10 mins walk. St Davids is about a 25 min walk if I just miss a train up the hill
 

W-on-Sea

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There was a time when my nearest station (maybe 5 miles from where I was living) was Finstock. But with one train a day in each direction, hardly of much use....
 

Blindtraveler

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Nowhere near enough to a Pacer :(
Edinburgh Waverley isnt my closest, but the fact that I can get there in 30 Mins (accept at festival time when this travel time rockets) on several buses makes using Musselburgh, Brunstane or Newcraighall a very pointless excersize. I dare say the latter two will see more usage when the borders line reopens and people swap a journey from my end of tow ↲to the train as aposed to a trip up to the bus station and then another bus to the borders
 

Howardh

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What's coming across is something we knew anyway - how difficult it is to get to "local" stations (rather than main-line) by bus.

Maybe the thinking is "if there's a railway station there then we don't need a bus route" when in reality it should be the other way round.

There is only one bus - an irregular one at that, which goes anywhere near Lostock (my local) and it's still a hike from the bus stop. That covers the south side - the north has nothing.
 

alexjames

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2 Dec 2009
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Harrow on the Hill. About 6.5 furlongs away which I walk.

Not that the station is on the aforesaid hill. Very few are on hills. So I get a bus on the way back.
 

Muzer

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At uni: Swaythling, 5-minute walk, or Southampton Airport (Parkway), that plus a 10-minute bus journey/30-minute walk.

At home: Andover, car/taxi being the only sensible options from where I live (with the possible exception of a bike).

You might at this point see why in some ways I prefer spending time at uni ;)
 

AndyLandy

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Southampton, UK
At uni: Swaythling, 5-minute walk, or Southampton Airport (Parkway), that plus a 10-minute bus journey/30-minute walk.

At home: Andover, car/taxi being the only sensible options from where I live (with the possible exception of a bike).

You might at this point see why in some ways I prefer spending time at uni ;)

I'm just down the road. My closest station is St Denys, which is about a 15/20 minute walk, though I'm more likely to head to Southampton Central, which is a 20/25 minute walk, or 5/10 minutes on the Uni-Link bus, for which I have a season ticket. (Which also makes Swaythling and Southampton Airport easily reachable)
 

G_A_C_C_C

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11 Dec 2008
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High Wycombe
Bourne End is 10 mins walk from my house - mostly down the old railway line. But I very rarely use it, unless going to Bristol for work. It's too bloody expensive! Instead, I drive a few mins down the M40/A40 into Boris Land and use my Oyster card(s). Plenty of cheap/free parking available and with a family of 5 much, much cheaper to travel.
 
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