Hmm.  I would tend to disagree, grahame, regarding 'helicopter parent'.

The anonymous lad is 23, he's not travelled solo before, and is travelling a fair distance across different countries in Europe, with various language considerations, etc.

My own daughter, age 28, is not an expert on travelling solo within the UK: on one occasion, I had to retrieve her from Didcot Parkway, as she'd managed to get there instead of a (slightly diverted, due to engineering work) journey from Cardiff to Nailsea.

CfN. 

 

I would suggest that's because it's almost non-stop, not calling at Basingstoke or Woking - just Clapham Junction.  I also noted brisk timings from Bristol to Bath, sandwiched between Portsmouth Harbour and London trains; no stops showing at Keynsham or Oldfield Park and indeed a problem if they tried.   The service pattern may hint at the main market they are after.

 
Greetings from Milan, where it's so hot that no-one is sitting at the outside tables - they're all inside at the restaurants with AC which are busy.  Those without AC are empty.   My train left Brindisi on time but was about 25 minutes down by the time it completed over 1000 kms to Milan. I can't identify any one delay - not that I would recognise unusually slow running in any particular area as it's the first time I've done the journey. 

I have chickened out, with the Kentucky fried version back in my room where I can reduce clothing for comfort and plan for tomorrow. Clockface hourly trains without reservations and I have the luxury that give me of being able to be flexible.   There *is* a TV in the room - there has been everywhere - but I have not used them; rather a quick check with general sites including the BBC to see what's happening in the world, some social media, some email, and the Coffee Shop.  And it was on the social media I can across this gem from an anonymous poster.


I found myself - without knowing any specific circumstances - thinking "helicopter parent".  Surely the lad could and should do his own research, and if not perhaps he should not be travelling solo ...

 

Provisional timetable is 76-78 minutes from Waterloo

About 8-10 minutes faster than Waterloo-Exeter trains with 159s

Don't have a 1964 timetable, but have copy of one of the last Southern Railway ones, and Salisbury was about 2 hours by the fastest trains to beyond Exeter

 

 

 
Off the top of my head - am I correct in saying that this proposed service will actually provide a quicker WAT to SAL service than that provided by the steam hauled ACE - up to 1964 !  Is this what they call progress ?   

 
A video item, from the BBC:


It's a video piece, so you'll need to click on the BBC's link, at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/ckg01kz8gnzo

Less than a minute, but it's pure fun. 

 

Not necessarily.

 
The class 47... one of the types of loco that, for the brief time that that station, the line and the locos coexisted, passed through Nottingham Victoria on long distance express duties.

Mark

 

As written in a Friends post on social media a couple of hours ago:


Hot, late, but running here in Italy - here is the latest

 
The thread title suggests some sort of Morecombe & Wise sketch.

 

That is a link to the train I am on.  Yes - Italian trains tend to set off on time and loose time along the way.  Due in at 19:10 and I was very careful what I wrote - schedules 19:10, expected perhaps 19:30 to 19:40.   My hotel won't be going anywhere, so delay really does not matter to me.

 
Graham's train, with a link to a map. Bologna in an hour, and once day he'll take a ride on the Porrettana. Or perhaps he already has...

Mark

https://treniamo.it/en/train/8824-lecce-milano-centrale

 
After going through the Temple Meads barriers on the way home yesterday ( https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=32162.msg376479#msg376479 ) I could see what looked like heritage coaches on the platform opposite, but couldn't see what was pulling them due to a non-heritage service blocking that end of the view on the platform I was standing on. So I moved down the platform, hoping to perhaps see a nice steam engine. But instead:

Not being an expert in this sort of thing I was a bit underwhelmed. But apparently I shouldn't have been:
(I only saw the class 47 when the train pulled out.) So now I know

 

If only.... During the latter part of my commuting career, seats were removed from 2-car class 165s for some cycle/luggage storage that looks unsuitable for either function, and seats were also removed from the middle coaches of class 166s for additional wheelchair space - not a problem to provide it, by why not replace it with tip-up seating that can be used when (as on the majority of journeys) there are no wheelchair users on board. I think that these are DfT/ORR requirements, as is the continued use of 5-across seating on our relatively restricted sized trains, compared to the rest of Europe.

 

Lord, God!  No!!!

 

Sorta point-of-view.  If you had caught the 06:29 as planned, you would have planned an arrival into Southampton at 08:10 - so you (and your employer or a person meeting you) might consider that 115 minutes late

 
And after all that, if you had caught the 07:21 and gone via Reading you would have arrived in Southampton Central just over 20 minutes late at 10:05 (but got delay repay).

 
Regarding the little bottles of soap, shampoo etc: if I've started a bottle I'll take part-empty bottle with me to use up at home, because I assume that the hotel won't reuse it.  Whereas if I haven't started it I'll leave it for the hotel to provide for the next guest.

 

Yep - 06:50 bus from Broughton Road to Trowbridge Trinity Church (you'll note it takes 30 minutes by bus and 10 minutes by train!) and then the 07:53 train from Trowbridge to Southampton Central, due 09:03.   £3 bus fare plus £30.10 which is a darned site cheaper than the £106.20 GWR will have you pay if you don't know, and gets you there still late - but 40 minutes after the train they offer you having cancelled the 06:29.

Another good reason to have a knowledgable person able to offer help at the station!

 
No trains to Newquay, Looe, one train for Okehampton and Falmouth, short forms at Paignton with no xcountry there since Tuesday and no arrival from Paddington today.

GWR have done a good job of scaring the passengers off. They not worried if they don't come back. Where will the management be in December?

 
Infoman- most televisions are on a timer these days.
Both TVs in my house turn off after a period of not touching the remote.

Carpets- I’ve stayed in a few Ibis Budgets over the last 18 months across Europe. They don’t tend to have carpets, with a heavy duty Lino type flooring. It feels cleaner to me.

I’ve also used a selection of independent hotels recently. I’ve found the beds to be of variable quality, and in Prague I had a terrible night sleep, which made me grumpier than usual. It skewed my opinion of Prague because I was tired. Combination of noise, poor sound deadening in a noisy location.
I stayed in a beautiful place in Zakopane, amazing sleep. Very quiet. Ran by a senior lady and her daughter. Zakopane is my favourite place I’ve visited this year. Is my opinion of a place biased by how well i slept?
Most of my sleep quality has been a result of surrounding noise. Other guests, external noises.

Until the last 18 months I solely booked the big purple branded chain as I knew what I’d get. I’ve pushed myself out of my comfort zone and stayed in a wide selection of independents and other chains in the last 18 months. I notice peoples etiquette to the small independent different to in a chain.

 
Cancellations to services between Par and Newquay
Due to severe weather between Par and Newquay fewer trains are able to run.

The temperature in Newquay is 18 degrees

Cancellations to services between Truro and Falmouth Docks
Due to severe weather between Truro and Falmouth Docks fewer trains are able to run on some lines.

We are running an amended service during the severe heat event in line with the Met Office red weather warning.

The temperature in Truro is 18 degrees and expected to rise to 22-23 degrees today. There is no weather warning in place.

 
Bristol Temple Meads yesterday evening:

 

And the 17:00 Paddington service shown as on time (1.5 mins before departure) which I was intending to catch was subsequently delayed, and we were advised to board the 17:12 Oxford service. I was only planning on getting to Chippenham to catch the 18:00 to Melksham, but that was also cancelled, so I got off at Bath and caught the 272 Melksham bus. The bus had to wait for a minute in Box because it was ahead of schedule

The Paddington train eventually departed 19 mins late, not far behind the Oxford service.

 
While I am at patterns .... Countdown.  "Can I have seven vowels and three consonants please Rachel"



Rather the opposite of Llwyngwril - which is perhaps the only station with GWR in its name

 
Today, I'm on the 10:19 from Brindisi and scheduled 19:10 into Milan.   Quite rare for start and end times to be all the same digits but in a different order.   Is this something that happens on any of your journeys?  Or is it something you wouldn't notice even if it did?

 


  - Indeed. But you may have noticed I filed the report with a note on the alternatives we are using to help readers (customers for our data) keep track.

JourneyCheck is struggling with 250 cancellations and part cancellations this morning and I suspect that the bloke or blokessse who feed it are overworked.  There are regular users of this train though, and it would be a politeness for the people or systems that tell them their train is cancelled to tell them the alternative.   This IS used as a get-to-work train by people to Bristol and Southampton.

Searching on GWR, the best they offer is a train that gets people to Southampton and hour and a half later, at a much higher price (cheeky when they cancelled the train).  If I were personally travelling, I would take a look at the bus option to Trowbridge which would certainly be cheaper and probably get me to Southampton earlier than the 07:21 via Reading!

 

I do see the smiley face - but in practise it's a big "no, no" for a hotelier to leave items in the room from one guest to the next.  Even the water in the kettle is cleared out was part of our cleaning procedure.   

Occasionally I stay in hotels that have failed on this - for example I did not touch what must have been a previous guest's salami in the fridge in quite the most run down hotel I have stayed in on my current trip in Clermond Ferrand.    And there was a little water in the kettle here in Brindisi, which I emptied, then rinsed the kettle through before putting in new water from the tap. 

We (at Well House Manor) only knowingly failed to reset a room to "as new" condition on one occasion.  We were running a series of courses for a well known national broadcaster,  and one of our students asked "was [name] in my room last week?".   Oops, yes, and he should not have been able to tell.  Turns out that the clock / radio when switched on started on the BBC's Welsh language service rather than a default; those clock radios also needed to be checked to ensure that there was no daily alarm enabled to wake the new guest at an unwanted hour.

 
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton cancelled because of more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time (again).