{"id":8451,"date":"2024-10-12T01:31:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-12T01:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/weirdly-wandering-to-wantage-mini-1\/"},"modified":"2024-10-12T01:31:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T01:31:00","slug":"weirdly-wandering-to-wantage-mini-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/weirdly-wandering-to-wantage-mini-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Weirdly Wandering to Wantage (mini 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

State Visit to Oxfordshire<\/span><\/p>\n

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No 1 son (and family) have recently moved from a refurbished 1920s semi in Wantage to a much more recently refurbished detached bungalow; also in Wantage<\/div>\n
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Yep, refurbished quite a bit!<\/p>\n

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The refurbishment has consisted of additional rooms in the roof and a thorough remodelling throughout. After a great deal of hard work, the property is now ready for a state visit and the old and odd couple set off for Wantage yesterday.<\/div>\n
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Now fbb, with his timetable and geographical knowledge being vast (?), knew how to get there without driving all the way.\n
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Axe Valley Mini Travel (no longer “Mini”) bus from Seaton to Axminster, followed by South Western Railway a k a SWR (First) to Basingstoke …<\/p>\n

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… First GWR to Reading then First GWR to Didcot Parkway. Thereafter it would be bus to Wantage.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Seemples.<\/div>\n
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The plan was to travel on the 1006 train from Axminster; but your ever cautious blogger decided to check the National Rail journey planner, just in case something untoward might have impeded his travel plans.\n
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Yer what?\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

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“No fares available, choose another journey”.<\/div>\n
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Pish, tosh, drivel and twaddle. SWR runs hourly between Exeter and Waterloo, calling at Basingstoke on the way.<\/div>\n
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There are three trains an hour between Basingstoke and Reading …\n
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… two GW<\/span>R and one CrossCountry (XC<\/span>) and it has been like that for many a long year.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Although not 100% certain, fbb was sure that there would be a good “clock face” service between Reading and Didcot …\n
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… and, yes, there are two trains an hour, not quite clock face and not evenly spaced, but at least two an hour nevertheless, Reading departures at xx25 and xx49 (roughly).<\/p><\/div>\n

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So fbb went back to the National Rail journey planner and scrolled down to the journey details.<\/div>\n
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Axminster to Salisbury<\/span>?<\/p>\n

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Salisbury to Bath<\/span>? And then …<\/p><\/div>\n

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… Bath to Didcot?<\/p>\n

What’s going on?\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Weirdly, the 0906 from Axminster and the 1106 from Axminster all followed fbb’s expected route via Basingstoke and Reading. The JP also confirmed the fare for these journeys.<\/div>\n
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So again …<\/div>\n
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What’s going on?\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Was there something odd about the 1006 – like it terminated at Salisbury?<\/div>\n
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And so the to SWR timetable …\n
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And there is the 1006 but – oddly and weirdly, it has\u00a0no connecting times to Reading<\/span>.<\/p><\/div>\n

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How can three trains an hour between Basingstoke and Reading appear as no connection on the SWR timetable?<\/div>\n
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What’s going on?<\/div>\n
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Or the fbbs could go via Salisbury and Bath for which no fares are available<\/span>.\n

On a more positive note, IF fbb and Mrs were allowed to get to Didcot, there appear to be TWO bus services between there and Wantage …<\/p>\n

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… which would surely offer a connection allowing the fbbs to complete their journey all the way by public transport?<\/p><\/div>\n

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So, next, the old boy had to resolve his outwards journey – somehow!<\/div>\n
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One way or another, fbb should get a good variety of train types!\n
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But sadly, not this one!<\/p>\n

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And the old Reading Station is now a pub!\n
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To be continued …<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u00a0Next Wantage min-blog : Sunday 13th Oct\u00a0<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State Visit to Oxfordshire No 1 son (and family) have recently moved from a refurbished 1920s semi in Wantage to a much more recently refurbished detached bungalow; also in Wantage Yep, refurbished quite a bit! The refurbishment has consisted of additional rooms in the roof and a thorough remodelling throughout. After a great deal of hard work, the property is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8451"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}