{"id":8453,"date":"2024-10-13T01:31:15","date_gmt":"2024-10-13T01:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/weirdly-wandering-to-wantage-mini-2\/"},"modified":"2024-10-13T01:31:15","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T01:31:15","slug":"weirdly-wandering-to-wantage-mini-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/weirdly-wandering-to-wantage-mini-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Weirdly Wandering to Wantage (mini 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

What Might Happen – The Full Plan<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
0920 Seaton to Axminster\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Axe Valley 885 : arr 0945<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

1006 SWT Axminster to\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Basingstoke arr 1155<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
1209 GWR Basingstoke to\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Reading arr 1236<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

1240 GWR Reading to Didcot (hopefully) arr 1253<\/span>

<\/span><\/p><\/span><\/div>\n

The journey planners will not give you that four minute connection as it is less than that designated for Reading. But fbb will have a go. The journey planner offers a 1248 arr 1301 but not on the table as extracted above. That will be the back up.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
So now, the bus timetable must be examined.\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

The X36 is the quicker journey via Steventon.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
1332 X36 Didcot Parkway to\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Charlton arr 1411\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The 1302 is a tight possibility.\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Or there is the longer X35 which does a double run via Harwell. It looks a slightly more interesting route.\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
1318 X35 Didcot Parkway to<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0Wantage Market Place arr 1403\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p><\/span><\/div>\n

So an earlier arrival than the 1332 X36.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
What Actually Happened On Friday<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The fbbs’ drove<\/span> to Axminster and paid for parking.\u00a0<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Disgraceful<\/span>!<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
The reason was simple. They were coming back today (Sunday) when there are no buses of any shape or colour between Axminster and Seaton. A taxi costs up to \u00a320 and weekend parking is four days at \u00a39.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Here’s how the rest of the journey went. Actual times are shown first, followed by scheduled reality.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
1009\/1006 Axminster<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0two car unit ONLY<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0omitted Andover stop<\/span><\/div>\n
1200\/1155\u00a0<\/span>Basingstoke<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
fail\/1209 Basingstoke<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
1234\/1234 Basingstoke<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0What happened to the 1209?<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0No information given<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The fbbs sat on the train\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 from 1205<\/span><\/div>\n
1305\/1301 Reading<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
1330\/1326 Reading<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0train reduced from 9 to 5<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0coaches.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Reservations cancelled<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0CHAOS<\/span><\/div>\n
1343<\/span>\/1339 Didcot Parkway<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Then No 1 son collected his aged and travel-weary parents from Didcot by car!<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Disgraceful!<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Also disgraceful is the sad fact that of three journeys planned, ALL THREE were in some way inadequate. Even worse was that at least two of the three were “excused” as “stock shortage”.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Why were SWT and GWR (both First Rail companies) unable to supply the correct number of trains? Possible reasons?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Poor quality of fleet<\/div>\n
Poor maintenance of fleet<\/div>\n
Interference by Government<\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 e.g. getting rid of the “Castles” HSTs<\/div>\n
Generally incompetent management<\/div>\n
Saving money by over-using trains<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
What will it be like going home today?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0Next Latvia blog : Monday 14th October\u00a0\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What Might Happen – The Full Plan 0920 Seaton to Axminster\u00a0 Axe Valley 885 : arr 0945 1006 SWT Axminster to\u00a0 Basingstoke arr 1155 1209 GWR Basingstoke to\u00a0 Reading arr 1236 1240 GWR Reading to Didcot (hopefully) arr 1253 The journey planners will not give you that four minute connection as it is less than that designated for Reading. But…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8453","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\/8453"}],"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=8453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}