We opened in 2007 and our forum is still here.
 
We have 371062 posts of which 59 are new posts yesterday and today.. Our latest topics are:
at 19:21: Lost waterway of Melksham - Wiltshire & Berkshire Canal Trust
at 19:20: Caledonian MacBrayne ferries in Scotland
at 16:44: Aberystwyth cafe asks laptop users not to 'hog' tables
at 16:41: Dual Nationality, Electronic Travel Authorisation and Border Control delays
at 16:35: Problems with Hitachi Intercity Express Trains - ongoing discussion since 2022
at 16:05: Bletchley train derailed on 26 June 2025 due to gap in staff training, says RAIB New topic!
at 12:34: North Cotswold line delays and cancellations - 2026
at 11:33: Cumbrian Coast Line: Bransty Tunnel woes at Whitehaven, until Easter 2026
at 11:16: Manchester Oxford Road station to become a 'canvas' for new artwork New topic!
at 07:54: Two in hospital after bus crashes down embankment on A9 near Aviemore: 12/4/2026
at 21:07: Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWSR) - heritage line
at 21:03: West Coast Railways and ‘Hogwarts Express’ trains - ongoing discussion
at 20:19: A welcome to lurkers, guests and newly registering members on the Coffee Shop forum (merged post
at 18:18: Swindon's Mechanics' Institute saga drags on
at 17:07: Travel warning in Gloucestershire as works take place on railway line - April New topic!
at 16:38: Bodmin & Wenford Railway, Cornwall
at 16:07: Free veteran bus travel scheme launches in Worcestershire - April 2026 New topic!
at 13:18: Squirrels - red, grey or albino, on the railways or otherwise - ongoing discussion
at 12:03: Swindon <-> Westbury service updates and amendments, ongoing discussion - 2026
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News Feed
 
Updated 9th March 2026

Coffee Shop was offline from 11:45 to 16:00 due to what we suspect was a configuration change at our web space provider. They have edited something at their end and we are back!

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23rd January 2026

Running cleanly.

• Database caches all fully updated now, some 30,000 flow pages such as ((this one)) now available near-instantly.

• We have added image copyright tagging - see ((here)). This is to help members when posting setting appropriate copyright, especially of images, on public posts, and to inform readers of the copyright.

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Updated 4th January 2026

All running sweetly at present, but may be a bit slow for a couple of days
The Origin and Destination database has been updated to add the 2024/25 data - the tables now include 10 million individual records and the next time any result is requested, it will be a significant piece of computing. We store (cache) enquirys, so once the computing has been done for any particular combination, the result will be regurgitated very quickly if the enquiry is repeated.

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Updated 25th November 2025


As at 25th November 2025, both servers are running steadily. Traffic has grown - most dramatically from autonama inding us for AI and search engine feeds, and code and configurations have been updated to limit their indexing away from sites and engines which are not appropriate for our geographic area or specialist content.

On 29th August 2025 at around 20:30 our backroom server ceased service page but was still visible to our webmaster in Read-Only mode, and an urgent additional backup was taken. It turned out that change at our service provider had been the route cause. The Coffee Shop was restored on a temporary basis at 06:00 on 30th August and steps have been taken to ensure that the problem does recur.

On 25th March 2025 at around 06:15, our cloud server hosted in a London data centre suffered a power outage. Usually these things come straight back up but in a cruel twist of fate, updates were being written at the instant the power failed to the extent that severe damage was done to the disc image. Service restored, read only, that afternoon with full return the following day (26th March). No posts were lost - a good test of our backups, and good practise to check that these systems were in place.

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Following our late 2024 restructure, we are now running using https (secure) protocols. We are moving towards responsive formats to make the site more friendly when used on smaller screens such as phones, but still giving the same access to over 25,000 user-contributed threads of data.

This graphic shows how we have moved on from a single server to a reception and worker set up, with a surge of access once we changed over - mostly explained by search engines re-indexing us.

As we upgrade and modernise the protocols, we are making a number of other changes over coming months. We hope you enjoy new Coffee Shop experiences and continue to be comfortable in the well established ones. The Coffee Shop continues to be free to use and free of adverts. We are here for the public transport passenger, and independent.

Please get in touch with the team in the event of any issues - our users are our lifeblood.

Ready for 2025
We have undertaken a major restructure of the Coffee Shop Forum in the final days of 2024. The Forum is up and running again for 2025 with the same familiar look and feel, and databases too. You will find that there are a few internal changes and things still to be checked out / debugged in the new structure - please report these is not already noted on the forum. The biggest change you'll see is that we're now using secure (https) protocols.