Geoff travels on the branch with GWR MD Mark Hopwood who grew up locally - subjects covered include the line's token system and the original site of Marlow Station:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWf8LkRtgX0

 
That is absolutely brilliant, BBM - thanks for posting that link! 

I commend this clip to all of our members and readers - and with thanks to Mark Hopwood, for his personal input.

My paternal grandparents used to live in Bourne End, and when we visited, I used to travel on the Marlow Donkey.

CfN.

 
And more generally, I highly recommend subscribing to Geoff Marshall's YouTube channel. Always great content.

 
Seeing that peak-time walk between trains for Marlow passengers, thank goodness the Bourne End buffer stops are reasonably close to the end of the rails**.

Mark

** Unfortunate that buffer stops are not a lot closer to High Wycombe. The current arrangement, it's almost as if it's a ghost from the last years of the through route, when, rather than Marlow being a branch and served from the bay, trains to the town ran to and from Maidenhead using one of Bourne End's through platforms, & High Wycombe - Bourne End being run as a shuttle.

So, the useful through route now demanded a change of trains, but I'm sure that the connections for through travellers were not arranged to inconvenience them. Does anyone have a Western Region passenger timetable for, say, 1968 or '69?

 
Bourne End personal trivia. The area it serves is peppered with idiosyncracies, and not only on Mr Hopwood's railway.

It's the location used by a travelling companion for a one-off journey to work in London, and they were hopeful that on crossing the concourse at Paddington Station that they'd be asked to complete a travel survey - something that was slightly in vogue at the time.

If they *had* been asked about modes of travel during their journey to work, rather than the usual "Cycle to the station, train to Waterloo and walk", it would have been "Funicular railway, then, electric powered canoe launch down and across the river, walk to Bourne End station, then onto a train, one change onto the GW main line to Paddington, finally Bakerloo line."

6 changes and 5 modes, a couple of which would have stretched any travel survey's tick boxes.

All on time too. :-)

Mark

 

Cue grahame? 

 

I have a 1967/68 ... which I will upload after yet ANOTHER Town Council meeting tonight - second of three this week!

 
There you are, Mark A: I'm just rolling on the floor laughing now.  I simply knew grahame would have it! 

 

 
Thanks for digging those out.

Soooo... the later of those two timetables, Marlow & High Wycombe's through services to Paddington have gone. High Wycombe to Maidenhead is now a mixture of through trains & others involving a minimum 15 minute wait at Bourne End.

Saturdays, a thin but somewhat sensible timetable for High Wycombe to Bourne End, several of which run direct.

Sunday, no service High Wycombe to Bourne End (as previously). That part of the line would close at the start of May 1970.

Closing lines can become habit-forming. You wonder how close Marlow came to losing its railway.

Mark

 
It's one of those that would be a very useful link to have now...but the cost of reinstating it isn't worth it.

 
The line of route has now got housing on it....

 

Doing a Thurso ... it's actually the same same train with those 15 minutes taken up at Bourne End by the train carrying in to Marlow and coming back from there to carry on.

 

Yes, that was my point about the cost of reinstatement being too high.  Much of it, especially at the Wycombe end, has been obliterated by housing and roads and there's no sensible prospect of realignment given the topography and general density of settlements and roads in the area.  Doesn't stop it occasionally being mentioned though!

 
Fast forward nearly 55 years to 2024, and does a bus service parallel the route?

Yes, and seven days a week too, though it doesn't quite serve High Wycombe Station. It's not an atrocious service, hourly clockface weekdays north of Bourne End and hourly clockface on Sundays. Three buses deployed to the route on weekdays. End of service isn't particularly late, mind, but it has this in common with very very many bus services.

Mark

https://bustimes.org/services/37-high-wycombe-maidenhead?date=2024-11-20&service=37&service=37A&service=37B

 
Thirteen (or fourteen) minutes by train, but over thirty (35 actually) by bus.

 
Can someone confirm the Henley - Marlow - Thames Path 'easement' arrangements on this and the Henley branch that allows one to travel via one and return by the other, facilitating that Thames walk (with a nice pub in the middle I believe). I have looked it up in the Routeing Guide (Table E) but have drawn a blank.

 
Not an easement, but interavailability for the Off Peak Day Return to allow walking the Thames Path.

Buy your Off Peak Day Return to furthest point from your origin station. The destination choices are Henley, Marlow and Windsor & Eton Central.

Not widely publicised but I believe the interavailability is still valid.

 

Any idea where that is documented?

 

Would expect it at https://www.gwr.com/stations-and-destinations/travel-inspiration/blogs/historic-henley-and-marlow-walk but it isn't.

 
It doesn't say that the ticket arrangement is in place.  Is it entirely informal ?

I was going to post the example on Geoffs website, but did not want to do so until I have absolute proof that I am not peddling myths.

 

We have previously searched from the forum, but linked documents seem obscure and no longer current.  It is not in the routing guide easement list where I would have expected to find something similar to this example from elsewhere:

 

Thank you Graham. It was where I first went looking too.

Could someone with social media savvy (and that is definitely not me!) reach out to GWR and see if this well thought-out arrangement is still in place and if so, where it is documented. Good intentions are of no defence if one was to meet the autonomous "we-are-revenue-protection" brigade. I have sadly seen them in action.

 
The Kyle / Mallaig easement might be linked to the need to provide for passengers on certain ferries that may change their port of arrival between Mallaig and e.g. Uig on Skye for various reasons, though in that case it might be expected to see Oban on that list as well, though I don't know the ferries well enough to be aware if Oban's a bit of a variable too. The trains aside, it must be a bit of an issue if you have a vehicle parked up at Mallaig and your ferry decides to head for Uig...

Mark

 

I don't post to Twitter any more but have just asked what is purportedly their Bluesky account. (A reply might not be forthcoming as allegedly many TOCs are awaiting an update to whatever software it is that they use to coordinate their various social media activities)

Mark

 

This is all very old-fashioned - defined in the National Fares Manual and nowhere else. According to the RailUK Fares & Ticketing Guide, there is a list of such interavailability concessions in the Manual (and probably another list for Scotrail). This list was made available there "with permission from ATOC" in 2018. There are a lot more of them than you think! The relevant one reads:

Origin/destination shown on ticket	Henley-on-Thames
Also available to travel to/from	Bourne End, Cookham, Furze Platt, Marlow, Shiplake, Wargrave or Windsor & Eton Central
Inter-availability applies to these ticket types and/or tickets issued from:	Off-Peak Day Returns only. Ticket must be issued to the furthest point.
TOC fare setter (to whom any enquiries regarding this interavailability arrangement should be directed)	Great Western Railway

 
Thank you stuving - I have mirrored the file for members at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/mirror/interavailable_origin_dest.pdf

I actually used the concession on 19th June 2021 - from Melksham, ticket to Marlow but travelled out to Henley. I was prepared to explain my ticket if asked between Twyford and Henley, but there was no ticket check and I can't report of the awareness of staff or the currentness of the information in the ATOC document.  It almost feels like a disappointment when using an unusual ticket arrangement to not be checked.

 

They were already gathering a smatter of attention and this morning have responded to all that they're not quite ready to field responses via Bluesky yet. They're also in the process of sorting the domain handle thing.

Mark


https://bsky.app/profile/gwruk.bsky.social/post/3lbjobxgpf32w