TravelWatch SouthWest at the Firepool Innovation Centre in Taunton
Friday 24th October 2025

For me - Inspirational.  A valuable day with so much to think about and learn from - both from speakers and from networking with colleagues - partners in the advocacy of better travel and transport.

I have posted onto the "How Stuff Works" board my raw notes - I have given them the briefest spell check once-over but otherwise raw and very much "Errors and Omissions Excepted".  My interpretation of what was said, selective in what inspired me and which I had time to note, and I may have got it wrong in some cases - hence not out there in public view.

TravelWatch SouthWest general meeting day - meeting running from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. - is so much more than those 4 hours for me. It's about the whole day's experience - the planning, the travel, the observation, the networking along the way. And if things go a bit wrong, so be it and there is the more learning from those very issues.

In a perfect world, 07:00 from home, 07:21 train from Melksham, 07:34 from Chippenham, 08:45 from Bristol Temple Meads, 09:17 into Taunton.  But there's no such thing as a perfect world.  I didn't even attempt the 07:21 train - the connection at Chippenham is just under the industry "official" 5 minutes and often fails; not worth the risk. Hindsight - Real Time Trains suggests it made with 75 seconds from arrival to departure at Chippenham yesterday, with both trains late which meant I would probably have been having kittens, and possibly by the time doors were released on one train they would have been closed on the other.

So - "risk assessed" (note how we have added that technical term over the years to our common-sense approach, I walked out of home at 06:45 for the 06:47 bus. The MyTrip App allows me to be drinking coffee and chatting with Lisa even as the bus tracks its way around Melksham Forest and Bowerhill and I only need to walk out to the bus stop as it comes down Pathfinder way. Much of the theme / comment on transport at the TWSW related to ever increasing efficiency, and making public transport as welcoming as private transport.

Bus more or less on time; I don't care if it was a minute or two late - the comfort of tracking has overtaken the watching of the seconds and wondering where it is of years gone by.  Stood on the pavement, under the street light, aware I was in dark clothes and needed to be seen; very clear arm out to stop the bus, arm only withdrawn once he indicated he was pulling in.  Fare £3 - before 9 a.m., so old git card of no use; not sure how the £3 / child fare none-discount that Faresaver give on senior cards before 9 a.m. works - something to do with distance: gee - I wish the fare system was simple and clear.

Six on board into Melksham Market Place where another six joined, and for once no stop at The Bear, but passenger who had been on the bus before I joined got off at Avonside. No stop at Blenheim House or Scholars Way but we did pick up before Shaw, drop off further passenger at Maven House and then pick up as we went through Whitely - transport friend also headed for TWSW amongst others. On through Atworth and then the "top road" past The Swan and through Bathford, again with multiple pickups.  A good illustration of how the odd passengers here and there and the local traffic on and off all come together to make a viable service. Murmurs suggested that being half term the bus was quieter than usual, and my observation somewhat dropped off once I was chatting with John.

The 271 inbound stops in Manvers Street opposite the railway station and makes for really good connection.  The outbound 271 (and 272, 273) does NOT call at Manvers Street ... but a story for another day.

As we arrived in Bath, a text message to tell me that a person had been hit by a train just outside Taunton, and that all trains were on stop. Experience suggests that when such things happen, it will take some hours before trains are running again.  However, the ticket office clerk (yes, an open ticket office at Bath Spa Station with is so helpful and re-assuring) told me that the 08:45 connection from Bristol was running and that we should catch the 08:06 to Bristol to connect into it. John and I were not sure whether to believe that the train was running, but as I'm a board member at TWSW it's incumbent on me to be there for the meeting even "in extremis". So carried on.

Why advise to catch the 08:06 though?  We caught the 07:47 as the first available train to Bristol - it always seems sensible to me to travel on the next available train to an intermediate change rather than wait - as advised and as official systems will offer - the train with the closest possible connection that's within the designated minimum change time.  It seems like a needless risk to watch a train go then have a greater rush to make the change.

An email from an admin lady at TWSW let me know of the "all stop" at Taunton - received on the train, and letting me know that she too was already stuck / stopped at Temple Meads.  Our unofficial networks and information systems ahead of the game again.

Anyway - into Temple Meads and (first thing) search for an onward departure board or member of staff; we knew to leave the platform (15) and look for screens in the subway - for first timers, finding your onward train can be interesting and not obvious at Bristol.  08:45 showing "cancelled", 08:56 to Exeter (and we know that Exeter is beyond Taunton) showing "on time".

We knew to find a member of staff on an excess ticket desk at Bristol on platform 3 - headed that way and as we did, I spotted [R] - TWSW lady and we discussed onward plans. She was pulling in a personal resource to get to Taunton - good on her to get to the job / far more important for her as the meeting admin than for me, but it left us wondering.  Man on ticket desk didn't know - "developing situation - listen our for announcements" and thank goodness John was with me because there was no way I could hear.  We looked at the option of getting the "Falcon" long distance coach at 09:00, but that's a 25 minute walk from Temple Meads, and then would have dropped us off in Taunton on the outskirts (need for further transport or a 2 mile walk to the venue) at 10:35.  A clue from the ticket man, and from a customer assistant on platform 3 doing assisted travel, that they were looking for buses for rail replacement, but had only been able to find 2 at short notice so far and they were both at the Taunton end ... writing this up on the basis of "what do I learn" - no complaint, just "what could be done better" to help the staff help the customers.  The 08:56 - a slower train via Weston eventually ran, I understand, as far as Highbridge and Burnham; should have been indicated as "probably terminating short" on the board but there's a whole new topic there.

What about John and me?  Angels come in all shapes and sizes; a really good friend and member here - THANK YOU - had been out and about and was coming to the meeting and came a long way off his plan (also disrupted by the rail chaos) in his car up to Temple Meads, and picked us up. I would say much more to show just how much that's appreciated, but it's hard to do so without disclosing details that are not mine to share.  I will say THANK YOU again.

And so - three humans and a hound out of Bristol and down the M5 to Taunton and a wonderful chance both to network catch up, and also to see and feel the M5 for the first time for me in - well - a number of years.  From around 08:50 in Bristol, we got to the venue somewhere around 10:00 - for once I dashed in without taking any photo, so I can't look back at a timestamp to give you an exact time.

With so many TravelWatch people coming to Taunton by train, and no trains running, the 11:00 meeting didn't start on time;  trains from Bristol and from Westbury (and probably Exeter too) did arrive soon thereafter - enough to start the meeting at 11:15 as it turned out, with other arrivals up to 11:45 and a number of people - totally understood - taking the step (sensible for them / not meeting admins, etc) deciding to give the meeting a miss.   Several of them here - you missed an excellent meeting and a good opportunity to Network - but missing the meeting won't have been pivotal in our campaigning and it was a good call.

The TWSW admin team, and the staff at the Firepool Centre, did a professional job - and in the case of the TWSW ladies, that was in the extreme of a moving situation and damage limitation - full credit to them too.

I am writing far more than planned here - posting in a minute but going to ask you reading this to add Saturday 7th March 2026 to your calendar for the next TWSW meeting - worth attending even if only half as good as yesterday, but yet early planning is already suggesting it will be twice as good!

Edit to correct typo

 
Return Journey - excellent company and catch up on the very busy 5 car 16:05 Taunton to Westbury; MarkA hope you connected easily to Bath.  I was offered and accepted a lift from a Devizes rep to TWSW who had parked at Westbury and then trained onwards; networking all the way to my front door - thank you for the list and so much more discussed.

The day as a whole?  There are so many informed and motivated people out there - but the whole travel and transport setup and its wider place in the community is so complex that it required continued supreme investment of time, effort and money to make it work, and often gets lead astray from the ideal because of where we are today, limited resources, and individual and political desires taking priority. We know what needs doing.

But, my goodness, there's so much that we're not doing and we're currently in such as state of flux that we have many questions unanswered about what and how we;re doing, and we have - at least locally - a train service that's so unreliable that people are walking away from it.  Witness even my use of bus and lifts yesterday.  And whilst we have talk of doing better, and some changes which have gone a bit in the right direction, overall we have an ongoing problem that's being kicked down the road; that may not be the intent, but it's the effect

 

There might have been - in the end it ran all the way & was only 5 mins late


All the Railway Bill contens to digest for a start....


Edit to correct typo
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