Thank you for confirming that. 

The original post says "this is to ensure compliance".  Reading that carefully, I found myself wondering if it's easier for Irish Ferries simply to have a standard check (passport) for everyone that meets and indeed surpasses what the Border Force want - and that the Border Force would be happy with other IDs such as a driving license, bus pass, ...

 
Reading today that the DfT have given money to repair the station. GWR don't pay for anything except maybe the new staff exit and on the platform 2 a train indicator the size of  a large Ipad on a post.

I don't know if there was insurance money but the ticket office looks to be out of action for months?

 
Indeed, you can walk across the land border between N.Ireland & Eire. Still.

 

Northern Ireland is part of the UK, so no reason to require a Passport.

 
I still have a copy of this particular timetable book and indeed had marvelled at the Lavington service. I did also do a first and last trip to Devizes in the last days. This involved the service that Mark highlights and I had intended to explore at Patney. It was however snowing heavily and about a foot deep. So a swift return to the train was sensible. I had to buy a separate ticket at Devizes for the trip to Patney and I still have a complete Edmonson Ordinary return ticket - Third Class.

 
This change strikes me as contradicting the original legislation. Need a serious lawyer involved. In an article today there is no change to using ferries to Northern Ireland or to crossing the border. Apparently not all airlines require a passport for journeys to the Republic although the Irish immigration do seem to like one.

I have not used an Irish Ferry for perhaps 10 years and then no id of any sort was required. I just had to give (any) name! 

 
I suspect if you tried to book the Melksham to Weymouth service, it "might" offer a reservation BUT it would be specified as any seat on the train. The system does this from time to time on Weymouth services especially if a via WSB journey where a onward reservation might be "genuine."

 
From Irish Ferries via Facebook


I have travelled many time to Ireland with Irish Ferries, Stena, and occasionally Air Flingus and Ryanair.  Passport has never been required on the ferry before and I thought we had a free travel zone? This reads as if it's a UK Government change? what about the Stranraer to Larne and other ferries to Northern Ireland, and indeed the Enterprise international train from Belfast to Dublin?

 

............or they just don't go at all.  I used to be a fairly frequent day tripper to London. 0950 through train to Waterloo and the 1920 through train back to Warminster - perfect timings.  Then the through trains were removed.....then, eventually, a few through trains were re-introduced (London bound only). The (new) 0750 to Waterloo was useful - it meant a change at Salisbury, with variable connection times, on the return leg but wasn't too bad.  Now the 0750 through train has been removed................should I bother any more ?

Buy some new colour matched mats for the Fiesta perhaps.............

 

Pleased to see that XC are now once again serving Brockenhurst on their hourly Bournemouth <>Manchester services.

 
With the move of train operation from train operating companies to HM Government, shareholder interest lessens amd political interest increases.  And that means that inputs via our elected representatives are likely to be all the more important in the future; I'm looking to our MPs at present, but also to our Unitary Council which is the "LTA" - Local Transport Authority - and potentially to new regional mayors.

The West Wiltshire Rail Users Group covers an area split between two constituncies - Melksham and Devizes represented by Brian Mathew, and South West Wilthshire represented by Andrew Murrison

I am posting this under "new and campaigns" because at the current time, with loads of changes happening and with risks and opportunities abounding, the group is far more than just a train information club.



Melksham and Devizes:



South West Wiltshire:

 

I can't remember GWR ever providing a service for Taplow on a Sunday - at least not in the 25 or so years I've lived here - other Forum members will no doubt recall me moaning on this subject at length over the years (not that I'm inclined to moan of course  )

Now we get a half hourly Elizabeth Line service - a huge improvement.

 

Those prices are what the Interrail's agency will charge you for a reservation.  Your Interrail pass generates your ticket and there is no need for a reservation on most trains which, however, you can make at that price or for free at a ticket office or on some sites - the GWR new look has removed the option to do just-reservations but I believe it's still available at TPE without a fee. 

You DO need to make reservation in the UK on sleeper trains and some open access trains.  There may be the odd one of those in the screen capture I did, but most of those are National Network services which you can just jump on.  Without a seat reservation, you are not guaranteed a seat


Well identified down to the line.  I was pointing out the potential absurdity if all UK trains went "reservation required".

 
The interrail example at those prices must be Advance tickets surely - which require reservations - as do Lumo services which may also be included in the services being offered in that grid.

That photo is of an London Underground service (Bakerloo?).

 

If you see pictures of Devizes station in this period, you see a single track through what was once a three platform station, the line snaking in over stubs of pointwork.  No-one was bothering with connections or generating traffic, by that point knowing that the axe was about to fall.

It's a common sort of pattern - two trains a day into Halwill from the north, with the second one arriving 10 minutes after the train headed towards Okehampton and Exeter had left.

 

What was it they provided on Sundays for Taplow please?

Mark

 
So, the early one aside, the sole morning eastbound train through Devizes waits at Devizes for 25 minutes, heads to Patney and arrives there two minutes after an all-stations connection to Reading leaves?

 

Indeed - and people voting with their feet ... to take to the car ...

 
Looking at the GWR booking engine for this Saturday, Melksham to Weymouth:





Me thinks this is incorrect - and yet "reservations compulsory" or "reservations required" flags seem to be coming up at various odd places - this (above) is a GWR example and here is an Interrail example:



With multiple "errors" suggesting reservations are needed, I find myself wondering if there's any truth in the conspiracy theory that the railways want us to reserve seats whenever we travel in the future and are softening us up by plugging a false requirement.

For sure, it might help avoid scenes like this:

but wouldn't it lead to overcrowding at some stations while people waited for the train they were booked on rather than getting the next available service?

 
Sharing from https://www.facebook.com/MelkshamTUG ... I'll be headed. for Weymouth this Saturday on the penultimate direct day trip train of the year - final run on 5th September, bustituted from Melksham on 12th.

 

Selective door fault - an "all or nothing" train?  Yetminster is a request stop too, but the platform there is plenty long enough for the whole train. Good to see than an alternative plan is in place and advertised.  Not sure where the taxis can stop at Thornford or at Chetnole, mind - the roads are pretty narrow and there's no parking I can recall at either station.

 

If Devizes wasn't clever .. here's the other route from Westbury via Patney & Chirton.  Fancy travelling from or to Lavington?

 
Looking at connection times out of its trains, the first four I checked, Devizes services would have been a distress purchase by then.

 

20 minutes later all the way up.  Ironically, if it was timetabled to run at the time it actually ran today, it would provide a more useful return service for commuters from Westbury and Trowbridge via Melksham to Chippenham and Swindon.   How much extra traffic it would generate, I don't know - there's no equal and opposite train in the morning - a gap from 06:29 to 09:09 at Melksham.

 
Ironically it left just as the above was being posted - some 20 minutes late.

With the new later return time of 17:45, it set back from Swindon on time. 

 
From a timetable obtained for a few shekels at Sheffield Park last Saturday

 

 
All the way from Avonmouth to Reading ... the Avon, Kennet and Kennet and Avon Canal between them are accessible, with some long gaps, from the railway. Some wonderful station to station walks.   Here are some pictures on the longest unstationed section - Trowbridge to Pewsey.

 

Many thanks for that.  It's a story that, sadly, I'm familiar with.  Been around with learned and informed people to have picked so much up by osmosis. It continues to feel like a tragic missed opportunity, and one that parties with differing interests put so much heart into delivering the outcome they wanted that they remain sore to this day, to the extent that trying to move forward towards a shared and connected future still reads like pulling teeth.

Even generations later, the "big railway" still seems to impose costs and regulations on smaller players who would benefit - and so would their areas - from a realistic approach, and the young volunteers who were so hurt by the failure(s) remain untrusting - they may say realistic - in their more senior years.  They don't want to risk going out onto a limb, or showing a weakness by offering compromise.   Add to that - the modern data and technology age give rise to an abilityto add layers or rules and regulation, consultation and analysis, all with costs and longer timescales.  So that really doesn't make it feel like things are well-placed to get arrangements good for passengers and the area served implemeneted.