Saturday 11 August 2007

Holidays

Recent weeks have left me with little to say about my fellow commuters or indeed about our friends at Network Rail and First Great Western. The holiday season tends to put me in a less cynical mood.

I do have basic hatred of the idea of going to work in August - it just seems wrong. The French don't work in August. Absolutely brilliant idea. Anyway, I took a couple of pictures of the view from my sun lounger. This is the best one:TTF

3 comments:

NaiT said...

You do have a very beautiful garden TF... How are things? We are home tomorrow - woohoo! The 'garden' of Bath and West is not so pretty but the stars are STUNNING! xx

Anonymous said...

Now 'trainfellow', just spotted your latest blog and thought I ought to let you in on the latest news.

It is cheaper (weekly is circa £30 less)and more reliable (so far only odd minutes late + 2 non stop per hour and 2 fast per hour, each way ~ so no major catastophe if one train is missed etc) from Banbury to Marylebone and back.

So Trainman will continue to drive past Kingham to Banbury each morning until a better Cotswold service replaces the current 'Worst last Western' (see Rail Profession August 2007 edition)

I know you run to Reading so this will not be of any great interest (other than to irritate you on what a 'relatively good' service there seems to be so far at Chiltern). Others may find it interesting.

By the way I get a seat mornings and evenings (as oppossed to the standing room only back from Paddington routine); oh yes there are two other things, (1) there are a lot more tables in the carriages than 'WLW' trains ~ seats seem better too and (2)back from Marylebone takes 63 minutes in the evening ~ I can get the 17.00hrs, get back to Banbury by 18.03 and be at Kingham turnoff by 18.40 (I seem to recall the 17.22 Paddington train generally exceeded its 18.45 illusionary arrival by as much as 30 to 45 minutes quite regularly or even did not arrive at all.

Finally, cheap petrol at Banbury (92.9/l) just outside the station in Morrisons

Hope you are all well and not too delayed etc.

Will keep you updated on any changes etc

TrainMan

The Train Fellow said...

Trainman... I wondered what had become of you. I was concerned you had been washed away in recent floods. I will certainly be updated the world with your changed commute...