21yo male from UK, currently studying Aviation at Leeds University. Interested in most sports, parti...
21yo male from UK, currently studying Aviation at Leeds University. Interested in most sports, particularly Kayaking and Deep sea diving
Member since:04.10.2003
Reviews:6
Members who trust:1
Having lived in an area outside of Taunton for the last 16 years of my life I feel comeplled to write my views on the good and bad points of travelling around the area.
First, a quick introduction into Taunton. The county town of Somerset is still known as a market town and has over 60'000 residents in and around the town. Most of the population of Taunton is made up of small villages and hamlets around the area but a recent input of money into the area is seeing a large amount of development in and around the area.
The surrounding area is stunning, the portal into the West Country. Surrounded by the Qunatocks and the Mednips there are beautiful walks and places of outstanding natural beauty. The centre itself is also very quaint. The shopping areas are very compact, but the river and canal afford some breathing space and you can get out of the centre very easily.
But anyway,
this is a review on the travelling aspects of Taunton. So this will include areas to do with car travel, rail, airports, canal buses.
Car travel starts off with the M5. To enter the town you need to get off at junction 25. The M5 is a good motorway with links to all over the country. Most people join the M5 either at Birmingham if coming from the North or at Bristol if coming from the East or Wales. This is where the problem lies. At the current time of writing the juntcions around Bristol are going through some major works and there are often massive traffic jams around this area. However, after getting past Bristol the motorway clears and it is often an open stretch of motorway all the way down to Taunton.
The main roads around the town are pretty good. The A358 heads out towayds Glastonbury and is a pretty little road. The signs are actually too good and appear much too often, usually ruining quite a lot of scenery, but at least oyu can find your way round. Due to the recent increase in the population a lot of the inner town roads get quite congested, espceially in the morning and 1600 - 1800 kind of times when people are going in and out from work. The centre was recently cobblestonde to try and slow traffic down which it has done, and is also quite dangerous when wet. I would try to avoid driving around the centre during the day if at all possible, due simply to the traffic and high parking charges.
Rail links to the town and fantastic and cannot be faulted. There are loads of trains each day to London or the North and Taunton is on the main line so therefore no changes are necessary, although can be made if you want a quicker time (for example sometimes the train may stop at Birmingham where a change can be made, which leave ealrier than a direct route). The main station is situated just outside the centre and can easily be walked to. The station is very quaint and has all the usual facilities. A regular bus service also runs to the town centre for those too lazy to walk ;)
Taunton surprisingly (or not...) doesn't have its own airport. The nearest ones are Exeter or Bristol. Regular coaches run from the Bus station to both airports and both provide fantastic links to the outside World, Bristol primarily but there are some good deals also running from Exeter.
I thought I'd just mention the canal as it's such a beautiful part of Taunton and shouldn't be missed out. It provides a lovely walk from Taunton to Bridgwater and has recently had quite a lot of money spent on it to provide a better surface to cyclists and also a Planetary walk where the sun is in the middle between the two towns and then the planets go outwards towrads each town so that there is a Pluto in each town centre. Each planet has a little plaque about it and they are all in relative size to each other and the distances and also relative.
Right, now on to the bad points. The BUSES... grrr.... I currently study at Leeds University and I never actually realised until I came up here how bad the buses are in Taunton. Around the centre they're not too bad, but if you want to go out to the villages or hamlets they're just so expensive and run very infrequently. I've often waited for half an hour and one has never even turned up. I believe that Southern National are trying to do something about it, but a £5 return ticket for a 25 minute journey just seems so ridiculous when it costs around £2 for an all day ticket up here.
Therefore if you are going to Taunton I recommend you either drive or get the train. And if you get the train, bring your bikes as the buses will never get you anywhere.
I hope this has been useful to you. Don't forget to visit this beautiful area, just don't use the buses.
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Anywhere with a decent rail link gets my vote. But the buses thing is interesting. Around here its the other way around. I can get to the coast (20miles) for about what it costs to do 4 or 5 miles across town. (But then I AM happy to see country routes subsidised...so I guess there's just no pleasing me.)
Lx
welshfruitbat 27.02.2006 11:52
Great review.
MAFARRIMOND 27.02.2006 03:29
A clear and interesting account of travel in the area. Maureen
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