Wales & West Railway

...last weekend I travelled by Wales & West Alphaline Train to Manchester - no mean feat I hear you all say - well 16 years ago I had an incident with a train, standing on a platform behind the safety line in a station, the train was pulling in and some bright spark opened the door which proceeded to hit me at some 35mph leaving me with a good bit of physical damage (those poor ambulance men that had to carry me up the stairs), but more so psychological ...
...To be fair to Wales and West Alphaline, they made regular announcements for destinations and when changes were required for alternative venues. Amazingly having heard the horror stories about works on the track and delays I was pleasantly surprised to discover we both departed and arrived bang on time - surely they couldn't be that efficient more than once? GETTING BACK We arrived by Taxi at Manchester Piccaddilly to discover hoards of people and ...

sue.51 14.10.2001 (15.10.2001) · Read full review
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Review of Wales & West Railway

...improve my love of the Wales and West service or Bristol Temple Meads. I am sure that I am not expecting too much when I ask a member of staff whether I am boarding the right train. I should know if I'm boarding the right train, it's not too difficult, except for when platform changes go unnanounced (a particular favourite of mine), or a later train beats the scheduled train in, or the train pulling up is to all intents and purposes a ghost train, ...
...generated, but for 4 weeks Wales and West helped me to see Bath from every conceivable angle. I grew quite attached to Bath Spa, and when the monitors were finally fixed at Temple Meads, I quite missed having to ask a strategically shaved gorilla if I was boarding the wrong train with no hope of getting home. Last weekend I travelled back and forth to Bristol visiting friends, and boy did I wish I'd walked. Wales and West can't honestly operate ...

dadmancat 22.05.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Wales & West Railway

The wind whistles on the unsheltered station and whips at your face and shoulders, pushing the heavy rucksack against your back, but still no train. You wait, getting increasingly impatient and desperate for the toilet as the one at the station is locked on a Sunday. Eventually your hope dies as there is no sign of the 10.17 to Manchester, in desperation you drag your heavy bags into the station office and beg the attendant to assist you even though ...
...where it began as the trains are not running on this particular sunday due to 'trouble on tracks'. You discover that British Rail enabled you to buy a ticket and book a seat on a train that was never destined to make its journey. You were misinformed by Rail Information, you had to beg a family member to give you a lift, 200 miles up the motorway and when you ask for a refund, guess what happens... They ask you to pay an admin fee, an inconvenience ...

katarina 20.04.2001 (03.05.2001) · Read full review
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Review of Wales & West Railway

wales and west to me a joke, they should fee up the track for more of the virgin or great westen trains. wales and west firstly have no food carts, sleeping carts, or clean seats! The trains are from the exterior just about ok but then u get inside as soon as u realise ur mistake the doors have shut and u have no choice but to sit...no stand. My bad experience came about when me and two friends decided to go on a bike ride we caught a train from ...
...ours in a grotty dark empty station untill 2am really not only makes u angry but also ur parents who r egerly awaiting ur return so they can go to bed!! so dont travell on the grotty, unreliable, unhelpful, costly train service that is wales and west! thank you ...

Muffin 05.05.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Wales & West Railway

One of the main routes i find useful is the Portsmouth Hardbour to Cardiff (okay, it ends in Swansea but i've never been that far). I live just outside bath, and often have to catch connections to London, Plymouth, Cardiff, and to the North of England. The best thing about the line is that the Bristol and Westbury stations are the main connection stations for all these places. Give yourself at least a 5 minute gap (preferably 10 mins) between trains ...
...often do the trains run on time anyway? More than likely your first train will be late, and your second one will have gone by the time you get there. That has happened to me once or twice, but it is not normally more than an hours wait until the next train comes along. Not good if you are going to a meeting, but not so bad if you are just travelling around for the weekend. ...

sbenbow 12.02.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Wales & West Railway

i myself am not a regular train traveller, but i thought that by now the railway network may have sorted out its problems, so because fo this me and my friedns decided to catch the train and take our bicycles on a trip to paignton and then ride to blackpool sands. we arrived at taunton train station, only to our disbelief to find that we would have to be charged £3 EACH WAY to take our bikes onto the train, this caused much anger in the eyes of ...
...and ride places, we try and do this but get charged. the person behind the till tehn rectified the situation and we were not charged when boarding the train.in my view the next hassle was gettign the bikes on tho the trian and into the train compartment, we had to lift 3 bikes into the carriage and then secure them into bike holders that are not suitable for all bikes. as well as this you also tehn have to leave the bike carriage and then board the ...

fedamunta 05.05.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Wales & West Railway

Wales and West trains. What can be said! From the outside, and the inside these trains appear old, unclean and shabby – and largely only consist of two carriages. The glossy advertising and modern logos give Wales and West a prestigious look, but when you board the train your opinions will change dramatically. There are no food carts, sleeper compartments or any of the luxuries offered by the rail big boys, such as Virgin and First Great Western. ...
...However, one good aspect of Wales and West Trains is that they are ideally suited to carrying bikes. The service reaches many rural locations in the south west, and many cyclist friendly areas. If you can afford to wait for the next train, do, do not take Wales and West because quite frankly you will be appalled. ...

leematthews 04.05.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Wales & West Railway