A "via" does not mean that a stop is needed, and indeed it's valid if the train takes an avoiding line. - the curve at Didcot, the Rhubarb Loop,  the Weston avoider.

 
When it says "VIA WESTBURY" does it mean that the ticket is only valid when changing trains at Westbury or does it cover trains that stop at Westbury and go onto Taunton from where I can change and get a train to Bristol?

 
I did the same on the GWR site with the same result.

There is this on BR Fares concerning the £21.40 ticket.

 
Not on your line, and before your time, an opportunity to absorb the landscape of that part of London as it was in the early 1870s. Camille Pissarro's painting of Lordship Lane station.

Mark

https://www.camillepissarro.org/lordship-lane-station-dulwich.jsp

 

I suspect that the routing guide from Pewsey to Bristol does not allow via Taunton.  I put in the Pewsey to Bristol journey in the TransPennine Express ticket engine which lets you add a "via" and with a "via Taunton" it said no journeys - so, sorry, no break of journey in that way is rather confirmed.  

I changed Bristol to Worle looking for a price either way round, and the price went up through the roof

 
How can I check / confirm that please?

 
Monday 27th July 2026

According to RTT

1W21 1053 Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill was cancelled after Oxford "due to an unknown cause".

The service had departed Paddington 9 minutes late, remained at around that much delayed until Reading, from where it departed 27 minutes down, and expired at Oxford also 27 minutes late.

The return working, 1P26 1316 Worcester Shrub Hill to Paddington, did not run between Worcester and Oxford, also because of "an unknown cause"

 
Others may find different but to me that £21.40 fare to Bristol Temple Meads seems to be valid only via Westbury.

 
An off-peak return from Pewsey to Weston-Super-Mare costs an eye-watering £103.60

However, going via Bristol Temple Meads and splitting the tickets at Bristol Temple Meads brings the off-peak return cost down to £30.70 which is quite a saving.

Going one step further, would I be allowed to use an off-peak return from Pewsey to Bristol Temple Meads via Taunton (costing £21.40) and then break my journey at Weston-Super-Mare?

 
From Facebook


In my youth, I travelled by train to school - from Petts Wood to Sydenham Hill for four years, then to Sevenoaks for a further four, and finally after a year break to Holborn Viaduct (with brief diversions to Charing Cross and back to Sevenoaks) for a further four.

Penge tunnel was a daily passage - twice a day, and yet this article has for the first time made me think of its history; I was young at the time, so I could tell you a lot more about the other that came when I was just a handful of years older.

 

I was going to say that if this interim MD was an internal appointment - as Neil Grabham's replacement at Merseyrail was - it could be done instantly so would not tell you that. But in fact both EMR and Merseyrail are owned by Transport UK (Abellio UK as was), so it does count as internal.

 
From The Business Desk


and


With an incoming interim MD so quickly, I would think that "thems in the know" at EMR didn't find Will Roger departure yesterday quite so sudden.

 

Indeed.  Perhaps in a parallel universe, the UK would have been a part of the Schengen zone (and indeed remained in the EU) and travel from Belgium to the UK would have been as easy as crossing the German - Poland border which I think we have done 4 times in the last few days.   I say "I think" - I know we did it twice on the train, but I think that the rail replacement bus from Goerlitz to Zittau took us from Germany into Poland and back into Germany again.

 

AI on Google has given us a tiny bit more - or is it just a rewording with some assumption? 

 
National Rail has a bit more

 
RAIL Magazine are reporting "Will Rogers, Managing Director at EMR, has left with immediate effect".   Article is behind a paywall so I don't know if any reasons given.

 
Congestion causing problems in Salisbury area


https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates/live-network-updates

 

Me too, but they don't enlarge, I would guess that is the point being made

 

Fascinating insight Dave, thank you.   This was my third visit - on my first I did the main tourist thing to The Brocken from Wernigerode - no stop overnight in the town, rather part of a day as I passed through.  My second I passed though from Quedlinburg to Nordhausen, taking a railbus to Alexisbad, a steam train to Eisfelder Talmühle and another railbus to Nordhausen.  And on the third trip - this one - I "almost completed" the network by taking the train from Wernigerode to Eisfelder Talmühle, and on the following day revisited The Brocken with Lisa.   We also had a chance to look around the town centre and found much, much more there than a mere interchange.

The """Restaurant 1835"/Hotel Altora dining room, Wernigerode.  Drinks and desserts delivered by train!"" was chosen as a must-do-once experience and we are glad we did it, but like Stonehenge it's a one off bucket list thing and not something we would repeat.  The room was lovely, although a couple of aspects suggested that the architect who put it together hadn't actually stayed there.  The staff, sadly, confirmed a previous Trip Advisor reviewer's feedback that priority was given to German guests and British visitors were offered only a lower and slower standard of table and service.

From Eisfelder Talmühle ... parallel trains departed towards Alexisbad and Wernigerode at 13:47, but the Alexisbad service this year is a railbus ... which drew up and waited so that it could leave in parallel. The line onward from there  towards Nordhausen is rail replacement buses as present as far as Ifield, where you transfer to the tram that shares the same line.

Probably easier on a map ... taken from the table in the trains



The section from Drei Annen Hohne to Eisfelder Talmühle is very much the lesser for me to suggest to others - yes, the forests are gone and at this time of year it's a sea of purple willow herbs and skeletons of trees

 

All the reports I have seen state that there will not be an Antwerp stop in the opposite direction and changing trains at Brussels, to complete immigration checks, will be required.

 
I've noticed since the heatwave tour trains to Kingswear haven't picked up a steam locomotive at Taunton.

Is this because of the fire risk to the trackside. There was a fire near Goodrington on Saturday.

Oddly enough I remember years ago London Underground had a tour train with a preserved LT tank engine and it set fire to a lot of hedges between Upminster and Barking.

Whoops! I've just read the thread below and didn't realise Network Rail has banned them from the mainline. Never been a steam engine or diesel buff.

 
1st August is now the fancied date for Okehampton Interchange to open.



RealTime trains showing trains stopping from 1st August

 
'Time Out' article.

"Two beautiful towns could get direct trains to London
Campaigners in Wiltshire want to reinstate direct trains from London to Trowbridge and Bradford-on-Avon"

Mark

https://www.timeout.com/london/news/beautiful-wiltshire-towns-direct-trains-london-072626

 

I have indeed Grahame,  many times over the years.

My first visit was July 1991 when the Harz system, including freight, was still run by DR (Deutsche Reichsbahn) as part of the local public transport network.
The Brocken had not yet re-opened following re-unification and there was still a Russian outpost at the summit.
Steam still reigned supreme and regular parallel departures from Eisfelder Talmühle and Alexisbad were a sight to behold and clearly a source of pride amongst the loco crews!
Gernerode to Quendlingburg was still standard gauge and had a passenger service.  The connection with the Nordhausen tram network probably hadn't even reached the drawing board stage
A major part of the Harz network ran in "green tunnels" through dense coniferous forest well before the beetle struck leading to the present almost post-apocalyptic landscape - but much better distant views!

Dave

 

I am old enough to remember when pigeons were viewed as so cute there was a kids' TV programme about them…

 
Oddly the Paignton masterplan of 2015 envisaged an open crossing with no cars, only pedestrians. The trains would be going as in this case slow enough to stop. A Voyager is shown in the image. The tall statement building is on the site of Poundland and SportsDirect.

Paignton Town Square 2015 adopted masterplan by Robert, on Flickr

 
Not until tomorrow morning if they want to see tonight's acts. Campsite must be vacated by midday.

 

Stop being added to London - Amsterdam trains.

Not sure they'll stop on the return though? (Are they going to add a full border post there?)

 
A year ago, it ought to be said. Not recent.

 
This time, man's best friend causing the train to paws...



I'll leave others to comment on the merits, or otherwise, of trespassing instead of waiting for railway staff, and crawling under a train...