A hotel we will not be using again ... a Trip Advisor review from last (2025) December:


I have to admit also feeling like second class citizens at dinner on the day after we arrived .  We were kept standing (no easy for Lisa) for a while before being seated, while service went on all around us.  When we were seated, at an awkward table than would not have been our choice, service was slow.  Others who arrived and were seated after us were served first. Drinks arrived wrong, and that after a careful discussion on what was wanted. I needed (and that's a need not just a want) water to help me eat, but it was very hard to attract any of the wait staff's attention and when we did the order was taken but never delivered.  We raised this with the waitress in charge - who was the one who had eventually taken our order - and she *did* apologise - sort of, passing the blame on to here team who she said she had told.  As far as I could see, we were the only ones with service issues.

I picked up this particular review after the event, having looked back to see if our experiences were unique.  On the hotel side, the young lady who checked us in was pleasant and polite and seemed helpful, but seemed to struggle with the computer system in finding our booking and giving us our room.  My time and motions hat had me crawling with frustration, and it later turned out as far as I could tell she had only encoded the key card for one day, meaning a further trip to the reception (in a different building) and another long wait on the IT system.  As we checked out, I paid the room tax ("cash only") and it was the same young lady who told me we weren't staying there ... read out for me the guest names in the building we were in and then - "oops - those are the names for tonight" and then she found us.

"Room 422 in the building just across" - building easy to find, guess at where to hold the keycard, and it worked.  But only 2 floors and it was a guess in the lift.  No use of the convention of the first digit being the floor number. We *did* find our room on the second floor.    The room was nice - very nice - but we got the feeling that some aspects were designed by a designer and not by someone who stayed in hotels.   Lack of a bedside table, lack of a light controllable from the bed, or indeed a light over one side of the bed, electronic door lock that closed so quickly we could hardly get into the room. 

I read the review I quoted at the beginning; yes, I do think the hotel treated us differently and less caringly because we were from far, far away.   The review quoted talks of being part of a group, and I suspect the wider issues are part of the concerns they had across the region. Certainly we have found that in Germanic countries and touristy areas that the groups can be off-putting to even us as individual tourists, with guides somewhat pushy as they look after their groups to the exclusion and comfort of others.  "Do you mind moving your bag so we can sit" works well with the general population and leads to conversations, but it was a tour guide who blocked us on the previous trip from getting to the mobility impaired seating for Lisa - "these seats are all reserved" when they were not!

We may return to Wernigerode - the town is lovely, the other restaurant we ate in got it so exactly right that they put our hotel to shame with the contrast, and the Harz railway system and area and places it passes are fascinating.  In some ways "preserved" but not really - heritage haulage on a tourist line up the Brocken, modernised in so many ways, with branches and lines off which are varied and perhaps suffer from being far too close to the "honeytrap" section when they are worth a visit in their own right. 

Well - should I post a review? Some concerns were raised with the restaurant manager / head waitress but she fobbed it off onto her staff - and did give us a bottle of water to take up to the room. "If something's nor right, please tell us" is a common line / desire from places, but here I got the impression that it was a nuisance to raise issues and they know better than we could. I will probably not post any review, but if you're headed to Wernigerode and pick up this post, I'll be happy to name in private and help friends not have the same clouds spoil the otherwise wonderfully sunny feel of the town and area.

 
GWR/NR are aiming for a re-opening of Tuesday.  Initially was Monday but pushed back a day so aspirations are more realistic. 
Considerations are a temporary entrance via the car park needs to be made, train formations need to be restricted to prevent any part being under the damaged structures and there'd be no direct access between platforms 1 and 2.

 
No. 2 is indeed Vienenburg in Lower Saxony, and No.s 3 and 5 are somewhere on the HSB (Harz) network; we have other members familiar with those lines who may be able to be more specific.   No. 8 isn't even in Poland - though we were waiting for an international train to Poland at that station. 

 
Fair comment, noted: posts now moved and merged.  CfN. 

 
After much more head scratching, I think we're back in Poland, for 8. Wroclaw. 

 
I only just managed to stop myself from posting 'Cue stuving' here. 

 
Both 3 and 5 look like the HSB - seen last time in Wernigerode Bahnhofsplatz - which is where both of these are too, I think.

 
Lest it be thought that I have 'inside information' here, I don't. 

The printed itinerary which grahame gave me tells me where he is now - not where he was when he took those pictures. 

After two mugs of coffee and two slices of chocolate cake to give my brain some energy, I can offer the following:

1.  A hybrid train, somewhere in Poland.  Sorry, that's the closest I can offer.

2.  Vienenburg station, Lower Saxony.

Other members of the Coffee Shop forum, familiar with Europe, will do far better than me on this one. 

 
Hmmm ... 

Very kindly, grahame gave me a printed sheet of A4 detailing their itinerary for their 'grand tour' of Europe.

I'm still struggling - but will hopefully offer a couple of suggestions here, when I've mulled them over with a mug of coffee and slices of chocolate cake. 

 
Lisa and I have travelled through former East Germany and are now beyond.   No detailed log as I might do for UK journeys, but we have seen platform changes, delays, crowding, and a train terminated short and having to rush over tp another.  These things are not unique to the UK, and the number of incidents I could report is such that I can be sure they're not as unusual over here as might be wished either.

Would anyone care to hazard a guess - or perhaps more than a guess at any of these?   Bearing in mind they are a bit specialised, please feel free to identify several if you can

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.


9.

 
A few subsequent posts here, which refer specifically to the Minehead Branch line, have been split off and merged with an ongoing discussion, at https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=2688.msg377316#msg377316

Nothing has been deleted - just merged, in the interests of continuity and clarity, for ease of future reference.

 
I've looked at the receipt, and the full price would have been £16.32; £6 promo (not sure what for) and £1.38 "promotions and adjustments" which might include some of the 10% credit I get from train ticket purchases. If I'd had to pay the full price I'd have hung around for the Salisbury train.

I did tip the nice driver £2, which will come out of the £5 Delay Repay.

 
I have 'moved and merged' a few more posts here, as they all relate to this specific topic.

 
Questions: Was there ever an additional running line on the north side of the present infrastructure west of Taunton which, if reinstated, would allow WSR services to run to & from the mothballed / abandoned station platform without getting in the way of 'GBR' trains.

And if 'Yes' are there any other impediments to reinstatement apart from the obvious cost, the footbridge over Trenchard Way and what looks like signalling cabinets?

Or, if regular Taunton <> Minehead services ever returned would fitting WSR trains with AWS and/or TPWS equipment suffice?

 
Well as expected I missed the connection. Oh well I thought, at least they'll offer me a taxi...

Nope - the helpful and apologetic member of station staff explained that the delay now has to be more than 2 hours, and the Salisbury service is 7.00.

So I'm now in an Uber  It was only £9 with some sort of promo, which I can afford.

EDIT: and the Uber/taxi saves me the 1.6 mile walk from the station to home. Although I got the Uber driver to drop me off about half a mile early so I could get at least some of the expected exercise (yes I'm a bit obsessive).

 

Headline performance stats are operationally slanted.   No element I'm aware of to consider total journey time for people who have changes along the way.    There ARE a few services that get held in the event of late running, and my impression is that it' better than it used to be.

 
That is just rubbish service for the passengers wanting to connect to Melksham - and all for the sake of a couple of minutes on a delayed service? 

 
Trespassers on the railway somewhere between Bath and Chippenham I guess; I'm on the 17:12 Bristol-Oxford and we're stopped just after leaving Bath. And very annoyingly we've just been overtaken by the 17:29 Bristol-Paddington, which means our ETA at Chippenham is now 1 minute after the 18:00 Chippenham-Melksham departs 

 
This topic has been moved to Heart of Wessex and merged with an existing topic there - with thanks to Coffee Shop forum member 'bradshaw' for posting.

https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=618.msg377333#msg377333

 
New DfT press release regarding reopening to Portishead

First time I have seen journey duration (says 25 mins to Bristol Temple Meads

Also says in time, service will run to Bristol Brabazon and Aviva Arena (doesn't mention Henbury)


But does suggest opening is sometime in 2028

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-stations-faster-journeys-and-better-connections-as-works-begin-to-restore-portishead-line-for-the-first-time-in-60-years

 
Others making the point here about the cost of rail travel and the need for it to be reduced............I don't suppose anyone is holding their breath!!!

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/brits-all-make-1-train-plea-after-andy-burnham-announces-2-bus-cap/ar-AA28wdsk?ocid=socialshare

 
Fast forward to late July and, drying soils throwing issues at Network Rail in East Anglia for starters. The press release has two photos.

Mark


https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/service-changes-as-anglia-soil-dries-out-in-the-heat

 
Yup, about 80,000. Also, five (or if you're generous, six) railway lines and a host of bus services converge there, but somehow it's missing through trains to London and also, arguably, Bristol.

It could though be in a class of its own, as through history, Shrewsbury has perhaps lost through services to as many London terminals as many of us can count on the fingers of one hand. I count Paddington, Euston (twice?), Marylebone, and, er, Waterloo. There's a quiz question in there somewhere....

Mark