25th December 2025 - and a happy Christmas here on a public thread to all guests.  We remain open here even on Christmas Day, though you'll find public posting somewhat less than on other days.  Our "Frequent Poster" club to which members are admitted automatically once they've posted a number of messages remains very much active today, with friends made over the years the Coffee Shop has been running exchanging seasons greetings and chat amongst friends. 

I look forward to 2026 with the friends - the Coffee Shop entering its 20th year of operation in a months time, and continuing with both well established members and new ones we encourage and welcome to join us.   For those of you (and I meet you from time to time) who are Coffee Shop readers but chose for various reasons not to be logged in a posting too, you are welcome to continue in that way too.  The public information is there for everyone's benefit - you are welcome to use it; there are times it will help your better use of transport and travel, and for those of you in decision making or influencing roles, it may help the community too.

I was taught not to repeat words to excess - and yet I note I have said "welcome" multiple times in the last paragraph. That breaking of the guidelines is intentional - you are, indeed, all welcome.

 
Browsing around on the Coffee Shop forum, as I do (usually looking for something else ), I stumbled across this topic.

Noting that it's exactly a year since I posted, I'll give it a gentle 'bump' here.

CfN.

 
Hi! 

In my 'administrator' role, I've been looking at our membership on the Coffee Shop forum.

One thing I noticed is that we have many new registered members here who have logged in - and haven't posted yet.

I'm starting this topic, simply to encourage any of our new members to make your first post here, in as brief an introduction as you like.

For example: "Hi! I'm Chris, I live in Nailsea, North Somerset, and I travel by train from here sometimes."

Please do take that first step to becoming a contributing member of this Coffee Shop forum. 

 

Go to the board - e.g. http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?board=3.0 - and click on "New Topic" just to the top right of all the existing topics - simply ask a question there. I think there may be a way to switch the icon beside to post to a "?" ...  EDIT - just found it - "Message icon" just below where you enter the subject.

 
How do I post a new question? There is no 'obvious' way.

 
Quite a few members have been logged in for a significant time, and been here already this year, but have never posted - known in the business as "lurkers". That's in addition to around many more posting members who have been here too, and goodness only knows how many guests who are not logged in, but can still read 90% of content

Are you a lurker? ... if so you are welcome to lurk, but you are also very welcome to introduce yourself and post on the Coffee shop.  We (moderator team) do appreciate that first posts are  significant step, but we can assure you of a friendly welcome.   In the words of a former TV show, in a Liverpool accent, please follow up with "What's your (forum) name and where ja come from?" 

Are you a guest? ... If so, you are very welcome to join ( sign up here ) ... it brings a bevvy of benefits such as the ability to like, mark posts as read,  comment, vote in polls, send messages to other members.  Membership is free (this group is run by volunteers, unpaid, on web space that's donated) and we would love to hear from you

 
You are very very VERY welcome to sign up and join the forum if you want to read and talk about transport and travel issues across the wider "South West" or associated topics.

But, sadly, for each person who wants to sign up to talk about the subjects this forum covers, there are many others who wish to use our platform for other purposes.

Our (manually checked) filtration system has, and continues, to serve us well - however, a recent increase in what I'll describe as "spam signups" leaves me fearful of overlooking a genuine request to join as I delete those spam signups.

Please sign up and join if you're interested in travel in the Thames Valley, South West, or South Wales - even if you'll only be posting very occasionally and are mostly a reader, or even if you just have one specific question at the moment. This will help us keep you up to date as we plan forward.  If you don't get a confirmation of your account within 24 hours, please email me ( graham - at - wellho - dot - net )to let me know so that I can pick out your application and make sure it goes through.