Late Night Trains

[61653]

... Temple Meads, as empty as if the whole world has stopped, the gate monkeys having long gone home.

Never understood why they stopped the Sleeper calling at Bristol (well technically I do, it's so they could divert it if needed without needing to bus drunken revellers back to Taunton every night!) but it was always handy if I was one of the drunken revellers wanting to get back to Taunton! It usually calls for a crew change anyway though (or did, back in the day) so maybe if you weren't TOO drunk you could negotiate your way on!

[JamieLei]

If I was sleeping to Penzance, I don't want to be woken up by drunken revellers.

[buckethead]

Where I live there's only a late night bus on saturdays(actually, sundays). Quite an odissey! Sometimes its packed with drunkards, innocent looking kids who look disgusted, smoke, vomit.. Oh the joy!

[EXTspotter]

If I was sleeping to Penzance, I don't want to be woken up by drunken revellers.

I have slept til Penzance, the only problem was that I didn't mean to. I was lucky in that I explained what had happened and the guard let me travel back to Newton Abbot free, otherwise it would have been the most expensive nap ever.

[teccuk]

If I was sleeping to Penzance, I don't want to be woken up by drunken revellers.

But these are cool. They talk like pirates and their breath smells of fermented apples!

Edit: does the sleeper still go through Bristol then?

[61653]

It usually is still routed via Swindon/Parkway/Temple Meads as far as I know, but it no longer makes a scheduled stop there. They do usually change crew there though. If it's diverted via the Reading-Taunton line I assume the crew-change would take place at Westbury or Taunton. Presumably it also has to crawl along that route to avoid arriving in Penzance too early too!

[Lordmwa]

Often sits at taunton/exeter/newton abbot for a couple of hours if it is running ahead of time due to a clear run