More rail questions.

Just use Google Maps.

15 minute ride from Bath Spa to Bristol Temple Meads on a GWR train.

When the link pops up click on the time departure. Other time options will appear..

Use https://www.nationalrail.co.uk

I find the above link (https://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/personal/home/search) the easiest to use for all train in the UK.

I’m no rail expert but just look at National Rail Enquiries website and put in dates that aren’t too far in advance. Then you’ll see the travel times. Bristol to Bath is a very short journey of about 10 minutes on the fastest route and there are loads of trains. There aren’t any advance discounted fairs available on this route.

For point 2: You get on the train that is stopping at your destination. So from Bath, Bristol may not be the final destination but the departure boards will tell you that the train is stopping there. Don’t get on a train that isn’t stopping at Bristol!

• Claudia, thanks! I didn't know Google Maps would do mass transit. So if the route changes colors, does that indicate I change companies?

• stuart.smith283 and Lola, I started on those sites and similar. Yes, I can keep changing destinations to get travel times. I was hoping for a more efficient way to get the information in a consolidated form, with times to a list of destinations. Maybe I'm not using that tool in the best way? Or maybe I'll have to get desperate and write down the info for each possibility.

• Helen, I guess I didn't express my question clearly. I know to get off at the station for my destination, but what if I want to go somewhere that isn't serviced by a train that leaves Bath? It looks like I would buy a single ticket for the entire trip, and get on and off separate trains, but what are the mechanics of doing that? Do I show / swipe / scan the same ticket repeatedly? Do I receive multiple tickets for each leg, like boarding passes on connecting flights?

Oh sorry. I see. You have one ticket and you change trains as required. No one will ask to see your ticket as you change trains. It might be checked by the inspector once you’re on board.

get on and off separate trains, but what are the mechanics of doing that?

I think you have it. You get off one train and get on another.

So if travelling from Bath Spa to Edinburgh you would get a train to Bristol Temple Meads and get off there. Then find the platform from where trains leave for Edinburgh (which may or may not be the same platform) then board a train to Edinburgh. You do not leave the station. You use the same ticket. The exception is where you have to cross a city to another station. So if going from Bath Spa to Edinburgh via London you would get off at the London Terminus (Paddington l) and make your way to London Kings Cross (usually) and board a train to Edinburgh. Your ticket will work on the tube between the two stations.

More specifically:

All train companies’ websites sell every companies’ tickets or use Nationalrail.co.uk. Do not use Trainline for reasons too tedious to go into.

have no idea how to read these tables. I didn't see any instructions on them. Any hints or links to explanations?

The link you gave gives you two boxes to complete. One says From the other To or something similar.
In the box marked From enter your starting point, in the box marked to… guess what’?

Second, if a train that leaves Bath doesn't go where I want, I don't know how to get there. Do I buy separate tickets for each leg?

No. Buy a ticket to your destination.

Third, I don't know how to solve if a train leaves Bath at 1350 traveling 25 kph and another leaves London at 1400 traveling 40 kph, where will they meet?

Why do the trains need to meet?

See the Man in Seat 61 for everything you need to know

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Helen and stroudy60, thanks. I'm a bit surprised that my ticket might not be checked. Do they depend on the honor system that I won't go somewhere more expensive than what I paid for?

Your ticket will be checked by on board staff. You will also put your ticket through barriers when you enter and leave stations in order to open the barrier.

(or scan them if they are on your phone)

But nobody will check whist you are waiting for your connection. If you go further than planned or indeed leave the train before your stated destination for whatever reason, the barrier will not open.

Question 3- The question about train speeds and meeting is too esoteric. Put simply trains in opposite directions use opposing tracks. If a slow train and a fast train are going in the same direction they will pass either at stations with multiple platforms or at places in the countryside where there is more than one track in the same direction. They should all be going a lot faster than 25kph and 40kph.
Question 1- That is a bit of a masterclass really beyond the scope of this forum. But the simple answer is read down the page, we use the 24 hour clock compared to the 12 hour clock (light print for morning, bold print for afternoon) used in North America.
If a time is shown against a station name the train stops there, no time doesn't stop.
The addendum question- a departure board:
At the risk of confusing you further, GWR don't have a full day departure board but this website does.
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/gb-nr:BTH/2023-01-30/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt
This is quite an advanced tool so is included here with reservations (it can be set to any station for any day). It also shows live running information. Basically this shows every train through Bath today-it's time at Bath, and it's origin and destination.
Trains highlighted in blue are freight trains so are irrelevant.
Click on any train and you will see it's stopping pattern. Again times highlighted in blue are either timing points or stations the train does not stop at, so you are only looking for white tinted times.
It also shows how long every train is and what train set is being used.
I really do apologise if this causes more confusion than it's worth, but I can't get a full departure and arrival board without using the most advanced settings. I just hope it helps you.
I use this website at this level every time I travel by train, but it can be set to much simpler settings. This allows me to know of problems, often before the train companies tell the public about them.
Do also be aware that RTT includes some non existent stations- there are about half a dozen which are built but not yet open for various reasons. But those times are in blue tint anyway (see above).

PS- I do understand the problem, given that Amtrak no longer produce printed timetables at all, and their journey planner is hopelessly clunky, at least to me.

isn31c, Q3 is a joke that apparently doesn't carry across the Atlantic. It refers to a type of math problem often used in classes for students learning algebra.

As to Amtrak, I've never used it so I haven't looked at their scheduling (or anything else). They cover only a small portion of the US, and most of what they do cover is on the Atlantic Coast. Large cities have public transportation systems, some good, some bad, but there's no national integrated system that would compare to most European systems. There are too many industrial forces pushing against one, so there's little political interest. It really is eye-opening to learn what's available elsewhere.

There’s a lot of interesting information on this thread but it’s probably way too detailed for Charlie’s question. He seems to have dug a little deeper than he needs to as well.
The average rail user doesn’t need to know the detail given on full timetables. S/he just needs to use a planner like National Rail in the UK and input the start and end point of his journey and the date(s). This will give a range of choices of times and maybe prices depending on the journey.
But for a journey like Bath to Bristol you don’t even need to do any planning*. Just turn up at Bath station, buy return tickets and catch the next train. I looked next week and there are about 3 trains an hour at a cost of £8.80 return or £10 return if you travel out before 9am. Railcards could reduce this but that’s another discussion and not relevant if Charlie is only taking this journey.
* there is one important bit of information Charlie needs and that is to know which station in Bristol to get off at. There are two main stations, Bristol Parkway and Bristol Temple Meads. To visit the city centre you need Temple Meads. The first thing for any visitor to do arriv8ng by train into Bristol is to admire the architecture of Temple Meads station, one of Isambard Kingdom Brunei’s engineers masterpieces.

" There’s a lot of interesting information on this thread but it’s probably way too detailed for Charlie’s question. " Very true , this is analogous to attempting to engage in a craft or other activity without any knowledge of the underlying principles . This regularly occurs on this website for every European country . So , Charlie , you need to go the site mentioned above a few times "he Man in Seat 61 " , get a cup of coffee , and start your studying there . Once you've grasped the basic principles of rail travel , the pieces will all start to fall into place . https://www.seat61.com/

if a train leaves Bath at 1350 traveling 25 kph and another leaves London at 1400 traveling 40 kph, where will they meet?

Challenge accepted! ... but I had to dig deep into some repressed high school aged brain cells for this one so I'm not sure if this is correct (but it looks good) ...

Train from Bath (#1) - 25 kph = .4167 kpm ... Train from Paddington (#2) - 40 kph = .6667 kpm ... Distance = 152 km

When #2 leaves, #1 is already 4.167 km (10 * .4167) into the trip, so they are now 147.667 km apart
2 hours later they are 17.667 km apart ((25 * 2) + (40 * 2) = 130 ... 147.667 - 130 = 17.66 km

Every minute they are 1.0834 km closer (.4167+.6667) ... 16.3 min later they meet at 4:16:18 / 16:16:18

I have no clue where that would be but knowing the distance and eye-balling the train route on Google Maps, I would venture a guess somewhere a little west of Grove.

And who would believe I almost failed trig and never went back after the first day of my college calculus class.

the train meeting calculation is weird. and what does it have to do with the other questions?

Firstly, trains unless they operated by contractors to Network Rail, use miles and chains, and mph. Only yellow maintenance trains, and not all of them, use kilometres and metres and kph.

On a 125 mph line such as that between London and the southwest it would be very rare for a train to only be going at 15 and a half mph, or even at 25 mph. And even if they started at that speed, and assuming they were maintenance trains they would never be at the same speed all the time - and more importantly since they would be from different depots working on parts of the track many miles apart, they would never meet.

pah!

Johnew52, steven, and others, I guess I didn't explain clearly what I was trying to do. We have a few days with nothing planned and multiple options. All other things being equal, we'll favor the destinations with the shortest travel time. I was hoping the tables would be an easy way to see travel times to multiple destinations in one place, without having to enter dates and times for each individually. I didn't find anything on seat61 about comparing travel times for different destinations. It appears there is no easy way to do that, and I resorted to checking each location individually after all.

Johnew52, thanks for the Bristol stations info. I've been planning to check the location of each on a map eventually.

Nigel, it's is a joke that apparently doesn't carry across the Atlantic. It refers to a type of math problem often used in classes for students learning algebra.

DQ, one silly answer is "Just look for the ambulances!" I went back to Calc for most of the term because it was required for the major I originally chose. I failed it twice before eventually dropping out for several years, then later finishing at night with a different major.

Cutting through all the verbiage on this thread. Charlie does have several different points which has maybe been a learning curve for several people, including me-
1. If you are from somewhere which does very little or no mass transit, you are starting at an unknown start point. Let alone that mass transit works differently in the two countries. Accepted, more thoughtful and gracious hand holding was needed.
2. On line journey planners are all well and good, but they can only work with their own algorithms and with what is input into them. They are no substitute for paper and simple experience. The two can certainly work in tandem. Unfortunately paper timetables are becoming too rare with Covid the ideal excuse. Far too often simple knowledge tells me that even the best journey planners are feeding me incorrect information. I do give up on them sometimes, and just revert totally to paper methods.
If it puts me off imagine what it does to the less experienced or total beginner, like Charlie.
On all major railway stations like Bath there used to be paper posters of huge size listing all directly served destinations and train times. That is what Charlie needed. I am seeing less of those now, and don't know if Bath still has them.
The paper vs digital issue applies to anywhere, not just the UK.
3. There are certain major points, like Bath, where RS starts his tours. It could be very valuable for 'someone' [maybe one of RS's researchers), maybe someone UK based on this forum, to put together a very simple primer for each of those places, stating in very simple language potential tourist destinations and journey times and maybe sample fares, but cutting out other confusing and un-necessary detail.
I'm UK based, I don't know where all his start and end points are. I'm not sure that I would be a potential tour customer even if I lived in the USA (I'm too independent) , but I do love his travel content. I see every MNT (recorded, not at 3am), and have just had the most fantastically educational 22 day extravaganza from him. Yes I'm one of the 15% to go to every one! Thank you to the RS team.
Yes it was someone from WA state who introduced me to his website, who lives nearby.
I started writing such a primer for Bath before this message, but then thought no it's not my job, and it will just be bickered over.

Charlie , I still think you need to get the basics on 61 , its an invaluable aid in learning the ins and outs of European Rail . You are attempting to start with a bunch of unrelated specifics , rather than the basics . As far as specifics and travel time , you need to go Bahn DE ( German State Railways website ) You wont buy tickets there , but by plugging in your departure and arrival points , you will get routing , time of travel and all the details for any trip . Looking at your issue #3 you're too bogged down in meaningless details for what you want to accomplish . Go to Bahn , its all there . By the way , Enter Bath Spa for Bath , and Bristol Temple Meads for Bristol . https://www.bahn.de/ Also , keep in mind Occam's Razor - The simplest answer is usually the one , and that's using Bahn to define a trip

Almost forgot ( Coffee was calling ) you can also get the information from UK National Rail https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

Charlie - thanks for the extra clarification. Are you therefore looking for options of where you could go from Bath Spa on the train for day trips? If so, you could look at Salisbury, for the city and access to Stonehenge, or Cardiff in Wales. Or, for a very short ride, to Bradford-on- Avon. A lovely village/small town and it’s possible to walk back to Bath from there along the Kennet & Avon canal towpath. It’s 9.5 miles and by definition it’s flat.

On all major railway stations like Bath there used to be paper posters of huge size listing all directly served destinations and train times

They have these in many (if not all) of the stations in Germany ... while the DB app is good (and gave you current information on delays, cancellations, etc...), the printed timetables were so much easier to see your options fast when time was short ... combining the 2 was extremely helpful during our Christmas Markets trip last Nov/Dec.

are you familiar with the Popular Destinations page on the GWR website? https://www.gwr.com/stations-and-destinations/popular-routes

while not exactly a here's where the train goes page it does have a lot of inspiration...

There are small-group (van) tours from Bath to the Cotswolds. MadMax runs them. I took a similar tour (by GoCotswolds) from Moreton-in-Marsh and enjoyed it a lot. The Cotswolds cannot be visited efficiently by public transportation (you might be able to see two villages per day), so a tour like this is a good option for those without a car.

Johnew52, that's the type of trips we're thinking of. We'll probably hit Salisbury. I don't know anything about Cardiff (yet). Depending on our experience in Bristol, we may add it.

isn31c and DQ, when I started searching, I was hoping to find a chart with Bath in the center and lines radiating out to the direct stations. The length of each line would be relative to the distance to the destination, with average travel times printed beside the lines. All I found were the time tables, and I've since checked each location individually.

Nigel, I've hit the GWR website but hadn't found that page yet. Thanks.

acraven, we're already booked with Mad Max. Honestly, I'd prefer to take as many trips with tour services as possible. When we first booked this trip for spring 2020, there were more companies operating out of Bath. It appears COVID did many of them in. I can find only two companies now. Mad Max is running fewer trips (three instead of my recollection of seven or so), and 'In and About Bath' wasn't accepting 2023 reservations on their website.

Anyone else reading this, if you take Claudia's original suggestion to use Google maps, be aware it assumes you're interested in departing immediately. You can get very long estimates if you check late in the day British time. Google's estimate may have you arriving at a station on the last train of the day, and not departing until the first one the next day. In that case, the time estimates will include an overnight stay. I saw several results of 12 and 13 hours to go less than 50 miles until I figured out what was happening. To prevent this, specify a morning time of departure.

I wouldn't have used the 'Trains leaving stations' joke if I'd known so many people were going to take it literally. I -assumed- it was a common word problem in Algebra classes in English-speaking cultures. Ah well, I'm here to learn, even when it's unexpected.

You’re over thinking this but.,,,,

If you go to Map.signalbox.io you can watch the progress of every train on the network in real-time. Why not get a stopwatch and time how long they take?

Charlie-

On the question of line maps showing places relating to one another by rail I've just found these by chance on RS website (scroll down the page)-

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/britain-rail-passes

They are hardly hyper accurate, I might even say a bit confusing to someone who knows the network, and are not to any obvious scale either, but they are a starting point.

http://www.railrover.org/index.html is the web site for buying Rail Rover Passes in Britain.

That RS map is less than worthless
for detailed maps have a look at the National Rail website