I looked up a journey from Melksham to Liverpool (I just entered "Melksham" and "Liverpool" without being any more specific) on the Transport Direct Web site yesterday ... and here's the start of what it suggested ...



It's very easy for travel sites to make silly suggestions that don't appear to be spatially aware. The route starts off at the Town Hall in Melksham at 17:34, takes me a mile out of the town and then has me walk back to the Market Square, right outside the Town Hall, to catch the following bus at 18:04. The Transport direct site, which is sponsored by the Department for Transport, was notorious at its launch for this sort of problem, and I regret to see that it's still up to its old tricks.

The Xephos web site (to which I have a 2 pounds a month subscription) is much better, though some of its timetables are out of date (it does, to its credit, warn you to check on the occasions where it's aware that it's not been given up to date information). Xephos suggested the 18:02 bus to Bath, and connected into the same train at Bath that TransportDirect suggested I catch at Chippenham - and that's far better since the interchange at Bath is just across the road, whereas it's quite a walk (especially with luggauge) across Chippenham.


(written 2006-06-16 08:32:40)

 

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