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Pet Hates

not GWR’s finest day by a long shot!
Sounds like a typical day at Temple Meads Station!

Good luck with the trains @Matt N, I confess I gave up on them in this area several years ago. Every time I try to be green and use the train rather than take my car into Bristol I end up stranded!

Glad to hear you're enjoying the new job. You can learn a lot about a place in the first few days!
 
Apparently TfW are going to be starting South Wales to Bristol services in the next year (in addition to GWR) so you should at least have other options soon!
I’ve never seen anything more than a 3-car service on my local line, primarily served by TfW (the line that runs between Gloucester and Severn Tunnel Junction), so I don’t have a lot of faith that it would be much better at peak times (albeit having another operator running services could reduce strain, I guess). From copious experience of commuting to both Cheltenham and Cardiff with them for university, TfW are very prone to running a good 2-car service at peak times! One particular nadir was 2 cars to Cheltenham during Cheltenham Festival week…

Until recently, I would also have said that TfW’s rolling stock left much to be desired compared to GWR’s, with the trains mostly originating from the 1980s or earlier, but they have upgraded the trains to newer models in the last year or so, to be fair.
 
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I had to suffer the misery of a CrossCountry Voyager (a 5-car one) from Reading to Stoke on Saturday morning. Was it full? Yes (football fans). Did it smell of toilets? Yes. Was it late? Yes. Did I have to sit on the floor? Surprisingly not this time!
 
Recycling, recycling….

Recycling.

Those are the three R’s according to the world - of course, reduce and reuse threatened sales so we never hear of it. Why must everything be plastic? I have virtually no choice here.

Whats with the straws? Plastic ones are bad, paper ones don’t work.. So why don’t we just… stop drinking out of straws!
 
Quite easy, take the lid off and drink without a straw.
Thank you. I had not yet devised an accurate method of drinking without a straw, you have opened my mind up to a whole new world of drinking tactics and apparatus.
I find metal straws quite good myself, if you want a straw!
I probably should’ve clarified I meant in fast-food restaurants. Thats where I think i’ve seen most of the buzz about it. While not impossible, I don’t think we will see people driving around with metal straws in their car, in the event they get a Mcdonalds. Of course, metal straws probably work a treat for restaurants and houses since they can be cleaned, are not disposed of and are pretty clean.

Or they could do like a German recycling insensitive (or an Efteling cup situation to be more relevant) but… I don’t know.

t’ ooh.. but then what about cream on milkshakes and such. Do people even like the whipped cream? You kind of need a way to get to the bottom of it..

I remember there was a large kerfuffle over the pond, first plastic ones were banned, and now Trump “re-instates” them. We also have a straw ban over here.

Obviously plastic stuff stretches far beyond straws, it is obviously a safe PR stunt to ban/unban them, but I just think why are we arguing over straws so much? Banning them isn’t going to magically save the planet, it is simply not enough action. Why is everyone eating right out their hands - why don’t we just stop using straws?

Straws are now a political tool.

Straw rant over.

Straws.
Straws.
 
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