Okay, while this station doesn't have any lockers, it turns out that if you look around a bit you…read moremight find some other place that will store your bags. However, it doesn't help when the station isn't all that close to the centre of town. However, this station was still rather nice, and a little touristy as well. Yeah, it was cool.

Occasionally, I happen across some ne'er-do-well chuntering on about Stratford-upon-Avon being a…read more"one-Horse town." "Well kind sir," I respond, "if Stratford-upon-Avon is indeed a 'one-horse town,' that horse is bloody Secretariat." To be or not to be ... that is NOT the question. To be here a few hours or to stay the night, THAT is the question. I have "long weekended" in Stratford, and 3 days was a bit much, even for this two-degreed English major. I've also "day toured" on a motor coach starting the day in London ... they gave us about 2 hours in Stratford betwixt Warwick Castle and Oxford, and that was not enough. The third proverbial bowl of porridge was driving in: Two days, one night ... just right! Yes, indeed, SuA is the town where William Shakespeare spent most of his life. His memory oozes from every pore of the town ... as, indeed, it should. Not only is it the epicenter of his life, but other Shakespeare meccas like London have too many literary (and historical) distractions ... its dribs and drabs (albeit great dribs and drabs) of Shakespeare are scattered around while Stratford is door-to-door, all Shakespeare, all the time. Well, that's not totally true. Stratford's Church of the Holy Trinity is a beauty inside and out. And if you happen across it when the 170ish-year-old "Great Organ" is being piped by Benedict Wilson, you're in for a treat. Then there's Anne Hathaway's cottage (not the actress), a beautiful 15th-Century house with an amazing cottage garden. But, then again, the church was where Shakespeare was baptized and has the chancel and sanctuary where The Bard is buried. And Anne Hathaway was Shakespeare's wife. As someone who has been to the town as a child (10 years old) and an adult (mind-your-own-business years old), I must say, SuA is WAY MORE family friendly than in the days of yore. The Stratford Butterfly Farm came in 1985 and has developed into a kid's (and lepidopterist's) paradise. Started in 2012, the MAD (Mechanical Art & Design) Museum is replete with mechanical do-dads and whirligigs, buttons that are encouraged to be pressed, flickering lasers, and rolling-ball machines. Both the Farm and MAD are kids' paradises. Most people are so Shakespeare-stuck they miss a golden opportunity to take advantage of the River Avon ... I mean, the town is called Stratford-UPON-AVON for a reason. Whether just taking an amble down its lovely towpath, you end up rolling on the river (I recommend taking a tour from Canal River), or hire a rower for a view hour, River Avon is a beauty. You'll likely find yourself strolling down Henley Street during your time in SuA: Great atmosphere, great bustle, great cafes along the way. Also of note is The Jester Statue: A relatively new addition (1994), this bronze beauty is Touchstone from The Twelfth Night. I've actually Yelp-reviewed this statue, so either enjoy or roll your eyes. And now to the two biggies: Shakespeare's Birthplace and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Staying the night really lets you drink in Shakespeare's Birthplace ... not only see everything inside, but also to enjoying the performers out in the courtyard who actually take requests. And the intellectuals who always seem to be milling about request Timon of Athens or Cymbeline when most people want a little R&J or Hamlet. But I digress: The young thespians are awesome ... and game for whipping out any Shakespeare the audience so desires. Speaking of performance, the biggest reason to stay at least one night is so you can see a play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre by the RSC. There's always a Shakespeare play going on, but I HIGHLY recommend planning in advance so you can see what will be on when you're there. As well, there are a lot of contemporary plays, musical, and other performances worth considering at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. I have broken the covenant of two great Shakespeare quotes: "Brevity is the soul of wit" and "Men of few words are the best men." But with a town this great, how can I not write on ... and on ... and on?

We were on a train headed to Worcester Shrub Hill, but everyone had to alight here due to train…read moresignaling issues past Evesham. As we were waiting for a shuttle bus to take us to Worcester, I wanted to use the loo, but the loo was locked. :( I guess it's locked when the ticket office is closed. It's a small station and just like the station in Moreton-in-Marsh, it's closed on Sundays. It also has no self service ticket machine.

Banbury Railway Station is located to the east of Banbury Town Centre. Banbury offers train…read moreservices to the South Coast and the North east and west with Crosscountry Trains, the north eastrequires a change at Birmingham New Street, Chilten railways offer services to London, Oxford, Bister, Birmingham, and Leamington Spa, Wrexham and Shropshire railways offer services to London Marlybone, and Tame Bridge Parkway, Birmingham and Wrexham. Banbury has four platforms for trains, with plenty of services to London, and Crosscountry serve the staion at least every hour to Bournmouth and Manchester Picadilly, some services call as far as Reading, or Southampton, and Birmingham New Street.

Decent train station that serves Leamington town centre well. It is about 10mins walk from the…read morecentre of town. There is a cafe and waiting area on platform 2 which is handy for getting a refreshment or some reading material. There are always plenty of staff around and I have never found the ticket office closed. There is a paid car park directly outside the station however this does get full up. The taxi rank is also conveniently opposite the entrance of the station.

Easy access from the town, but parking isnt great. Hardly any spaces. Although you can park on…read moresurrounding roads. Station seems to be constantly under construction but with little visible impovement. There is a cafe on one platform with a limited selection of cakes.

The Northern end of the Severn Valley Railway nestles below castle hill with its tilting Castle…read moretower keep which leans further than the Tower of Pisa all as a consequence of Cromwell forces not using sufficient gunpowder trying to blow it up . The station itself is a bustling terminus of the steam railway taking you back to the heyday of steam trains . It hosts a great pub serving lovely real ales a great place to relax on a cold winters day with its open fires . There's the engine maintenance sheds to see too on special events .

It really does look like this station has been completely renewed, which is sort of a shame because…read moreit feels that lot more modern that other ones. Mind you, it is sort of a major hub (to the extent that Oxford is a major hub - it's mostly a town) but I can say that trains do come through here on a reasonably regular basis. It isn't a bad station, and it is a short ride to London as well.

The train station has improved in the past few years. There are more food shops, including a marks…read moreand Spencer's. The signage needs some work though. It would be good to know where the first car stops, in addition to which cars at which end. There are slow but reliable lifts available for those with luggage, which they really do not want you to take on escalators. The taxi we used when leaving the train station didn't want to put his meter on, and we agreed on his price of 20£. This actually ended up working out for us but something to be aware of.

Swindon is one of the traditional railway enthusiasts' meccas, as the 'Railway Town' of the Great…read moreWestern Railway (GWR), and its station has a complex but interesting history. It is still an important and busy station to-day. The line - built by the famous engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, opened on 17th December 1840, to a temporary terminus at Wootton Bassett, and through to Bristol on 30th June 1841. When the GWR was being planned, Brunel and his engine designer, Daniel Gooch, decided that Swindon would make a good place to locate the main engine depot and engineering works. As well as being the junction for the line to Cheltenham and Gloucester, it was also the point at which the relatively level line from London changed to the more steeply-graded section to Bath. This was important in the early days, when steam locomotives were relatively under-powered, and the idea was that different engines would work the two sections. The GWR built what was effectively a new town - initially called 'New Swindon' - with a railway works, depot, 300 cottages for the staff, and a new station, opened in 1842. The station was - unusually - paid for by the building contractors at their own expense, and to recoup their outlay they built the first ever railway refreshment rooms (separate rooms being provided for First- and Second-Class passengers). The GWR agreed that all trains should stop there for a 10-minute refreshment break as they changed locomotives, which they did until 1895. But from the start refreshment rooms were famously awful - beginning the dreadful reputation of railway buffets! With a captive market, the owners charged high prices for inferior food and drink. Coffee was dispensed from an impressive silver urn in the shape of a locomotive, but this did nothing to improve its flavour. Even Brunel himself was moved to write this wonderfully stinging letter to the owners, in December 1842: " Dear Sir, I assure you Mr Player [the manager] was wrong in supposing that I thought you purchased inferior coffee. I thought I said to him that I was surprised you should buy such bad roasted corn. I did not believe that you had such a thing as coffee in the place; I am certain that I never tasted any. I have long ceased to make complaints at Swindon. I avoid taking anything there when I can help it. Yours faithfully, I K Brunel." To-day, railway Swindon is a shadow of its former self, with the works closed, albeit with some of the handsome buildings (Grade I listed) retained as workshops and the railway museum 'Steam'. But the main island platform buildings survive from the 1842 station, together with a new platform on the south side, opened in 2004. The historic refreshment rooms were located on the south side of the station, but sadly no longer exist, having been demolished in 1972 - in an astonishing piece of corporate vandalism by the former BR - to make way for the ghastly office block that now occupies the site. The growth and affluence of modern Swindon means that this is a busy station, serving nearly 2.5 million passengers a year, and remains the junction for the line to Stroud, Gloucester and Cheltenham. All trains from London to Bristol, Cardiff and Cheltenham stop here, as well as the occasional direct service to Oxford, offering a fast train to London every 15 minutes during the day, Mondays-Saturdays. The station has a couple of cafes (I've not tasted the coffee, though!), a small newsagents, waiting rooms and is fully accessible.

Clean efficient station with helpful staff. Lovely comfortable clean train to London Paddingtonread more

This happened to be a much better station, and location, than the last place that I jumped off the…read moretrain. Sure, the station does come across as being rather new but that is probably because it has been given a face lift. Mind you, it is a bit of a walk from the centre of town, but you get that.

It was my first time getting the train alone. My train ended up getting delayed which I understand…read moreisn't the railways fault and sometimes happens. What stressed me out is when i tried ti go up to a staff member to ask for help they just ignored me. First I tapped their shoulder. Then i tried to speak to him, he just continued to stair forward with a smirk. Then I tried to get in front of him to talk to him and still nothing. I gave up and had to ask another passenger for help. The thing is I saw him helping other people there so I am not sure what was wrong with me. Terrible first experience using the train and I hope other train stations have a better staff team.