Getting the train out of Glastonbury

[daconor91]

Hello everyone,

This year will be my second Glastonbury, 2016 was my first and I had an amazing time but I am hoping for a tad less mud this year.

Anyway, I am getting a lift to the festival with a friend and am planning on getting the train back on my own because I need to leave very early to get home and prepare for a 3 week trip to the US west coast where I'll be flying out on tuesday morning. Interestingly, coach tickets and train tickets are exactly the same price to get to London on monday morning so I may as well get the train, but I have no idea how long it takes to get to the train station.

Apparently there is a free shuttle bus from the festival to Castle Cary station, but I am very paranoid about the mass exodus of people and the possibility of queueing for the shuttle for so long that I miss my train.

What would be a sensible time to leave the campsite if I want to get the 9:42 train from Castle Cary?

Edited April 5, 2017 by daconor91

[quiet guy]

Due to the amount of people who will also be catching the train there are no guarantees and no seat reservations. You'll join the queues at the station and they'll get as many people on  each train that stops at Castle Cary.

[billum]

The killer is the really long queue set up through zigzag barriers in the car park at Castle Cary, and this can take a very long time to inch along to the platforms. Also, because of the volume of people, the trains don't really follow any normal schedule, and more trains run in both directions than usual, so I wouldn't be at all sure about getting on any particular 'scheduled' train.

So I would really start early if you want to get on a train by around 9:40. You could get onto a coach and be at the station within an hour or so if you get to Pedestrian Gate A by around 7:30, but then it's touch-and-go that you'd get through the queue to a platform and on a train within another hour. It's possible certainly, but if I were you I'd be looking at getting to PGA for about 7 or earlier.

[kalifire]

I've left at around 5-6am on Monday morning on my two previous Glasto's. Both times I intended to catch the shuttle to CC train station and on the one occasion I did (the other involved catching the wrong shuttle to the Showground by mistake) I was on the bus with about half an hour of queing. That was the easy bit. 

Like billum said, it's the queue at the station that'll get you. I found trains to be quite infrequent actually. For all the talk of extra services, it doesn't feel like it when you're waiting. 

[geoffboycott]

Another alternative and possibly more complicated alternative, but probably easier/quicker; would be to get the shuttle bus from gate A to the B&W Showground which is usually pretty quick at around 7am on Monday.  Then pre book a taxi from there to another station for e.g. Gillingham or Templecombe which are about 20-25 mins from showground.  Both are on the London Waterloo line as opposed to the Castle Cary/Paddington line.  This should be a bit quieter than the main exodus via CC route.

Just a thought really.

[daconor91]

6 hours ago, geoffboycott said:

Another alternative and possibly more complicated alternative, but probably easier/quicker; would be to get the shuttle bus from gate A to the B&W Showground which is usually pretty quick at around 7am on Monday.  Then pre book a taxi from there to another station for e.g. Gillingham or Templecombe which are about 20-25 mins from showground.  Both are on the London Waterloo line as opposed to the Castle Cary/Paddington line.  This should be a bit quieter than the main exodus via CC route.

Just a thought really.

That's sounds like a very promising idea especially as it would be much easier for me to get home from Waterloo than from Paddington. I will look into it, thank you. I am not sure what the B&W Showground is though haha

[geoffboycott]

2 minutes ago, daconor91 said:

That's sounds like a very promising idea especially as it would be much easier for me to get home from Waterloo than from Paddington. I will look into it, thank you. I am not sure what the B&W Showground is though haha

No problem at all.  Sorry, my fault; B&W is the Bath & West Showground (just South of Shepton Mallet), which is a couple of miles away from the festival, it's the main shuttle in/out location for those who are getting dropped off for the festival - I think private coaches use this as well now as I've noticed an ever increasing no of people on the Wednesday queuing up.  It also doubled up as last minute camper/caravan parking last year after the traffic/site problems.

[MetaKate]

7 hours ago, geoffboycott said:

Another alternative and possibly more complicated alternative, but probably easier/quicker; would be to get the shuttle bus from gate A to the B&W Showground which is usually pretty quick at around 7am on Monday.  Then pre book a taxi from there to another station for e.g. Gillingham or Templecombe which are about 20-25 mins from showground.  Both are on the London Waterloo line as opposed to the Castle Cary/Paddington line.  This should be a bit quieter than the main exodus via CC route.

Just a thought really.

What's this about different lines?  Not from UK so I'm clueless. I've booked my train from london waterloo to castle cary return.. does it just mean I'm gunna have a switch at some point? 

Edited April 6, 2017 by MetaKate

[daconor91]

You almost certainly will. All the routes on thetrainline.com (apart from the 17:07 train) appear to have 1 or 2 changes. It should say on your ticket where you need to change

[phil the shrew]

Another couple of possibilities are to get the Shuttle Bus from the site to Glastonbury and then use the scheduled Glastonbury to Bristol bus - goes hourly and stops close to Bristol Temple Mead station

Other one is there is a lift share scheme at the festival where people list if they have a spare seat in their vehicle when they leave the festival. I'm sure many people would be going back through Bristol. I think there is a tent in Williams Green where you can request a lift but if not I'm sure the festival info will tell you where to find it

Both options of course are for Bristol train station which will be busy but quieter that Castle Cary but not much use if you have already booked your ticket from Castle Cary!

[kalifire]

In 2015, I accidentally caught the wrong shuttle bus and ended up at the Showground. I had a train ticket and no taxi booked, but managed to call around and find a taxi to pick me up and take me to Frome. It struck me as a much quicker and more preferable journey than the train from Castle Cary that I took the year before.

The tricky bit is being there at the time your taxi is due to arrive. You're at the mercy of however busy the shuttle bus is so it can get messy, but if you're looking to avoid the crowds, that's your best bet. My taxi ended up arriving at about 7:30am and there was no traffic to speak of. I guess the Showground avoids main traffic routes.

[Dark Star]

On 06/04/2017 at 3:22 PM, MetaKate said:

What's this about different lines?  Not from UK so I'm clueless. I've booked my train from london waterloo to castle cary return.. does it just mean I'm gunna have a switch at some point? 

Your ticket confirmation email should have the info you need. 

[Mr.Tease]

I used to get the train but switched to coach. With the train, the shuttle bus queue is pretty long if you don't get there before the rush (and I could never remember each year what time that was!), then you wait at train station - that usually wasn't problematic. With coach you have a set departure time so there is less queuing (or at least you can go the front if your coach is next), and once you set off that's it. The drawback is sometimes the coaches are late or get caught in traffic.

Overall I've had good and bad experiences on each- a lot of it is down to luck. With the train you're queuing twice and so it's a bit more unpredictable, and it's a but of a faff losing and unloading you're rucksack twice. With coach you just queue once but then are at the mercy of traffic. 

[j98]

My first Glastonbury this year and have booked the direct train from CC to Waterloo at 17:07 on the Monday - was wondering if anyone could tell me if the main rush will be over by then and, if not, what time I should look at leaving the festival site to try and make that train? 

Also, call me stupid but in search of the lowest cost option we've ended up booking to go on Tuesday afternoon (arriving around dinner time)... Is there anyway to get from CC to the festival before the shuttles start in the morning or are we in for a long night on the streets of Castle Cary?

[pie_and_a_pint]

On 2017-4-9 at 5:45 AM, kalifire said:

In 2015, I accidentally caught the wrong shuttle bus and ended up at the Showground. I had a train ticket and no taxi booked, but managed to call around and find a taxi to pick me up and take me to Frome. It struck me as a much quicker and more preferable journey than the train from Castle Cary that I took the year before.

The tricky bit is being there at the time your taxi is due to arrive. You're at the mercy of however busy the shuttle bus is so it can get messy, but if you're looking to avoid the crowds, that's your best bet. My taxi ended up arriving at about 7:30am and there was no traffic to speak of. I guess the Showground avoids main traffic routes.

How much was the taxi to Frome, if you don't mind me asking?

[kalifire]

About £50, IIRC. 

[pie_and_a_pint]

That's helpful, thanks.