The Bristol Railway Archive

Maybe this is a na´ve question but I have been out of the railway "game" for a few years. These days, do the "Night Riviera" services go via the
Berks & Hants route? It's hard to tell from the timetable. Back in my youth the overnight sleepers usually went via Bristol; we referred to
them as the "up midnight" and "down midnight" - maybe people still do! Presumably with engineering work etc. it's possible for them to take
either route. Thanks for any information on this.

They still run but I dont think the stops at Bristol is advertised as its only for crew releif. Also the route depend on over night works sometimes via bath others via badminton. On ocasions it will run via melksham to westbury and castle cary to taunton or via yeovil to exeter.

Thanks for your reply stopblock. Hmm ... so it looks like some inside knowledge would be very helpful to find out which route they take on a particular night.