Correctly formed in the end...as usually seems to happen when there is so much notice given of an alteration to WoE services.

 
This is 'nicked' word for word from the BBC website

It is correct to give the URL of the wewbpage, infoman

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqjwkdez71ro

 
Can't see how this would in fact be feasible.  Several factors against:

* The size of Newbiggin.
* Its reasonably close proximity to the new station at Ashington (3 miles by road).
* The cost of getting consent to build new sections of line - even if less than a mile.
* The cost of construction of new line, and associated track/signalling alterations
* The cost of modifying the new station at Ashington from the new single bay platform to two new platforms on the through lines.
* The cost of providing another train that would be needed to operate the service.

Good to see Blyth Bebside has now opened though.  Just Bedlington and Northumberland Park to go.

 

It would be nigh on impossible to access the cab through the interior door if it was locked shut without some very heavy equipment and tools - the design is very robust when compared, for example, with a turbo.

Agree about not being in possession of the full details, but if a train is running empty, perhaps the internal door had been left open for ease of access by the driver when they were expecting to go back through the train at some point, or had been unlocked when the driver went to investigate the loss of interlock?  They should have been the only person on board of course.

 

Definitely cosy! My partner was going to be taking the 05:16 from WOS today as her car is getting its MOT. Wasn't able to get a seat at Hanborough on the late running 05:23 from Hereford so decided to wait for the 06:43 from WOS and still found herself standing.

 
https://www.journeycheck.com/greatwesternrailway/
Cancellations to services between Plymouth and Penzance
Due to a safety inspection of the track at Hayle some lines are blocked. Disruption is expected until 12:00 17/11.
Train services between Plymouth and Penzance may be cancelled, delayed or revised.
Customer Advice
-
What has happened?
-
We have been informed that a collapsing badger set has been identified under the railway in the Hayle area.
_
What are we doing about it?
-
We are working with Network Rail to be able to return to running our normal timetable as soon as possible..
We have stopped train movements in the area until staff are on site to investigate; they should be on site shortly.

Causing a headache down West this morning.

5Z12 turned around at Saltash and returned to Plymouth (was Pnz bound).
The other 175 test running today has been cancelled - nothing to do with badgers!

 
Monday November 17

A cosy morning peak:

1P11 05:16 Worcester Shrub Hill to London Paddington (07:24) : cancelled ("due to late arrival of an inbound service (YI)" according to RTT).
1P02 05:23 Hereford to London Paddington (08:24) : 5 cars.
1P16 06:43 Worcester Shrub Hill to London Paddington (08:44) : 5 cars.

 
In my humble opinion, and of course not being in full possession of the details, the ability for the driver’s internal door to be forced open represents a critical design flaw issue comparable with that of aircraft cockpit access.

That the passenger has achieved this apparently without specific tools nor a more motivated, terrorist mindset is even more concerning. In my opinion.

 

Considered unacceptable by whom exactly? As you rightly point out all these systems can be made to 'fail safe' in the event of an emergency.

 
A new UK-first pilot scheme is aiming to create fast and more reliable train wi-fi, using technology originally developed for Formula 1 cars.

It will see a train in the Great Western Railway fleet use a hybrid system of both signals from mobile phone masts on the ground and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites in space to create a more reliable connection.

The scheme has been developed by British tech company Motion Applied, in partnership with the transport body for Cornwall, Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay, Peninsula Transport.

The pilot will last for 60 days onboard GWR's Intercity Express Train which runs in the South West region, having started in mid-November.

In a recent study by networking testing firm Ookla, external, the UK ranked 16th out of 18 major European and Asian countries for train wi-fi speed, with average download speeds at just 1.09 megabits per second, compared to Sweden's 64.58.

Nick Fry, chairman of Motion Applied, external, formerly part of McLaren Group, said the issues faced in connecting to the internet from a fast moving train had "many parallels with motorsport".

He added that by using technology originally developed for F1 cars, trains should be able to switch between ground and space-based networks such as LEO satellites to "reliably connect" without drop outs.

In the 2025 spending review, the Department of Transport secured £41m to introduce low earth orbit satellite connectivity on all mainline trains by 2030.
'A step in the right direction'

Councillor Dan Rogerson, from the Peninsula Transport board, called the pilot a "major milestone" in its plans to modernise transport infrastructure across the South West and South Wales.

"It's not just about passenger wi-fi," he said. "This is about a whole new digital backbone for our transport networks".

Bruce Williamson from the campaign group Railfuture told the BBC the scheme appeared to be "really good news".

"We're all increasingly connected these days, and wi-fi has become more and more of an essential service for travellers. I'm not going to hold my breath, but this is a step in the right direction."

In May, South Western Railway launched its own, separate, "superfast" wi-fi rollout for its trains between Earlsfield and Basingstoke, using trackside poles and antennas to create a bespoke 5G rail network.

 
Anything more secure and harder to push through or even climb over than the current design of ticket gates is - rightly or wrongly - not considered acceptable in this country.  Partly a legacy of the Kings Cross fire (they can all be opened automatically in an emergency such as overcrowding and do so if a fire alarm is activated, but "What if they don't?" is still the cry, quite possibly from a previous era of City Hall Conservatives!).  They could be made harder to get through when you shouldn't, but I've seen the complaints and claims for damaged clothing/luggage or injuries when even the existing gates close too quickly on someone dawdling or waving several bags in front of them.  The detection beams that decide when the gates open and close had to be completely redesigned when a couple of small poorly-supervised children were squashed by a gate as it opened with them hiding outside it.

As an aside, my purely personal observation is that a fair few in London are dodging really quite small fares (local journeys, youths entitled to reduced fares anyway) out of bravado as much as anything, and some of them may not have travelled at all if they'd had to pay so wouldn't have paid a fare either way.  Doesn't excuse what they do and it's frustrating to see, but the amount of revenue lost can only ever be an educated guess.

 

Thank you II.

Some also sign the Class 230.

 
So I take it that the journey time of 45 minutes for the rail replacement bus between Warminster and Salisbury is somewhat factious if it has to go down the A350 and along the A303 before rejoining the A36.

Wouldn’t have meet connecting train services at Warminster and Southampton then.

This isn’t the first time work on the railways has clashed with work on the roads. You do wonder sometimes whether the various authorities ever talk to each other. I am aware that rail engineering work is planned a long way in advance in most situations.

 

To answer on behalf of Ollie, yes that’s correct.  Non-HSS drivers sign Turbos, IETs, and 387s.

 
S106 payments should be able to generate the cash needed, if the council planners get their decisions right

 
Correct. Talk to your MP.

Sympathy for GWR. Their budget is still shrinking year-on-year

 

So if it's true that every idea would cost money, logic suggests we need to amend the DfT's bidding and priorities, doesn't it. And/or that we take a look and see if there's some sort of way that the various objectives come together in such a way that everyone involved want to work for them and get dividends. 

 
Money.

All the abilities you are suggesting with flexibility cost money. And if the DfT don't want the flexibility, they won't pay GWR for it. GWR have NO choice, but do the DfT bidding. You do know that!

Ollie - are you saying that the same PAD non-HSS drivers drive 166s AND 800s? And the HSS drivers also drive just 800s?

 


Found on the internet - I claim no rights whatever. CfN. 

 
An update, from the BBC:

 
From the BBC:


As the 29th and 30th of November are a Saturday and a Sunday, I'd suggest to the BBC that 'commuters' will be those least affected. It's 'passengers' generally who should be warned of delays.

 
Sunday November 16


Though RTT reports that 1W03 13:50 Oxford to Hereford (16:04) operated from Shrub Hill, and 1P77 17:30 Hereford to Oxford (19:31) ran normally.

Later (21:50) :

1W59 18:50 Oxford to Great Malvern (20:18) : cancelled throughout (train).


And for tomorrow, Monday November 17:


EDIT 01:30 : 1W59 added, notes about 1W03 and 1P77 added

 
Draws or drawers? 

 
An update - I have been quiet on reporting for ten days, but never the less monitoring and tweaking. 

* At three minutes after every hour, our server had been taking a backup copy of Coffee Shop databases and to ensure table integrity in the backups, that has locked the forum for up to a minute. There have also been two daily backups of the image database and those have also locked the forum.  The frequency of the coffee shop database backups has been reduced to every 4 hours, and the image database backups retimes to what I believe are quieter times of day.  The "lock"s still happen and won't be going away.

* I have tidied up a lot of other stuff on the shared server from my old IT training days and so a number of other loads not associated with the Coffee Shop are reduced

* Very common images across many of the pages we serve are now looked after by the receptionist who has them in her draws rather than needing to refer to the workers every time.  There are still some spikes where substantial numbers of images are called up at the same time and some effort continues there.

* The GDBR / approval database from the new look front pages grows and can slow down performance when we check on every page "do I know you"?  At present I'm trimming this database manually every few days, but looking to improve that so that it's done automatically every night