I voted as just accessing the Coffee Shop from the UK although I might have accessed it from Europe one or two times when I was previously abroad nearly (gulp) seven and a half years ago.  I would probably access it again from abroad if our plans for a few euro jaunts come to fruition next year.  For that reason, if you think that also qualifies for the accessing from abroad category, please feel free to add that to my vote....or advise me to change my voting accordingly.

 
A person has died after being struck by a train at Collins Lane Level Crossing in Purton at around 3.05pm on Thursday  October 22.

 
Returning from Bristol on the 14:22 Cardiff to Portsmouth, that train terminated short - at Bath Spa. Leaving the healthily running train at Bath, a minute later the entire passenger load did the same, acting on an announcement on board. The ~85% full 4 carriage train emptied. Then, an announcement went out to the effect "Passengers who have alighted from the Portsmouth train, please stay on the platform and we'll have information for you in ten minutes". After ten minutes the advice was wait on the platform and catch the following service to Portsmouth - but checking RTT it looks as though that was cancelled too. The one an hour later than that ran, and has just left Salisbury half an hour down, sods law dictating that it is three carriages. RTT doesn't show what happened to that Portsmouth train, but something got under the feet of the 14:43 to Paddington which called at Bath 20 minutes down.

Also, I see that the 11:30ish departure from Weymouth spent two hours in the section before Yeovil Pen Mill, and another two hours between there and Castle Cary, so a long day for everyone.

 

Indeed - there is a conundrum here / a set of systems that don't make the life of the inexperience traveller particularly easy, and leave a whole raft of potential loopholes.   We don't (in the UK) have a monopoly on such issues - witness the current trip Lisa and I are taking across Northern Spain and down the Atlantic coast - we hope - into Portugal.   Another post - perhaps on that.

I remind myself here (on the Coffee Shop) that I am reasonably familiar with the British system, with reading the data and working out what to do.  So - these days - are most of our members.   But that does not apply to the majority of the travelling public who may well be bright, but don't have the experience, reading and time to go through obscure processes to get the something that works best.

But then ... the system is also do complex that it can be read and holes found by those clever little tikes who want to defraud the system, and staff on the lookout to plug this holes also plug holes of usability ...

 
UK access is via home FTTP, mobile Vodafone or public WiFi
Holiday access (France, Spain Germany and similar) is via local WiFi or Vodafone roaming.

 
There are also some ticket types that are not able to be bought from a ticket machine

 
Route(s) affected
Elizabeth line services between Slough and London Paddington

Description
A speed restriction over a bridge between Southall and Hanwell means some lines are blocked. As a result, Elizabeth line services between Slough / Heathrow Airport and London Paddington may be cancelled or revised.

This is expected until 18:00.

 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/600eaa69e90e071440e63da1/valuing-nature_a-railway-for-people-and-wildlife-the-network-rail-vegetation-management-review-document.pdf

From 2018, so not sure if there’s an update somewhere.

 

Many thanks for the info, I gleaned part knowledge from engineers involved in later conversion of the 6.25kV bridge subsections. 

The conversion of the 1500V DC to 6.25kV makes sense as the could switch and entire route from DC to AC literally over a weekend. Based on Stuving info I feel the upgrade happened fairly quickly where possible during the 1960 using ABB minimum oil circuit breakers leaving the low bridges at 6.26kV  these areas on the Liverpool Street - Shenfield being converted in the 1970 where the metal clad air insulated 25kV switchgear developed by GEC and South Wales Switchgear was used

Both the Glasgow, the LTS and the Liverpool St - Southend used  25kV  Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) minimum oil circuit breakers these were installed from the early 1960 the last going out of service on the LTS around 2007.  As a side note they were prone to switchgear expulsions destroying / badly damaging the brick building housing them.   I was the site Distribution construction Engineer at Dunton, in 2005 replacing the totally destroyed ABB building with a redundant 25kV air insulated metal clad vacuum circuit breaker building recovered form the ECML.

 

....................there's a policy? 

All down to fallen trees on the line.......

Alterations to services between Par and Newquay
Cancellations to services between Basingstoke and Reading
Cancellations to services between Liskeard and Looe
Cancellations to services between Exeter St Davids and Barnstaple
Cancellations to services between Truro and Falmouth Docks via Penryn
Alterations to services between Yeovil Pen Mill and Castle Cary

Quite breezy here in Taplow now but the rain has largely held off all day apart from a few bursts (generally whilst I was outdoors!)

 
For bottled drinking water, I suggest sparkling water in glass bottles.
Glass bottles are preferable because plastic bottles are slightly pervious and allow the carbon dioxide to escape.
Sparkling water is preferable to to still, because the dissolved gas is slightly anti bacterial, and the escaping pressure on opening provides assurance that the seal was intact.

Still water in plastic bottles should be replaced, by or shortly after the expiry date. Sparking water in glass bottles keeps indefinitely.

Any bottled water is better than none.

















 

 
Desktop PC. Chrome browser with BT Norton security.
FTTC, between 35/50mbs download.

Rarely use my Samsung mobile for this site.
The print is too small without trying to find where I left my glasses!
Yes, I know I can manually enlarge the page print, but each reply comes out at a different size!
Too much hassle, so I try not to use my mobile for the forum.

 

Anyone would think that the vegetation management policy might just be in need of review

 

There has been a bit of a thing about collecting details and dates of electrification programmes, on RailForums over the last 2-3 years. The sources include books, technical magazines and papers, ferreting about on line, and the many ex-railway members of the forum who worked on them.

The consensus of that work is that Liverpool St - Shenfield at least was all converted 1500 DC - 6.25 kV, and then later all uprated to 25 kV. One of my few contributions to this collection was to locate the 1962 Langley Report, "Railway Accidents -  Failures of Multiple-unit Electric Trains on British Railways". This inquiry was set up to explain the alarming series of on-board explosions in Glasgow Blue Trains, including the Renton accident which injured a guard and seven passengers (three seriously). However, it contains a thorough description of the Modernisation programme electrification work to date.

That report includes the attached table, which confirms that the GE network was done with 6.25 kV continuous over the suburban part to Shenfield and onward to Southend (Victoria).  It was the "north-east London suburban" network that had a mixture of voltages, and so did the Glasgow suburban lines. The LTS lines are missing from the table, as electrification work was still underway when the inquiry started. There is a mention of a limited electric service starting there in 1961, and many of the TLS stock which were built earlier and used on other lines temporarily.

You can't tell from the table how long the 6.25 sections were (or how many) but the similarity of the total route miles at 6.25 and 25 kV (25:24 in NE London, 20:32 in Glasgow) suggests more than just a bridge or three at a time. After all, each transition needed a neutral section with APC magnets to open and close the pantograph circuit breaker.

 
There have been/are trees down/been struck at:

St Austell
Luxulyan
Cullompton
Bruton
St Keynes
Bere Ferrers
Perranwell
Yeoford

The Dawlish sea wall was closed this morning due to broken ballast boards.

 

I’m sure chuffed can speak for themself, but are there not circumstances where people might want to discuss their travel arrangements at the ticket office? This, surely, is why we faught to keep them a few years ago…

 
Over an inch of rain in Swindon between midnight and 9am.

 
...but getting going now...

 

Add to that sadly there will be people who see it as a way to get a free ride on a train

The part about reduced mobility, I don't know Chuffed personally, but I also have a disability card, but I don't have a physical disability, unless you knew me personally you would not realise why I have the card

I am confused why a ticket was not bought at one of the ticket machines, if there is uncertainty about how to use the machine I would expect the member of staff to assist

 

I am confused now by the post from Chuffed - why did they just not buy a ticket from the machine and walk through the barriers?

 
Trees barely moving in Melksham

 
My eyes glazed over when reading some of the techno-jargon in preceding posts!  I access this website only from my home PC, which has become slow with age, with no fancy (if desirable) add-ons (except an adblocker). I've never had issues with Coffee Shop performance.  I did try a free Proton VPN  but found it took a while to find an overseas location; it blocked me from a couple of websites that I do visit and was reluctant to be closed.

I use a cheapo mobile phone, mostly for texts and emails, and, being clumsy, find it difficult to use it to compose anything other than a short message.