I do wonder if the lobbing a metal object over a fence at a railway substation in UK last week, which has caused so many problems for electric trains to Paddington should be deemed sabotage.    Unless a fluke happened was clearly going to cause damage.

Vandalism was official version, but that feels wrong because it clearly created a fire (maybe arson ?) causing damage.

I think there is a section in Victorian Railways Act about causing damage that is likely to lead to a fatal accident or endanger a passenger.

 

That "express" pauses long enough for loo breaks:

8 minutes at Swindon
9 minutes at Westbury
12 minutes at Salisbury

From https://swindonian.me/2024/02/19/33-swindon-railway-station-1842/


^* - no longer a loco change - but probably a crew change


The Buffet, Swindon Station (1863)
George Elgar Hicks (English, 1824 – 1914
via https://artvee.com/dl/the-buffet-swindon-station/


Image is in Public Domain (?)

 
I/we have a 10-15 minute walk to Digby & Sowton so the status of the service to Exeter Central / St.Davids (or very occasionally further on) is always checked. Where onward connections are involved I always use RTT to see whether the subsequent train is on time or not.

 
Maidenhead Boyne Hill station opened 1 Aug 1854 closed 1 Nov1871
Maidenhead Riverside station opened June 4, 1838, renamed Maidenhead and Taplow in 1854 closed 1 Nov 1871

 
Crossed legs express!

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:10
Facilities on the 05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:10.
Toilet facilities are not available. Disabled toilet facilities are not available.
This is due to a fault on this train.

 

Has me straying off topic

Llanbister ROAD ... about 10kms from Llanbister

London ROAD ... but how far from London?

 
I find it ironic that in German - that language that concatonates syllables to make complex new words - they are making a feature of LlanfairPG

 
Clearing and repairing the track is going to take over a week. The first stage is removing the two damaged - or in one case wrecked - DMUs. SNCF are using the same method as NR did at Lewes - the two-Kirow ballet. While the five vehicles on the track are being moved, a lot of trees have to be felled so the two jibs can be slewed far enough to reach the other vehicle.

 


On line systems typically let staff look up cancellations all across the network; they can find the proof.

Reading the statement with a pedant's eye in answer to your questions

* London stations to Exeter "via Honiton" WILL be accepted via Taunton.

* Sheffield to Taunton "not via London" WILL be accepted via London but not on East Midlands Trains

* It says "ticket" singular, so a split ticket booked journey must still stick to the "must call at" rule.

And adding some thoughts of my own

* Nothing is said about failed connections - only cancellations. So a late running train that fails to connect with another operator is not covered.  For example, a Penzance to Cheltenham Spa Advance ticket on GWR to Plymouth then XC but where the train from Cornwall is late - it does NOT cover onward travel by GWR from Plymouth and you must wait for the next Cross Country service.

* Can we treat a train that stops short as a cancellation - for example, if a Bristol to Portsmouth passenger who finds his (advance ticket) train gets cancelled beyond Southampton - I'm unclear as to whether he can carry on with SWR or Southern or must wait for the next GWR service an hour later

* A passenger planning to travel from Melksham to Bristol Parkway, tickets only available via Bath Spa, CAN travel via Swindon if the service via Bath Spa is cancelled - and indeed may want to because it's much faster

* Passengers from stations with occasional services cannot take advantage of the scheme if the next train isn't until more than two hours later.   Menheniot, Pilning, some gaps at Melksham, smaller stations on the halts train in Oxfordshire

* I am unclear as to how this works with tickets sold on virtual branch lines - a ticket from Kingsbridge to Kings Norton, for example.

I am probably overthinking this and in practise I find staff pretty reasonable when things go wrong.

 

Yes, though that only needs to be one person involved in the planning. But the degree of planning and the number of people involved does say "political group" (including workers' ones). We don't seem to be using "splinter group" any more  - is there a current equivalent? 

 
...and a degree of insider knowledge as to how railways technically work.

 

I agree: the word used should be 'alternative'. 

CfN. 

 
In my retirement, I generally don't 'book in advance' for rail travel: it's no longer time critical, as it used to be when I had an important team meeting to attend in London, for example.

Nailsea & Backwell, on the main line, benefits from a rather reliable service, these days: half hourly services into Bristol Temple Meads, for example, from which there will probably be alternative options if there is any disruption.

I will be taking the three trains from Nailsea to Kemble tomorrow (two changes, at Bristol and Swindon).  I will only be looking at 'train running' so I can inform my family that I may be a few minutes late for our lunch.

CfN. 

 

It seems like only yesterday when you first said "Manana Manana" 

 
From what I've seen of the size of these pipes and cables, they were not intended to cause anything like a derailment.  All about activating track circuits, using for example jump leads or pipes "attached" to the rails. I have no information how that attachment might have been done, but some kind of scaffold clamp perhaps?

One specific trick has been to do this near a level crossing, brining the barriers down until the shorting link is removed. Of course that might also be just because that's easy to get to. But doing this during the day and on such a scale, you'd think something was caught on CCTV. But then, if the operation was carefully planned for its effect on the railway, it also was done knowing how to avoid cameras.

 
It's been a difficult summer weather-wise, and other factors such as the side effects of pending re-organisation, budgetary control, world events, and so on all have their effect.   And so standards slip, or feel like they are slipping, right across the board.  How much of the slippage in our region is just a refection of nationwide ills, and how much of the performance issue is more regional of local?

I went to Open Train Times, where they produce station performance rankings, and share with you a map showing where the stations in a particular area come in a ranking. I also took a number of stations starting with "M" across Great Britain, and had the site plot their rankings for the last 6 months.





I personally question the Open Train Times evaluation algorithm, as I feel it give too little weight to cancellations, and so too much wait to delays.  However - the shape of the curve, where things have got better and where worse, is very informative.

 

I don't think any of the operators is doing especially well at the moment, so this is not a GWR thing.  I think it's the 'new normal' until GBR is up and running when there might be more structure and therefore more accountability and control.  At the moment it's a mess organisationally and that feeds down to the operational side of things.

And when I say GBR is up and running, I don't mean in December when GWR moves under direct government operation, but when the whole GBR organisation steps out of the shadows and into the limelight.  Scheduled for next year still?


Happy to be corrected, but I think any service that skipped a station (including services that start/terminate short) are counted as a 'half' cancellation for the 'All Cancellations' figure.

 
Abysmal is polite.

How would the semi-permanent cancellation of the Padd to Didcot services be represented on here?  The services ‘operated’ but skipped Twyford, Maidenhead and Slough for much of the month.

 
GWR have now published performance figures for 4 weeks 26 July - 22 August 2026

Once again, depending on how polite you are, somewhere between awful and abysmal

Cancellations overall 7.02%

but certain lines did worse, eg
London - Cotswolds 10.16% cancelled
Outer Thames Valley 9.81%
North Downs 9.33%
London - South Wales 9.07%
Bristol Suburban 8.67%
South Wales - South Coast 8.51%
Plymouth and Cornwall 8.24%

Some of the cancellations were due to external factors, so not all GWRs fault (although how quickly they recover from an incident is really a function of control).   But worryingly some areas had over 6% cancelled that were totally due to GWR

However you look at it, a commuter doing 5 return trips (10 return journeys) shouldn't have to put up with 1 of those 10 cancelled

https://www.gwr.com/-/media/gwr-sc-website/files/publications/performance-report/gwr-performance-report-period-2705.pdf

Of the trains that did run, only about half (51.96%) actually ran on time, with one group not even managing 30% on time.

If you use the more generous within 3 minutes,  GWR didn't even get 7 in 10 meeting that spec, with the worst group achieving just a lowly 44.67%

Sometimes I try and encourage public transport use, but am I wasting my time when GWR seems so out of its depth and performs so badly, and seems to be getting worse.   This is not a bad day, it is ongoing for months.

Am I being unrealistic, or are these figures some accepted new normal ?

 
Following the recent incident between Rouen and Caen, there has now been another, apparently larger scale and more organised incident in the Netherlands-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8ly49w9g1edo

I have already seen speculation on-line about the involvement of Russian involvement. Having regard to the veiled threats made by Putin, I am not inclined to dismiss this as paranoia.

 
The aftermath of the 1987 storm, was unique.
The power failed across the south east, which remained disconnected from the rest of the grid. a "black start" of the south east was performed, and the area run for some hours as an island, still disconnected from the rest of the grid.

 
If I have planned in advance to travel, I will always check Realtimetrains before travelling, but if a spur of the moment thing I would just turn up, but that would mainly be because I would be on route that I know there are regular services available

 
Timetable, fares, terms and conditions some six months later ...

 

Ah ... yes ... that reminds me ...

 
Late notice extra ... from https://www.facebook.com/groups/wwrug

 
An update, from the BBC:

 
"Customers holding a valid ticket [...]"

So I have a Network Railcard discounted ticket from Waterloo - Exeter, possibly split at Honiton.  Is that valid to travel on GWR via Taunton?

I have a series of split tickets Paddington - Plymouth, with a Network Card split at Newbury, Pewsey and Hungerford.  Is that valid to travel on a non-stopping service?

I have a Sheffield - Taunton not via London ticket Is that valid to travel via London?

"[...] using a direct or reasonable alternative route"

How is everyone going to know my train was cancelled across all those regions/operators?  Can I just buy a cheaper ticket and make it up or will I be expected to have proof?

 

Here's the danger to the passenger experience (and so to the number of customers in the medium term and beyond) of removing this as a through train - although Recent Train Times does suggest that this failure is the exception rather than the rule.

 

From Huffpost



I can ... understand ... that frustration.  I have a number of connections with guests from Ukraine who are highly intelligent, very well qualified, but with qualifications that are not recognised in the UK.  The lady who's got a second degree in environmental sciences, really bright and "with it", and is stacking shelves in a store in Swindon.    In contrast, I had a job lined up for when I finished my Batchelor's degree, ((sure, I got an upper second with honours (too lazy to have got a first))), but whether or not I passed and got "letters" didn't matter to my employer, and it's never been of any consequence to getting a job since.

 

This bus is in replacement of the cancelled 15:56 Plymouth to Penzance - cancelled "due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time".  Due to call at all stations to Liskeard at 16:42.   The replacment bus, due Liskeard at 17:32 (50 minutes later) leaves out Dockyard, Keyham, St Budeaux and Menheniot.

Is it just me, or does the word "replacement" (which I have automatically used) worry you too where the alternative / substitute offered / suggested is very different from the product that's supposed to be there?