Unpleasant Telegraph headline IMO - "Train driver missed chance to avoid fatal crash".

30mph. Ugh. Passenger here: to any drivers reading this, in the most unlikely case that you find your train is in this predicament, it's fine, once you've set its systems to do their best, to see you out of your cab and heading down the first carriage.

The 66-year-old was a passenger in the rear carriage of the train to Aberystwyth, as were other people who were seriously injured in the crash just before 19:00 on 21 October, 2024.

"Ageing fleet"? The IETs have largely only been in service for 8-10 years, the 387 Electrostars much the same!

I would agree with you both.

The current GWR team have an aging fleet to deal with, and also what seems like a worsening infrastructure scenario - though that could be that they're ever more careful now on safety grounds.  It feels like the bridge at Limpley Stoke is closed and trains diverted via Chippenham on a weekly basis, for example, which does not help CDF -> PMH ... and the blame cannot be apportioned to GWR (First employees and contractors) on that sort of issue.

Where I (and others in WWRUG, for example) have noticed an issue is that GWR management is far less available and responsive than it used to be, with an extra layer of marketeers on filtering the technical team, and a very controlled approach of answering less / slower that they used to, and answering with answers that don't answer the question (if you get what I mean) but rather tell us similar / linked data that does not actually address the issue.

I and others are somewhat at a loss about what to do about this (if there is anything we can do).  We do not wish to be "squeaky wheels".   We do not want to shout issues in public, especially in those cases where things are getting slightly better.  And we want to be able to promote the services with them.  Of course, our failure on things like getting a CCIF grant, or the afternoon peak service at DMH replaced now that the original runs empty to aid reliability, or even to get a single call on 1st August in a Weymouth train for a special day out (and that WAS promised ...) is frustrating.

Is it "end of term blues?".  Is it that other newer things such as as the Oxford service, Newquay and Okehampton are now the fashion / focus?  Is it that they are far more ruled by DfT, not interested in anything except short term and impressing the new bosses?   Is it that born and bred train people are replaced more by bright and lovely people but who are new to rail, and perhaps look at costs and accounts and not passenger needs?  Is it an increased regulation and complexity that removes and flexibility and friendliness? I don't know the answer. 

Clearly not the complete picture. There are a number of significant mismatches between All Cancellations & GWR Cancellations in the data and they can only or largely be down to Network Rail. The seemingly daily PAD <> RDG infrastructure failures must be a major contributor to a pretty bleak report.

.....Anyone else think standards are clearly slipping now, in run up to their nationalisation.

Will the arrival into Parliament of Andy Burnham - who's done so much to flagship changes and developments of public transport in the Manchester area, and who's a Labour heavyweight make any difference indirectly to the government's direction and approaches to public transport - trains, buses, etc, in the south / west of England and South Wales? 

Manchester (for which Andy is famous) has a high population density (a.k.a. is largely urban).  Would he be inclined to make a difference in urban areas such as Bristol, Plymouth and Exeter or would his influence across the UK spread to areas which are described as "rural" but which are in practice a series of urban townships where most people live, separated from one another by a handful of miles of countryside?

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Posted at the same time as those alterations were “additional” trains from Westbury to Southampton Central and Swindon to Worcester Foregate Street. 

So at least some commuters were served.

I made the train and indeed 5.25 hours later have arrived in Nimes ... to find all the other trains in utter chaos due to "person hit by train".  Stopping for lunch.

Transport Focus chief executive Alex Robertson said: "This is the first report of its kind.

"I'm optimistic the railway understands the importance of using it to create a more customer focused culture and we'll be holding them to account to make sure they do."

The chief executive also stated more than nine in 10 people would report a positive experience if a delay was "handled well – a remarkably high figure given their train is late – but this falls to one in four when it isn't".

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:10
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:10 will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster, Salisbury, Romsey and Southampton Central.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47
06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47 will be terminated at Westbury.
It will no longer call at Trowbridge, Melksham, Chippenham, Swindon, Kemble, Stroud, Stonehouse, Gloucester, Cheltenham Spa, Ashchurch For Tewkesbury, Worcester Shrub Hill and Worcester Foregate Street.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

07:00 Oxford to Bristol Temple Meads due 08:20
09:08 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 10:26
11:03 Oxford to Bristol Temple Meads due 12:13
13:09 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 14:29
21:10 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 22:27

21:10 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 22:27 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Birmingham based CrossCountry ranked Britain's worst train operator

Train operator CrossCountry has been told to raise its performance, after receiving the worst score in a passenger survey.

In three months to the end of March, 72% of Birmingham-based CrossCountry's stops at stations were made within three minutes of the schedule, while 7% of services were cancelled, said Transport Focus.

The watchdog added that of those surveyed, 79% were satisfied with the Arriva Group-owned operator, 77% reported being satisfied with their journey's punctuality and reliability, and 46% said they were satisfied with how the company dealt with delays. The operator said despite slight improvements in some areas, it knew it "must do more to deliver the service our customers rightly deserve".

Transport Focus has asked CrossCountry to improve the passenger experience, reduce delays, provide better information during disruption and cut overcrowding on services.

Hull Trains achieved the best overall satisfaction score at 94%, followed by LNER with 93%.

87% of passengers overall said they were satisfied with their journey and disabled passengers reported lower satisfaction than non-disabled passengers, at 85%. More than 100,000 passengers were questioned in the six months to the end of March.

CrossCountry, the Arriva Group-owned operator, runs long-distance trains serving cities such as Cambridge, Cardiff and Manchester.

Mark Anderson, CrossCountry's customer and commercial director, said that looking forward, its refurbished trains were "transforming" journeys and its new timetable was "delivering better regional connectivity across the country".

"We're always working to improve onboard experience – from cleaning to catering, better wi-fi and clearer information during disruption. In particular, we know that crowding is a challenge and we're working with industry partners to explore all possible options to ease this."

Transport Focus chief executive Alex Robertson said: "This is the first report of its kind. I'm optimistic the railway understands the importance of using it to create a more customer focused culture and we'll be holding them to account to make sure they do."

The chief executive also stated more than nine in 10 people would report a positive experience if a delay was "handled well – a remarkably high figure given their train is late – but this falls to one in four when it isn't".

(BBC article includes graphics, with drop-down menus for individual providers)

Simpler, older version of Stonehenge found three miles from famous site

Archaeologists believe they have discovered an earlier, much simpler version of Stonehenge about 3 miles (5km) away from the prehistoric monument.

All that remains of the older structure is two holes in the ground, but the team says they held wooden posts that lined up with the Sun on the summer and winter solstices - the longest and shortest days of the year - in the same way as Stonehenge.

The site has been dated to about 5,000 years old, which predates Stonehenge by 500 years. Artefacts were also found at the site, including pottery, flint tools and animal bone, suggesting prehistoric people held gatherings there.

Phil Harding, from Wessex Archaeology, who led the excavation, said it was one of the best finds of his long career. "Two post pits tell me [much] more about the people 5,000 years ago," he said. "This tells me about the whole community, this tells me about how they were thinking, how they were behaving, how they were revering the heavens."

......

The structure, discovered in the village of Bulford, was a much more simple construction made up of just two wooden posts, which have long since rotted away. They were positioned 120m (394ft) apart and estimated to be between 2m and 4m high.

When Harding uncovered the intriguing holes, he noticed that they seemed to line up with the Sun, just like Stonehenge located a few miles away. "I got my pencil and ruler, and I joined them up, and I was aware that they were kind of pointing in the general direction of the sunrise on midsummer," he said.

(BBC article continues, with more details, images and explanations)

Just had a thought, if the branch lines affected by flooding were operated by short trains, which were suspended, and train lengths on average got shorter, then figures to some extent masking bigger train lengths cuts elsewhere on network