I understand the old station footbridge at Chippenham is too low, and being listed or heritage status probably can't be taken away.  But these days there are special lifting and jacking techniques so can probably be lifted and riser spacers added.  Then just add a couple of extra steps at the bottom of each staircase.

As far as I am aware there is no remaining obstructions between Bathampton Junction and the K&A aqueduct either.  Clearly doing this would help BEMUs as they could change mode away from the junction where they need to accelerate.   I write this as I have just discovered East Midland new 810s cannot work to Corby on electric because they pass an engine warm up beacon as wires don't extend far enough.

But with 5 trains an hour (sometimes 6 if including freight) Bath really ought to be a section that gets urgent electrification.  Especially as Hitachi seems unable to keep all IET engines operational.  Although I do not know why so many fuel pumps seem to be low quality and failing.

I have heard Hitachi are self certifying defects, and GWR has option to audit the defect list, but I wonder if they actually do it (as in send legal and audit staff armed with spirit levels to check seat sag, microbe swabs to check cleanliness of edge of windows, gas analysers to check exhausts and toilet smells etc.  Hitachi are paid a lot, and don't really seem to fully deliver diesel mode and passenger comfort on IETs.

 

The National Rail website has somewhat changed and no longer offers (that I can see) a complete download of all the .pdf files - though they can be generated one at a time.   With several hundred, available, I have just selected a couple - London to Bristol and South Wales, and Cardiff to Portsmouth, and uploaded them for the moment.    Before I consider putting in a lot of effort to piece together a GB timetable for the Coffee Shop, has anyone seen a complete download we could use??

 
Not railway specific but here in West Wales we're seeing areas being flooded that haven't flooded before. The local farmers who have been here ages say its never been this bad but I'm not sure human memory is that reliable. I think seeing roads blocked and parts of towns and villages under water that haven't been flooded before is probably a better indicator.

Subjectively based on being here for several years each year seems to be getting wetter. More and more rain but the lack of dry periods means the water table isn't emptying out which makes things worse. We also seem to have numerous amber/yellow flood warnings that I don't remember but that might just be better comms/more awareness.

Rainfall seems to be at or close to record levels (apart from where there's a hosepipe ban!) but there's also more concrete and houses so less places for it to go.

I think this is probably what climate change looks like - the seasons blurring into one another rather than us growing Olive trees and grapes instead of leeks and potatoes.

 
175001 has departed Plymouth for Penzance. It was sitting in the dock platform all morning.

 

That was what struck me most - the "motley" coaching stock !

 
Route Hereford £64,75. Changing at Crewe in each direction. There are through trains from Crewe to Carmathan every 2 Hours

 
If it is one bus it should be capped at £3

 
The National Rail web site is happy to quote for... a route via Aberystwyth and then TfW's T1 bus - and also offers through fares, but not of the sort that people should buy - the site quotes Liverpool to Aberystwyth return as £44.05 but Liverpool to Carmarthen via Aberystwyth and the T1 bus as... £129.50 so possibly a prompt to explore split ticketing.

Mark

 
The problem is not new, attached is a screenshot of a report of an accident near Cattistock Mill in 1882 after heavy rain. In addition there was a slip at Holywell tunnel.

100 years later persistent heavy rain would need the inspection of the line before traffic could resume.

 
To further trim the distance, is Liverpool - Chester - Shrewsbury an option too? Though, watch the connections at Chester perhaps as some aren't' good.

Mark

 
£64.75 via Llandrindod Wells. Timings wise, there will be a big gap outward between 09:28 and 13:43

 

Money well spent on a passing loop and reinstating the platform at Newquay!

 
My grandson wishes to travel from Liverpool to Carmarthen, and back. The itineraries all seem to route him via Crewe/Stafford/Bristol - to me, a simpler, and possibly quicker, routing would appear to be via Crewe/Cardiff (Crewe to Cardiff using the mid-Wales line). He has done this trip, to Cardiff, before.

Ticket will be an off peak return  + 16/17 Saver Card. Both ways on a Saturday

Can anyone offer any thoughts as to the use of the mid-Wales route as opposed to the Bristol route on this same ticket...........it would appear to be a shorter route too ! I think each leg of the route will be using a different ToC - could this affect it, or does this not apply to an OPR ticket ?

 

 
The Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway have, in my opinion, a most interesting Drainage Blog at https://draingang.blogspot.com/?m=1

The work that they have to do to maintain what is a relatively short stretch of railway is really quite something.

 
Cancellations to services between Par and Newquay
Due to flooding at Roche the line is blocked. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
Train services between Par and Newquay will be cancelled.

Issued 10h03

 
Even after working on the Big Railway for some time, my move to the West Somerset Railway led to a much wider and deeper understanding of the infrastructure and and work needed to make, or keep, a railway in good fettle, sufficient for the safe working of trains

I guess the Minehead Branch is not unique in the number and complexity of the ditches, drains, culverts and other water channels that it has.  I was astonished to find out how much drainage infrastructure there is, and how much routine work is needed to keep it all working properly.  I was even interviewed for Points West, by Andrew Harvey, one time.  We were standing in a ditch at Woolston Moor, discussing how much work was needed.

I also discovered how easy it was for things to go badly and expensively wrong if the maintenance was neglected.  On the bit of the line that hadn't then been opened for traffic, near Washford, a blocked ditch at the top of the cutting by Bilbrook Bridge caused a landslip of the steep bank, in 1976.  Took weeks to fix.  And a similar thing happened near Lydeard Bridge, Crowcombe, a year later.

Keeping the water flowing is of paramount importance

I'm not at all convinced this vital work is done to the same standard on the Big Railway these days, as it used to be

 
Astute observation: people pick this up in school and higher education and many other places as they move between different environments - recognising the appropriate register for a situation so that they don't say submit a 1st year undergraduate essay peppered with phrases as though they'd typed it on their phone (bit of an extreme example). Then, people in organisations sometimes settle into funny ways, especially when they have to work with a script-driven set of phrases for communication, which gives us the lego-block-like messaging to the public from the rail industry, or the weird bonkerness of BBC continuity fillers.

Mark

 
The line to Newquay is flooded at Roche this morning.   The line to Looe floods regularly, and flood between Swindon and Bristol Parkway are common enough for us to just roll our eyes - "again". The Barnstaple line has its issues and they seem to have been more of late.  More seriously, part of the Spey Bridge has collapsed - now a cycle way and footpath, and in the "care" of another party rather than Network Rail.

Are things getting worse?  Climate change? More cautious approach with more check and safety measures?  Modern trains not able to stand up to the water? Better information systems bringing us the news of problems we wouldn't have heard about in the past?  Reduced preventative maintenance? Something else?

 
08:35 Plymouth to London Paddington due 12:06
08:35 Plymouth to London Paddington due 12:06 will no longer call at Newbury.
This is due to overcrowding as this train has fewer coaches than normal.
Will be formed of 5 coaches instead of 9. There are no reservations on this service.

 
Cancellations to services between Par and Newquay
Due to flooding at Roche the line is blocked. Disruption is expected until 10:00 15/12.
Train services between Par and Newquay will be cancelled.
Customer Advice
-
What has happened?
-
The railway has flooded at Roche.
_
What are we doing about it?
-
Network Rail is monitoring the situation.

Issued 08h13

 

There are no off peak fares between Melksham and Trowbridge, but there are between Melksham and both Westbury and Bradford-on-Avon.   So if you're travelling to Trowbridge on the 06:29, you buy a Trowbridge ticket, otherwise you buy a Westbury one.  Simples!

Every 2 months for the WWRUG committee meeting, I take the b-u-s to Trowbridge because there's a gap in the trains from 15:40 to 18:00 and return by train.  For that train journey, I buy an off peak single from WESTBURY to Melksham with discount for my disabled card - and I have counted that it takes seventeen button presses to persuade the ticket machine at Trowbridge to provide it.  Anyone looking for this fare in the machine needs to know what they are doing.

 
From The BBC


In a vein of self-analysis, this has me asking "Do you take me (personally) seriously?"  Let me say the same thing twice:

There is a lot of sense in the article (yes, I have read it fully) and much more too in terms of making the language and presentation followable and organising it to have the headlines bubble to the top rather than being lost in the content and also reading it back and smell checking!!

There is a lot of sense in the article. I go further, checking that my language and presentation are followable. I organise my headlines to bubble to the top. I read back and spell checking.

This is a "Coffee Shop" post. I post official information and authoritative answers. I also post comment, thoughts, ideas that are way out, and perhaps too often try to make jokes. I'm not sure I always get it right - but I certainly think about what I am posting and very much enjoy the way this place is a mix from very serious stuff to banter amongst friends. Long may it continue.

 

Yes, it is ... a line I have not travelled for many years and hope to have an opportunity to do so again next year.  Fond memories of Oban, of Fort William and Mallaig.

 
4. Must surely be the West Highland Line from Glasgow Queen St to Oban and Fort William/Mallaig (shown as far as Rannoch), with the 0450 sleeper train from Edinburgh, and the splitting of certain trains at Crianlarich?

 
Sunday was not a good day.

1P50 11:57 Great Malvern to Paddington (14:21) : arrived Evesham +10, departed +34, arrived Moreton-in-Marsh +99 (at 14:30) and cancelled thereafter. Set 800 314.
RTT reports the stock as running ECS to Paddington and then to North Pole.
1P54 13:12 Worcester Foregate Street to Paddington (15:24) : held at Evesham on account of 1P50 above (+50), arrived Reading +55 and cancelled thereafter.
1P64 14:28 Hereford to London Paddington (17:22) : cancelled throughout.

1W35 08:47 London Paddington to Great Malvern (11:14) : set 800 314. Lost time, especially after Evesham. Seven-minute dwell at Parkway. Arrived +27.
1W37 10:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern (13:15) : arrived +18.
1W47 14:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern (17:16) : held Oxford (+30), arrived +36.
1W49 15:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern (18:15) : started from Reading.

Plus a lot of late running. I look at the scheduled and actual times between Ascott and Evesham.  Scheduled is usually 30 minutes; actual is typically 33 minutes.  If the trains can't keep to the timetable, then it's not at all surprising that the service falls over. Worse Monday-to-Friday, when the single-track sections have to work like clockwork. 

If the problems with the engines continues, then we will need to have an emergency timetable.

 
How today is supposed to work; 2 units  come off Laira coupled, they carry out some ECS moves (presumably more crew training) then they split. One unit stays ECS and 175003 becomes 2C26 passenger to Penzance.

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:P22971/2025-12-15/detailed#allox_id=0

As at 1036. It is now 175001

 

It probably would - and you'll find my past thoughts on that option at http://www.sewweb.info/april2018.html and an old printable leaflet at http://www.sewweb.info/leaflet.pdf - but those are both 7 years old now and could do with a lick of paint, and mirroring via a secure URL.   If anything, I would see that the business (traffic) case has hugely improved over the years, but the costs have rocketed too.  It started as a light-hearted what-if piece but quickly became a serious study as the jigsaw pieces fell into place.

What was missing from the work done was a comparative piece on other options - for example leaving the station in the current position and (now, 2025) looking at the case (for example) for building thousands of homes around it, with a bus / virtual branch line to the working and industrial Severnside area that's already close to the line to the south and for which many of the staff would come from Pilning Newtown.

 

 
The new Monday to Friday timetable runs for the first time today - can you identify the lines / stations involved in these segments captures from here  on the National Rail website

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.


9.

 

I do too. Particularly one kernow space recently referred to, although he kept the managers name secret, I know exactly who he was referring to.
My main reason for leaving was due to the actions of one manager, and I’m not the only one. On the other hand I miss working with LH. One of the best managers I’ve worked under.