As an administrator on this Coffee Shop forum, may I thank all of our members here for your restrained, non-speculative, posts about this sad incident.

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch will indeed discover all of the facts, and provide us with a definitive report, in due course.

CfN.  -X

 
The aspect displayed by 358 upon the departure of the 360 will be interesting to discover.

 
They do if you buy / renew online.

 
Peter Hicks on X


and this has happened before (two trains in same section)

https://www.gov.uk/raib-reports/report-11-slash-2023-two-trains-in-the-same-signal-section-at-south-wingfield

 
If you purchased your railcard from the ticket office, you will not have had a reminder letter. I know that railcard forms are sent off to Swindon, but TBMK they are just filed away. Why would you need to complete a new full application form if the powers that be knew your renewal date? I believe this is a major flaw in the system! If they have a database of season tickets, why not of railcards? 

 

Who had been using this royal train if Victoria never had?

 
Did Her Majesty complain about that?




No, probably not. 

 
Fair comment, ChrisB, but it wasn't a straight renewal: I was using a different e-mail address, so I had to set it up as a new application.

No problem at all, the cards merely overlap by one day.

 
There have been a couple of "abnormal loads" on the worker server today.   I *am* aware and will look through the logs overnight.  The server emails me when it's in trouble and typical recovers over a few minutes when these things happen.

 
If they knew it was a renewal, shouldn't they have started the new one on the day after the old one expired?

 

Apparently she hated travelling at speed as well, being familiar with horse drawn transport. Her fastest journey ever was her funeral train from Gosport to London which was running late.

 
Another update, from the BBC:


My highlighting. CfN.

 
It was alleged that Queen Victoria, disliked passing through tunnels on the Royal Train, and that the Catford loop line was built in order to avoid Penge Tunnel.

 

My own Senior Railcard came up for expiry on 21 June 2026.  Indeed, the very diligent train manager on my train to Melksham on 25 May pointed that out to me, during her ticket check - I was fully aware of the expiry date, but I thought it was excellent customer service that she mentioned it.

I applied online for a renewal on Sunday 14 June 2026.  The plastic card arrived here in the post today, 20 June 2026, with an expiry date of 20 June 2027 - exactly one year from the date of receipt.  I'm very happy with that - my thanks to The Railcard Team. 

CfN. 

 
Indeed, likely to simply be a statement of (some) facts rather than reasons....along with any immediate safety concerns that need immediate action.

Update from 1230 news conference reported in many outlets - 9 remain critical in hospital along with 28 less seriously injured.

 

At this stage that will not be an interim report, but a preliminary one (though not really a report at all) - very different. Any investigation needs planning, scoping, allocation of staff, consideration of immediate actions (legal or technical), etc. That will be based on the facts that can be collected with no real investigating, including many not known to the public or media. It has been found valuable to publish a summary of what is known at this point, before the investigation proper starts. For one thing is helps to stop a lot of wild speculation and misreporting, and less wild too.

An interim report happens after most of the investigation results are available, but before the final report can be written. Again one of the main reasons for one is to stop too much speculation about the content of the final report, particularly if that is taking a long time.

For some reason the terms are often used interchangeably.

 
BBC quoting that an (interim, I'm sure) update will come from the RAIB in coming days.   Makes sense especially if there are safety issues to be addressed that are generally significant.  RAIB seem much quicker at the interim reporting than they used to be.

 
There's an immediate problem with this approach Ibraine.

If you look at the destinations currently covered by Cross Country,  you'll see that thre are " strings" of urban areas that together have larger populations, like Southampton and Bournemouth/Christchurch/Poole, or Banbury/Oxford/Reading/Basingstoke, or Taunton/Exeter/Plymouth. Many of the conurbations you mention already are connected by the main line network radiating out of London or lie close together with reasonable existing links.

I think that the current Cross Country network is just about right, possibly only needing a few trains to Liverpool, Plymouth or Brighton to be better,  but I perfectly understand that line capacity constraints and the relatively modest additional fare revenue might not justify this or make it possible.

All it needs is some longer trains (it borders on the criminal that after nearly two years of a new government with a minister from the rail industry they have Voyager units stored out of use)
and some work on pathing of trains and timetabling to eliminate as many conflicts that usually seem resolved at the expense of Cross Country trains, notwithstanding the generous lay over periods at stops like Reading, and you should have something really useful. I am heartened to read some positive comments in this thread to support this view.

And no, I don't see limits on access to services for shorter distance travellers or increasing other parallel services (for which there's probably not the line capacity) as necessary.  If there's more seats on lengthened trains that should address the issue.  The occasional full and standing evening rush hour train between New Street and Leamington is a price we should be happy to pay for the convenience of through trains between the South Coast/Thames Valley and Birmingham and the North and we shouldn't begrudge some West Midlands commuters using them to get home a little earlier.  Sit back, relax and look forward to enjoying the countryside down to Oxford once they have got off.

 
As ever I think there are some other shortforms not mentioned on Journeycheck.

The 08:48 London Paddington to Pembroke Dock should be 10 as far as Swansea before the rear five continues to West Wales.

Today it is five all the way but at least, unlike last week, it is getting past Swansea.

 
Another day of shortage of train crew (so services cancelled) for some of our local services.
In addition to which. did I spot five short formed express services with only 5 cars to/from London.

I would like to think things will slowly improve as new crews are qualified and trains resume full length soon.

 

Looks like they've been reinstated.

 
Three days ago you did say you were in Paris and went via Gare d'Austerlitz. I thought that might be finished by now, but apparently not, at least in the commercial areas. It's not always the same experience -  you may find yourself in the light of Hall 1 under the old glass train shed roof, or (as pictured) the gloom of Hall 2 down among the concrete mushrooms of its build-over.

 
Or 4: Lewes

 


Interesting data. If (re)designing the cross country network I’d start here and select station pairs that didn’t have a ‘natural’ alternative service. For example, no need for a cross country service between Glasgow and Edinburgh or between Manchester and Liverpool, where other providers cover these off.

I don’t think one change of train is too much to ask for passengers venturing cross country, although it maybe two if there is a change required at each end. So the cross country network becomes a true ‘inter-city’ network.

What I can’t rationalise is whether the general travelling public will see the one/two changes and too many and then bolt for the car alternative ? I suspect this might be case.

 
Don't know where you are but someone's given that defensive structure a drubbing at some stage.

Mark

 

Agree - also, ideally my observation needs to be 'Unposted' to separate it from this thread and parked somewhere as - fortunately - it is not of so much concern to this particular (and terrible) event but will be something that the RAIB will be noting.

Mark