I have now added ET to our list of 'abbreviations and acronyms', at https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/acronyms.html

CfN.

 
I made a rare visit into Reading town centre this morning. Within a hundreds yards from where I got off the bus I saw three two-wheelers being ridding illegally on the pavement and got jostled by a girl intent on her mobile phone. I went to Go Outdoors to find that it was closing down in January after a rebrand a year or two ago (a larger store in south Reading closed in 2022). M & S, JD Sports and John Lewis didn't have what I wanted (admittedly very specific items).  Twice I ran the gauntlet of a large team of charity-muggers collecting for a cause I do not support. There was a street musician playing some very loud sounds that I did not like.  There were other cases of anti-social and illegal cycling, in some cases by masked riders. And there were several rough-sleepers lying on the pavement with blankets over their heads.

So an underwhelming experience.  ( I should add that I used to be a very keen cyclist, have generously supported charities, have given £5 and £10 notes to accomplished street musicians, and back in the 1980s twice-daily passed through "Cardboard City" near Waterloo Station.)

On the plus side, I liked the new main library where I spent 90 minutes using a PC faster than my outdated model  (though I could have gone to the branch 20 minutes walk from my home), and the lady bus driver on my trip home was exceptionally pleasant.

 

4tph? We'd be lucky enough to have two at the moment! (speaking as someone who lives a few mins from Ashley Down).

Jokes and sarcasm aside, one of GWR's complaints with these new services was to do with the 2nd train per hour from Henbury that is being discussed and that these services may cause issues with that, but the outcome was that part of the complaint was apparently handled and it wasn't going to be an issue (this is all in publicly available emails).

Some of the back and forth that went on is quite interesting, especially some of the shade being thrown (GWR saying they are concered about TfW's on time performance impact their services, to which TfW replied saying about the domino effect the ongoing Paddington - Reading infrastructure issues have with services at Cardiff) - https://www.orr.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2026-04/tfwr-ltd-s22a-52nd-supplemental-agreement-consultation-responses.pdf

Of course there are also the Burns station services which at least the last we heard were planned to call at most stations this side of the bridge too, maybe resulting in the same issue.

Maybe if 4tph from Henbury ever becomes close to a reality that can then be a conversation, especially if stations like Ashley Down etc get served by 2tph stopping from Cardiff (burns station services), and 2tph from Henbury, with Stapleton Road and Lawrence Hill getting that plus the Severn Beach services too and maybe some additional in the form of these West Wales services, maybe that actually is enough and the question then becomes could the an 2tph from Henbury run another way instead (maybe onto the mains, providing a quicker service between Brabazon and Temple Meads).

 
What impact might stopping these trains at Stapleton Rd have on the ambition for 4tph from Brabazon? Those relief lines are going to be busy, and single lead junctions at Narroways and the Hallen line won’t help…

 
I experience similar frustration at supermarket checkouts.

 

It's always been planned to go to every hour from next May, six days a week.  No plans currently for a Sunday service.

Delays to the 175 introduction might push it back, but hopefully not.

 

To the best of my knowledge there hasn't been any indication either way
I would be amazed if somewhere in the future the whole RNLI station was rebuilt etc

They are currently based out of Marine Lake, they can only launch quickly if the tide is high and they can use the slope at the end of the main beach.
Otherwise it is quite a slow procedure to get a boat launched

I was having lunch in the Captains Cabin beer garden a few weeks back, and witnessed a launch, this is not critical of the volunteers, but I was amazed how slow and laboured it was

 

One of the most frustrating causes of delay I see are the numerous people who don't get their pass/card/change out until they are actually on the bus in front of the driver.

 

Had a tamper tantrum, did it?

 

A tamper that was involved in overnight engineering has damaged a large section of track.

 
The noise of aircraft exercising over the St George's Channel, and SouthWestern Approaches has become commonplace these evenings.

 
These services are now showing as unadvertised station calls between Cardiff and Bristol

Example here, Bristol Temple Meads, Stapleton Road, Filton Abbey Wood, Severn Tunnel Junction, Newport (South Wales) all shown as unadvertised station calls

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:L00542/2026-12-17/detailed

There were test runs in middle of the night to Temple Meads, with 5 car 197 formation, calling at the stations few days ago

a quirk of schedule is seems to be timed at 90mph in England, but 100mph in Wales (although it might simply be it's been copied from a 158 schedule, as no timings for 197s to Bristol exist)

 
Following from ET's comments on 'running on yellows', I think paragraph 81 is the most important:

 
(Dropping off SWTSMBO and heavy luggage at EXD for her trains to Heathrow and subsequent flight to Singapore. I'm travelling later after going to a BSO concert and two Exeter Chiefs rugby matches. We are going to Singapore primarily to attend a family wedding.)

DIG 1314 (1319) > EXD 1324 (1327) : 2T19 EXM > PGN : 1 x 165/1 (3 Cars)
EXD 1351 (1353) > DIG 1400 (1402) : 2F19 PGN > EXM : 1 x 165/1 (3 Cars)

Tickets: DIG > EXD > DIG Senior Railcard Anytime Day Return £2.95

The wife already had her tickets to Heathrow; I had intended to buy a ticket on the GWR App but as soon as I started typing a technical fault message was generated and the process would go no further. Not being sure that I would be able to display a web purchased ticket on the App I opted for paper coupons from the TVM.
2T19 was delayed by 5 minutes having to wait at Topsham for the delayed 2F17 PGN > EXM train. This service arrived at EXD on time but was then itself delayed.
Tickets / Railcards checked: No / No

EXD was extremely busy, and somewhat chaotic, due to a combination of significant numbers of students returning to university and many other pax milling around disrupted by late running trains:
1C77 PAD > EXD 23 late
1C78 PAD > PLY 27 late
1V50 EDB > PLY 22 late

And to cap it off the station PIS screens all showed that the 5-car 1C77 was going to stop at Platform 6A (north end) but actually ran through to 6B prompting a rush of intending pax from one end of P6 to the other.

2F19 arrived at, and departed from, EXD 2 minutes down despite a booked 4 minute stop. It often looks to me that station staff at various locations take a far too relaxed approach to train dispatch but perhaps it is the signallers not paying attention.
Tickets / Railcards checked: No / No

 

Yeah you could probably change between the 8 and the other services closer to town too.
And yep exactly, double deckers can't use the T5 stop that the 8 used to use.


The 8 absolutely should be serving the T1 stop on Temple Gate so if they aren't then that needs to be fed back accordingly. No different to it missing any other stop.


It hasn't moved. It is still at the T6 stop on Station Approach which is the lower of the two stops (T5, the one nearer the station entrance itself, is now unused since the 8 has moved).

 
The boards could probably just be headed 'Departures' and the issue part-vanishes - and departures by destination is smart by comparison with certain other options. The boards at my departure time were displaying the 'next fastest' to Chippenham and the passenger would need on a one-time basis to work out that that might indicate the best option for Bath Spa.

That 'Next fastest' array of destinations is also a functional opposite to the dysfunctional boards at Bath bus station which do something thoroughly peculiar and several of the forthcoming buses to a destination. This is combined with a 'Page 1 of x' approach, said pages padded out by the number of services in the list.

Also at Bath bus station there's the free-standing low energy paper white display badged by WEST that shows imminent departures of about half a dozen services - no carousel display so excellent on that account - but I think that's running on the Exeter principle mentioned in another thread, and it doesn't know about live departure times and won't show a bus that's not departed but is a few minutes late.

 
Shipley.

According to t'interweb the West-East 'Bradford Avoider', AKA North Curve, was a slightly later addition and had no platforms until 1979.

These days it seems avoiding Bradford is quite popular. 

 
One of my more significant criticisms of the 'new' Exeter Bus Station is that all the PIS screens, both summary and detailed individual stand units, only display the predefined static timetable information and do not update dynamically; if a service is delayed beyond it's booked departure time it just disappears from the displays, and even minor disruption will result in services pulling in to a stand other than that to which it is allocated and pax would not be aware of this.

The solution to these issues is for individual drivers to pop onto the concourse and ask (shout) quite loudly if any passengers require a specific destination.

Perhaps Stagecoach and/or Devon County Council need to have a word with the RTT boffins.   

 
My main concern, and the reason I posted it after some time, was not so much the lateness of the buses. Rather, it was the lack of information at Exeter St Davids and the lack of the buses showing on the live tracking app, which simply came up with the next 4 bus time, not the 4A.
The live time screen at the Airport at least gave me the option of walking to catch the 4 at Clyst Honiton. At St Davids there was no information. Surely, at this major passenger hub there should be some live display. Looking around I could not find one.
Even in Bridport we have live tracking screens at the bus station and at the four main high street stops

 
There is some weird irony that it appears from the interim report that the AWS might have been reason for first train stopped, had it not stopped then back of it wouldn't have been hit.

Seems AWS electromagnet was 16mm low, although unclear if it was originally installed wrong, or had moved out of tolerance.

The 810 that had stopped had green signal, but the AWS triggered, the train clearly picked up the permanent magnet as it passed over at 124mph, but seems to have missed the auto cancel (possibly due to the low electromagnet that it didn't detect).

The 360 that crashed, according to the data loggers was accelerated through a red signal, but as to why is not in interim (facts report).  That is one for final report, although reason might never be known.

TPWS wasn't fitted at the Red signal, it rarely is at automatic plain line signals on open line, mainly those protecting junctions or where trains frequently stop such as sections with platforms or known risk areas (the report describes the risk assessment standard) for installing

 


Err - slightly embarrassed here.  Not my alert or quote - I just took and shared a couple of piccies

 

 

GWR made the offer to put them into plain base GBR blue……

Edit: Fixed quotes (Red Squirrel)

 
Alterations to services between Liskeard and Looe

Due to a broken down train between Liskeard and Looe the line is blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations will be suspended. Disruption is expected until 13:00 02/10.

Customer Advice
-
What has happened??
-
The train that runs between Liskeard and Looe has broken down.
-
What are we doing about it?
-
Our maintenance team are waiting for a replacement part to try and resolve the issue and reinstate the service as soon as possible.

 

There is an inherent deficiency / problem with the AWS warnings, baring in mind the principles of AWS is now over 125 years old (GWR ATC introduced in 1906 and the LMS Hudd system 1938).

The problem with AWS is where a train is running on "Yellows".  There have been a number of accidents recorded over the years where a train Driver subconsciously cancelled the AWS warning where a signal is at "Danger" because they had been running on "Yellows".   This is a human trait we all suffer from. 

The inherent deficiency / problem of AWS there is no difference in warning between Caution (Yellow) and Danger (Red) introduction of TPWS helped to overcome the deficiency / problem.

AWS has helped keep the UK railway safe since its introduction in 1956 by BR following the 1952 Harrow and Wealdstone accident 

 
As many of you know, I am a bus driver.

99% of us don’t want to be late. We want our dinner, or to go home on time too.

95% of delays I suffer are caused by third parties. Third party collisions, roadworks, bad parking, bad driving by third parties, on rural routes I often think my bus is invisible as I’m passing through narrow stretches and cars just keep driving at me instead of waiting for me to complete passage of narrow sections. Pensioners having a gossip to me or fellow passengers, must finish their conversation before disembarking then start a new one with me before getting off. The joys of rural work, everyone knows everyone, and passengers are on first name terms with most of the drivers and vice versa.

 
From the Guardian.



Edit note: Hyperlink inserted within text, for clarity. CfN.

 

Originally built as a terminus where all trains called on their way into London via London Bridge then after reversal went on to Charing Cross.  The chord from Borough Market Junction was added later - certainly as far as passenger trains were concerned

 
Google Maps uses an average walking speed of about 3mph apparently when giving an estimated time to reach a destination. If you know that then you can make an appropriate adjustment if you want better accuracy.