An old bloke at Taunton with a big suitcase shuffled enthusiastically in front of a handful on waiting passengers and across the yellow line and up to the door when the semi-fast London train arrived.  The others of us waiting helpfully suggested to him that he press the button to open the door. We then queued behind him to get into the carriage and find our seats while he tried, and failed to fit his suitcase into the luggage rack.

He looked at the reservation indicators above the seats and perhaps he was puzzling as to whether "Tiverton to Pewsey" was in front of or behind him. He was travelling, it turned out, on this train from Taunton to Westbury and his rail geography wasn’t brilliant. But anyway he settled down. Clearly his ticket was in order, as it was checked by a train manager who was being pedantic with other passengers, to the extent of being challenged. As he said "I am just doing my job".

We encouraged the old boy to press the button to let us off at Westbury. He dismounted, then stood there (yes, far enough from the train to let other leavers get past him). He stared at the next train departures from platforms 2 and 3 and looking lost and confused. I took pity on him - asked if I could help and he told me he was looking for the Southampton train. Ah!

We had come off the rear of the London train - outside the sheltered area / quite a way down the platform. I told him that these displays were only for these platforms and it was quite likely that his onward train was going from the other platform. Suggested he come with me.

At Westbury, the all platform departure boards are in the booking hall, at the top of the stairs and in the buffet / waiting room.  None of which exactly works for people ching off incoming trains much of the time.  Walked him to the top of the stairs.

And, yes, I quickly picked up that his onward train was going from platform 1 - the far platform.  He didn't - the board just said "Portsmouth Harbour". I had to re-assured him that it would be calling at Southampton along the way.  I pointed out the platform "across there" and you could almost see a panic in his manner as he looked at the stairs we were standing by. He was somewhat relieved when I pointed him to the lifts.

Last I saw of him - seated on platform 1, case beside him, as his train rolled in; my onward connection pulled in on platform 3 at the same time, but I'm guessing he managed to get on board.

I have highlighted 7 different little things that were little challenges - how much we regular travellers take for granted!

 
A driver was allocated to it and they arrived on time from Fratton on 2V52.

Doesn’t mean the RTT code is wrong (short notice illness etc.), but codes on RTT are unofficial and on JourneyCheck are ‘official’…but with a pinch of salt!

 

Interesting to note that Real Time Trains shows an on time arrival at Westbury and reports

So which is it - perhaps the fault on the train was that there was no-one to drive it  .

P.S. There is routinely a crew change at Westbury on this service

 

 
Thursday April 24

... was a very good day. Here's the screenshot of the trains at Evesham, with no red whatsoever.

 

It looks like they found a signaller - there are three trains out there at the moment at 05:00 - an empty passenger train, a freight train of some sort, and the first Swansea to London service passing through Briton Ferry

 
Can't apply for a new re-test for ten days,fair enough.

But getting a new test date could take many weeks/months?

 
Due to signalling staff illness there are no trains between Cardiff and Swansea from (24/4/25) 23:00 to 07:00 (25/4/25).

I am quite surprised that  a mainline railway can just shut down completely at such short notice; where is the resilience? Is this why the railway is being used more for leisure these days as those travelling to/from school or work can't rely on it.

GWR are apparently trying to source road transport.

 
From today ... in three different counties ...

 

..and here they are

 
Let me try and explain the eccentricities of Cornwall's buses.

First are the commercial service all week but also provide some limited community paid coverage on Sat and Sun.

The GoAhead operation (branded Transport for Cornwall which is also confusingly used by First but less prominently) is the subsidy paid for rural and town service provider.

First also provide most of the long distance education contract buses (Tintagel to Truro College for example)

There are therefore two distinct options on most routes including Newquay - Truro (Falmouth). First have provided a through service between NQY and FAL BUT in the past four years construction of the A30 Dual Carriageway has made this impossible and the decision was made two split the service in Truro in the Summer Months. Indeed with the road now open First have decided for this summer to run two services again instead of the through service that was run over the winter.

So your options between NQY and FAL are offered by both companies, the GoAhead and the First Versions. 

 

And the longest journey on the longest route




There is certainly something to be said for giving a pretty hefty clue to people waiting at the bus stop when this snail  comes along.  "Villages service to Truro" 

 

 
Sounds like you caught the longest bus route possible between the two.

I think the 91 or 93 are the fast buses taking well under an hour.

85 goes via a selection of small villages along the coast such as Holywell bay and Crantock,
87 goes via perranporth and St Agnes and is an anomaly as being operated by First Commercially rather than a subsidised route such as the other 3 options.

I’ve noticed in Bristol that buses say Bristol Direct. Maybe this is what is needed here for the faster routes, but would the majority still just board the first bus to Truro not knowing the next one would be Truro Direct?

 
There wouldn't be enough Ha ha's on the screen for me to register my derision....

 

There are times I with I had provides a "haha" button as well as a "like"

 
Barry has now responded and has changed tack. He is suggested TARMACING over the 2.2 miles of railway line, sending buses over the M5 bridge and up the Portway. And where pray, can we fit bus shelters in the Avon Gorge without undoing all the ecological work already done ?

 

Very much an option under consideration.  The current platform is not long enough, by there is railway land beside the track to the north to extent quite a way, and the line used to be double track all the way.  It could be done for at least three carriages - the length of the current platform.

One thing I am aware of is that the Falmouth operation (and the Rostock to Wismar one too) are broadly enclosed operations on a single line - I say "broadly" because Falmouth does share in and out of Truro.  In contrast, GWR seem to have problems timekeeping on Swindon to Westbury and there must be an element of caution in how the loop is going to be operated to avoid passengers arriving being sat outside for a while as the second (delayed) train is awaited.   So it needs to operate in a Bad Doberan way and not in a Penryn way so that passenger are at least waiting at a platform (to depart) if the train going 'tother way is held up.

 
Would Melksham station be long enough to have a "Penryn-style" passing platform loop?
Just a thought!

 
I do wonder if the four individuals might just have continued driving without a licence (or, presumably, insurance) anyway given that they had already each been warned that they were not safe to drive but chose to do so.  We already hear of people driving who have actually been disqualified but were still not deterred.

 
Barry Cash has just posted on nextdoor to say he found the Reform's party political broadcast this week was frightening. I replied to say that his plan to place rubber mats through the Avon Gorge to run buses on , was FAR more frightening.....

 
Yesterday I visited Newquay and Falmouth and ended the day in Penryn, Cornwall. These are places nothing line Melksham, and yet everything like when it comes to needing and having a local economy, and people needing to get around from place to place to support the local economy. I was looking and learning about what they have, what is working, and what was less than ideal for me.

I arrived in Newquay on the train at 1 p.m. with around two dozen other people, after a journey of about an hour from Par which is a small village across the Cornish peninsular and to the east.  Most of the people on the train had arrived from beyond Cornwall - longer distance - and I have some pictures of senior folks struggling up and down the steps of the footbridge with heavy cases.  In the other direction, the train up from the end of Cornwall - Penzance - was pulling in as we left; it runs every 30 minutes, so anyone wanting to connect probably started half an hour earlier but never the less it struck me as an "oops" of a connection.

Newquay was busy - the two dozen off the train realistically not making a dent in the crowds and it was very car-centric.  For sure there is a pedestrianised area and places to walk - but what a lot of car parks and cars.  Are they all needed?

Headed across the peninsular later in the day, I had a choice of a 15:10 or a 17:10 train to Par (Zig) then Zag on the train down to Truro.  It's 12 miles, 23 minutes by car according to Google.  So I decided to the bus and caught the 14:50 from the stop just up the road from the railway station. "Truro Bus Station" it proudly proclaimed.   Now Cornwall has some lovely lanes, communities that need serving, and schools with pupils who need to get home.  And this bus served them all. We went through the school yard and got a dozen or two pupils on, waiting for them all to come out. We went down lanes, turned around in a gateway at the far end of one, went around villages to serve the stop in the middle before coming back out, and we stopped a while at the Cornish Wildlife Trust in case any badgers were just waking up and wanted to get up and catch the bus. And I got off the bus at 16:35 in Truro, guessing which was the stop for the station, which like a number of GWR stations is up the hill out of the town. Really, 105 minutes on a bus for a 12 mile journey, compared to a 25 minute journey by private car - is it any wonder that people who can chose the car option? 

I *am* aware that there are multiple bus routes from Newquay to Truro, and a diagram at the bus stop for those with excellent sight showed where each served, and for the bright people the routes, numbers, and listed times all could be correlated - but nothing to say whether a bus went along the main road to Truro calling quickly at lots of roadside communities, or if it's going down the lane to Holywell and back, and via Cubert, St Newlyn East and Zenah.  Oh - and it would perhaps have been nice to have "School Days" and "School Holidays" defined on the timetable ... I might well have caught the train had I realised the 15 minutes extra that the bus had in its schedule - fulfilling a necessary role for sure, but making it less suitable as it compromised other roles.

Some little informational improvements could be made ... a note on the bus stop of the time that buses arrive at their destination (would I have done better on the Redruth bus, and train from there?  How about St Austell?). QR code to let me explore the services more that printed sheets can do, and a real time display that was functioning.  The words "Local service" on the bus - "Local service to Truro" rather than just "Truro" perhaps? None of these things rocket science.

After my journey - "Plymouth City Bus" and "Go-ahead" made me chuckle - just about as far from a city as it could be - down the lane, "go ahead and then go back the same way" - I looked it up online. Timetable attached and, sure, it was the slowest service of the day ... but why or why does the timetable just include the local stop name and not the township?  The No. 88 runs from "Bus station" via "Post office" to "Bus station" with no immediately obvious note of which bus stations!

I have gone off on something of a tangent on my report. I was previously doubtful about the "Mid Cornwall Metro" plan to double the train service to Newquay and double back at Par to St Austell, Truro and Falmouth. Looking and travelling around yesterday, I am now very much less doubtful.  Through passengers from Newquay to Falmouth Docks will be few and far between, but so much can and should be done to help people get around.  I am minded of what happened when the Cardiff to Portsmouth service stepped up to hourly many years ago - a handful of trains each day is now an hourly service with overcrowding problems and local trains added.  And I note that Melksham, where we have stepped up from a useless service to a two-hourly one, is in many ways oh-so-ripe for a Wiltshire and Bath Metro.

 

No.  Ten working days.  My source is https://www.gov.uk/driving-test/driving-test-faults-result 

 
Older motorists could be required to pass eye tests to keep their driving licence.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told the Commons Transport Select Committee that is something she is “open to considering” as part of the Government’s forthcoming road safety strategy.
Earlier this month she received a prevention of future deaths report from HM Senior Coroner for Lancashire Dr James Adeley, which related to the deaths of four people killed by drivers with failing eyesight
Ms Alexander said: “I know that reading that report will be very distressing for the families of the victims who were killed.
“That, of course, was a situation where the optician had suggested to (four) individuals that they needed to advise the authorities that they had a medical condition which affected their eyesight and where they shouldn’t be driving.
“And of course, that didn’t happen. So I am open to considering the evidence on this issue.”
Dr Adeley described the UK’s licensing system as “the laxest in Europe”.
Drivers are not subjected to mandatory checks of their skills or health once they obtain their licence, no matter how old they become, although they are required to inform the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) if they are no longer fit to drive.
Dr Adeley wrote: “Self-reporting of visual conditions permits drivers to lie about their current driving status to those performing an ophthalmic assessment and avoid warnings not to drive.
Would any one who has lived or still living in the European region know how different countries, address older drivers test requirements? 

ALSO
The Government is planning to increase the amount of driving test staff to reduce the backlog of those who wish to take their driving test.
I presume for our younger members of society,a note of caution just because you have been given a test driving date does not mean your going to pass.
Am I correct in saying you then have to wait six months to take your driving test again?

 
Another update from Richard Clinnick. This has been going on so long that he's now on his 3rd job since the start, and is now editor, Modern Railways...

So far treated - 7 5car 800/0s, 3 9car 800/3s, 12 5car 802/0s and 6 802/1s
800013 & 802017 currently at Eastleigh

In total, there are 93 IETs, 57 owned by Agility. Of those, 28 5car 800/0s and 18 9car 800/3s still need to be treated That  leaves 36 IETs owned by Eversholt of which 9 5car 802/0s and 7 9car 802/1s have yet to be treated

[if these figures don't add up, they're Richard's not mine!]

 
Work has recommenced on the lifts, was pax through the station today, lift on down platform open with two orange jackets working therein. In lift lighting on. Same platform on the return lights and workers still active. Good to see action. The South Carpark was pretty busy albeit Wednesday of Easter Week.

 

This is the map from the Rangers and Rovers page on GWR's website https://www.gwr.com/your-tickets/choosing-your-ticket/rangers-and-rovers

 

20 mins late off Evesham

 
Noting the card is dated 2023 so who knows which is correct?