On Saturday 27 June we expect to operate the vast majority of trains across the network, however there will be some localised, planned changes in London and the Thames Valley, to Oxford, and to some services between Bristol and Salisbury. Customers should check before they travel.

Ticket easements do not apply on Saturday 27 June as we expect to run a near normal service, with some minor changes.

This one did not fit neatly into any of our line boards - which rather confirms that it would be a useful new service.

There's. a photocall from our MP (Brian Mathew) and the mayor of Bradford-on-Avon (Sam Blackwell) who asks

I got home yesterday after the most awful train journey. Many trains were cancelled from Newton Abbott and passengers piled on to my train. Luckily reservations still applied, so I got my seat before they were cancelled.  Every aisle was packed with standing people, including the loos. Because of numbers getting on and then struggling to push their way off the train got later and later, so over an hour behind schedule. No air conditioning, so it got hotter and hotter. After my first sitting passengers got off, I got a young couple going to Nottingham to be DJs. I was contemplating getting a taxi home from Derby where my ticket terminated. They were also contemplating a taxi, but sooner, from Tamworth because they felt they just had to get off. They invited me to join them. So we left the train, they got an Uber and dropped me off in Long Eaton and I got a taxi from there, after I had contributed half the Uber cost, although they said I didn't need to. I was exhausted, didn't even unpack and get the washer on, as I usually did.

Similarly it is now 12 hours since the red area expired, so why are they still not using certain points during normal summer temperatures in Thames valley.  When there use was suspended should have been a plan to restore within hours of red weather ending.

Certainly you would think the number of short notice cancellations should be reduced.  However I suspect there is a backlog of units stopped in depots with faults which developed over the last few days and still require fixing. 

Indeed - I get that it's still going to be hot in the London/Thames Valley area today but a large proportion of today's cancellations are citing "severe weather" in areas where there are no "severe weather" issues, crew shortage and "More trains than usual needing repairs at the same time"

I realise thread header is 24-26 June, and today is 27 June

But GWR are continuing the cancellations on all routes banner on their website this morning

The front page of this site is showing
122 cancellations
67 part route
17 reformed

Not great as few days ago message was defer your journey to Friday onwards, so should be expecting both normal Saturday passengers AND some of the deferred passengers.   So if anything should be boosting services, not cancelling them.

Infoman- most televisions are on a timer these days.
Both TVs in my house turn off after a period of not touching the remote.

Carpets- I’ve stayed in a few Ibis Budgets over the last 18 months across Europe. They don’t tend to have carpets, with a heavy duty Lino type flooring. It feels cleaner to me.

See it, say it, not sorted. I was let down when I reported my train sexual assault

At about 11pm on a Saturday night a couple of weeks ago, Esme Rice was on the Elizabeth Line that runs across London. She was travelling home after dinner with friends in Farringdon when two men boarded the busy carriage she was in.

"One of the men tried getting my attention," Esme says, "but I ignored him and waited for my stop."

As the train was pulling into Stratford station, one of the men stroked Esme's back. The second man stood in her way as she tried to get off, and as she hurried past him, Esme says he groped her.

"It all happened so quickly it took a moment for my brain to catch up," she says. "I turned towards them and they were grinning, like it was a joke. Then, they were gone. I stood on the platform feeling stunned, afraid and violated."

It was a typical lively Saturday evening with plenty of people around, but no police officers.

Then words Esme had heard many times on trains and at stations suddenly echoed in her head.

"See it. Say it. Sorted."

She texted the British Transport Police (BTP) on 61016, the dedicated line for reporting non-emergency incidents on the rail network. The BTP say they will respond to any crime - from antisocial behaviour to terrorism - within their jurisdiction, which covers more than 10,000 miles of track and roughly 3,000 stations.

An automated reply came back which said Esme's report mattered and that someone would call her "shortly". Then Esme was asked via text message to provide more detail, so she sent descriptions of what had happened, when and where, and waited for their call.

But 13 hours after being sexually assaulted on one of the country's busiest transport networks, Esme still had not heard back from anyone. So she decided to post about her experience on social media.

"I recorded myself with my phone, describing the incident, saying how frustrated I was about the lack of response, and included a screenshot of the message I'd received from police," she says.

Esme posted the videos onto her Instagram and TikTok accounts and within an hour, they had been viewed thousands of times. She says there were hundreds of comments, including messages from women who said they understood exactly what she was talking about.

"Not long after that I received a call from the BTP," Esme says. "They told me they had opened an investigation and arranged a time to take my statement."

Details of help and support with sexual abuse or violence are available at BBC Action Line

BTP told the BBC their call that day had not been prompted by Esme's video.

"But I couldn't ignore the timing," she says. "I had reported the assault privately and heard nothing. I spoke publicly, and suddenly there was urgency."

A day later, a comment from BTP's official social media account appeared among the hundreds of others alongside Esme's video.

"We're sorry you have been subjected to this awful behaviour on the railway. We treat all reports of sexual assault extremely seriously," the comment read, which was followed by a statement that an investigation had been launched.

Assistant Chief Constable Ian Drummond-Smith then called Esme and acknowledged that a 13-hour delay was far too long.

"He said I should have been called the same evening I reported the incident," says Esme. "I have since been informed there is now an internal investigation into why I was not offered additional support that night."

BTP launched its now very familiar public safety slogan a decade ago. The phrase - See it. Say it. Sorted - is broadcast over public address systems in stations and on trains, and features prominently on posters across the rail network.

Recent awareness campaigns specifically name-check pressing, touching, staring and upskirting as forms of sexual harassment that are not tolerated on public transport - and promise action.

But Esme says that, based on her experience, it doesn't feel like the BTP is able to respond quickly enough to really protect people when they report an incident - or deter unwanted behaviour. "This wasn't the first time I felt like I had received a poor response after reporting an incident to the BTP," she says.

Esme says she was also sexually harrassed two years previously, while travelling with a friend on a Jubilee Line train, at 6pm one day in March. "I noticed a man standing close to me, touching himself," she says. "I moved away, but then looked down and realised that he had moved closer again and was masturbating against me. I remember the shock - I shouted at him, I took pictures, I called him out loudly, so everyone on that packed train could hear. No-one stepped in."

Esme says her friend moved her down the carriage, and when they reached Stratford they went straight to police who were stationed on the platform. She gave them a statement, she says, which was written up the next day, and BTP found the man on CCTV. But a media appeal that asked the public for further information about the person captured on CCTV went out weeks later - not as soon as the footage was found. No identification was made, and by mid-April Esme was told no further action could be taken.

The videos Esme posted after being sexually assaulted the second time exploded online. At the time of writing they have had more than 500,000 views, and messages have poured in from people sharing similar experiences. "Some people get it wrong in the comments - they try blaming me for the fact that it happened, or they leave racist comments about the attackers," she says. "But I want to make it clear - this could happen to anyone."

Figures released at the end of 2025 show reports of sexual offences on the London Underground reached their highest level in five years. There were 595 sexual offences across all Tube lines in 2024-25, the most since 2019-20 when there were 776 reports.

The data, which was released by TfL in response to a Freedom of Information request, did not include the London Overground, DLR or Elizabeth Line. At the time TfL said: "Tackling violence against women and girls on public transport has long been a priority for us and our policing partners, and concerted action has been undertaken for a number of years."

Just three days after Esme's assault, on 9 June 2026 a passenger was convicted under new sex-based harassment legislation. He had grabbed a woman's hair and tried to kiss her on a train going into London, describing it as "banter". He was sentenced to a 12-month community order, 150 hours of unpaid work and a 15-day rehabilitation programme.

The BTP told the BBC that tackling sexual offending on the transport network is a priority as it is "committed to protecting everyone's right to a safe journey".

"The 61016 number receives more than 250,000 texts every year - and this figure continues to rise as confidence grows among passengers in reporting historically under-reported crimes, such as sexual offending," a spokesperson said. "This isn't misplaced confidence, as we've shown time and time again that we won't stop until we've caught offenders, put them before the courts, and secured justice for victims."

Provisional timetable is 76-78 minutes from Waterloo

About 8-10 minutes faster than Waterloo-Exeter trains with 159s

I've got a quick question. My 23-year-old son will be traveling solo this fall to Albania. He has already been to Europe twice, however but I’m just looking for any tips, suggestions, things to be wary of as this will be his first time traveling internationally completely solo. I am a seasoned European traveler myself so I don’t need general suggestions as much as information to be aware of specific to Albania.  He will be renting a car as well so any suggestions about reputable car rental agencies so as not to have him get screwed over with bogus charges and such.

Off the top of my head - am I correct in saying that this proposed service will actually provide a quicker WAT to SAL service than that provided by the steam hauled ACE - up to 1964 !  Is this what they call progress ?   

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:06

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:06 will be terminated at Gloucester.
It will no longer call at Cheltenham Spa.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

18:37 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21
20:12 Swindon to Westbury due 20:56
21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58
22:31 Swindon to Westbury due 23:12

22:31 Swindon to Westbury due 23:12 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train

The thread title suggests some sort of Morecombe & Wise sketch.

Cancellations to services between Par and Newquay
Due to severe weather between Par and Newquay fewer trains are able to run.

The temperature in Newquay is 18 degrees

Cancellations to services between Truro and Falmouth Docks
Due to severe weather between Truro and Falmouth Docks fewer trains are able to run on some lines.

We are running an amended service during the severe heat event in line with the Met Office red weather warning.

The temperature in Truro is 18 degrees and expected to rise to 22-23 degrees today. There is no weather warning in place.

Lecce - Brindisi - Bari - Barletta - Foggia - Termoli - Pescara - Ancona - Pesaro - Rimini - Bologna - Modena - Milano.  The train I am on is calling at this catalogue of Italian cities - not that I have time to see any of them as we stop for a few seconds only. It is, perhaps, a typical long distancce express, with only a sprinking of passengers on board when I joined it at Brindisi, but now as we approach Ancona it's "every seat taken".  I knew that would be the case, as it's a "reservations only" train and the reserved seat plan had meagre pickings when I booked 48 hours ago. Staying on all the way to Milan and thinking of interesting comparisons to Cross Country trains in the UK.   We avoid Rome, just like the UK's Cross Country services avoid London.

Lecce - Ancona - 596 kms; Ancona - Bologna - another 202 kms; Bologna - Milano - another 215 kms; Total 1013 kms - virtually the same as London to Ullapool (port for the Outer Hebrides, well beyond Inverness).   Haven't been to Milan for - err - 21 days doubt it has changed.  Seriously, a city in which I have never left the station and even this time it's just overnight and a couple of hundred yards from the station.

Graham's train, with a link to a map. Bologna in an hour, and once day he'll take a ride on the Porrettana. Or perhaps he already has...

Mark

https://treniamo.it/en/train/8824-lecce-milano-centrale