Returning to this topic rather belatedly ... 

3. Crewe.  Not the one in Cheshire, but the one in Virginia, USA, at their Railroad Museum.

Sorry for my inadvertently digging up a very historic topic 

 

Manvers Street (opposite) is.   Dorchester Street which leads past the bus station to Bath Spa railway station is basically a cut-de-sac at present.

In an emergency / with rail replacement buses they could be running from the bus station.  There are a number of free bays at the moment because of bus services cut back to the Hilton Hotel

 

It is ... a now historic picture I think as the snails have been displaced from the beach

 
I think 1 is Weymouth. 

 

Isn't the road outside Bath Spa shut too?

 

 

 

And I suspect this is the root cause ...

 

Ironically.......

08:48 London Paddington to Pembroke Dock due 13:50
08:48 London Paddington to Pembroke Dock due 13:50 was terminated at Swansea.
It will no longer call at Llanelli, Pembrey & Burry Port, Carmarthen, Whitland, Saundersfoot, Tenby, Manorbier, Pembroke and Pembroke Dock.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

15:02 Pembroke Dock to London Paddington due 20:13
15:02 Pembroke Dock to London Paddington due 20:13 will be started from Swansea.
It will no longer call at Pembroke Dock, Pembroke, Lamphey, Manorbier, Penally, Tenby, Saundersfoot, Kilgetty, Narberth, Whitland, Carmarthen, Pembrey & Burry Port and Llanelli.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 
So what's the availability on these? Any empty 1st class off-peak seat? How do you know that the seat isn't already reserved further down the line?

Worth checking these before buying a Seatfrog upgrade I guess - you don't want a Seatfrog where the 1U1 fare is less....

 
2 car 150s not much use. 14 175's at Laira haven't provided any extra cover. A planned training/proving run on Tuesday to Goodrington sidings was cancelled.

 
Mid-week first upgrades are essentially the same as Weekend First upgrades for Monday - Friday.  They're generally 2x the price of a Weekend First, and have a child fare which is half the adult price (whereas FWF are flat fares whether adult or child).
If you look on BRFares, they're the GWR WEEKDAY UPG 1U1 fares.

Originally introduced as a fare-by-fare equivalent, ie a SSS > 1U1 was dearer than an SOS > 1U1, but changed to a flat fare, so SSS > 1U1 is more value for money.

 
Evenings start at 1700.....that's the etiquette time for saying "Good Evening", rather than "Good Afternoon" or "Good Day"

 

Just to clarify, these are planned cancellations due to the Berks & Hants Line closure for engineering works.

A shame that some form of shuttle service couldn't have operated between Paignton and Exeter/Taunton or perhaps even Westbury.

Normal service resumes from next weekend.

 
What are mid-week First Upgrades? Not sure they've been discussed/mentioned before?

Also, Avanti's 1st class are going up 10% too....

 
GWR are increasing most their owned first class fares by 5% from 5 July 2026, including advance fares.

Additionally, Weekend First and mid-week first upgrades will increase by £5 across the board.

 
A number of photos have been circulated showing the Mercedes truck with private registration plate both at the scene, and the road after it went.

Hopefully Network Rail reclaim cost of the bridge rebuild and their direct losses (costs of compensation to Operators)

Doesn't appear many news stories mentioned delay repay, and railway Operators sites often seem to only mention it at end of many paragraphs about disruption rather than prominent.

I guess Operators get compensation from Network Rail, and any losses on Delay Repay are effectively covered by DfT anyway.

 
Two morning Paddington to Penzance trains both 5 cars!

 

Interesting observation, used to be a school Governor in Kingston upon Thames, and had similar problem with parents parking in afternoon, or dropping off (including on yellow zig zags).  A couple of random visits couple per year from a camera equipped enforcement van at school times, instantly improved things.  Bet parents WhatsApp groups soon passed on message about dozens getting fines in post.  However I have never seen a parking enforcement van in Wiltshire (just mobile speeding enforcement camera vans), so guessing lack of enforcement is effectively allowing bad parking to be normalised

As for walking on footpaths, although the walking distances for Primary and Secondary schools go back to the Education Act 1944 (when planning post war aims).  There is a rule about safe paths, which in modern case law is basically those lit and reasonably surfaced.  Therefore the muddy path across a field wouldn't be counted for home to school distance (and this usually applies to admissions criteria too when distance is decider of if places available)

 
The latest available data has 50% of children being driven to school - that's a 23% increase over 20 years ago.

Probably no coincidence that children are getting much fatter too - 1 in 5 10 year olds are obese, that's frankly terrifying for future health.

 


South Western Railway have performance graphs on their website. Currently showing data up to period 1 (2026/27) - April into May 2026

 
........according to Heidi

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c802vv2vr8yo

 
Last Saturday and today GWR have cancelled all London-Paignton trains advising travellers to change trains where necessary. Today of the seven diagrams covering Paignton-Exmouth the are four two car 150s diagrams The others being 2 x 3 car turbos and a 3 car 158) on the busiest day of the week.

 
From our MP's Newsletter (Brian Mathew, MP for Melksham and Devizes)


Not a one-off call from Dr Mathew - he is consistent in his calls along these lines, and IMHO what he calls for makes sense and is practical to be done and to be financially, environmentally and quality-of-life effective.

 

As I understand it, there I much more freedom to choose your child's school these days and so the travel distances have gone up, and walking and cycling may be practical for less.  I was, perhaps, unusual but not unique in travelling by train to school - Petts Wood to Sydenham Hill and then to Sevenoaks, totally beyond walking distance - but walking to and from the stations.  On rare occasions, I cycled to Sevenoaks but even in those days the roads were far from cycle friendly.   I have vague recollections of there being Mum's or Dad's taxis  used for some at both schools, but as I used other entrances, I have no idea of volume.

Just on Thursday afternoon, I saw the 555 bus arrive at the top of our street and drop off half a dozen school children from Corsham.  This is a double deck school service and I understand it is very fully loaded - to the extent that there is no encouragement to market it further though general public may use it if they wish.  Other buses and coaches pick up from Melksham Market Place and it's educational to see the volumes picked up there on a school day for various other towns on both early service buses and special school runs.


Dead right.  It needs to be safe and practical. Our local secondary school has recently had a "new" path opened from the new build estates to the school, at massive expense (many consider it over-engineered) and that save a long walk around 3 sides of a square, including o a shared cycle and walking path on the side of the A365 which is really far too narrow for the traffic it was taking.  Interesting, I write "new" - there has been a public footpath across the fields since before the school was located there, but it was rarely used by any school child; I can recall just one occasion when out walking the dog, mid-winter - seeing a boy using it, and stepping in and through the mud getting his shoes and trousers covered.   

Drop off time may be an issue; pick up time is worse with all the parents arriving early to be there and close to save the little darlings having to walk too far.  Car parking is inadequate for pickup, and unrestricted roads close to the school become linear car parks for a while. 

The primary school which is about half a mile from our home (and was in my ward when I was a Town Councillor) has a serious issue.  It's on a residential cut-de-sac off the main road into / out of town - loads of "no parking" bollards and there is - now - a new pelican crossing over the main road, so that people park in the housing opposite with the residents there less than thrilled.  Talk of yellow lines, work being done on getting more children to walk, etc.   The pub on the corner which has a large car park and the school community don't get on - I don't know the history in detail - but there's a chain across at school times and a large virtually empty tarmac area that should really be dual-use IMHO.

Other primary schools, such as the newer one in the East of Melksham estates, have similar problems with not only healthy getting to school but safety with all those cars and frustration from the residents (who knew the school was / would be there when they bought / rented).    I recall an approach from one of the school teachers looking to introduce her class to bus use and asking me where she could take them. But the nearest and only practical bus stop only has services at 10:15 and 12:15 and they only go to the Town Centre - there are 3 return services in the afternoon that *will* go round past that stop if there are passengers on board to be dropped off.