Very localised in Swindon.  Someone barely a mile away from me had thunder and torrential rain.  Nothing here for another hour.

Also looks to triggered four power cuts across the town.

 

Welcome to the Coffee Shop forum, chipbury, and thank you for your first post.

Yes, that poor bridge in our local area must have a claim to being the unluckiest.

CfN. 

 
I got told off last week on only my second visit to Chippenham for attempting to access the station via the barriers half way along the disused platform. l had walked from the bus station crossed the road outside the station via the Zebra crossing and followed the path straight ahead which led to the side entrance.

 

This reminded me of the now infamous Welsh road sign which read, in Welsh, to baffled drivers, "The office is now closed, please call back during business hours".
Evidently an email requesting a Welsh language translation of a road sign created an automated out of office reply in Welsh.
This is just one of several documented, some being utterly and bewilderingly unfathomable.  I recall one translation which appeared to warn about cyclists with inflated bladders and another specifically prohibiting sports teachers.  These were probably the result of confusion with bicycle tyres and passenger coaches.

 
I always liked "Private Notice, please do not read"

and

"Do not throw stones at this notice"

 

Yes,  but many people don’t realise that!  Many still think all the failings of the railway are down to the private companies….. and the DfT don’t want to change that thinking!

Previously, any franchised operator had to display its owning company, be it First, Stagecoach etc pretty much from day one.  The nationalised operations don’t.  I wonder why?!

 
I still smile at the notice on the SWR toilet lids, which presumably means they are at least partly successful.

 
Self-driving buses still have some way to go https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2026/0525/1575160-sweden-bus/

 
The fact GWR arent stopping other westbound services at oldfield park and Keynsham this afternoon is madness. The official advice is to double back via Bath. Which would be great if half of those weren't disrupted too.

Thankfully I dont go to the office much these days but when I did GWR were pretty good at adding stop notices  at Keynsham when the normal stopping services had issues. Whats changed?

 

Had to look that up on Google satellite view and that's not trivial - the route via the shared use path from Dovercourt(?) looks to be a bit intimidating, but not as intimidating as the pavement-less A120. And from Parkeston Quay... ummmm...
Mark

 
Passing through Chippenham occasionally over the years, I've never been able to work out why the island platform was used in  both directions when the track layout was simplified, rather than allowing down trains to serve the platform with direct level access to the street rather than all passengers having to use the bridge.  Was there really not enough space to allow the track to be aligned alongside the now-disused platform while still keeping a full 125mph line speed for non-stopping trains, or was level access such a low priority in the 1970s that it just didn't seem important?  Duffield north of Derby is similar, and in that case there is more than enough wriggle room for a better alignment so that can only have been a lack of thought, perhaps combined with convenience and a small cost saving in only having to maintain lighting, tarmac etc on one surface.

 
The vegetation was very lush on the bridge approach even a few weeks ago, and has probably not been trimmed. More could be done there to make the structure scream 'Low bridge'.

(Though we'll be well aware from the Ely-tractor debacle that nothing sort of a tazer-equipped drivers seat will help if someone's really not looking...)

Mark

 
Hope that the railway doesn't end up in the firing line for these: there's a lot of energy in the atmosphere.

Swindon's made the first move as the urban area seems to have cooked up its very own thunderstorm.

Mark

https://www.lightningmaps.org/#m=ses;t=3;s=0;o=0;b=;ts=0;z=11;y=51.5848;x=-1.8794;d=2;dl=2;dc=0;

 
Day one. The bus station board still has no information, the display screens at the west end of the concourse switched off. A small thing, but the 700 that's still booked to serve the bus station went past and headed out on its route without calling - and what might have been a First bus + full passenger load to Trowbridge via Bathford, on exiting the bus station, the driver out of habit turned right instead of left and would have had to do a three point turn outside the railway station.

The amount of traffic heading into Dorchester Street surprised me, but then I found a diversion sign in connection with other road works has not been removed and directs traffic into Dorchester Street (now a no through road).

Outside the bus station, an intending passenger talking with the gaggle of bus drivers there and I heard the word 'Melksham' - said drivers had no information, but sent him in the direction of that road - Ambury - that many people couldn't point to on a map - saying 'Ask again there'. I intercepted him and pointed him at the Hilton - which he knew well as he'd actually alighted there earlier but hadn't twigged that the Faresaver buses were turning there - and hadn't absorbed any information on the changes to the services.

Also... the bridge strike at {insert location of usual suspect at Limpley Stoke}. Four coaches at the north end of the Manvers Street blockade bravely set off towards the station and then had to do a group 'U' turn in limited space and among heavy pedestrian traffic. Not ideal. Rumours on the street was that these were contracted to GWR to cover for the closed line to Westbury but I'm not sure they weren't simply tourist buses heading away from Bog Island to their layover location - there being no signage on the right turn from the exit to bog island that Manvers Street is closed - and the first bit of it is open to provide access to that silly car park in front of St Johns Church.

But... it wasn't just the public transport... within an hour, two delivery artics turned up badged 'Marks and Spencer' and one in particular needed most of the forecourt in front of Bath Spa Station, including the pavement, to turn. Fortunately he had an impromptu banksman for this otherwise the station building might have been more at risk of losing another gable + the supporting structure.

All this causing some very poor hangrydriving from a minority of the motoring fraternity so a good day to take additional care on the roads here.

Up at the bottom of Walcot Street - the temporary terminus for Faresaver buses, a bit more calm - though with several buses waiting, not much road space.

The world's notorious for not working the way I expect it to, the people on the ground working the barriers were treating the confusion as god given - or rather, they were saying, with a certain satisfaction in one case "We just implement what the council tells us to put in place" - with the general impression that at during day one there's no mechanism to gather feedback as to what can be improved so *that* can be put in place for day two (and the next six month). But perhaps there is - let's see.

Mark

 
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.

 
My favourite . . .

 
I think this is the 5th or 6th time the bridge has been hit this year!

 
My favourite was this one; see https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/inverness-psychopath-road-sign-was-rogue-installation-304917/

 

 

Not a bridge that's anywhere between Westbury and Swindon, mind you 

Double track the line again - like wot it was before - and no need to cancel trains!   I suggest this cancellation might be to give priority to other services.

 

Noticing tickets not valid on D1x - is that because of the Manvers Street closure in Bath meaning it's not serving the station there?

 
It'll be long gone, but heading upstream on the Thames, a sign some way upstream of Penton Hook I think it was: 'No fishing between the hours of darkness'.

Mark

 
Here's is one of everyone's nightmare accidents - magnified by it being in a small town. From the BBC:

 

 

Chippenham seems to be a classic case of the need to preserve, the need to be cheap, and the need to provide security all getting in the way of each other and resulting in a failure to meet the desire to have a passenger friendly setup. The issues are not limited to those identified in this thread.

 
Two the last few hours ...



That is REALLY disappointing. We brought all of our dredging equipment with us and were really looking forward to...



Sign read, I will admit, after "business completed".  Do I have to fish around to leave only paper ...

What signs make YOU think 

 

To avoid using the crossovers at Dolphin Junction and Stockley Bridge.  They are pretty much the only trains that use them and they are a higher risk point of failure during a heat wave, and if they stay set to the straight ahead route they can’t fail.

 
Today (Tuesday) the 09:32 from Weymouth is cancelled

Leaves nearly a 4 hour gap between 07:33 and 11:30 trains

Yesterday (bank holiday) cancelled the 15:28 departure

Not very good to leave such massive gaps when it's school holiday week and beach weather.

 
Thank you for your very constructive comments and question, stuving.

I think I need to look again at this topic, to see how it could be split into a specific topic relating to HGV level crossing incidents, for example.

Please bear with me, while I work on that today.

CfN.

 


Looks like it - just - made the connection at Chippenham into the Bristol train - the new one - from Oxford.