Will the arrival into Parliament of Andy Burnham - who's done so much to flagship changes and developments of public transport in the Manchester area, and who's a Labour heavyweight make any difference indirectly to the government's direction and approaches to public transport - trains, buses, etc, in the south / west of England and South Wales? 

Manchester (for which Andy is famous) has a high population density (a.k.a. is largely urban).  Would he be inclined to make a difference in urban areas such as Bristol, Plymouth and Exeter or would his influence across the UK spread to areas which are described as "rural" but which are in practice a series of urban townships where most people live, separated from one another by a handful of miles of countryside?

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Posted at the same time as those alterations were “additional” trains from Westbury to Southampton Central and Swindon to Worcester Foregate Street. 

So at least some commuters were served.

I made the train and indeed 5.25 hours later have arrived in Nimes ... to find all the other trains in utter chaos due to "person hit by train".  Stopping for lunch.

Transport Focus chief executive Alex Robertson said: "This is the first report of its kind.

"I'm optimistic the railway understands the importance of using it to create a more customer focused culture and we'll be holding them to account to make sure they do."

The chief executive also stated more than nine in 10 people would report a positive experience if a delay was "handled well – a remarkably high figure given their train is late – but this falls to one in four when it isn't".

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:10
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:10 will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster, Salisbury, Romsey and Southampton Central.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47
06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47 will be terminated at Westbury.
It will no longer call at Trowbridge, Melksham, Chippenham, Swindon, Kemble, Stroud, Stonehouse, Gloucester, Cheltenham Spa, Ashchurch For Tewkesbury, Worcester Shrub Hill and Worcester Foregate Street.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

07:00 Oxford to Bristol Temple Meads due 08:20
09:08 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 10:26
11:03 Oxford to Bristol Temple Meads due 12:13
13:09 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 14:29
21:10 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 22:27

21:10 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 22:27 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Birmingham based CrossCountry ranked Britain's worst train operator

Train operator CrossCountry has been told to raise its performance, after receiving the worst score in a passenger survey.

In three months to the end of March, 72% of Birmingham-based CrossCountry's stops at stations were made within three minutes of the schedule, while 7% of services were cancelled, said Transport Focus.

The watchdog added that of those surveyed, 79% were satisfied with the Arriva Group-owned operator, 77% reported being satisfied with their journey's punctuality and reliability, and 46% said they were satisfied with how the company dealt with delays. The operator said despite slight improvements in some areas, it knew it "must do more to deliver the service our customers rightly deserve".

Transport Focus has asked CrossCountry to improve the passenger experience, reduce delays, provide better information during disruption and cut overcrowding on services.

Hull Trains achieved the best overall satisfaction score at 94%, followed by LNER with 93%.

87% of passengers overall said they were satisfied with their journey and disabled passengers reported lower satisfaction than non-disabled passengers, at 85%. More than 100,000 passengers were questioned in the six months to the end of March.

CrossCountry, the Arriva Group-owned operator, runs long-distance trains serving cities such as Cambridge, Cardiff and Manchester.

Mark Anderson, CrossCountry's customer and commercial director, said that looking forward, its refurbished trains were "transforming" journeys and its new timetable was "delivering better regional connectivity across the country".

"We're always working to improve onboard experience – from cleaning to catering, better wi-fi and clearer information during disruption. In particular, we know that crowding is a challenge and we're working with industry partners to explore all possible options to ease this."

Transport Focus chief executive Alex Robertson said: "This is the first report of its kind. I'm optimistic the railway understands the importance of using it to create a more customer focused culture and we'll be holding them to account to make sure they do."

The chief executive also stated more than nine in 10 people would report a positive experience if a delay was "handled well – a remarkably high figure given their train is late – but this falls to one in four when it isn't".

(BBC article includes graphics, with drop-down menus for individual providers)

Simpler, older version of Stonehenge found three miles from famous site

Archaeologists believe they have discovered an earlier, much simpler version of Stonehenge about 3 miles (5km) away from the prehistoric monument.

All that remains of the older structure is two holes in the ground, but the team says they held wooden posts that lined up with the Sun on the summer and winter solstices - the longest and shortest days of the year - in the same way as Stonehenge.

The site has been dated to about 5,000 years old, which predates Stonehenge by 500 years. Artefacts were also found at the site, including pottery, flint tools and animal bone, suggesting prehistoric people held gatherings there.

Phil Harding, from Wessex Archaeology, who led the excavation, said it was one of the best finds of his long career. "Two post pits tell me [much] more about the people 5,000 years ago," he said. "This tells me about the whole community, this tells me about how they were thinking, how they were behaving, how they were revering the heavens."

......

The structure, discovered in the village of Bulford, was a much more simple construction made up of just two wooden posts, which have long since rotted away. They were positioned 120m (394ft) apart and estimated to be between 2m and 4m high.

When Harding uncovered the intriguing holes, he noticed that they seemed to line up with the Sun, just like Stonehenge located a few miles away. "I got my pencil and ruler, and I joined them up, and I was aware that they were kind of pointing in the general direction of the sunrise on midsummer," he said.

(BBC article continues, with more details, images and explanations)

Just had a thought, if the branch lines affected by flooding were operated by short trains, which were suspended, and train lengths on average got shorter, then figures to some extent masking bigger train lengths cuts elsewhere on network

Train crash that killed one man and injured four others could have been avoided

A head-on fatal collision between two trains in mid Wales could have been avoided, an investigation has found.

One passenger died and four other people were seriously injured when two trains collided in the village of Talerddig, Powys, in October 2024.

An investigation by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) has concluded the crash would not have happened if one or both of the automatic and manual sanding systems - which increase wheel adhesion to the rails - had been activated.

Transport for Wales (TfW) and Network Rail said that while incidents of this nature were "extremely rare", they would consider the report's recommendations to "help prevent a similar incident".

Tudor Evans from Capel Dewi in Aberystwyth was travelling home from a holiday in Italy when he died on the westbound train.

The 66-year-old was a passenger in the rear carriage of the train to Aberystwyth, as were other people who were seriously injured in the crash just before 19:00 on 21 October, 2024.

The driver of the Shrewsbury train was also seriously injured – the RAIB said he was in the process of leaving the cab when the crash happened and became trapped.

The trains, both operated by Transport for Wales, were travelling on the Cambrian Line. Most of the Cambrian Line is single track but there is a section of dual track near to where the crash happened called the Talerddig Loop. The trains were meant to pass each other in the loop but, on the night of the collision, the train heading towards Aberystwyth was unable to stop despite the brakes being fully applied.

The RAIB said the train slid through the loop and rejoined the single-track section, continuing towards a slope heading for the train coming from the opposite direction. As it slid down the hill, the train gathered speed and collided head on with the train heading towards Shrewsbury.

The RAIB investigators found that, at the point of impact, the Aberystwyth train was travelling at 24mph, and the Shrewsbury train at just 6mph – the driver of the Shrewsbury train had managed to slow down after being warned by the signaller that the other train had failed to stop in the loop. However, due to the failed sanding systems and low wheel-rail adhesion, the speed "was such that the deceleration required to slow the train for the loop could not be sustained".

Both trains involved were fitted with two separate sanding systems – an automatic one which is designed to deliver sand when the train is braking, and an emergency sander, which is activated manually to deliver sand to the front wheels.

The report found "the automatic sander did not function, probably due to the presence of electrical faults in its control circuit, while the manually-operated emergency sander was not activated by the driver". It also noted the "driver stated that it had not occurred to them to use the emergency sanders", with the author of the report adding the driver was not made aware that the automatic system had not sprayed sand on the train's wheels. The report also concluded that adverse weather conditions were another crucial factor in causing the collision.

The RAIB recommended that Transport for Wales should review training, development and processes to ensure train drivers are "competent in actions which may be required in abnormal or emergency situations, and that this competency is appropriately maintained". It added the review should "specifically consider the competencies relating to making emergency calls and the use of emergency sanding systems".

(BBC article continues)

It *is* (worth a topic) but we need to be very careful in how we read the stats.  Is there a stat reporting the distance or time the average passenger spends on a train?  Especially over the years.  If journey length drops, then more people can use the same seat ... I'm not suggesting it's happened.

Thought it worth a topic, because clearly cutting the trains whilst increasing passengers is controversial

Avoid anything made by Hitachi, as that has become a toxic brand.

Excellent. Hope you made the train. Hope you ever have mobile signal again...

Mark