Great Western Coffee Shop

Shamelessly quoting out of context:


Got me thinking.

a) I want ... a train to my county town (just six miles away) for commuters - filling the 06:38 to 09:15 gap
b) I want ... a later train - a round trip back after the 18:38 (Saturday) and 19:37 (Monday to Friday)
c) I want ... the first train on Sunday mornings to run all year
d) I want ... decent connections between the buses that pass the station and the trains that call there

And looking at the logical way to deliver those ...
c) Well - the train's already in place! Business case to be made
b) Extend 2A87 FRO to WSB to CPM, leaving WSB 21:15. Then CPM 22:03 to WSB, arrive 22:28, to form 2V97 ...
d) One of 23rd August changes helps. And other change (I think 1st September) may help too.
a) Darn it that's hard ... may need to wait for stock cascades.

For Taplow

Sunday service
Reliable service so you don't feel you have to catch the train before just in case!
Reliable connections if needed for journey
Reasonable ticket price.  It cost me more to get to Kings Cross to catch Grand Central than it diid to get to Mirfield

Better frequency on the main line in Cornwall.

I can't quite make the 1723 (miss it by about 5mins) from Truro so means waiting until 1850 ish if I take the train to work.(ironically during August when the 1723 runs 10 later, I'm not scheduled to finish at 1700!

A better westbound service in the Mornings through Cornwall. Gaps of 2-3 hours isn't good enough on the main line when branch lines to Falmouth and St Ives get half hourly.

A Henbury Loop service.

A rover ticket valid east of Swindon (I know there is the all line rover - but a regional one).

Better still a rover valid on all FGW services - if going west it doesn't take me much encouragement to wait at Bristol or Taunton for a FGW HST in preference to a XC Voyager!

Ah - the Great Wall of Wessex - dividing the South West country where we speaks funny from the affluent South East country of the Home Counties.   And where crossing the border by train often seems to be very expensive compared to more local journeys either side!

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/pdwall.jpg)

(Public domain picture - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hadrian%27s_wall_at_Greenhead_Lough.jpg )

You cross the border surreptitiously using Swindon to Cholsey or Westbury to Newbury tickets, which can get you as far as Reading...

1. A re-drawing of Bristol's boundary to encompass the entire contiguous built-up area of Bristol, so that the city can be administered as what it is rather than as a balkanised set of overblown parish councils;
2. Further to (1), that this enlarged area should be known as 'Bristol', not 'the West of England' or 'Fromeville' or any similarly-confected nonsense;
3. That this area be served by an integrated public transport system, to include electrically-propelled light rail, and that the city's planning and transport decisions should reflect the requirements of the whole city and not those of the aforementioned overblown parish councils;
4. That I be granted the Moon on a Stick.

I suspect that (4) may be the easiest to achieve.

Not "Avon" then?

Got it in one!  :)

I don't understand the mentality of naming an area which is plainly based on a city or town after some other far-less-relevant geographical feature. If you asked the people who live there where they lived, they would say that they lived in that city or town - so why wouldn't they want that city or town to form part of their address? 'Avon' was pretty bad (though at least it referred to a tangible thing), but 'Thamesdown'? They might as well have called it 'Lymeswold'.

A reliable, frequent, reasonably/transparently priced rail service throughout the UK, not overcrowded to an extent which make travel a thoroughly unpleasant experience, with TOCs that treat customers in a civil manner rather than an inconvenient encumbrance to be tolerated.

..........apart from that, World peace, Penelope Cruz knocking on my door, England winning the Rugby World Cup and Plymouth Argyle winning the Champions League.

I wonder whether the contents of the first paragraph are as much of a fantasy as the latter?  ;D

Moderator note:

Off topic discussion about Rovers and Rangers in the Thames Valley has been moved to a staff only board temporarily.

I'm quoting two of the removed posts back - neither of which is from the "large personalities" mentioned ... apologies to both of these members for "pulling" the thread to which they had posted.



The fare system is very complex, and I think we can all agree that we would like to see some simplifications .. and move on.

Oh - there ARE direct trains from Melksham to Bristol all this week, by the way ... just a pity they don't actually stop ;-).

What I want

a) IEP service to result in same (or more) seats from Swindon in the morning and to Swindon in the evenings
b) Crossrail interchange at Paddington to save me time getting to Liverpool St and/or Canary Wharf (currently looks like it might save 5 minutes)
c) Shuttle service Paddington to Reading and some long distance services non-stopping at Reading in the evening peaks.

Last is to prevent the current situation where all trains leave Paddington standing room only and end up half full after Reading!

Would that be Maidenhead Rovers and Slough Rangers? I know nothing about football, me...

Quite ;)

What I want is..........
'pick up only' to mean just that and policed!

The HOPS train crew etc to get its collective head around installing 18 masts/night, on average, to avoid the GW being the gravestone of UK electrification.

OTC

Is it the train crew, the manufacturer or a combination of the two?

As a chartered engineer since 1981 I have to say; almost always the crew.

Sure, you won't get to the moon in a rowing boat but the preparation and investment made in this technology make the excuses of the wrong sort of soil, the wrong sort of masts and the wrong sort of signal cables very weak. Engineers are educated and trained to be problem solvers, even without optimal kit.

I'm tempted to say more but won't.

OTC

What I see is piles that have not been driven or only partly driven is this really the crew or is the equipment not strong enough for the ground.  PS I am also a Chartered Engineer, but only since 1982!

Going off at a complete tangent ... that reminds me of Lts Chard and Bromhead, in the 1964 film Zulu, comparing the dates of their respective commissions to decide who was the 'senior officer commanding' ...  ::) :P :-[

Froomeville, to celebrate the first Briton to win two Tours de France, sounds like an excellent name.

...........only for those who wish to live in a town that sounds like something out of "Deliverance"! .............then again, it is in Somerset! ;D

There is a report - I think from the ORR - that mentioned the original rate was only 9.5 piles/night, whereas the machine was built for 18. They've got the rate up to 13.5, I think....

By way of clarification for readers who may not be familiar with Bristol's land drainage arrangements, I was alluding to the River Frome (historically the Froom) which rises in South Gloucestershire and meets its confluence in central Bristol, not the (doubtless very lovely) town in Somerset of similar appellation. In the latter quarter of the 20th Century, a county was created to encompas Greater Bristol, but to placate parochial interests was named after another local river, the Afon Avon.

1,000 apologies.

I'd like people not to quote four levels when they're replying to the last post in a topic- especially when the post they make is only two words long.  :-\ ;)

These!

And the reopening of the Portishead line, with a station at Pill and trains that will get there in time to take kids from Bedminster to school.

Regarding the municipal area, I'm not sure whether Red Squirrel is thinking of something larger but I'd be content with making the City of Bristol as large as the city of Bristol. As for Froomeville, how about Las Vegas? http://lvis.org.uk

2,000 apologies.

There is some scope for debate, but clearly Bradley Stoke, Emerson's Green and Oldland Common are inside the logical boundary. If the good burghers of Clevedon, Nailsea, Keynsham, Winterbourne, Yate Sodbury and Thornbury would rather pretend that these are independent places that could exist without Bristol (they can't; they were all developed as satellites) then that would be their choice.

I would like to see

Firstly a greatly simplified fares system, with no more than 3 fares for any journey (in each class). Which of these 3 fares is payable to be determined by how busy the train is likely to be, which in turn is determined by the time and date of travel.
I see no merit whatsoever in the present system whereby the fare is largely determined by when the ticket is purchased, rather than by the time and date of travel.

Secondly I would like to see a pause in ordering new shorter trains, with available funds concentrated on building full length new trains. I fully accept that short trains are needed for some routes, but feel that voyagers, adelantes, and various existing EMUs are sufficient to meet the demand for short units for secondary routes or services.
What we are short of is full length trains.
So far as is contractually possible, reduce the order for half length SETs and spend the money instead on more of the 9 car ones.

Thirdly I would like to see more attention given to improving infrastructure reliability, increasingly we seem to have a fair weather only railway in which modestly cold or warm weather, or limited snow, rain, or wind causes widespread dislocation.

If I had to choose between express services that had more seating between Reading and Paddington and services that were reliable (or at least within 5 minutes of scheduled arrival time) I would choose the latter. I don't mind catching an earlier train to get a seat (my choice) but having to add extra time on because the services are not reliable grates on me.

I must add that I haven't had to travel daily by train for a couple of months so things may have improved in which case my wish could have been granted :)

I'd like 1)a half hourly service to Exeter Central from Paignton (happening soon TM),
2) Reduced waiting times at Newton Abbot/Dawlish Warren
3)Parity of IC services for Cornwall and Torbay.
4)Electrification would be nice,  but is never going to happen in my lifetime.
5) Pacers banished unto the warp,or, preferably Cornwall (to be consistent with the local buses!)
6) A later departure from Exeter -Torbay on Saturday nights.

And, in fantasy land, reinstatement of a line to Brixham. We border a town which even Narnia  finds too fantastical, so it's not the weirdest idea around!

If we're living in fantasy land ... how about reinstating the Kingsbridge Branch Line?

I was down that way today - the roads were very busy, with tourists a-plenty: surely the railway would have a business case for such a re-opening?

You may need to speak to Richard Herring to achieve your dream

Not something I want as I'm rarely directly affected by it...

But, it would be nice for a week to go by without something going wrong with the infrastructure in the Thames Valley.

Today I witnessed how smooth things can be in the evening peak when neither track or signalling has gone t*ts up. I was at Reading watching services from London heading west.

Of particular note was the 1800 from Paddington to Bristol TM, rolling to a stop on P8 at Reading at 1823:30. 23^ minutes from Paddington to Reading. Start to stop average of 92mph. Impressive.

The following 1803 managed 24^ minutes. Still too many Reading commuters alighting from this one though. Meant to be pick up only at Reading.

It's fascinating to look at recent time trains and see the arrival graphs - impressive in showing a consistency of arrivals that rather gives lie to the emphasis of the news feeds which only tell us the bad news.   But also of note, interesting to look at disruption when it happens and how one train with a problem can knock the graph back for so many following.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/tv_to_rdg.jpg)

Very interesting indeed. Are you able to do the same for another London terminus such as kings X or Euston ?

That is a very powerful image in terms of the story it tells

I should have added a URL - it's publicly available at Recent Time Trains - http://www.recenttraintimes.co.uk - which uses the nationwide ( I think) Network Rail data feeds.    Publicly available, but not well publicised!

Thanks Graham  yet another useful site to bookmark.

Im looking into how services from other London termini fair - I've just looked at kings cross which doesn't seem so bad.

Does anyone know of any sites which allow you to map delays based on cause (such as signal/track problems, unit failure etc? I believe I have seen this information elsewhere but can't recall where.
In a nutshell I'm trying to work out if FGW delays are really any worse than any other TOC if you exclude any infrastructure issues or issues caused (for example) by persons / cattle being hit by a train.

Maybe I'm just being too kind to FGW :)

That's very true.  If you only ever used the FGW Twitter feed as a source of information then the impression would be of an appalling company.  Not to say they haven't been disappointing in many respects lately, but are no worse than many TOCs in my opinion.

Similarly, if you read newspapers or watch the news then the vast majority of stories are confrontational and/or negative.  Real life isn't like that all the time - for example, for every Lord who makes the front pages of the paper for being an idiot, there are many hundreds who do sterling work for the nation, yet the impression we get is different and sometimes it's a hard impression to break free from.

Also, when you've 'made your mind up' on something, it's human nature to search for things and generally take more notice of things that reinforce that opinion, be it a good or bad one.

The first three are clearly (to my mind) suburbs or outskirts of Bristol. The others are separate towns in the greater Bristol area (though Winterbourne is virtually a suburb) but without the real mass to administer themselves. It's when you get to Bath that it gets difficult. (I'd say Bath could administer itself plus eg Clutton, Radstock, etc; places like Thornbury would probably be best as part of Gloucestershire. But all this is way off topic!)

1, better service from Worcester to both London and Bristol
2, a proper national, realistic electrification and stock cascade plan which is long term rather than this silly system of announcing improvements and then pausing them.  If is clear that the previous plans were too optimistic in terms of staff and kit capabilities, but instead of a pause we need all the work rescheduled - MML, valley lines, North West, and various extensions and follow ons.  Only then will the industry see it as worthwhile investing in people and kit to get the job done.  If the assumed future electrification rate is slow that doesn't particularly bother me so long as it is steadily moving forward and there is provided enough certainty for the RoSCos to take sensible decisions about providing diesel stock for secondary routes rather than waiting for stock cascades which may never come.

 

This is a bit chicken and egg. What they found is that they cannot work out how long it will take. So it is very difficult to reschedule. The GW Electrification needs to be completed to find out how well the Electrification Train will eventually work, train the staff, see if the new OLE kit works properly and the work out the cheapest practical way of completing various other tasks. That will allow a sensible programme (and budget) to be developed for later projects. 

They could and may be are still doing survey and design work on MML etc., but without the information from GW it will still not be possible to reschedule. So putting all the effort into getting GW to work is probably the best option for now. Even though it is very frustrating. 

Please also remember we have a chronic shortage of trained engineers in the country you cannot just go down to the Job Centre and pick them up. Professional Engineers (4 years University then on the job training) and Technicians all take many years to train. We are also short of the raw material in that our Schools are not inspiring their pupils to study Physics even to GCSE and Maths to A levels.  This is therefore not going to be easy to fix. 

Sorry Rant over

My late father often used to echo your words ellendune.  My cause wasn't helped by failing Physics O Level, only to discover he had helped to set some of the questions!

My father, who started his career as an industrial chemist, was probably rather disappointed when I flunked Chemistry at 'O' level ...  ::) :P :-[