The Michael Crick article seems to say the "fault" is that the barriers stay down too long i.e preventing road vehicles from moving forward.  If so then this is if anything a "fail safe".



Edit note: Quote marks fixed. CfN.

I agree - it does say 8 December.  If that is correct its a huge turn round from yesterday when lines were expected to open today.  Add in the disruption at Teignmouth  and still only a two hourly service on the Honiton-Yeovil line.

I expect its already been covered in the previous 50+ pages of this thread, but isn't the stopping of electrification at Newbury something to do with boundaries between signalling centres?

From SW Trains website looks as if line west of Yeovil will remain closed for a while:

"Due to a landslip at Honiton and flooding near Axminster, we are unable to run any trains between Yeovil Junction and Exeter St Davids until further notice.
Our engineers are on site and are working hard to repair the damage. Due to the extent of the damage and the continued bad weather expected over the weekend, the current estimate is that the line will not open until further notice.
Bad weather over the weekend has caused further damage means that the line will remain closed.
West of England train services which normally run between London Waterloo and Exeter St Davids will only run from London Waterloo to Yeovil Junction, at which point they will return to London Waterloo.
Message Received :25/11/2012 10:16"

Presumably there are civil engineering solutions to these recurring problems - Cowley Bridge is always flooding, this is I think the second landslip near Honiton/Axminster this year and similarly the flooding  on the Bristol Parkway-Swindon route.     If this was the motorways being closed there would be a national outcry, but people somehow accept the railways will close down.  Accept that part of the problem is the 19th century routes which often found it easier to follow rivers, and with Network Rail's debt currently 26 billion or so then there is hardly likely to be lots of cash for big engineering solutions, but nevertheless with both GW^» (Great Western - used as an abbreviation for the area / lines under the Great Western franchise, as opposed to FGW which includes "First", the company operating them too. For tickets - about) and LSW routes currently closed then most of Devon and Cornwall have no rail access to the rest of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

Does this happen very often??

17:06 London Paddington to Westbury due 18:53
This train will be diverted from Pewsey.
This train will call additionally at Trowbridge, Bradford-On-Avon, Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads.
This train will no longer call at Westbury.
This is due to an unusually large passenger flow.
Message Received :08/08/2012 13:03

And its interesting that Derby-Birmingham-Bristol electrification is proposed for CP6^▸ (Control Period 6 - The five year period between 2019 and 2024).  Think we can assume, finance permitting ( and it is inevitable that timetables will slip), that all major routes will be electric - perhaps even Chiltern!

From today's DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) press release:
 landmark decision to take electric rail beyond Cardiff to Swansea, completing the full electrification of the Great Western Main Line out of London Paddington at a total cost of more than ^600m, and electrifying the Welsh Valley lines, including Ebbw Vale, Maesteg and the Vale of Glamorgan. These will give two-thirds of the Welsh population access to new fleets of electric trains helping to generate Welsh jobs and growth by slashing journey times and boosting passenger and freight capacity.

This section from the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) press release suggests Bedford-Milton Keynes-Oxford will be electrified:

^The creation of a high-capacity ^electric spine^ running from Yorkshire and the West Midlands to South Coast ports allowing more reliable electric trains to cut journey times and boost capacity for passengers and freight. This comprises: an ^800m electrification and upgrade from Sheffield ^ through Nottingham, Derby and Leicester ^ to Bedford, completing the full electrification of the Midland Main Line out of London St Pancras; and electrification of the lines from Nuneaton and Bedford to Oxford, Reading, Basingstoke and Southampton.

From a purely cost effectiveness point of view, use of HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) in Cornwall can hardly be a good thing - but of course the alternative is to abandon through services from the county.   Travel 1st class on the up Golden Hind and the two carriages are 95% empty until Plymouth.

Perhaps not surprisingly, where there is a train fault or a late running service, then the stations furthest west suffer most with the cancellation of their service - due for example to turnback of a late running train at a more easterly point.   Most often it seems to be stations between Hereford and Worcester that lose out, although today it was Carmarthen and on other occasions it is Cornwall west of Truro or Par.  These stations may only have an hourly service or less and so the inconvenience is considerable.  Once a passenger has suffered from a cancellation they may decide next time to take the car, hence leading to loss of future revenue and so perhaps then to a downgrading of service.  In Cornwall for example a number of business travellers drive to Exeter and take the London train from there.
Is there a solution to all this, or does the overall tightness of rolling stock and manpower meant that the "ends of the line" always lose out?

is it possible to reconcile the opposing requests for a) faster services to and from Plymouth with b) more trains stopping at smaller stations e.g Menheniot plus re-opened stations at Carn Brea, Probus etc ??

The February "Modern Railways" is suggesting that the Scottish sleepers will transfer from Euston to Waterloo International when Mk 3 coaches are introduced to the trains ( and so will be too long for Euston platforms). Are they currently diesel hauled, otherwise there will be a third rail problem to overcome.  Article also suggest that Night Riviera could transfer too and perhaps all could be a mini franchise!

Although with the benefit of hindsight a lot of the 1960s closures look foolish, nevertheless at the time they were, in my opinion, largely inevitable in that BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) was losing huge chunks of money, the government of the day didn't wish to subsidise further and hence BR managers had to look for savings where they could ( and they did try modernisation of lines rather than closing e.g 4 wheel railbuses).   And to be fair to Beeching himself - he was fulfilling the brief set to him by government which was to try and get the railways onto a reasonably good financial footing.

I would assume all drivers covering Exeter - Paddington would have route knowledge via Bath as there are two or three trains a day that are timetabled to take that route.  Presumably route knowledge via Parkway is not standard.