4. Salisbury

Not been a good weekend for this set of works - on Saturday morning one of the rail replacement buses was involved in a crash near Portsmouth Arms.

http://www.northdevonjournal.co.uk/Barnstaple-rail-passengers-left-stranded/story-28136300-detail/story.html

Ones I felt certain about were;

9. Penzance
11. Tiverton Parkway
16. Smallbrook Junction
24. Crewkerne

The rest - not a clue!

Longrock does have an unusually long down time at the best of times - I've timed it at 7 minutes the times I've been down there. I assume that's because of the signalling infrastructure there?

Google Street View

Indeed there are no phones or signs with phone numbers on them. Plus the CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) is at such an angle that anyone stuck in the car park can't be seen.

I've had that a couple of times where queues and/or breakdown of the TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) meant that waiting would more than likely make me miss my train. What I do is find the conductor (normally at the back of the train on the platform, at that point), and ask if it's OK to buy on board. Every time, they can see the issue and have allowed it. That said, I can easily see why a 13 year old girl wouldn't do the same thing. Can see both sides of the story, but as bobm says, appealing rather than going straight to the papers would have been a better idea.

Over 50 years, then yes - there was massive investment in the roads in the 60s and 70s whilst rail was in terminal decline. But over the past 20? Quite the opposite. There's been very, very few new roads with only a handful of mostly minor schemes in each county. Whilst rail hasn't had the infrastructure investment, there's definitely been massive progress in terms of electrification, rolling stock, service frequency, fares and the upkeep of stations.

The problem is that lots of people think that we only need one or the other. That is simply not the case. We need rail investment AND road investment. The A303/A30 dualling is of huge benefit to the south west, in the same way that investment in the mainline to Devon and Cornwall would be. And there's also the possibility that investing in roads can benefit the railways. More people will come on holiday here. Many of them will decide to have a day out by train to the nearest city, or preserved railway.

What makes me laugh are people who suggest that money should be invested in cycling facilities instead.
1 - NOBODY will go on holiday from London to the South West by bicycle. Thus ZERO benefit to our economy.
2 - Cyclists just don't use facilities provided for them anyway. No point buying them something they're not going to use.

But the token exchange is just as, if not more antiquated, as the level crossing. It often takes over 5 minutes to sort them out, not including any time taken waiting for passing trains which itself is massively delayed by the same process.

If we take the M4 as an example, the idea is that a 'grander' scheme is the only realistic option as there is already a cheaper, poorer quality route in use in the form of the M4 as it is today. The M4 is over-capacity and needs relieving. A 'basic' scheme has already been built to the south with the A48 distributor road - with no effect on the M4 at all (and to be fair, no effect was anticipated at the time of construction).

HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) is similar in that it is designed to relieve pressure on major lines like the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line) as well as speed up travelling times. Again, more 'basic' schemes have already been completed on the WCML, but the capacity problem is still there.

In basic terms;
The M4 is full, so new capacity is needed through a new route.
The WCML is full, so new capacity is needed through a new route.
Both have had cheaper options implemented. Both still have the same underlying problem.

Just as a quick aside on the TRA, is there any particular reason why their website isn't updated anymore? (Or rather, indeed, hasn't been for a couple of years).

You definitely know how to tease us, Richard! Still, any good news is always welcome - it shows that there are people of significance that are looking to improve the line/service, even if whatever this news is falls through for whatever reason.

18. Gillingham (Dorset)

I would assume that it's more intended for Plymouth-Tavistock services. Of course, the new line will probably be built to the clearance standards, so it's only the existing St Budeaux to Bere Alston section that will need checking.

16. Honiton

Lympstone Village. The train's heading for Exmouth (at least that's what the white lights indicate), but presumably the driver's been a bit keen on setting the destination for the return journey.