Bath Spa - facilities, improvements, parking, events and incidents - merged posts

[whole diary]

[moonrakerz]

How do all the people who arrive on these extra trains get home  -  run ?

[Phil]

I'm hearing reports of a body on the line outside Bath station - no further details and my apologies in advance for scare-mongering if it turns out to be untrue...

[bobm]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) first reported it on their text service at 07:02. Paddington to Bristol services being diverted avoiding Chippenham and Bath Spa.

One strange one - the 05:33 Weymouth to Bristol Parkway is reported by the website as being diverted via Swindon and not calling at any stations after Weymouth until Swindon due to a fatality. Assuming this is the same one the service should have called at a fair few stations before the incident happened.

[thetrout]

I was at Westbury station this morning and an annoucement confirmed it was some form of fatality

No trains between Westbury and Bath Spa until at least 09:30

[tramway]

0700 from TRO^» (Trowbridge - next trains) was turned back at Bathampton Jnc, I'm now at home with a cup of coffee, as I suspect are many who were on the train.  Now just keeping an eye on the departure board.

Fatality at Sydney Gardens according to our guard, hasn't been one there for a while, popular suicide spot.

Have they decided on the style of railings Bath City Council hoped to erect there?

[JayMac]

From the Bath Chronicle:

Rail delays after fatality on the line near Bath

​Rail passengers are facing up to one hour delays leaving Bath because of a fatality on the line.

An incident is believed to have happened at around 5.45am this morning at the Bathampton junction.

British Transport Police have recovered a body, but have not yet revealed whether it is of a man or a woman.

Network Rail is advising passengers travelling to and from Bath Spa, Westbury and Chippenham, to expect delays of up to an hour.

Rail replacement coaches are running instead of some of the services.

To add: FGWs^▸ (First Great Western) 'Live Updates' now show services running as normal.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the First Great Western press release:

Additional trains for Bath Half Marathon

First Great Western is to run 24 additional trains to and from Bath Spa this coming Sunday, to help competitors and spectators attend the Bath Half Marathon.

An additional 17 services, providing in excess of 4,500 extra seats, are being provided to take runners and supporters home after the gruelling race, while there will also be seven additional early morning trains to help take runners to the start line.

Additional services between Westbury and Bath; Swindon and Bath and Bristol Temple Meads and Bath will operate.

Bath Spa Station Manager Peter Rignall said: ^The Bath Half is one of the longest established city centre marathons on the running calendar and it is great to see it prove ever popular. While our friendly and approachable staff will be on hand to help keep people moving as people return to the station, I would urge customers to allow time for their journeys, as a queuing system may be needed to allow passengers to board trains in safety.^

Those travelling from Keynsham and Oldfield Park are asked to check their journey in advance, as the 08.05 Cardiff to Portsmouth Harbour service will not call at those stations.

The race starts at Great Pulteney Street, in the heart of the World Heritage City, at 11.00.

[Thatcham Crossing]

I "ran" the Bath Half last year, and must admit it did spur me on with various HST^▸ (High Speed Train) drivers giving a friendly "toot" of encouragement as we proceeded along the road that parallels the railway into town going towards the finish :-)

Will be there again on Sunday, but in a watching from the sidelines capacity thankfully. It is a great event though.

[grahame]

http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/Extra-safety-advice-Bath-train-passengers-summer/story-21831161-detail/story.html?

Extra safety advice for Bath train passengers this summer

Train passengers travelling to and from Bath this summer will be getting extra advice on keeping their luggage safe during long journeys.

British Transport Police (BTP^▸ (British Transport Police)) officers are carrying out extra patrols on services between London Paddington and Penzance this Friday, giving safety tips to people and handing out leaflets.

It follows last year's launch of Operation Magnum, which is a crackdown on theft of passenger belongings on the railways.

Is there a problem that's getting worse, or just a high profile crackdown?    It goes on for a while ... leading to a single comment that says

Travel by car to your destination...no doubt it'll be cheaper, and your belongings will also be guaranteed to make it!

[grahame]

Same story carries on further west ...

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Plymouth-rail-cops-ride-route-London-Penzance/story-21852791-detail/story.html?

[Oberon]

Network Rail has organised a number of public drop-in sessions to inform Bath residents of electrification work through the City.


http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/News-Releases/Public-meetings-start-on-Bath-rail-electrification-216e.aspx


Moderator note: Meeting dates added to calendar. bignosemac

[TeaStew]

Interestingly (perhaps not) looking at that website I saw the Network Rail logo properly for the first time. I had always just seen three triangles at a jaunty angle. My world is now changed forever. Oops, took me long enough!

[grahame]

An interesting meeting ... with pictures of lots of bridges and structures and very much staffed by the designers of the steelwork and bridges, and by First Great Western (at least those were the people I spoke too  ).

Community Rail has an issue in that the two Network Rail folks who used to look after us have been move on as the posts have been removed, and all around the country there has been a move to establish local relationships. I understand that it's worked/working very well in some areas, but in others the liaison role is being foisted on unwilling people; somewhat relieved to have a contact name now (though he was not there tonight) and by reputation he's a good 'un.

Some readers here may not be aware of Bath blockade details for summer 2015 ... until now it has been described to me as 3 weeks Box Tunnel followed by 3 weeks Box Tunnel plus Bath Eastern approaches.  I understand this evening that it's been amended to 2 + 4 rather than 3 + 3, so probably late July for the "2" and all of August for the "4".   I'm getting myself fully "genned up" so that I can (a) make tuning requests to plans which already seem to have been made (b) prepare literature and marketing to spin the best light on it and (c) understand change risks so that we don't print / publicise one set of changes just to find that they're changed.

[TaplowGreen]

..........hopefully not as serious as the incident at Hungerford last week.....



Alterations to services at Bath Spa
Due to a vehicle striking a bridge at Bath Spa all lines are blocked.
Impact:
Train services running through this station may be delayed or revised. An estimate for the resumption of normal services will be provided as soon as the problem has been fully assessed.

[SandTEngineer]

NR^» (Network Rail - home page) has issued two updates on the progress work being carried out during the July and August 2015 blockades:
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/Bath-TPOD-Newsletter-24-July.pdf
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/Newsletter-TPOD-week-2.pdf