Another Bristol Parkway Closure - for three weeks

[whole diary]

[CMRail]

Four Track Swindon to Didcot, Now!

[TonyK]

What user name are you going to have in January 2019, FTN?.....

You know, that's been keeping me awake some afternoons already - it took me long enough to come up with the moniker in the first place. I have already amended it, by the addition of the comma, so it's a bit tricky. I was going to involve a branding consultant I found in Yellow Pages, until he showed me the irons.

[grahame]

... by the addition of the comma ...

And gosh did that put a roadblock in the way of my "most liked" software as I can't simply count commas and add one!

[martyjon]

What user name are you going to have in January 2019, FTN?.....

You know, that's been keeping me awake some afternoons already - it took me long enough to come up with the moniker in the first place. I have already amended it, by the addition of the comma, so it's a bit tricky. I was going to involve a branding consultant I found in Yellow Pages, until he showed me the irons.

Solved, Four Tracked, Now !!!!

[TonyK]

Solved, Four Tracked, Now !!!!

Four exclamation marks now seems a little racy for a man of my tender years, but I'll think about it!

[ReWind]

Sorry if I'm missing something obvious here, but I was wondering how the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train)'s are accessing Stoke Gifford depot during the BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) blockade?

I was under the impression the whole of the BPW station area was closed today and for the foreseeable for electrification works, but I still see the empty IET's are still able to exit and enter Stoke Gifford depot, like this one;

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/V20152/2018/09/15/advanced

[martyjon]

Sorry if I'm missing something obvious here, but I was wondering how the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train)'s are accessing Stoke Gifford depot during the BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) blockade?

I was under the impression the whole of the BPW station area was closed today and for the foreseeable for electrification works, but I still see the empty IET's are still able to exit and enter Stoke Gifford depot, like this one;

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/V20152/2018/09/15/advanced

An IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) can exit Stoke Gifford Depot onto any 1 of 6 lines, the down loop, No1, 2, 3 and 4 platform lines and the up loop and when all track alterations are complete be able to access all of the six lines from the Bristol direction too.
I expect special arrangements are in force to allow for at least two of the aforementioned lines to be available for ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) movements at all times.

[simonw]

Well, it has taken two days for me to confirm that me choice of local buses over Network Rails|GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) bus replacement programme was the correct one.

Colleagues at work that have struggled with bus replacemernts from Yate to Filton Abbeywood/Patchway and journeys onto Bristol Temple Meads report delays and severe overcrowding.

Why couldn't they arrange with First Bus to run direct buses from Bristol Parkway to Bristol Temple Meads for the three weeks. Say every 15 minutes?

[grahame]

Sadly, cost often seems to take precedence over giving customers a service that's as close as can be reasonably achieved to their normal commute.  And it really feels that all the warning literature ahead of time is a convenient double edged sword - it both alerts people so they're not taken by surprise (good) and is perhaps intended to put them off their journeys so that replacement transport can still cope even if there's not very much of it.

I'm analysing ahead to Christmas - what could be done and what is planned to be done.  I have a journey that normally takes 28 minutes and could stay at that, but is going up to 40. A journey that normally takes 41 going up to 73 when it only need go up to 52, and so on.  Oh - my figures are being kind and optimistic to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - I'm assuming that bus to train and train to bus connections really are connections.  I've allowed 8 minutes, even though I know that it's been up to 40 in the past; so far I only have routings, not timetables.

[WelshBluebird]

I was already planning on changing to the local buses when the Severn Beach line gets replacement buses when travelling to and from my girlfriends. simonw, your assessment of the current situation when the current blockade is less disruptive than what the Filton Bank blockade will be is a further push for me to go in that direction!

[johnneyw]

I was already planning on changing to the local buses when the Severn Beach line gets replacement buses when travelling to and from my girlfriends. simonw, your assessment of the current situation when the current blockade is less disruptive than what the Filton Bank blockade will be is a further push for me to go in that direction!

I say! How many girlfriends do you have on the Severn Beach Line? 😀

[TonyK]

Well, it has taken two days for me to confirm that me choice of local buses over Network Rails|GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) bus replacement programme was the correct one.

Colleagues at work that have struggled with bus replacemernts from Yate to Filton Abbeywood/Patchway and journeys onto Bristol Temple Meads report delays and severe overcrowding.

Why couldn't they arrange with First Bus to run direct buses from Bristol Parkway to Bristol Temple Meads for the three weeks. Say every 15 minutes?

What, and prove that MetroBust could operate from Parkway without another major round of road-building? That government funding isn't easy to come by, you know.

[grahame]

Why couldn't they arrange with First Bus to run direct buses from Bristol Parkway to Bristol Temple Meads for the three weeks. Say every 15 minutes?

Suggestion from an informed source suggests that they fear them getting stuck in traffic around Temple Meads.  Still road works going on around Temple Gate?

[metalrail]

Suggestion from an informed source suggests that they fear them getting stuck in traffic around Temple Meads.  Still road works going on around Temple Gate?

Yep the never ending roadworks around Temple Gate / Temple Circus...  or whatever they call it this time when the latest road scheme is finished

Another backwards step having removed the 'temporary' flyover to Redcliffe that did such an amazing job for so many more years than it was designed for!

[Phantom]

I was already planning on changing to the local buses when the Severn Beach line gets replacement buses when travelling to and from my girlfriends. simonw, your assessment of the current situation when the current blockade is less disruptive than what the Filton Bank blockade will be is a further push for me to go in that direction!

I say! How many girlfriends do you have on the Severn Beach Line? 😀

One in every port..... Sorry - station