Returning to holidays and leisure trips - but UK or overseas?

[whole diary]

[TonyK]

Charcoal is not in short supply.  In our warehouse, I have vast amounts of it - clogging up the aisles. 

A couple of hours of sunshine over the bank holiday will see it cleaned out.

[TaplowGreen]

Charcoal is not in short supply.  In our warehouse, I have vast amounts of it - clogging up the aisles. 

A couple of hours of sunshine over the bank holiday will see it cleaned out.

The RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) have renewed their annual charcoal contract in the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) area - guaranteed deliveries first thing Sunday morning June-September! 

[broadgage]

Charcoal is not in short supply.  In our warehouse, I have vast amounts of it - clogging up the aisles. 

I hope that proper care is taken to avoid risk of fire. LARGE piles of charcoal make me rather nervous. It is liable to self heat and then to catch fire, if in large volumes.

As a minimum precaution, in the case of bagged charcoal stacked on pallets, I would urge a daily check for any heating.
Remove a few bags from the top of the pile, and insert ones hand into about the middle of the pile.
If it has heated to blood heat be concerned, if too hot to touch then urgent action is required.

If at blood heat, move the bags and put them on a concrete floor spaced well apart. Feel each bag, and any that are hot rather than warm should be placed in a metal container and taken outdoors.

If any part of a stack is to hot to touch, take the lot outdoors with a pallet truck.

If stored charcoal is smoking or emitting a burning smell then don't disturb it but call the fire brigade.

BTW^▸ (by the way), several fires on cargo ships have been blamed on bulk charcoal.

Small amounts as used domestically are unlikely to be dangerous, but avoid stacking multiple bags touching each other.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Charcoal is not in short supply.  In our warehouse, I have vast amounts of it - clogging up the aisles. 

I hope that proper care is taken to avoid risk of fire. LARGE piles of charcoal make me rather nervous. It is liable to self heat and then to catch fire, if in large volumes.

Thank you for your concern, broadgage! 

However, I can assure you that those various bags of charcoal are indeed spread out quite thinly within the warehouse - hence they are 'clogging up the aisles'. 

And, if you have to work in our warehouse, the ability to 'self heat' is actually a very useful attribute.  Apparently, someone in Head Office closed down our heating system remotely, to save costs, and we apparently have no way of overriding that locally.   

[broadgage]

Agree, with TG.
 I have a rather cynical fear that much of the economy will re-open (pubs, restaurants, hotels, tourist attractions in general) but that the railways will remain in "covid mode" for a year or two.

"We are working towards increasing services, but it will take time"
"We are short of rolling stock due to covid delayed maintenance"

And of course the inevitable staff shortages can be blamed on covid, for some years.

And let us remember that FGW^▸ (First Great Western), later GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) had a very poor record of coping with holiday traffic long before the pandemic.
The new shorter trains  flexible train lengths wont help.

Time has passed and much of the economy HAS reopened, pubs, bars, restaurants and tourist attractions in general, with the remaining restrictions expected to be relaxed shortly.

GWR HAVE remained in "covid mode" as I cynically expected, whilst much of the wider economy reopened. The recent timetable change has continued with the reduced services introduced in response to the pandemic.

The fact that this reduced timetable requires fewer IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) is of course purely co-incidental. Perhaps "covid mode" could be retained for a year or two, until the IETs are fixed.

[IndustryInsider]

Time has passed and much of the economy HAS reopened, pubs, bars, restaurants and tourist attractions in general, with the remaining restrictions expected to be relaxed shortly.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) HAVE remained in "covid mode" as I cynically expected, whilst much of the wider economy reopened. The recent timetable change has continued with the reduced services introduced in response to the pandemic.

The fact that this reduced timetable requires fewer IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) is of course purely co-incidental. Perhaps "covid mode" could be retained for a year or two, until the IETs are fixed.

With the exception of Paddington to Bedwyn, which GWR routes don’t have an adequate frequency or capacity of service to deal with current and future demand since the timetable change in your opinion?

[Lee]

Time has passed and much of the economy HAS reopened, pubs, bars, restaurants and tourist attractions in general, with the remaining restrictions expected to be relaxed shortly.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) HAVE remained in "covid mode" as I cynically expected, whilst much of the wider economy reopened. The recent timetable change has continued with the reduced services introduced in response to the pandemic.

The fact that this reduced timetable requires fewer IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) is of course purely co-incidental. Perhaps "covid mode" could be retained for a year or two, until the IETs are fixed.

With the exception of Paddington to Bedwyn, which GWR routes don’t have an adequate frequency or capacity of service to deal with current and future demand since the timetable change in your opinion?

The TransWilts has needed an hourly fequency for some time now, and future demand - Melksham alone is projected to double its current population - will require at least that and more.

[TonyK]

Charcoal is not in short supply.  In our warehouse, I have vast amounts of it - clogging up the aisles. 

A couple of hours of sunshine over the bank holiday will see it cleaned out.

Well, that didn't happen...

[broadgage]

Time has passed and much of the economy HAS reopened, pubs, bars, restaurants and tourist attractions in general, with the remaining restrictions expected to be relaxed shortly.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) HAVE remained in "covid mode" as I cynically expected, whilst much of the wider economy reopened. The recent timetable change has continued with the reduced services introduced in response to the pandemic.

The fact that this reduced timetable requires fewer IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) is of course purely co-incidental. Perhaps "covid mode" could be retained for a year or two, until the IETs are fixed.

With the exception of Paddington to Bedwyn, which GWR routes don’t have an adequate frequency or capacity of service to deal with current and future demand since the timetable change in your opinion?

I expect that warm weather or bank holidays, or the summer holiday season in general will find services to/from west country holiday resorts to be inadequate.

[didcotdean]

This is how summer travel was dissuaded in 1943

[IndustryInsider]

Time has passed and much of the economy HAS reopened, pubs, bars, restaurants and tourist attractions in general, with the remaining restrictions expected to be relaxed shortly.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) HAVE remained in "covid mode" as I cynically expected, whilst much of the wider economy reopened. The recent timetable change has continued with the reduced services introduced in response to the pandemic.

The fact that this reduced timetable requires fewer IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) is of course purely co-incidental. Perhaps "covid mode" could be retained for a year or two, until the IETs are fixed.

With the exception of Paddington to Bedwyn, which GWR routes don’t have an adequate frequency or capacity of service to deal with current and future demand since the timetable change in your opinion?

I expect that warm weather or bank holidays, or the summer holiday season in general will find services to/from west country holiday resorts to be inadequate.

That's a rather woolly answer.  OK, so let me frame the question differently.  What aspect(s) of the west country holiday resorts timetables are still in "covid mode"?

[broadgage]

Primarily the ones that are 5 car instead of 9 car or 5+5

[broadgage]

This is how summer travel was dissuaded in 1943

Or brought up to date

"There isn't even a cracked IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) to spare for non essential journeys this summer. Stay home"

[IndustryInsider]

Primarily the ones that are 5 car instead of 9 car or 5+5

Here's the situation today with a list of trains from Penzance to Paddington and their formations.  Which ones used to be 9 car or 5+5 but are now 5 car?

Up services:
1A73 05:05 PNZ-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) - 5-car to Plymouth, 10-car beyond to Paddington
1A76 06:06 PNZ-PAD - 9-car
1A78 07:10 PNZ-PAD - 5-car to Plymouth, 10-car beyond to Paddington
1A80 08:15 PNZ-PAD - 9-car
1A82 09:10 PNZ-PAD - 9-car
1A84 10:15 PNZ-PAD - 9-car
1A88 12:15 PNZ-PAD - 9-car
1A92 14:15 PNZ-PAD - 10-car throughout
1A96 16:15 PNZ-PAD - 9-car
1A39 17:45 PNZ-PAD - 9-car

Down services:
1C60 06:37 PAD-PNZ - 9-car
1C72 08:04 PAD-PNZ - 10-car throughout
1C76 10:04 PAD-PNZ - 9-car
1C80 12:04 PAD-PNZ - 9-car
1C82 13:04 PAD-PNZ - 10-car to Plymouth, 5-car beyond Plymouth
1C84 14:04 PAD-PNZ - 9-car
1C86 15:04 PAD-PNZ - 9-car
1C88 16:04 PAD-PNZ - 9-car
1C90 17:04 PAD-PNZ - 9-car
1C92 18:04 PAD-PNZ - 9-car

[PhilWakely]

A potential sign of things to come...... I travelled from Totnes to Exeter St Davids in the late afternoon of last Sunday (15th May) on a Penzance to Paddington service. A 5-car turned up and pretty much every socially distanced seat was taken up with plenty of couples sat together as well.

Half Term in ten days time should prove interesting.