Gloucester - station, facilities, services, events & incidents (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[Lee]

A community mural in Gloucester Station , commissioned by First Great Western , has been unveiled (links below.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/7067133.stm

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/NewsItem.aspx?id=562

[Deltic]

It seems that they had problems at Gloucester this afternoon with both the 16.31 Cheltenham to Paddington and the 14.51 Great Malvern to Weymouth being delayed by 20 to 30 minutes.  As a result of this both are missing stops, with the former running fast from Swindon to Paddington and the latter ran non-stop from Temple Meads to Westbury.  Is this a sensible decision to minimise disruption to other services or a cynical ploy to reach the destination within 10 minutes of booked time and thereby avoid financial penalties?

[devon_metro]

Sensible considering there is a Paddington train from Swindon at 1759 calling Didcot & Reading.

[Oxman]

And don't forget that the set will turn round at Paddington to form a Friday evening down service - which I imagine would be very busy. Turnround times at Paddington are tight in the evening peak, so much better to get the set into Paddington in good time to turn round, without serious disruption to the Friday evening peak service and without delaying the down service.

[JayMac]

From thisisGloucestershire:

Cash for a makeover of Gloucester's "grotty" railway station subway has been slashed.

The budget to refurbish the subway has been cut by ^330,000. The graffiti-covered walk-through had been scheduled to undergo a radical makeover for some time ^ but a dispute between Gloucestershire County Council and Network Rail over insurance stalled the work. Now, the estimated ^750,000 budget for the project has been slashed as part of the council's cuts package.
Click here for more

Councillor Jeremy Hilton, leader of the city and county council's Liberal Democrat groups, said: "I am hopping mad about this announcement. That money has been sitting in an account for five years and it hasn't been used. That subway is the first thing a lot of visitors see when they come to our city and it just isn't up to scratch. It's grotty and horrible. It needs a total refurbishment, not what the county council is now proposing."

With the cuts, the council is now proposing to install a CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) camera, new lighting and a new coat of paint over the graffiti. Previously it had been hoped the project would include new walls and graffiti-proof tiles.

"It's just not good enough," said Mr Hilton. "In the previous proposal, they were going to put special tiles in there to stop people from doing graffiti, but now they are just going to paint over it. There is no excuse ^ they should have got on with the work long ago. The work they are now proposing is not going to improve the ambience there whatsoever."

Councillor Stan Waddington, cabinet member for transport, said: "Because the coalition government has decided to cut the council's budget, we have to make savings in the areas they have identified. With regards the station subway, although we have reduced the cost of the scheme, we will still be painting it with vandal-proof paint and installing CCTV. In these difficult times we simply cannot justify the extra expense of building brand new walls. We still expect the end result to be a substantial improvement than now and will represent value for money."

The matter will be discussed by the county council's cabinet tomorrow (13/07/2010).

[devon_metro]

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/news/rips-station-office/article-3054091-detail/article.html

Trains are still running smoothly after a fire ripped through Gloucester railway station.

First Great Western has confirmed that although the ticket office was heavily damaged in last night's blaze, services will not be affected.

However, the incident has caused distruption to ticket sales and the customer information system.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) spokeswoman Sue Evans said: "There is no impact on train services.
Stay one step ahead of the winter weather

"The ticket office is closed until further notice, but passengers can buy tickets on the train.

"We will be assessing the damage and if necessary, we may be able to put mobile ticket office staff in place throughout the station."

She said staff in hi-vis jackets would also be around to keep customers informed of journey details after an electricity failure lead to the breakdown of the information system.

Police and firefighters were called to the ticket office at the station in the early hours of this morning.

Police spokesman Chris Jackson said: "Gloucester Police were called to a fire at the railway station in the early hours of this morning.

"The Fire Service reported a large fire at the ticket office at 1.30am today, December 31.

"It was extinguished by 2.30am but had caused extensive damage.

"Police are treating the fire as suspicious and have arrested a 17-year-old boy from Cheltenham on suspicion of arson in connection with the case. He is currently being questioned."

Anyone with any information should call Gloucestershire Police on 0845 090 1234, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 quoting incident 32 of December 31.

[LiskeardRich]

some interesting reader comments at the bottom of the article

[Chris from Nailsea]

From thisisgloucestershire:

Teenager set fire to Gloucester railway station after train cancelled

After his late-night train was cancelled, drunken Jordan Clews set fire to the ticket office at Gloucester train station and caused ^322,000 of damage.

This was the scene left behind after Clews, a 17-year-old, of Gloucester Road, Cheltenham, drunkenly torched the site.

The teenager admitted arson when he appeared at Gloucester Crown Court yesterday.

He was given a two-year detention and training order, and Judge Jamie Tabor lifted an order set to protect the identity of minors, as it was in the public interest to release his name.

Prosecuting, Lisa Hennessy said Clews had gone to Gloucester railway station in the early hours of December 31, 2010 to get a train to Cheltenham.

The train, due at 12.40am, was cancelled and he was told it would be replaced by a bus at 1.40am. He sat in the booking hall, but, when staff saw him get out tobacco, they told him he could not smoke inside the station and he went out.

A few minutes later, the fire alarm went off and staff found that the offices upstairs were filling with smoke.

"The booking hall was ablaze and also filling with black smoke, and the cashiers windows were a wall of flame," Mrs Hennessy said. "Clews was outside, transfixed by the fire as if he was in a trance."

It looked as though someone had pushed burning paper through the pay slots.

CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) showed Clews going backwards and forwards across the booking hall before the fire. He was arrested as his hands were blackened.

Clews asked for two other offences, of theft and grievous bodily harm, to be taken into consideration. The court heard he had taken money from an alcoholic in the street, then punched him as he lay on the ground.

Tim Burrows, defending, said Clews had not set out to cause arson, and did not remember what happened.

He said: "He was drunk and that is a common factor in all his offending."

[vacman]

I cant believe that they can try and use his drinking as a defence! seems that justice has been done to an extent, they should make him pay back all of the money for the damage, even if it means him paying a tenner a week for the rest of his life.

[devon_metro]

I'd like to see him pay back that ^322,000 over the course of his lifetime.

[JayMac]

...they should make him pay back all of the money for the damage, even if it means him paying a tenner a week for the rest of his life.

At ^10 a week that would take approximately 619 years. 

[vacman]

...they should make him pay back all of the money for the damage, even if it means him paying a tenner a week for the rest of his life.

At ^10 a week that would take approximately 619 years. 

maybe, but he would still have paid some of it back.

[chuffed]

I am tempted to say he got off 'lightly' , wouldn't you ?

[Tim]

I think he got off lightly.  This was not just an offense against property but endangered people's lives.  It was an ocupied building, buit some empty derilict place.

[Brucey]

As I'm not familiar with the lingo, is a "two-year detention and training order" basically what most people would call borstal?