From the BBC:

 
Friday May 9

Preceding 1D18 09:23 London Paddington to Oxford cancelled.

 
02/05/25-07/05/25 - Grandson’s 1st Birthday Celebration In Yorkshire
Largely good train punctuality, but GWR seems to have given up on revenue protection.

Tickets
2 x Senior Railcard Advance Singles DIG>PAD £75.20 (£37.60 each)
2 x TfL Underground Off Peak Singles PAD>KGX £5.60 (£2.80 each)
2 x Senior Railcard 1st Class Advance Singles KGX>WKF £78.00 (£39.00 each)
2 x Senior Railcard Anytime Day Singles WKF>PFM £5.40 (£2.70 each)
2 x Senior Railcard Advance Singles PFM>GRA £24.50 (£12.25 each)
2 x Senior Railcard Advance Singles GRA>DIG £48.60 (£24.30 each)

The GRA>DIG tickets obviously included the cross-London journeys.
PFM = Pontefract Monkhill, GRA = Grantham

Outward - 02/05/25
DIG 0943 (OT)>EXD 0955 (0958): 2T12 EXM>PGN : 1 x 166/2 (3 Cars)
EXD 1015 (1017)>PAD 1229 (1227) : 1A78 PNZ>PAD» : 2 x 802/0 (10 Cars)
TfL Circle Line PAD>KGX
KGX 1403 (OT)>WKF 1558 (OT) : 1D17 KGX>LDS : 1 x IC225 (9 Cars)
WKF 1642 (1648)>PFM 1705 (1710) : 2A23 LDS>KNO : 1 x 150/2 (2 Cars)

2T12 was delayed at EXC waiting for 2F11, which departed from EXD P3 rather than P1, to clear the line.
20 pax boarded at DIG.
No ticket / railcard check.
Accessible toilet was OOS (according to the DIG PIS)
1A78 arrived at, and departed from, EXD 2 mins late.
It being the start of a Public Holiday weekend the train was well loaded.
It gradually lost time during the journey arriving at RDG 6 down but, due to the 8 min dwell time there, left on time and, much to my amazement, reached PAD 2 mins early!
Catering facilities were as advertised but…
No ticket / railcard check - I don’t recall this having happened to me on a long distance GWR service before.
So given that the train terminated in PAD P9 any ne’er-do-well prepared to chance it could have made our journey gratis.
On 1D17 the LNER service was what we nearly always get - an on-time departure & arrival, full ticket / railcard check shortly after leaving KGX, and an excellent 1st class food / drink service.
2A23 left LDS 7 minutes late; as the incoming 2A18 was on time I guess this was most likely a crew change issue.
Surprisingly no ticket / railcard check on 2A23 - Northern are usually pretty hot on this.
The WKF>PFM trip feels very slow - the average speed is 25.1mph.
The connection at WKF to PFM isn’t great because Northern can only run LDS>KNO via Wakefield hourly as there is also an hourly LDS>KNO via Castleford service and the line through Pontefract carries freight & Grand Central trains.
PFM station needs some TLC; the footbridge is showing it's age and the main pedestrian access is a steep, narrow stairway. 

Return - 07/05/25
PFM 1245 (OT)>WKF 1309 (1310) : 2A12 KNO>LDS : 1 x 150/2 (2 Cars)
WKF 1328 (1331)>KGX 1530 (1526) : 1A31 LDS>KGX : 1 x IC225 (9 Cars)
TfL Hammersmith & City Line KGX>PAD
PAD 1635 (OT)>EXD 1902 (1900) : 1C89 PAD>PLY 2 x 802/0 (10 Cars)
EXD 1913 (OT)>DIG 1925 (OT) : 2F30 PGN>EXM : 1 x 166/2 (3 Cars)

Tickets, but not railcards, checked on 2A12.
Full ticket / railcard check on 1A31 after leaving Doncaster. Simon the TM spent quite a bit of time looking at our split tickets before deciding they were valid! He then moved on to the  two passengers behind us who he found were travelling on invalid Advances and told them politely but firmly that he was going to let it go this time - the tickets were for the train 30 minutes later - but under normal circumstances they would be required to purchase completely new tickets. LNER appear not to use formal Penalty Fares but give their TM’s the option of either charging the excess or making the passenger buy a brand new ticket.
No ticket / railcard checks on either GWR service.
I wasn’t aware that GWR did any train divides at EXD but 1C89 drops the rear unit in P6, this returning to PAD as 1A37, before continuing to PLY.

 
(but some coarse language, possibly NSFW)
https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/theyll-be-live-streaming-it-why-gen-z-must-never-become-train-drivers-20250508256889

 

And now........"Disruption is expected until the end of the day"

 
Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to a broken rail between London Paddington and Reading some lines are blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled or delayed by up to 60 minutes. Disruption is expected until 09:30 09/05.

Customer Advice
Due to a broken rail at Slough services passing through this area will be delayed, altered or cancelled.

 
How many 18 year olds are going to have previous experience of the specific situations that need to be demonstrated at the competency based interview though?

 
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/person-struck-train-wagon-private-10159685

A few weeks old, but recording here for the record - and remaining us that even little trains can do big damage to people.

 

I rose early, worried at the 9 minutes late at Stonehouse ... which was made up along the way ... 1 minute late at Melksham, and into Westbury in time for the connection.  I noted last time I made the connection, and again today, that others were making the dash through the subway at Westbury too ... had a chat with them and it turns out they are regulars and it "usually" works.

There are no peak crowds on this train 

 
From the BBC:

 

You'll soon be sitting in the train with teenagers driving, apparently. 

 

The bots is because the government developers can't respond quickly enough to close the exploits in the web page. As soon as they close off one another dozen scripts will appear. The block booking is also supposed to be closed off but again its probably profitable enough to develop workarounds. And unless its changed its will be a central team responsible for all the DVLA/SA rather than a gov.uk developer sat there responding to bots and exploits.

Having just recently sat my test and discussed this with my instructor I was quite surprised at how poorly paid examiners were. Apparently several of the instructors in my area were approached about becoming examiners and all laughed at the idea. Apart from a significant pay cut as mentioned in one of the articles above there was also an increase in the number of tests you had to oversee a few years ago and reduction in the time allowed for paperwork which caused a lot of resentment and stress. From memory it was an increase from 6 to 7 tests a day which if you allow each test being 45-50 mins including actually getting to the car itself and the 'chat' at the end doesn't leave long for typing it all up never mind destressing or taking a break. Its also a lot less flexible and as my instructor said if he doesn't like someone he can turn down the work.

I got chatting to my examiner on my test who commented on how nice it was to be able to have a chat with someone his own age (50+) and talked about why he was thinking of changing careers. When I mentioned I'd worked for the BBC World Service there were loads of questions and I was just trying to think of a polite way of saying 'be quiet I'm trying to drive'.

I'm not sure I could cope with sitting in the car with mainly teenagers all day and trusting their driving.

 
Quite often news stories are based on press releases from Network Rail, local councils or other bodies who are actually quite keen to spread the word on what they are up to.

These press releases won’t have annoying ads or journalist-induced errors, so it’s worth taking the time to try and find them. Often it will be appropriate to quote them in full. Citing the source should cover any question of copyright.

 
Bubble car W55033, which is preserved at the Colne Valley Railway, was the last train to leave Bridport station on May 3rd 1975.
The CVR commemorated the event this year.
https://www.colnevalleyrailway.co.uk/marking-the-closure-of-the-bridport-branch/

 
In response to Grahame's post, can I suggest that the flow to Reading might be more significant than that to Oxford as it is by far a larger service centre with businesses and therefore employment opportunities than Oxford, so more likely to produce commuter traffic?

 
I too have noticed that it's become more difficult to read full articles without first registering and/or accepting/rejecting cookies, and I'm inclined to assume that if I can access a particular website without too much of a problem, then others can also. But I'm careful about referring to my local online newspaper, the Reading Chonicle, as I subscribe to it to be able to read their articles in full. (I wince at the lack of journalistic skills and local knowledge - and at some of the readers' comments, with a couple of people regularly exchanging insults about their alleged sexual interests and the daily racist remark from one particular person.)

 
Thirty years ago Marion and I researched these walks for the partnership, who then finished off the design and printed them.

 
Readers of this forum will know that I have, for many years (and hopefully helpfully) posted various news items in the relevant boards and topics here. I have really enjoyed doing so, bringing sometimes perhaps more obscure items to your attention.

Recently, however, I have found that posting items here from the press has become increasingly 'fussy'.  Many of the national newspapers now put their online full story behind a firewall, requiring subscription, and many local newspapers have added restrictions to require registration and acceptance of all cookies, for example. I do understand their reasons for doing so - they are commercial organisations, after all (unlike the Coffee Shop forum, which is free for all to view )

I have therefore reined back on my posting here of such 'news and interesting items'.  I will continue to post such items, but with just an explanatory heading and a hyperlink to the source item.  It will then be up to any of our readers to decide whether they want to subscribe, register or accept all cookies to read the full item.

My one exception is the BBC: they remain 'open access', and I continue to stumble across (to me, anyway) interesting news items of a transport nature. The BBC continue to allow me to quote from them (I always credit my source) and link to the illustrative images in their news items. (Whether some of those illustrative images are relevant is a discussion for another place. )

As ever, I hope this helps.  CfN. 

 

 
I plan to rise early again tomorrow and give it another go. Somewhat prophetically, I had decided to only buy my ticket once I knew the train had passed onto the single line on tine; same again in the morning.   It's a more expensive train / ticket than I like as it's not "Off Peak". A rather strange definition of "Off Peak" because both of the trains load very thinly and so in colloquial terms the are NOT peak services.  Weather forecast looks OK for th walk too.