Recent Public Posts - [guest]
| The 'tough but rewarding' job of a £79k-a-year Caledonian Sleeper driver In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [372020/31573/51] Posted by ChrisB at 21:20, 3rd February 2026 |      |
From the Telegraph, via MSN
Jason Thomas, 47, yells out of the carriage window. Driving 80mph at 4am, he’s still three hours from home.
Caffeine and sugar aren’t enough during a 12-hour overnight stint driving the Caledonian Sleeper train. “It’s how we stay awake in those early hours – whistling and shouting.”
Thomas has driven the “Cally Sleeper” from London to Scotland for six years, topping up his hours by driving freight trains.
The service has run overnight trains between Scotland and London since 1873, with the “Lowlander” route between London and Edinburgh and the “Highlander” route to Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William.
The sleeper operates on five routes, six nights a week. Each route, from London to a selection of locations in Scotland, takes around 11 hours. A bunk bed twin room on the luxury train can cost more than £250, but seated coaches are available for bargain hunters
[Image from here is not available to guests]
It’s a special route to drive, says Thomas. “At the end, you see these people who’ve been asleep, trusting you all night. They get off to their holidays, their families. It’s rewarding, even if you do just have to push through sometimes.”
His section of the Caledonian Sleeper “Highlander” route isn’t as scenic as the northern drives over the Cumbrian Fells, Thomas admits. He sets off from Euston at 9.15pm, but changes with another driver when he reaches Preston just after midnight. To take him home, he switches with a different southbound (“Lowlander”) driver at 3am to get him back to Euston for 7.30am.
Thomas follows the West Coast Main Line through Rugby, Stafford and Lancashire. If there’s planned maintenance, he takes the East Coast instead. Most drivers don’t get to vary their routes, he adds, so “we’re lucky that way”.
‘You can pay your mortgage’
Thomas makes £79,000 a year – just above the national £76,327 average for train drivers in Britain, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). He feels comfortable supporting his family alongside his wife, who also works full-time, and their two sons.
“You can pay your mortgage. It’s a safe place to be, but we’re not going to retire to the Bahamas,” says Thomas, who lives in South London.
He adds: “There are guys here for 40 years who worked decades for peanuts for the promise of a decent [final salary] pension. These days, [many] new starters are on defined contribution schemes with additional voluntary contributions unless you opt out.”
Train drivers are now among the best-paid jobs in Britain, ONS figures indicate, alongside chief executives, pilots and head teachers.
Labour agreed to a 15pc pay rise for train drivers across the country in 2024 following two years of bitter union disputes and strikes. Official estimates given to Parliament suggested this would cost the taxpayer £135m. Taxpayers pay drivers’ salaries via subsidies given to train companies.
Drivers faced diminishing public support in the run-up to the agreement, YouGov polling found at the time, with 54pc of British people opposed to train driver strikes. Thomas says: “You sometimes detect people saying, ‘You’d go sick at the drop of a hat. You don’t go to work.’ Actually, we bend over backwards to keep things moving because there’s a pride in that.
“We have collective bargaining done for us by [our union] Aslef, with agreed rates of different operators. Whether the public thinks the salaries are surprisingly high or not often comes down to the understanding of the level of responsibility, training and commitment required for the role and whether it is seen as a specialist profession rather than semi-skilled manual work.”
‘Never considered a career as a train driver’
Thomas works a maximum of 13 consecutive 12-hour shifts, with 12 hours between each shift, according to strict regulations. Drivers for GB Railfreight, the rail freight operator Thomas works for, are contracted to a four-day work week, but shifts vary.
Teenagers can now drive trains after the Department for Transport lowered the minimum age to take on the role in Britain from 20 to 18, a move made amid concerns over driver shortages.
But Thomas never considered a career as a train driver as a teenager in the 90s. “I was in sixth form in 1996-7. If I’d said I wanted to be a train driver, my parents would have said, ‘You’re mad; you’ve got As and Bs,’” he says.
“Salaries for train drivers until the 1980s and 1990s were very low. It wasn’t on my radar until a few years before I made the leap. I went into it with my eyes open. Some people come in now who’ve been persuaded by a parent.”
Thomas instead graduated with a law degree from Newcastle University in 2000 and became a business studies teacher in inner-city London. The job was rewarding, and he says he still uses the mentoring skills he learnt.
But new teachers were quickly leaving the industry, and schools were struggling. With 30 years until his pension, “I wasn’t sure if I could do it,” he explains.
Thomas had friends in the rail industry, and his father liked railways, so he began to look for opportunities and never looked back. “If you’re going to trade one career for life for another, this is the one,” he says. “It’s a tough job, but it’s worth it.”
The test where most fail
Train drivers come from a surprising range of backgrounds, he says. Some colleagues hold degrees and previous careers like he does, while others joined straight out of school. Besides being a dream job for many children, Thomas notes that the career offers security, union protection and a technical skill set. He wasn’t surprised to find out how competitive every vacancy was.
The industry-standard psychometric test is where most aspiring drivers fail. The process is brutal, and if you fail the test three times, “you’re out; you won’t be a train driver,” Thomas explains.
Around 4,000 prospective drivers take the one-day standardised test every year, which assesses cognitive skills, response times, multitasking, and several requirements at once, according to 2022 Office of Rail and Road figures. Trainees can retake a failed test after 12 months and, for a final time, after five years.
He started as a shunter – someone who moves railway wagons around a yard and assembles and breaks down trains – at GB Railfreight in 2014. By 2017, he had qualified as a driver, and in 2019, he began working on the sleeper service. He has since moved between passenger and freight driving.
Drivers spend most of their 12-hour shifts alone, fully responsible for a complicated machine and hundreds of lives inside it, and in Thomas’s case, usually in the dead of night.
“The passengers come up occasionally and say hello, but we’re mostly behind the scenes. It’s a very unusual job, and it’s something we’re all pretty proud to do,” Thomas says.
They need to be able to function calmly in isolated situations – but when things go wrong, the community that exists between train drivers is vital.
Thomas adds: “The Huntingdon incident with the individual on board with the knife: one of the crew onboard communicated the nature of the issue with the driver, and the driver communicated to the signaller, asking for emergency assistance. But working out how to get that when you’re travelling 130mph, that’s a hard thing to do.
“We call it skill fade. You learn about a lot of unlikely circumstances in training. But sometimes you’ve not actually done that thing in five years, so we message in group chats and help each other.”
[Image from here is not available to guests]
Caffeine and sugar aren’t enough during a 12-hour overnight stint driving the Caledonian Sleeper train. “It’s how we stay awake in those early hours – whistling and shouting.”
Thomas has driven the “Cally Sleeper” from London to Scotland for six years, topping up his hours by driving freight trains.
The service has run overnight trains between Scotland and London since 1873, with the “Lowlander” route between London and Edinburgh and the “Highlander” route to Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William.
The sleeper operates on five routes, six nights a week. Each route, from London to a selection of locations in Scotland, takes around 11 hours. A bunk bed twin room on the luxury train can cost more than £250, but seated coaches are available for bargain hunters
[Image from here is not available to guests]
It’s a special route to drive, says Thomas. “At the end, you see these people who’ve been asleep, trusting you all night. They get off to their holidays, their families. It’s rewarding, even if you do just have to push through sometimes.”
His section of the Caledonian Sleeper “Highlander” route isn’t as scenic as the northern drives over the Cumbrian Fells, Thomas admits. He sets off from Euston at 9.15pm, but changes with another driver when he reaches Preston just after midnight. To take him home, he switches with a different southbound (“Lowlander”) driver at 3am to get him back to Euston for 7.30am.
Thomas follows the West Coast Main Line through Rugby, Stafford and Lancashire. If there’s planned maintenance, he takes the East Coast instead. Most drivers don’t get to vary their routes, he adds, so “we’re lucky that way”.
‘You can pay your mortgage’
Thomas makes £79,000 a year – just above the national £76,327 average for train drivers in Britain, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). He feels comfortable supporting his family alongside his wife, who also works full-time, and their two sons.
“You can pay your mortgage. It’s a safe place to be, but we’re not going to retire to the Bahamas,” says Thomas, who lives in South London.
He adds: “There are guys here for 40 years who worked decades for peanuts for the promise of a decent [final salary] pension. These days, [many] new starters are on defined contribution schemes with additional voluntary contributions unless you opt out.”
Train drivers are now among the best-paid jobs in Britain, ONS figures indicate, alongside chief executives, pilots and head teachers.
Labour agreed to a 15pc pay rise for train drivers across the country in 2024 following two years of bitter union disputes and strikes. Official estimates given to Parliament suggested this would cost the taxpayer £135m. Taxpayers pay drivers’ salaries via subsidies given to train companies.
Drivers faced diminishing public support in the run-up to the agreement, YouGov polling found at the time, with 54pc of British people opposed to train driver strikes. Thomas says: “You sometimes detect people saying, ‘You’d go sick at the drop of a hat. You don’t go to work.’ Actually, we bend over backwards to keep things moving because there’s a pride in that.
“We have collective bargaining done for us by [our union] Aslef, with agreed rates of different operators. Whether the public thinks the salaries are surprisingly high or not often comes down to the understanding of the level of responsibility, training and commitment required for the role and whether it is seen as a specialist profession rather than semi-skilled manual work.”
‘Never considered a career as a train driver’
Thomas works a maximum of 13 consecutive 12-hour shifts, with 12 hours between each shift, according to strict regulations. Drivers for GB Railfreight, the rail freight operator Thomas works for, are contracted to a four-day work week, but shifts vary.
Teenagers can now drive trains after the Department for Transport lowered the minimum age to take on the role in Britain from 20 to 18, a move made amid concerns over driver shortages.
But Thomas never considered a career as a train driver as a teenager in the 90s. “I was in sixth form in 1996-7. If I’d said I wanted to be a train driver, my parents would have said, ‘You’re mad; you’ve got As and Bs,’” he says.
“Salaries for train drivers until the 1980s and 1990s were very low. It wasn’t on my radar until a few years before I made the leap. I went into it with my eyes open. Some people come in now who’ve been persuaded by a parent.”
Thomas instead graduated with a law degree from Newcastle University in 2000 and became a business studies teacher in inner-city London. The job was rewarding, and he says he still uses the mentoring skills he learnt.
But new teachers were quickly leaving the industry, and schools were struggling. With 30 years until his pension, “I wasn’t sure if I could do it,” he explains.
Thomas had friends in the rail industry, and his father liked railways, so he began to look for opportunities and never looked back. “If you’re going to trade one career for life for another, this is the one,” he says. “It’s a tough job, but it’s worth it.”
The test where most fail
Train drivers come from a surprising range of backgrounds, he says. Some colleagues hold degrees and previous careers like he does, while others joined straight out of school. Besides being a dream job for many children, Thomas notes that the career offers security, union protection and a technical skill set. He wasn’t surprised to find out how competitive every vacancy was.
The industry-standard psychometric test is where most aspiring drivers fail. The process is brutal, and if you fail the test three times, “you’re out; you won’t be a train driver,” Thomas explains.
Around 4,000 prospective drivers take the one-day standardised test every year, which assesses cognitive skills, response times, multitasking, and several requirements at once, according to 2022 Office of Rail and Road figures. Trainees can retake a failed test after 12 months and, for a final time, after five years.
He started as a shunter – someone who moves railway wagons around a yard and assembles and breaks down trains – at GB Railfreight in 2014. By 2017, he had qualified as a driver, and in 2019, he began working on the sleeper service. He has since moved between passenger and freight driving.
Drivers spend most of their 12-hour shifts alone, fully responsible for a complicated machine and hundreds of lives inside it, and in Thomas’s case, usually in the dead of night.
“The passengers come up occasionally and say hello, but we’re mostly behind the scenes. It’s a very unusual job, and it’s something we’re all pretty proud to do,” Thomas says.
They need to be able to function calmly in isolated situations – but when things go wrong, the community that exists between train drivers is vital.
Thomas adds: “The Huntingdon incident with the individual on board with the knife: one of the crew onboard communicated the nature of the issue with the driver, and the driver communicated to the signaller, asking for emergency assistance. But working out how to get that when you’re travelling 130mph, that’s a hard thing to do.
“We call it skill fade. You learn about a lot of unlikely circumstances in training. But sometimes you’ve not actually done that thing in five years, so we message in group chats and help each other.”
[Image from here is not available to guests]
| World's oldest surviving railway station was built in UK nearly 200 years ago In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [372019/31572/51] Posted by ChrisB at 21:15, 3rd February 2026 | |
From The Mirror, via MSN
Britain has a deep-rooted connection with railways stretching back centuries. So it might not surprise you to discover that the world's oldest surviving railway station is here in the UK.
Located in Manchester, Liverpool Road Station was built nearly 200 years ago in 1830. As a crucial element of the historic Liverpool and Manchester railway, this transport hub proved groundbreaking for transport and travel in the region.
It marked the globe's first steam-powered, inter-city railway, designed to link Liverpool with Manchester during its industrial revolution.
The station actually operated for just 14 years before shutting in 1844, thanks to the opening of Manchester Victoria station close by.
Nevertheless, it carried on operating as a freight depot until 1975, before closing permanently and being preserved shortly afterwards. According to Guinness World Records, it stands as the oldest surviving station building globally, reports the Express.
Now holding Grade I Listed status, the station forms part of the Science and Industry Museum. But back in the day, it was very important in shaping Britain's railway network.
The complex featured a brick viaduct, canal-style warehouses, and one of the earliest modern girder bridges, enabling trains to cross Water Street in Manchester city centre. Travellers arrived at the station via horse-drawn carriages, with first and second-class passengers required to purchase their tickets in different halls.
Luggage was then lifted onto the carriage roof, before passengers could climb aboard when a bell rang - this same bell remains on show in the station building today.
Passenger services at the station came to an end when the neighbouring Victoria station launched in 1844, after which it operated as a goods yard from 1923 through to 1948.
After the nationalisation of Britain's railways in 1948, British Railways took control until the facility shut down almost three decades later.
When closure happened, Granada Studios snapped up one of the warehouses, using part of it as the Coronation Street set. The National Transport Trust says that after Liverpool Road stopped rail operations in the 1970s, Earlestown Station in nearby Newton-le-Willows claimed the title of Britain's oldest working station.
[Image from here is not available to guests]
Located in Manchester, Liverpool Road Station was built nearly 200 years ago in 1830. As a crucial element of the historic Liverpool and Manchester railway, this transport hub proved groundbreaking for transport and travel in the region.
It marked the globe's first steam-powered, inter-city railway, designed to link Liverpool with Manchester during its industrial revolution.
The station actually operated for just 14 years before shutting in 1844, thanks to the opening of Manchester Victoria station close by.
Nevertheless, it carried on operating as a freight depot until 1975, before closing permanently and being preserved shortly afterwards. According to Guinness World Records, it stands as the oldest surviving station building globally, reports the Express.
Now holding Grade I Listed status, the station forms part of the Science and Industry Museum. But back in the day, it was very important in shaping Britain's railway network.
The complex featured a brick viaduct, canal-style warehouses, and one of the earliest modern girder bridges, enabling trains to cross Water Street in Manchester city centre. Travellers arrived at the station via horse-drawn carriages, with first and second-class passengers required to purchase their tickets in different halls.
Luggage was then lifted onto the carriage roof, before passengers could climb aboard when a bell rang - this same bell remains on show in the station building today.
Passenger services at the station came to an end when the neighbouring Victoria station launched in 1844, after which it operated as a goods yard from 1923 through to 1948.
After the nationalisation of Britain's railways in 1948, British Railways took control until the facility shut down almost three decades later.
When closure happened, Granada Studios snapped up one of the warehouses, using part of it as the Coronation Street set. The National Transport Trust says that after Liverpool Road stopped rail operations in the 1970s, Earlestown Station in nearby Newton-le-Willows claimed the title of Britain's oldest working station.
[Image from here is not available to guests]
| Re: Tarka Line - Exeter to Barnstaple: merged topics - services, facilities, incidents and events - In "Shorter journeys in Devon - Central, North and South" [372017/15711/24] Posted by grahame at 20:51, 3rd February 2026 | |
From the BBC
Rail lines damaged in south-west England during a storm will remain closed "until further notice".
Network Rail and Great Western Railway (GWR) said engineers had been working on lines serving Exeter St Davids to Barnstaple, Exeter St Davids to Okehampton and Liskeard to Looe after Storm Chandra damaged tracks.
They said visible damage had been repaired, but specialist dive teams who needed to check submerged structures were unable to go out as water was still too high and flowing too fast for safe inspections.
Network Rail and GWR added bus or coach replacement services had been set up and apologised for any inconvenience caused. Further updates would be available on GWR's website, they added.
Network Rail and Great Western Railway (GWR) said engineers had been working on lines serving Exeter St Davids to Barnstaple, Exeter St Davids to Okehampton and Liskeard to Looe after Storm Chandra damaged tracks.
They said visible damage had been repaired, but specialist dive teams who needed to check submerged structures were unable to go out as water was still too high and flowing too fast for safe inspections.
Network Rail and GWR added bus or coach replacement services had been set up and apologised for any inconvenience caused. Further updates would be available on GWR's website, they added.
| Re: Dawlish - permanent resilience work - ongoing discussions In "London to the West" [372016/22771/12] Posted by grahame at 20:47, 3rd February 2026 Already liked by Chris from Nailsea | |
Weird - click on that link for DWL & it throws a 404 Error - but type it in & it works [Image from here is not available to guests] [Image from here is not available to guests]
I have edited the post so that it now works. There is an incompatability between our home-made acronyms expander and URLs which just happen to include one of those acronyms.
| Re: Cheltenham A64 road closed after double-decker bus crash In "Buses and other ways to travel" [372015/31571/5] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 20:34, 3rd February 2026 | |
Sorry, my typo. [Image from here is not available to guests]
| Re: Dawlish - permanent resilience work - ongoing discussions In "London to the West" [372014/22771/12] Posted by ChrisB at 20:23, 3rd February 2026 | |
Weird - click on that link for DWL & it throws a 404 Error - but type it in & it works [Image from here is not available to guests] [Image from here is not available to guests]
| Re: Cheltenham A64 road closed after double-decker bus crash In "Buses and other ways to travel" [372013/31571/5] Posted by PrestburyRoad at 19:57, 3rd February 2026 Already liked by Chris from Nailsea | |
For anyone worried about the road being closed, I can confirm that it has reopened (the accident was yesterday, 2 February). And for anyone worried that either Cheltenham or the A64 has suddenly relocated, I confirm that road involved is actually the A46 and space-time has not warped.
| Cheltenham A64 road closed after double-decker bus crash In "Buses and other ways to travel" [372012/31571/5] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 19:35, 3rd February 2026 | |
From the BBC:
Road closed after double-decker bus crash
[Image from here is not available to guests]
A collision between a double-decker bus and a car led to a road being closed.
The A46 Shurdington Road in Cheltenham closed following the crash, which happened at about 13:30 GMT earlier, and drivers were advised to avoid the area.
Emergency services arrived at the scene, near the junction for Church Lane, and closed the road for several hours. National Grid crews shut off power while the bus was recovered, to allow a damaged lamp post to be made safe. The road later reopened.
Gloucestershire Police said properties within a 100-metre (328ft) radius would be temporarily affected. Anybody who witnessed the collision or has dashcam footage has been asked to contact police.
A spokesperson from bus company Stagecoach confirmed one of its vehicles was involved in the incident. The spokesperson said: "A full investigation into the circumstances of the incident is under way. The safety of our passengers, drivers and other road users is our absolute priority, and we are working closely with the authorities to understand the cause of this incident."
[Image from here is not available to guests]
A collision between a double-decker bus and a car led to a road being closed.
The A46 Shurdington Road in Cheltenham closed following the crash, which happened at about 13:30 GMT earlier, and drivers were advised to avoid the area.
Emergency services arrived at the scene, near the junction for Church Lane, and closed the road for several hours. National Grid crews shut off power while the bus was recovered, to allow a damaged lamp post to be made safe. The road later reopened.
Gloucestershire Police said properties within a 100-metre (328ft) radius would be temporarily affected. Anybody who witnessed the collision or has dashcam footage has been asked to contact police.
A spokesperson from bus company Stagecoach confirmed one of its vehicles was involved in the incident. The spokesperson said: "A full investigation into the circumstances of the incident is under way. The safety of our passengers, drivers and other road users is our absolute priority, and we are working closely with the authorities to understand the cause of this incident."
| Re: Can you find the 40 British railway station names hidden in our puzzle? In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [372011/31556/51] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 19:12, 3rd February 2026 | |
Without wanting this to be a 'spoiler', I have combined (in alphabetical order) the 20 already published answers on the charity's website with our own suggestions so far here on this topic:
Ascott under Wychwood
Barrow in Furness
Carlisle
Chippenham
Coventry
Exeter
Gloucester
Henley on Thames
Hereford (rather than Oxford, apparently)
Honiton (the lace star, apparently)
Kew Gardens
Kidwelly
Leamington Spa
Leicester
Leighton Buzzard
Nottingham
Penzance
Reading
Swansea
Taunton
Tenby
Weston super Mare
Weymouth
That's a running total of ... 23. [Image from here is not available to guests]
| Re: Driving road vehicles into floodwater - merged topics and posts, ongoing discussion In "The West - but NOT trains in the West" [372010/14923/31] Posted by CyclingSid at 18:36, 3rd February 2026 | |
Berkshire's favourite place for getting stuck https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cew8je04djyo [stock photo, "crews from Wokingham and Wokingham Road" and shows a photo of a Langley appliance, from the far end of the county]
Putting tape up will achieve nothing, they just drive through it. Lands End ford is interesting as there is a good flow through it to add to the difficulty.
Before the pub got posh, used to sit in the window and bet which ones would get stuck.
| Re: A trip on GWR's Battery Electric Train - 17/12/2024 In "Thames Valley Branches" [372009/29641/13] Posted by BBM at 18:17, 3rd February 2026 | |
Geoff Marshall has just posted a video of the train's first day in passenger service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvb33T3ZJnw
| Re: Can you find the 40 British railway station names hidden in our puzzle? In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [372008/31556/51] Posted by Western Pathfinder at 18:07, 3rd February 2026 | |
Chandlers Ford is a possibility.
| Re: Can you find the 40 British railway station names hidden in our puzzle? In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [372007/31556/51] Posted by Oxonhutch at 17:59, 3rd February 2026 | |
..., as was Carlisle.
| Re: Portishead Line reopening for passengers - ongoing discussion In "Campaigns for new and improved services" [372006/231/28] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 17:32, 3rd February 2026 | |
I see that non-members are indeed welcome, at https://www.portisheadrailwaygroup.org/coming-events.html
I have therefore added this event to our Coffee Shop forum calendar.
| Re: Using the Coffeeshop forums: a question In "News, Help and Assistance" [372004/31565/29] Posted by ChrisB at 17:06, 3rd February 2026 | |
Errr....yup [Image from here is not available to guests]
A reply has been posted to a topic you are watching by GBM.
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Quote from: ChrisB on Today at 09:38:00
Subscribe to each thread of interest & providing you then read the new posts, you will get an email alert each time the thread is added to. No need to keep looking as the emails have a link to the unread posts
err. Nope.
No email alerts here.
Chrome desktop and gmail for forum.
Also set to the home/landing page, and click through from there as required.{
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Quote from: ChrisB on Today at 09:38:00
Subscribe to each thread of interest & providing you then read the new posts, you will get an email alert each time the thread is added to. No need to keep looking as the emails have a link to the unread posts
err. Nope.
No email alerts here.
Chrome desktop and gmail for forum.
Also set to the home/landing page, and click through from there as required.{
| Re: Can you find the 40 British railway station names hidden in our puzzle? In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [372003/31556/51] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 17:05, 3rd February 2026 | |
Hmm. [Image from here is not available to guests]
Compared with some of the more obscure ones, Barrow in Furnace was a doddle. [Image from here is not available to guests]
| Re: Looe Branch Line - timetables, cancellations, engineering work, closures and incidents In "Shorter journeys in Plymouth and Cornwall" [372002/569/25] Posted by grahame at 16:43, 3rd February 2026 | |
Train services running to and from these stations have been suspended. Disruption is expected until the end of the day on 03/02/26.
It does NOT tell us what is expected on 4th February, of course!
We're now told
Alterations to services between Liskeard and Looe
Due to flooding between Liskeard and Looe the line is closed.
Train services running to and from these stations have been suspended. Disruption is expected until the end of the day on 09/02/26.
Due to flooding between Liskeard and Looe the line is closed.
Train services running to and from these stations have been suspended. Disruption is expected until the end of the day on 09/02/26.
| A379 at Slapton In "Buses and other ways to travel" [372001/31569/5] Posted by Mark A at 16:32, 3rd February 2026 | |
The road at Slapton is on a shingle beach backed by a freshwater lake. Or rather, that's what it *was* on, the sea has removed a substantial length of the road. The A379 carries the bus route from Dartmouth to Kingsbridge.
Mark
https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2026-02-03/its-like-a-bombs-gone-off-shock-as-part-of-a-coast-road-is-washed-away
| Re: Can you find the 40 British railway station names hidden in our puzzle? In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [372000/31556/51] Posted by Hafren at 15:34, 3rd February 2026 | |
A Scot under Witch wood anyone? [Image from here is not available to guests] [Image from here is not available to guests]
I was trying to work out why the Scot was below Coventry!
| Re: Using the Coffeeshop forums: a question In "News, Help and Assistance" [371998/31565/29] Posted by GBM at 15:02, 3rd February 2026 | |
Subscribe to each thread of interest & providing you then read the new posts, you will get an email alert each time the thread is added to. No need to keep looking as the emails have a link to the unread posts
err. Nope.No email alerts here.
Chrome desktop and gmail for forum.
Also set to the home/landing page, and click through from there as required.
| Re: Driving road vehicles into floodwater - merged topics and posts, ongoing discussion In "The West - but NOT trains in the West" [371997/14923/31] Posted by Witham Bobby at 15:01, 3rd February 2026 | |
Hal;f a mile or so away from the wonderfully named Black Monkey Bridge. None of us had any clue about where the name came from
| Re: Using the Coffeeshop forums: a question In "News, Help and Assistance" [371996/31565/29] Posted by Hafren at 14:57, 3rd February 2026 | |
My browser on Windoze 'knows' if I start typing 'fir' in the address bar that I want the 'show unread' posts page...
But if I'm on my phone I just end up on the firstgreatwestern.info landing page (I think), and from there tap through to the forum. Initially it thinks I'm a guest, but if I click through to a recently liked subject, it suddenly remembers me!
| Re: Driving road vehicles into floodwater - merged topics and posts, ongoing discussion In "The West - but NOT trains in the West" [371995/14923/31] Posted by Trowres at 14:47, 3rd February 2026 Already liked by PrestburyRoad | |
| Re: Portishead Line reopening for passengers - ongoing discussion In "Campaigns for new and improved services" [371992/231/28] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 14:18, 3rd February 2026 | |
Thanks for that, chuffed.
Just to confirm: is their AGM open to non-members to attend?
| Re: Portishead Line reopening for passengers - ongoing discussion In "Campaigns for new and improved services" [371991/231/28] Posted by chuffed at 14:09, 3rd February 2026 Already liked by Chris from Nailsea | |
From the Portishead Railway Action Group
2nd February 2026
Dear Member,
We’re pleased to confirm our 2025 Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday 24th February 2026. Doors will open at the Folk Hall, Portishead from 7.00pm with the meeting starting at 7.30pm.
With lots of activity currently happening along the Pill & Portishead line, we’re pleased to announce that the new MetroWest Project Manager, Natalie Gale-Sides, will be our guest speaker and will update us with the latest news and the construction schedule. The agenda will be as follows:
1. Welcome and Introductions
2. Apologies for Absence received
3. Minutes of the 2024 AGM approved by the committee in 2025 and sent to members 1/10/25.
4. Approval of Accounts for the year ended 31/10/2025
5. Appointment of Independent Examiner
6. Chairman’s Report.
7. Communications Report, including Facebook, Twitter and Website.
8. Membership Secretary’s report.
9. Appointment of committee.
10. Amendments to Constitution
11. Break
12. Update on progress – Natalie Gale-Sides, MetroWest Project Manager
13. Any other business.
Following on from last year’s AGM, here’s a note of which committee members now are responsible for each area of PRG activity, in addition to the existing long term committee roles of Chairman, Membership, Treasurer etc. :
MetroWest & North Somerset Council - Liaison & Monitoring: Colin & Brian
Portishead Town Council - Liaison & work on facilities: Brian & Peter
Pill & Easton-in-Gordano Parish Council - Liaison & work on facilities: Rob & Bob
Government & DfT - Liaison & Monitoring: Gareth & Rob
Network Rail - Liaison & Monitoring: Alan & TBC
Work on Station design, facilities and enhancements: Alan & Adam Stead, plus Rob & Bob (for Pill)
Work to ensure Portishead local bus service implemented at the right time to support the station & train service: Brian & Wendy
Work to prepare for a Community Rail Partnership: Wendy & Paul
Communications & Social Media: Gareth & Peter
Thanks for your support. We hope to see you at the AGM.
Regards,
Peter
Peter Maliphant
Membership Secretary
