All these things are true.

The biggest physical stumbling block might be access to Grace Darling School, which looks to cross the old formation on the level. Solving this could be pricey.

The starting point should probably be a well-integrated bus from Ashington. This would not be a perfect measure of demand - there can be little doubt that more people would use a through train if there was one - but it would provide some evidence, and a useful link to boot. The same test could be applied to Yatton - Clevedon, Kemble - Cirencester[, Lydeway - Devizes] and dozens of similar temptingly short missing links.

 
At the 2215-2300 window, remarkably quiet, as was the train

 

Pennisular Transport had input into the design of the IET?.....that's a new claim?

 
Useful to know from someone travelling, how this evolved, thanks - how busy was Paddington / your train by the way?

Mark

 
A couple of years ago, wasn't the DfT, looking for a saving, querying why trains need wifi provision at all?

Mark

 
And where did the BBC get it from? Probably this, from Railway News:

Both say that this £41M was allocated in the Spending Review, which it wasn't. It's part of the New Industrial Strategy of a couple of weeks later. No doubt in the Treasury's towering hierarchy of numbers it's part of something in the Spending Review, but not obviously.

Like most things these days it may well be clever, but its cleverness is so oversold it's hard to tell. Looked at one way it's a step on from Icomera's system of combining all the mobile phone signals a train can get hold of to make a reasonably continuous backhaul for WiFi. This time they add in other radiocomms services to reduce the number of total blackouts along the route.

From another direction these guys worked in F1 for teams with a lot to spend on radiocomms kit that's small, light, sets up quickly to work anywhere in the world, etc. That has given them a product that has advantages in a train.

What no-one's letting on is whose LEO satellites they will use! Maybe they have tried to be independent and hope to sign up to whatever they can at the time (though we all know most of the satellite's are Elon's).

 
Cancellations to services between Plymouth and Penzance
Following a safety inspection of the track earlier today at Hayle some lines have now reopened. Disruption is expected until 13:00 17/11.
Train services between Plymouth and Penzance are returning to normal but some services have been cancelled, delayed or revised.

 
My experience on Friday was:
At about 2100 during the second interval of the thing I was in London to see, I checked the Railboard app to see what the trains were like as I was aware the BPW-SWI route had issues on my outward journey....the app said everything for PAD-SWI was cancelled for the rest of the night....after the show I headed to Tottenham Court Road for the Elizabeth Line and rechecked the app and it said the 2202 was running but delayed while everything else still cancelled. I got to Paddington 5 minutes after the 2202 eventually left (2211) but again, everything else still cancelled...then the 2228 changed from cancelled to 'On Time' (I had overheard the would be train manager telling a member of the public it would be running shortly before it appeared on the screens) and although it did go through the 2 mins late, 4 mins late, Delayed thing it did eventually leave at about 2300 on a planned route to Bristol TM via SWI,CPM,WSB,BTH.

 

Correctly formed in the end...as usually seems to happen when there is so much notice given of an alteration to WoE services.

 
This is 'nicked' word for word from the BBC website

It is correct to give the URL of the webpage, infoman

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqjwkdez71ro

 
Can't see how this would in fact be feasible.  Several factors against:

* The size of Newbiggin.
* Its reasonably close proximity to the new station at Ashington (3 miles by road).
* The cost of getting consent to build new sections of line - even if less than a mile.
* The cost of construction of new line, and associated track/signalling alterations
* The cost of modifying the new station at Ashington from the new single bay platform to two new platforms on the through lines.
* The cost of providing another train that would be needed to operate the service.

Good to see Blyth Bebside has now opened though.  Just Bedlington and Northumberland Park to go.

 

It would be nigh on impossible to access the cab through the interior door if it was locked shut without some very heavy equipment and tools - the design is very robust when compared, for example, with a turbo.

Agree about not being in possession of the full details, but if a train is running empty, perhaps the internal door had been left open for ease of access by the driver when they were expecting to go back through the train at some point, or had been unlocked when the driver went to investigate the loss of interlock?  They should have been the only person on board of course.

 

Definitely cosy! My partner was going to be taking the 05:16 from WOS today as her car is getting its MOT. Wasn't able to get a seat at Hanborough on the late running 05:23 from Hereford so decided to wait for the 06:43 from WOS and still found herself standing.

 
https://www.journeycheck.com/greatwesternrailway/
Cancellations to services between Plymouth and Penzance
Due to a safety inspection of the track at Hayle some lines are blocked. Disruption is expected until 12:00 17/11.
Train services between Plymouth and Penzance may be cancelled, delayed or revised.
Customer Advice
-
What has happened?
-
We have been informed that a collapsing badger set has been identified under the railway in the Hayle area.
_
What are we doing about it?
-
We are working with Network Rail to be able to return to running our normal timetable as soon as possible..
We have stopped train movements in the area until staff are on site to investigate; they should be on site shortly.

Causing a headache down West this morning.

5Z12 turned around at Saltash and returned to Plymouth (was Pnz bound).
The other 175 test running today has been cancelled - nothing to do with badgers!

 
Monday November 17

A cosy morning peak:

1P11 05:16 Worcester Shrub Hill to London Paddington (07:24) : cancelled ("due to late arrival of an inbound service (YI)" according to RTT).
1P02 05:23 Hereford to London Paddington (08:24) : 5 cars.
1P16 06:43 Worcester Shrub Hill to London Paddington (08:44) : 5 cars.

 
In my humble opinion, and of course not being in full possession of the details, the ability for the driver’s internal door to be forced open represents a critical design flaw issue comparable with that of aircraft cockpit access.

That the passenger has achieved this apparently without specific tools nor a more motivated, terrorist mindset is even more concerning. In my opinion.

 

Considered unacceptable by whom exactly? As you rightly point out all these systems can be made to 'fail safe' in the event of an emergency.

 
A new UK-first pilot scheme is aiming to create fast and more reliable train wi-fi, using technology originally developed for Formula 1 cars.

It will see a train in the Great Western Railway fleet use a hybrid system of both signals from mobile phone masts on the ground and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites in space to create a more reliable connection.

The scheme has been developed by British tech company Motion Applied, in partnership with the transport body for Cornwall, Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay, Peninsula Transport.

The pilot will last for 60 days onboard GWR's Intercity Express Train which runs in the South West region, having started in mid-November.

In a recent study by networking testing firm Ookla, external, the UK ranked 16th out of 18 major European and Asian countries for train wi-fi speed, with average download speeds at just 1.09 megabits per second, compared to Sweden's 64.58.

Nick Fry, chairman of Motion Applied, external, formerly part of McLaren Group, said the issues faced in connecting to the internet from a fast moving train had "many parallels with motorsport".

He added that by using technology originally developed for F1 cars, trains should be able to switch between ground and space-based networks such as LEO satellites to "reliably connect" without drop outs.

In the 2025 spending review, the Department of Transport secured £41m to introduce low earth orbit satellite connectivity on all mainline trains by 2030.
'A step in the right direction'

Councillor Dan Rogerson, from the Peninsula Transport board, called the pilot a "major milestone" in its plans to modernise transport infrastructure across the South West and South Wales.

"It's not just about passenger wi-fi," he said. "This is about a whole new digital backbone for our transport networks".

Bruce Williamson from the campaign group Railfuture told the BBC the scheme appeared to be "really good news".

"We're all increasingly connected these days, and wi-fi has become more and more of an essential service for travellers. I'm not going to hold my breath, but this is a step in the right direction."

In May, South Western Railway launched its own, separate, "superfast" wi-fi rollout for its trains between Earlsfield and Basingstoke, using trackside poles and antennas to create a bespoke 5G rail network.

 
Anything more secure and harder to push through or even climb over than the current design of ticket gates is - rightly or wrongly - not considered acceptable in this country.  Partly a legacy of the Kings Cross fire (they can all be opened automatically in an emergency such as overcrowding and do so if a fire alarm is activated, but "What if they don't?" is still the cry, quite possibly from a previous era of City Hall Conservatives!).  They could be made harder to get through when you shouldn't, but I've seen the complaints and claims for damaged clothing/luggage or injuries when even the existing gates close too quickly on someone dawdling or waving several bags in front of them.  The detection beams that decide when the gates open and close had to be completely redesigned when a couple of small poorly-supervised children were squashed by a gate as it opened with them hiding outside it.

As an aside, my purely personal observation is that a fair few in London are dodging really quite small fares (local journeys, youths entitled to reduced fares anyway) out of bravado as much as anything, and some of them may not have travelled at all if they'd had to pay so wouldn't have paid a fare either way.  Doesn't excuse what they do and it's frustrating to see, but the amount of revenue lost can only ever be an educated guess.

 

Thank you II.

Some also sign the Class 230.

 
So I take it that the journey time of 45 minutes for the rail replacement bus between Warminster and Salisbury is somewhat factious if it has to go down the A350 and along the A303 before rejoining the A36.

Wouldn’t have meet connecting train services at Warminster and Southampton then.

This isn’t the first time work on the railways has clashed with work on the roads. You do wonder sometimes whether the various authorities ever talk to each other. I am aware that rail engineering work is planned a long way in advance in most situations.

 

To answer on behalf of Ollie, yes that’s correct.  Non-HSS drivers sign Turbos, IETs, and 387s.

 
S106 payments should be able to generate the cash needed, if the council planners get their decisions right

 
Correct. Talk to your MP.

Sympathy for GWR. Their budget is still shrinking year-on-year

 

So if it's true that every idea would cost money, logic suggests we need to amend the DfT's bidding and priorities, doesn't it. And/or that we take a look and see if there's some sort of way that the various objectives come together in such a way that everyone involved want to work for them and get dividends. 

 
Money.

All the abilities you are suggesting with flexibility cost money. And if the DfT don't want the flexibility, they won't pay GWR for it. GWR have NO choice, but do the DfT bidding. You do know that!

Ollie - are you saying that the same PAD non-HSS drivers drive 166s AND 800s? And the HSS drivers also drive just 800s?