The Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway have, in my opinion, a most interesting Drainage Blog at https://draingang.blogspot.com/?m=1

The work that they have to do to maintain what is a relatively short stretch of railway is really quite something.

 
Cancellations to services between Par and Newquay
Due to flooding at Roche the line is blocked. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
Train services between Par and Newquay will be cancelled.

Issued 10h03

 
Even after working on the Big Railway for some time, my move to the West Somerset Railway led to a much wider and deeper understanding of the infrastructure and and work needed to make, or keep, a railway in good fettle, sufficient for the safe working of trains

I guess the Minehead Branch is not unique in the number and complexity of the ditches, drains, culverts and other water channels that it has.  I was astonished to find out how much drainage infrastructure there is, and how much routine work is needed to keep it all working properly.  I was even interviewed for Points West, by Andrew Harvey, one time.  We were standing in a ditch at Woolston Moor, discussing how much work was needed.

I also discovered how easy it was for things to go badly and expensively wrong if the maintenance was neglected.  On the bit of the line that hadn't then been opened for traffic, near Washford, a blocked ditch at the top of the cutting by Bilbrook Bridge caused a landslip of the steep bank, in 1976.  Took weeks to fix.  And a similar thing happened near Lydeard Bridge, Crowcombe, a year later.

Keeping the water flowing is of paramount importance

I'm not at all convinced this vital work is done to the same standard on the Big Railway these days, as it used to be

 
Astute observation: people pick this up in school and higher education and many other places as they move between different environments - recognising the appropriate register for a situation so that they don't say submit a 1st year undergraduate essay peppered with phrases as though they'd typed it on their phone (bit of an extreme example). Then, people in organisations sometimes settle into funny ways, especially when they have to work with a script-driven set of phrases for communication, which gives us the lego-block-like messaging to the public from the rail industry, or the weird bonkerness of BBC continuity fillers.

Mark

 
The line to Newquay is flooded at Roche this morning.   The line to Looe floods regularly, and flood between Swindon and Bristol Parkway are common enough for us to just roll our eyes - "again". The Barnstaple line has its issues and they seem to have been more of late.  More seriously, part of the Spey Bridge has collapsed - now a cycle way and footpath, and in the "care" of another party rather than Network Rail.

Are things getting worse?  Climate change? More cautious approach with more check and safety measures?  Modern trains not able to stand up to the water? Better information systems bringing us the news of problems we wouldn't have heard about in the past?  Reduced preventative maintenance? Something else?

 
08:35 Plymouth to London Paddington due 12:06
08:35 Plymouth to London Paddington due 12:06 will no longer call at Newbury.
This is due to overcrowding as this train has fewer coaches than normal.
Will be formed of 5 coaches instead of 9. There are no reservations on this service.

 
Cancellations to services between Par and Newquay
Due to flooding at Roche the line is blocked. Disruption is expected until 10:00 15/12.
Train services between Par and Newquay will be cancelled.
Customer Advice
-
What has happened?
-
The railway has flooded at Roche.
_
What are we doing about it?
-
Network Rail is monitoring the situation.

Issued 08h13

 

There are no off peak fares between Melksham and Trowbridge, but there are between Melksham and both Westbury and Bradford-on-Avon.   So if you're travelling to Trowbridge on the 06:29, you buy a Trowbridge ticket, otherwise you buy a Westbury one.  Simples!

Every 2 months for the WWRUG committee meeting, I take the b-u-s to Trowbridge because there's a gap in the trains from 15:40 to 18:00 and return by train.  For that train journey, I buy an off peak single from WESTBURY to Melksham with discount for my disabled card - and I have counted that it takes seventeen button presses to persuade the ticket machine at Trowbridge to provide it.  Anyone looking for this fare in the machine needs to know what they are doing.

 
From The BBC


In a vein of self-analysis, this has me asking "Do you take me (personally) seriously?"  Let me say the same thing twice:

There is a lot of sense in the article (yes, I have read it fully) and much more too in terms of making the language and presentation followable and organising it to have the headlines bubble to the top rather than being lost in the content and also reading it back and smell checking!!

There is a lot of sense in the article. I go further, checking that my language and presentation are followable. I organise my headlines to bubble to the top. I read back and spell checking.

This is a "Coffee Shop" post. I post official information and authoritative answers. I also post comment, thoughts, ideas that are way out, and perhaps too often try to make jokes. I'm not sure I always get it right - but I certainly think about what I am posting and very much enjoy the way this place is a mix from very serious stuff to banter amongst friends. Long may it continue.

 

Yes, it is ... a line I have not travelled for many years and hope to have an opportunity to do so again next year.  Fond memories of Oban, of Fort William and Mallaig.

 
4. Must surely be the West Highland Line from Glasgow Queen St to Oban and Fort William/Mallaig (shown as far as Rannoch), with the 0450 sleeper train from Edinburgh, and the splitting of certain trains at Crianlarich?

 
Sunday was not a good day.

1P50 11:57 Great Malvern to Paddington (14:21) : arrived Evesham +10, departed +34, arrived Moreton-in-Marsh +99 (at 14:30) and cancelled thereafter. Set 800 314.
RTT reports the stock as running ECS to Paddington and then to North Pole.
1P54 13:12 Worcester Foregate Street to Paddington (15:24) : held at Evesham on account of 1P50 above (+50), arrived Reading +55 and cancelled thereafter.
1P64 14:28 Hereford to London Paddington (17:22) : cancelled throughout.

1W35 08:47 London Paddington to Great Malvern (11:14) : set 800 314. Lost time, especially after Evesham. Seven-minute dwell at Parkway. Arrived +27.
1W37 10:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern (13:15) : arrived +18.
1W47 14:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern (17:16) : held Oxford (+30), arrived +36.
1W49 15:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern (18:15) : started from Reading.

Plus a lot of late running. I look at the scheduled and actual times between Ascott and Evesham.  Scheduled is usually 30 minutes; actual is typically 33 minutes.  If the trains can't keep to the timetable, then it's not at all surprising that the service falls over. Worse Monday-to-Friday, when the single-track sections have to work like clockwork. 

If the problems with the engines continues, then we will need to have an emergency timetable.

 
How today is supposed to work; 2 units  come off Laira coupled, they carry out some ECS moves (presumably more crew training) then they split. One unit stays ECS and 175003 becomes 2C26 passenger to Penzance.

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:P22971/2025-12-15/detailed#allox_id=0

As at 1036. It is now 175001

 

It probably would - and you'll find my past thoughts on that option at http://www.sewweb.info/april2018.html and an old printable leaflet at http://www.sewweb.info/leaflet.pdf - but those are both 7 years old now and could do with a lick of paint, and mirroring via a secure URL.   If anything, I would see that the business (traffic) case has hugely improved over the years, but the costs have rocketed too.  It started as a light-hearted what-if piece but quickly became a serious study as the jigsaw pieces fell into place.

What was missing from the work done was a comparative piece on other options - for example leaving the station in the current position and (now, 2025) looking at the case (for example) for building thousands of homes around it, with a bus / virtual branch line to the working and industrial Severnside area that's already close to the line to the south and for which many of the staff would come from Pilning Newtown.

 

 
The new Monday to Friday timetable runs for the first time today - can you identify the lines / stations involved in these segments captures from here  on the National Rail website

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.


9.

 

I do too. Particularly one kernow space recently referred to, although he kept the managers name secret, I know exactly who he was referring to.
My main reason for leaving was due to the actions of one manager, and I’m not the only one. On the other hand I miss working with LH. One of the best managers I’ve worked under.

 
I see this Elizabeth Line train arrived at West Ealing on time and departed 28 minutes late and terminated at Paddington.

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:P07282/2025-12-13/detailed#allox_id=0

Possibly the culprit?

 
Passing Freshford earlier in the day  (not quite the quality of a Cuneo!)  Shame about the motley coaching stock!

 
And most of them are bilingual here in Carmarthen so twice the information

 
The Trowbridge fare looks a little out of place cost wise when Westbury, further down the line is 70p less and Bradford on Avon is just 20p more. Sure, we’re not talking large sums of money here, but a little strange.

 
Yes, the ~65 metre steel span needed is very achievable and hopefully the piers either side of the failed ones are sound. It might need to be scoped to enable a certain amount of access by vehicles in the interests of future maintenance of the rest of the structure.

Access to the site is an issue though as that would need a temporary road built to the site.

Initially it might seem to be an extravagance to repair this, but the other options are also expensive and offer no benefits other than to reduce/remove the liability.

To remove just the damaged spans and piers - that's expensive in itself and still needs the temporary access road - and leaves the rest of the structure to become a liability in its own time.

So, option 3 - removing the entire structure - means, among oher things, dealing with that centre span, at 368 feet it's over 40 feet longer than each of the Severn Rail bridge's two large spans - it even manages to be 8 feet longer than the two warren truss spans - between the three cantilevers of the Forth Rail Bridge. For good measure it's awkwardly placed in the middle of a wild and shallow river with no road or rail access.

The only positive for that operation must be that there's nothing nearby to damage while the span is dropped into the river by explosives, cut up by... whatever's used to cut up scrap steelwork in a river bed - and then removed from site. But... while that was ok for the Severn Bridge's big spans in the sixties, given the likely surface coatings on the Spey viaduct, environmental legislation would rule that out completely. So, would it be a matter of encasing the span, propping it, chopping it piece by piece and taking it back to dry ground over the remaining structure? That's an approach which has introduced the need for more expense in the form of a second temporary access road at the east end of the bridge....

Mark

 
I am going to start with some answers to my own questions


Nice to tell us - except it's wrong.  Rail Replacement buses call at the rail replacement bus stop on Station Approach


There is no ticket office here.  There is no Permit to Travel Machine. There is no smart card system here.  With a big "Penalty Fare £100" in big text above this, it's over complex and frightens the bajeebers out nervous potential customers.


There are no Cross Country of Transport for Wales services anywhere near - so why say this?  And in any case Transport for Wales do have Penalty Fares.


The Glee Club and Cafe closed several years ago


Now this is excellent advice - but if you drop something onto the track, are you really going to read into the text of a big poster?  I don't know the alternative but ...


But there is a toilet ... installed with a grant from the Town Council and others for the use of passengers while the cafe is open. It would be correct to say, sadly, that "No toilet is available"


There's a coin slot ... but nothing behind it and coins fed in here just fall to the bottom of the inside of the machine


"Cheaper off peak fares may be available ... etc.  Except that it's already the off peak fare being offered and the super off peak fare - if you know the various buttons to press - will get you a London return for £71.20.  But that is seven button presses for the knowledgable.


What extra would I like to see? ... for starters ...

* An emergency number to call in addition to the "Emergency" button on the help point

* A simple sheet of train departures / line of route to include the times of direct trains back

* An advice button on the ticket machine where you can speak to someone to explain the various fares on offer

 
Hopefully a new very light weight section - bridging the fallen piers - can restore the path and cycleway.

 
1967?

 
The question has been raised whether the current station is in the right position to best suit the needs of future housing and ancillary developments. Would a brand new replacement with greater footfall make the more economic sense?

 

Wow!

Thanks for posting that pictorial detail from ... well, Melksham station, unless I'm much mistaken.

I'm not convinced we have that many posters and signs, in total, at Nailsea & Backwell station - which has two full working platforms, being on the main line between Bristol and Taunton.

Give me a bit of time tomorrow morning, and I'll stroll down to NLS to count the relevant signs here.

CfN.

 

Erm ... excuse me ?!?

 
Yep: you're yet another old crock.