Recent Public Posts - [guest]
| Re: GWR passenger representative forum?? In "Who's who on Western railways" [370891/31426/2] Posted by TaplowGreen at 14:14, 11th January 2026 |      |
............I can remember a time when GWR managers used to spend time meeting their customers at stations and listening to their concerns in person...........I believe that forum was called "Meet the Manager" - seems to have fallen into abeyance now though.
| Re: Swindon <-> Westbury service updates and amendments, ongoing discussion - 2026 In "TransWilts line" [370890/31359/18] Posted by grahame at 14:11, 11th January 2026 | |
13:54 Chippenham to Weymouth due 15:45
13:54 Chippenham to Weymouth due 15:45 will no longer call at Frome.
This is due to a short-notice change to the timetable.
13:54 Chippenham to Weymouth due 15:45 will no longer call at Frome.
This is due to a short-notice change to the timetable.
| Re: Wales explorer 4 in 8 part 4 In "Introductions and chat" [370889/31419/1] Posted by grahame at 14:08, 11th January 2026 | |
Also, Graham's experience with respect to a rover ticket when opportunities for travel were curtailed by Covid restrictions... that was poor.
Yes, it was. But at the time everyone was far more concerned with the huge business of covid and I felt that although the treatment was poor ("trains were still running - not our decision that you could not use them" as I recall) it was not a time to follow-up and make a song and dance over it. Pragmatic acceptance as sometimes happens.
I have had similar thoughts with regard delay / repay claims on rangers and rovers ... and in Interrail ticket compensations too. There have been a couple of occasions where significant delays have been suffered but ... yes ... I believe it's worked out by dividing down the cost over the number of active days, and then based on an assumption of a return trip on that day. I am planning a 7 day Freedom of North East at £101.45 in a few weeks - that's £14.50 a day and so £7.25 per single journey. So for delay of just under an hour, I would get £3.63 back. Shrug shoulders and move on.
| Re: Survey - Making a success of rail reform - Campaign for Better Transport In "Looking forward - the next 2, 5, 10 and 20 years" [370888/31424/40] Posted by johnneyw at 14:03, 11th January 2026 Already liked by grahame | |
Just completed the survey, and yes, it does rather focus your attention of what it is that you want/expect from GBR.... although I now realise that I forgot to mention in the appropriate free text area that I prefer the old BR title, which I rather expect most people will refer to it as over time anyway.
| Commuting to Uni - not so new, or was I ahead of the times? In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [370887/31428/51] Posted by grahame at 13:51, 11th January 2026 Already liked by Chris from Nailsea | |
From The BBC
My three-hour university commute is worth the £7,000 saving on halls
On a packed morning train to Manchester, 19-year-old Amelka Zambrzycka is surrounded by commuters heading into work.
There isn't a suitable bus from her mum's house in Horwich, on the other side of Bolton, so she has just walked the 25 minutes to the station - as she does every morning - despite the freezing weather.
But Amelka isn't on her way to work. She's a first-year biology student, one of hundreds of thousands of undergraduates who now choose to live at home rather than paying for university halls
On a packed morning train to Manchester, 19-year-old Amelka Zambrzycka is surrounded by commuters heading into work.
There isn't a suitable bus from her mum's house in Horwich, on the other side of Bolton, so she has just walked the 25 minutes to the station - as she does every morning - despite the freezing weather.
But Amelka isn't on her way to work. She's a first-year biology student, one of hundreds of thousands of undergraduates who now choose to live at home rather than paying for university halls
I can identify with this. I studies at The City University, lived at Petts Wood in north west Kent with my patents, and commuted ... 20 minutes walk to station, 45 minutes by train to Holborn Viaduct and then a further 20 minutes walk (through Smithfield meat market!) up toward The Angel. I missed out on the social side of Uni, but with lectures on only 4 days a week I was left either time to work / earn my keep the other day and at weekends, and to make use of my train time reading, making (illegible!) notes and to thinking things through.
| Re: Somerset to Sydney without flying In "The Wider Picture Overseas" [370886/28286/52] Posted by broadgage at 13:44, 11th January 2026 | |
My friend is currently in the USA having travelled thereto by container ship.
Weather very cold with snow and high winds.
Nice and warm on board.
Food was excellent, and included Beef Wellington.
They intend to return on a second cargo ship, or possibly the same one.
| Why survey for bats? In "Railway History and related topics" [370885/31427/55] Posted by Mark A at 13:37, 11th January 2026 | |
Surprised that this film isn't used as an exemplar for what happens when we do not survey for bats. Also, Coffeeshop readers might like to read the description and play "Spot the error".
Film from 1962 hosted on BFI: the marines demolish a bridge using explosives. Most of the debris falls to the ground, some of it takes to the wing and flies away in terror. The fate of the lamb is not recorded.
Mark
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-royal-demolition-1962-online
| Re: Point to point passenger numbers since the pandemic In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [370884/31376/51] Posted by Mark A at 13:31, 11th January 2026 | |
Thanks for this, appreciated. It also appears as if some parts of their site are dead or not implemented.
Mark
| Re: GWR passenger representative forum?? In "Who's who on Western railways" [370883/31426/2] Posted by grahame at 13:29, 11th January 2026 | |
Does GWR still have a forum that they use to gather feedback from their passengers? ...
Their management has a stakeholder conference where one can engage with any & all varieties of management once a year - yet to hear whether a 2026 version will be taking place.
The definition of Stakeholder has been an interesting one, with a strong slant towards players other than passengers / passenger groups. Much more a business to business and government affair.
Meantime, their management will & do engage with many user groups throughout the year at station manager & above. If you ever have a problem, drop a line to their Head of PR, Thomas Lydon. He will either deal, or find a more suitable manager.
Good advise, and I / we for WWRUG appreciate those engagements as far as they go. But yet at the same time, this route won't necessarily get you beyond an official answer (and perhaps to a different question than the one you asked) and may not get the problem itself addressed. But then a passenger rep forum (the topic of this thread) gives passengers a chance to make inputs, with no assurance of any answers. At such meetings GWR can, will and should give you a customer update, and those updates tend to be marketing lead rather than addressing passenger feedback.
| Re: Defibrillators on the railways - at stations and on board trains (merged topics) In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [370882/17500/51] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 13:26, 11th January 2026 | |
In the course of my browsing the Coffee Shop forum (as I tend to do, as an administrator Image not available to guests ) I found that we had three topics, on different boards, relating specifically to defibrillators.
I have therefore moved and merged them all here - as ever, in the interests of consistency and ease of future reference.
Hope this helps, CfN. Image not available to guests
| Re: Storm Goretti 'weather bomb' to hit South West England In "Shorter journeys in Plymouth and Cornwall" [370881/31405/25] Posted by Red Squirrel at 13:19, 11th January 2026 Already liked by Mark A | |
Stop Press: my Penryn correspondent tells me they've just spotted a train!
| Re: Point to point passenger numbers since the pandemic In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [370880/31376/51] Posted by grahame at 13:07, 11th January 2026 | |
Anyway... who are 'Trainslive', anyone? It's worth spending a few minutes on their site's home page.
Hard to find much ... their data is very much open data sources (many of which we have and used on the Coffee Shop) but much of it is far better done than we have done. https://trainslive.uk/about-the-sunset-update
The wayback machine gives no clue - it crawled just once - the blank page when the site was first registered on 27th December 2021 (clue - hobbyist project for Christmas?) with 123 reg, and I conjecture that one of the early thing done was to add a strong GO AWAY message to crawlers via a robots.txt file.
Thank You
To everyone who has used, shared, and supported trainslive.uk over the past four years - thank you. This journey from a simple departures board to a comprehensive railway platform wouldn't have been possible without you.
"The best way to end is to end well. trainslive.uk v3.10 represents not just the final update, but the completion of a vision four years in the making."
- Rick from the trainslive.uk team
Brave to go out on a "high". Their domain is registered by/to Cloudflaire and actual owners redacted, so no source of evidence there. I find myself guessing as to whether their team wants to move on, and / or whether they have funding issues, and / or whether they find their server loads and admin mushrooming with all the AI crawlers, and / or whether things have moved on to apps and social media and getting new membership and engagement has become an issue. All guesses based on what else I have seen - I do't actually know. I also note sites like railway data - https://www.railwaydata.co.uk - which provide some similarity of content.
| Re: WECA becomes WEMCA, sometime between December 2024 and January 2026 (updated title) In "Bristol (WECA, now WEMCA) Commuters" [370879/25181/21] Posted by Red Squirrel at 12:53, 11th January 2026 | |
So the preferred handle is 'West of England MCA', or just 'the MCA'.
Not that this will bother the great majority of people who still don't know or care much what it is or where it is...
| Re: Storm Goretti 'weather bomb' to hit South West England In "Shorter journeys in Plymouth and Cornwall" [370878/31405/25] Posted by Red Squirrel at 12:47, 11th January 2026 | |
The Squirrel family's centre of gravity has shifted a bit towards Cornwall since one of our kits moved to Penryn. They had an exam on Saturday, and had booked their train on Friday. Best laid plans etc!
There was an option to retake the exam later, but a decision was made to drive instead. They certainly found things pretty messy down there, although it looks like the locals won't be short of fuel for their woodburners for a while! Much of the traffic west of Truro seemed to be people taking their chainsaws for some exercise.
| Re: Point to point passenger numbers since the pandemic In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [370877/31376/51] Posted by Mark A at 12:32, 11th January 2026 | |
Anyway... who are 'Trainslive', anyone? It's worth spending a few minutes on their site's home page.
Mark
https://trainslive.uk/
"Complete UK Rail & Tube Travel Toolkit
Get real-time train information, plan your journey, and track trains across the National Rail and London Underground networks. Simple, fast, and reliable."
| Re: GWR passenger representative forum?? In "Who's who on Western railways" [370876/31426/2] Posted by ChrisB at 12:12, 11th January 2026 Already liked by Mark A | |
Their management has a stakeholder conference where one can engage with any & all varieties of management once a year - yet to hear whether a 2026 version will be taking place.
Meantime, their management will & do engage with many user groups throughout the year at station manager & above. If you ever have a problem, drop a line to their Head of PR, Thomas Lydon. He will either deal, or find a more suitable manager.
If however, it relates to changes to train operation at stations, it's the local Network Rail manager you need - they have a public contact number that will provide suitable contact details when you explain the problem.
| GWR passenger representative forum?? In "Who's who on Western railways" [370875/31426/2] Posted by Mark A at 11:48, 11th January 2026 | |
Does GWR still have a forum that they use to gather feedback from their passengers? The way that the railway has settled into managing the trains & platforms at various stations (thinking Gloucester and particularly Bristol), it's irksome, and it's something that everyone has grown to accept. It also discourages travel by people with a mobility issue that's significant but not significant enough to result in them requiring a wheelchair.
Mark
| Re: Wales explorer 4 in 8 part 4 In "Introductions and chat" [370874/31419/1] Posted by Mark A at 11:34, 11th January 2026 | |
Thanks, both. I'd already slung in the delay repay claim but good to know more background. Not totally happy that for the four days I travelled, each day I raised the issue that the ticket had been given to me without the coupon needed to record the days on which I'd travelled and each time the reply was 'Don't worry about it' until it became an issue when I legitimately needed to use the 'fourth day' for travel after the ticket's expiry date had passed at which point I was alerted that I'd be hitting a penalty fare area. But the guy wasn't hostile about this, so, fine. (Also, why does the railway have 'Penalty fare areas'? Either they're checking ticketing universally or they're not...)
Also, Graham's experience with respect to a rover ticket when opportunities for travel were curtailed by Covid restrictions... that was poor.
Mark
| Line closure Exeter - Barnstaple / Okehampton, March 2026 In "Shorter journeys in Devon - Central, North and South" [370873/31425/24] Posted by John D at 11:33, 11th January 2026 | |
Advance notice of Engineering work for the Crediton area has been issued for a 9 day closure Saturday 21st March to Sunday 29th March
Sounds like the Exeter-Tiverton Parkway section is also closed on 29th
Details of replacement bus services are available by selecting those dates and looking at realtimetrains or journey planners.
| Re: Wales explorer 4 in 8 part 4 In "Introductions and chat" [370872/31419/1] Posted by bobm at 10:46, 11th January 2026 Already liked by Mark A | |
I posted this in relation to delays I experienced while using a 14 day all line rover. The advice dates from 2014 so may no longer apply.
They treat a 14 day rover like a season ticket and divide the cost by 10 to give a daily figure - that is treated as a return ticket and then they halve that to give a single fare and that is what the 25% or 50% is based on.
| Survey - Making a success of rail reform - Campaign for Better Transport In "Looking forward - the next 2, 5, 10 and 20 years" [370871/31424/40] Posted by grahame at 09:11, 11th January 2026 Already liked by PrestburyRoad | |
From Campaign for Better Transport - a Survey - please complete
Making a success of rail reform
The coming years will be transformative for Britain’s railway. The Government has started a process to renationalise train services, with half of the rail operators already under public ownership. It has also introduced a new Railways Bill, which will completely change how the railway is run. Track and train will be brought together under a new public body called Great British Railways, which will manage the whole network.
This level of change is likely to be a huge challenge – but it’s also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make rail travel better for everyone.
The aim of this survey is to find out how the public feels about the railways as they are, and what needs to change to make them better. We will share the survey results with key decision makers in government and industry, and through our public campaigning.
Rail reform: share your views
What do you think the priorities should be for improving rail? We would very much appreciate you filling in our survey. It has three pages and will take around 10 minutes. Thank you.
The coming years will be transformative for Britain’s railway. The Government has started a process to renationalise train services, with half of the rail operators already under public ownership. It has also introduced a new Railways Bill, which will completely change how the railway is run. Track and train will be brought together under a new public body called Great British Railways, which will manage the whole network.
This level of change is likely to be a huge challenge – but it’s also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make rail travel better for everyone.
The aim of this survey is to find out how the public feels about the railways as they are, and what needs to change to make them better. We will share the survey results with key decision makers in government and industry, and through our public campaigning.
Rail reform: share your views
What do you think the priorities should be for improving rail? We would very much appreciate you filling in our survey. It has three pages and will take around 10 minutes. Thank you.
A very useful survey and well written - not that it will provide any direct input to the DfT, so influence may be limited. I went through it and found it very useful to help me thinking about my own views and priorities.
Our forum's "poll" facility is limited and I downloaded Limesurvey a while back; would love to be able to do fuller surveys here but that's not high up my lists and may never be. I may (and others may!) start some smaller polls ...
Edit note: I have corrected a trademark typo in grahame's topic heading. CfN.
| Re: Looe Branch Line - timetables, cancellations, engineering work, closures and incidents In "Shorter journeys in Plymouth and Cornwall" [370870/569/25] Posted by grahame at 08:53, 11th January 2026 | |
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 16/01/26.
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 16/01/26.
In more detail:
What has happened?
-
Heavy rainfall during December combined with high tides resulted in the water levels at several bridges along the branch line being above the level which allows us to safely run trains. This had caused some damage to structures along the line which will require repairs.
-
What are we doing about it?
-
The water levels dropped allowing Network Rail to inspect the bridges, and it has been found that repairs to the infrastructure are required before we are able to run trains again.
-
Storm Goretti brought strong winds and rain to the area overnight Thursday into Friday which has caused the water levels to rise again, which is now delaying the start of the repair work.
-
Once the water levels drop again, repair work will be able to begin, and we should then be able to give a more accurate date for the line reopening. Currently we do not expect to run trains until Saturday 17 January at the earliest.
-
Heavy rainfall during December combined with high tides resulted in the water levels at several bridges along the branch line being above the level which allows us to safely run trains. This had caused some damage to structures along the line which will require repairs.
-
What are we doing about it?
-
The water levels dropped allowing Network Rail to inspect the bridges, and it has been found that repairs to the infrastructure are required before we are able to run trains again.
-
Storm Goretti brought strong winds and rain to the area overnight Thursday into Friday which has caused the water levels to rise again, which is now delaying the start of the repair work.
-
Once the water levels drop again, repair work will be able to begin, and we should then be able to give a more accurate date for the line reopening. Currently we do not expect to run trains until Saturday 17 January at the earliest.
We can question various aspects here ... and I note the words "at the earliest" which I take as being optimistic. But at least there's a view a week ahead so that passengers can plan, and a better descipriton / text than might have been seen in the past. And of course this (our) Internet ability to spread news means that all over the world means that in 2026 we are far more aware of a problem out of our own immediate home area than we would have been in 1926.
| Re: Looe Branch Line - timetables, cancellations, engineering work, closures and incidents In "Shorter journeys in Plymouth and Cornwall" [370869/569/25] Posted by TaplowGreen at 08:17, 11th January 2026 | |
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 16/01/26.
| Re: Wales explorer 4 in 8 part 4 In "Introductions and chat" [370868/31419/1] Posted by Hafren at 00:29, 11th January 2026 Already liked by Mark A | |
It would be legitimate to include the rover ticket in the Delay Repay claim as it formed part of the contractual journey; might be interesting to see what the estimated amount due is! It wouldn't surprise me if they simply treated a 4 in 8 as 4 return tickets for claim purposes – consistent with season tickets being treated as a return ticket for each day's validity (or something along those lines). I can't remember if rover is one of the claim options though.
| The Two Ronnies, London Rail Stations In "The Lighter Side" [370867/31423/30] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 23:04, 10th January 2026 Already liked by Western Pathfinder | |
From YouTube, please do enjoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOyeOIIEkMI (two minutes, 40 seconds).
CfN. Image not available to guests
| Re: Wales explorer 4 in 8 part 4 In "Introductions and chat" [370866/31419/1] Posted by Mark A at 23:00, 10th January 2026 | |
Good point - the delay repay claim will be with regards to the Newport - Bath leg only as I was travelling on the return half of a Bath - Newport period return. Certainly today was similar to a journey covered by split tickets and there is a discussion to be had exploring the consequences of delays while travelling on a rover ticket but in this case the experience with TfW was in the main positive even if things promptly went south at Newport. And it would be good if GWR/Network Rail engaged in some self-reflection on their train platforming practices: it's not good for passengers and I'm not convinced it's good for staff either.
Mark
| Re: Winterstoke Road Bridge, Weston super Mare - closed for two years In "The West - but NOT trains in the West" [370865/31150/31] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 22:22, 10th January 2026 | |
Yet another update, from the BBC:
Historic bridge demolished for £11m replacement
Image not available to guests
The bridge was mostly demolished over Christmas while trains were not running
A historic 85-year-old bridge which played a big role in a town's World War Two efforts has been demolished.
Winterstoke Road Bridge, a key transport link through Weston-super-Mare, closed to traffic in November due to its age and condition, and was officially demolished and removed over Christmas.
North Somerset Council said the demolition of the bridge, which crossed a railway line between Bristol and Taunton, mostly took place when trains were not running on Christmas Day, and had paved the way for "a stronger and more reliable bridge that will ensure access on Winterstoke Road the next 120 years".
An £11m replacement bridge is due to open in spring 2027.
The bridge was built in 1941 to provide access to the RAF's aeroplane production factory in Oldmixon, and, at the time of its closure, was used by about 20,000 vehicles a day.
Demolition works included the complete removal of the structure, in addition to the levelling of its abutments and connecting road.
All debris was cleared from the tracks to allow trains to safely run after Boxing Day.
Contractors Octavius Infrastructure is due to begin several months of piling and foundation works in the coming weeks for the replacement bridge.
Image not available to guests
A temporary footbridge will be in place while the replacement bridge is being constructed
Mike Bell, leader of North Somerset Council, thanked residents for their patience during the demolition.
"In replacing Winterstoke Road Bridge, we're making a key, long-term investment into local infrastructure - an investment that will maintain and expand current road capacity while also building the resilience and reliability needed to prepare for future growth," he said.
A temporary footbridge was in place over the railway line and would be open throughout the construction of the new bridge, project bosses said.
Image not available to guests
The bridge was mostly demolished over Christmas while trains were not running
A historic 85-year-old bridge which played a big role in a town's World War Two efforts has been demolished.
Winterstoke Road Bridge, a key transport link through Weston-super-Mare, closed to traffic in November due to its age and condition, and was officially demolished and removed over Christmas.
North Somerset Council said the demolition of the bridge, which crossed a railway line between Bristol and Taunton, mostly took place when trains were not running on Christmas Day, and had paved the way for "a stronger and more reliable bridge that will ensure access on Winterstoke Road the next 120 years".
An £11m replacement bridge is due to open in spring 2027.
The bridge was built in 1941 to provide access to the RAF's aeroplane production factory in Oldmixon, and, at the time of its closure, was used by about 20,000 vehicles a day.
Demolition works included the complete removal of the structure, in addition to the levelling of its abutments and connecting road.
All debris was cleared from the tracks to allow trains to safely run after Boxing Day.
Contractors Octavius Infrastructure is due to begin several months of piling and foundation works in the coming weeks for the replacement bridge.
Image not available to guests
A temporary footbridge will be in place while the replacement bridge is being constructed
Mike Bell, leader of North Somerset Council, thanked residents for their patience during the demolition.
"In replacing Winterstoke Road Bridge, we're making a key, long-term investment into local infrastructure - an investment that will maintain and expand current road capacity while also building the resilience and reliability needed to prepare for future growth," he said.
A temporary footbridge was in place over the railway line and would be open throughout the construction of the new bridge, project bosses said.
I can only apologise (on behalf of the BBC) for their grammatical and factual errors in that article. Image not available to guests
| Re: WECA becomes WEMCA, sometime between December 2024 and January 2026 (updated title) In "Bristol (WECA, now WEMCA) Commuters" [370863/25181/21] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 21:35, 10th January 2026 | |
Trawling back through previous posts here on the Coffee Shop forum (as I am inclined to do Image not available to guests ), I discovered that one of my learned colleagues on the administrator team here (the one of the squirrel variety) originally noticed this transition, back in October 2023:
Dan Norris has made it clear that he doesn't like people calling the West of England Combined Authority 'WECA'. The trouble is that you can't stop people calling things what they want to call them - I'm sure Mr Dyson doesn't like people referring to his hoovers as - well, hoovers, and Google would really prefer you not to google things as that damages their right to the trademark.
Anyway, I can't help but notice that WECA is now referring to itself as the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority. So presumably, instead of not referring to it as WECA, we must not refer to it as WEMCA..?
Anyway, I can't help but notice that WECA is now referring to itself as the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority. So presumably, instead of not referring to it as WECA, we must not refer to it as WEMCA..?
I must apologise that I clearly wasn't paying attention, from the back of the classroom, when Red Squirrel pointed that out. Image not available to guests
Relevant topics and posts have now been been merged here, in the interests of continuity and ease of future reference.
CfN. Image not available to guests
| Re: Wales explorer 4 in 8 part 4 In "Introductions and chat" [370862/31419/1] Posted by ChrisB at 21:32, 10th January 2026 | |
It'll be interesting to understand how much delay/repay you get. It's generally x% of the single fare, but presumably isn't on a 5 day rover otherwise you might get back more than 100% of its cost?
