Any idea why it's taking so long to resolve this one?

Delays to services at Plymouth
Due to a speed restriction over defective track at Plymouth trains have to run at reduced speed on some lines.
Train services running through this station may be delayed. Disruption is expected until the end of the day on 22/11/25.

Customer Advice
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What has happened?
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A speed restriction has been imposed on the approach to Plymouth station on the line from Exeter St David's, this is due to a defect being identified.
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What are we doing about it?
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We are working with Network Rail to be able to return to running our normal timetable as soon as possible

 
1530 Bristol - Paddington cancelled (no reason given on National Rail).

 

Interesting - I know that all Manchester's fares that fall under the Mayor are mainly reducing & simplifying at that date too - so whether the fare change date that used to carry the main annual rise (now in March each year I believe) has moved from early January to the first week in December, I know not. It seems likely

 
My understanding is that it marks ALL unread messages as 'Read', not just those being displayed. It is dangerous, and you can miss messages using it. Use with care.

Hopefully, I'll be corrected....

 
Wednesday November 19

Delayed Reading (+34), held Evesham (+52), ...

 
Apologies if this is covered elsewhere, but regarding the "MARK ALL MESSAGES AS READ" link on the "Show unread posts since last visit" page...

Can I just check that it only marks all the messages currently displayed on my screen as read, and doesn't include any messages that have been posted since the page was displayed? That is, there's no danger of messages that I'm unaware of as being marked as read, and consequently missed (unless I use the "Recent posts" link)?

 
BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2dr9d7p102o

 

...or even Bletchley!


Able-bodied people will walk about 1km to a station, or 1.6 at a push. Anything beyond that needs a bus. But the post-Beeching experience of permanently replacing rail services with buses is that these services don't last long.

 

Bedford and Woburn Sands


Agreed


It's single track at Fenny Stratford and over the motorway and that's a real bottleneck for a less used station.   It's doubled by Bow Brickhill.  You will note from the map of Bow Brickhill that there is no obvious easy walking route to the next station; as I suspect is not an entire surprise, perhaps that one should be saved?

 

 
If it’s in the timetable and altered at short notice, I’m sure common sense would apply.

If it became a ‘permanent’ change as a result of a new timetable, then a “This train used to stop at Newbury!” excuse might not go down quite as well.

 
From my googlings Bow Brickhill is about midway between Bedford and Woburn Sands - just over 3km from each.

Closing small local stations to speed up through services is very redolent of the Beeching era. The natural instinct for many of us is to resist this. But others argue that to improve the speed and reliability of these services this is a price worth paying.

It seems clear from EWR's analysis that retaining these stations would greatly compromise their business case for Oxford - Cambridge services. There would not be enough paths for the fast trains, and few paths for local trains. That's the central conundrum of a two-track railway.

 
And from comments on the BBC article ... this one has 12 likes and 0 dislikes so far

 

That one astonished me ... and, no, no other stations near to all the places people want to go as I did just to the north of the line.    I wonder if it's a "planner's compromise" station - they don't really want to close it, but put it in the plans to focus the inevitable outcry about closures onto it, and then they can be seen to give way to the public and save it - "look - we listened" while going ahead with the real original plan which was to close the other four while the focus is on Bow Brickhill.

 

Okay so it's not exactly London Waterloo but that's still a not inconsiderable passenger footfall and in a different league to the others proposed for closure.  I don't know the area so I'm wondering if the closure is more to do with a conveniently nearby alternative station being available rather than lack of use.

 

There is a very much used ticket split at Newbury from Pewsey into Paddington.  Where a stop like this is withdrawn, does it mean that split tickets are no longer valid?


Pewsey to Paddington return - £68.10 off peak, £51.20 super off peak
Pewsey to Newbury day return - £11.60 anytime, £11.50 off peak
Newbury to Paddington - off peak day return £37.30

from BR fares / stated as fares until 6th December.  Are there changes (usually in an upwards direction) at that date?

 
The BBC now have a similar article
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd9k1z8d20wo
Second platform opens at station after 40 years
A second platform has opened at a Cornish railway station for the first time in nearly 40 years as part of a £50m infrastructure project.

Newquay station has only had one platform in use since October 1987, when a signal box closed.

........continues..........

 
Two 5 cars out today
07:10 Penzance to London Paddington due 12:29
Facilities on the 07:10 Penzance to London Paddington due 12:29.
Will be formed of 5 coaches instead of 10.

And
08:35 Plymouth to London Paddington due 12:05
08:35 Plymouth to London Paddington due 12:05 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 10.

 
An old article has just crossed my path ... including a map of proposed extensions ...

https://frankedmail.co.uk/mail-rail-map/

 
Passenger numbers for the 2023/24 year at the five stations mentioned as closure candidates

Fenny Stratford, 6420 - https://www.passenger.chat/FEN.html
Bow Brickhill, 13274 - https://www.passenger.chat/BWB.html
Aspley Guise, 3320, https://www.passenger.chat/APG.html
Millbrook, 2312, https://www.passenger.chat/MLB.html
Kempston Hardwick, 2296, https://www.passenger.chat/KMH.html

Way, way back I would have been included in passenger numbers at Fenny Stratford and Bow Brickhill, staying at a hotel on the A5 and working for the week - commuting - to Bow Brickhill.  The Martston Vale line has a chequered history of train reliability to put it mildly; although my particular journey was a very short one, the presence of a major road between my hotel and the Red Bull (motor racing) place made it impractical to do any other way.

 
From Construction News

 

The word "Traincrew" includes drivers & Train managers/guards.....

 

My understanding is that at the end of a franchise / contract, the operator is required to return stations leased to the same maintenance standard as when they took them over, and Pilning has been getting to be a bit of an eyesore - was it 2006 or even earlier it became the responsibility of First Group?  Not sure if it was them or Wales and West / Wessex before that?

Christmas would, in my view, be a return to the facilities of those days which includes a second platform to similar standards, but I would be happy with a temporary compromise of a couple of trains every day running "wrong line" from the Patchway / Filton area to the Pilning crossover, providing passenger services from Bristol and to Wales at around 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. with similar calls in the other direction.

 
From The BBC


My biggest expense when I travel afar is not the train fares (which I manage to research downwards on many occasions), but accommodation costs - but I do sometimes look at adverts for excellent pubic transport fares and all too often find they have very limited availability.  Have others experienced this?

 
From Radio Newquay and with a picture of a 150 in the new platform

 
RTT indicates it ran as 5R88 and also that some trains ran yesterday evening, starting with the 17.15 from Exeter Central
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/gb-nr:BNP/2025-11-18/0200-0159?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

 
Cancellations to services between Twyford and Maidenhead
Due to a fault with the signalling system between Twyford and Maidenhead trains have to run at reduced speed on some lines towards London Paddington bound local stopping.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 08:00 19/11.

 

It ran under a "5Z" head code - 3 minutes early off Barnstaple (allowed to be early on non-passenger duty) but was already 51 minutes late by Umbereigh - probably because they stopped to check bridges, etc, on that early stretch.    They were as much as 67 minutes late by Morchard Road, but recovered 4 minutes into Exeter.    Past experience of ECS trains is that GWR staff can use them - for example as a transfer between active duties - but there isn't going to be a train manager on duty.  It would (I suspect) have been sensible for GWR as the train operator to have had a second member of staff along so assist the train operation, though I don't think it likely that (s)he would have been required to check the tickets of the NR staff and sell them full fare singled if they didn't have them 

 
I know it says train crew,but would it require a guard as well,considering it had Network rail staff on board

 
PIGS MIGHT FLY.....
Yes I know that's not at all likely,
However,on a little trip out this afternoon,I chanced to drop in at Pilning Station!
 
Now in the past I've been known to complain about many things to do with Pilning
The lack of a second platform,and also no way of getting too what's left of the original platform two ,the general poor state of the one that remains in service,not to mention only two trains calling a week.

But blow me down Pilning Has had one hell of a face lift !...
Platform edge has been repaired,tactile paving has been installed,yellow line is in place the entire length,and wonder of wonders the whole of platform one has been completely resurfaced with a good standard of Tarmac.
Not only but also,the old bus stop waiting shelter has been scrapped and replaced with a bright shiny new one which has been moved back from the platform and placed in a more comfortable position.
Wait there's more,as well as all of the above, new signage ,a new help point ,new platform entry gate ,new fencing the entire length of the platform egg crates at both ends with access gates to platform ends.

And last but not least Platform Lighting has been fitted

My Flabber is well and Truly Gasted.

Note the car park surface still resembles a dirt track ,oh and by the he way the gates that were fitted a while back to prevent fly tipping have been adjusted by bending them so as to prevent them from being closed .
One would imagine that the application of a transit van or something similar to the gate was employed to prevent access being denied

Has Christmas Come Early To Pilning....
Remains to be seen..

However a very big Thankyou to Network Rail and GWR is deserved

Going to have a cup of tea and a bit of a lye down now ,to get over the surprise.