Back-up system working as it should this afternoon.

 
About time! This will eliminate the greatest drawback to using Eurostar.

Can our own national rail operators implement similar changes at their London terminals, please? And Eurostar/SNCB at Brussels Midi?

 
From CymruRails

 

Exeter St Davids ... change for Okehampton and Copplestone ...

https://www.gwra.co.uk/nextauction.html

 
As a local who has heard broken promise after broken promise for decades, it will take much more than a crane turning up to clear a few planks of wood from around the entrance area to get me excited

 
Faster boarding for Eurostar?  FromThe Sun


It's not a long journey and it seems sense after clearing all the security hoops added since 2020 to allow immediate boarding ... I might even go for a couple of unreserved carriages to just let people join the next train - after all, London to Paris timing is about the same as London to Exeter

 
Update ... another (potential) law for the moderators and admins

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz6ed1549yvo


And add ...  AI, deep fakes, banning under 16s from addictive platform use ...

... ah, the changing world of moderating a platform such as the Coffee Shop.   

More - from our viewpoint - an issue of being aware. We already have mechanisms in place which mean they come to attention in the unlikely / very rare instances of things happening here.   AI is an interesting case ... to think about policies, and suggestions perhaps?

 
Interesting is the proposed extension from Coryton to Radyr along the disused Cardiff Railway, including rebuilding the bridge over the River Taff. The original only ever carried one train in its life, and was demolished during WWII. If they design it right, they could reuse the original bridge footings which never saw much dynamic loading. 

 
Although the title is "Nearest Station", it does say "Chippenham is the primary train station for the festival", perhaps based on the free shuttle bus that will run from there (which makes sense given the relatively infrequency of the Melksham train service). But it would be helpful to also state what the actual nearest station is.

 
The full 38 page document which includes all the proposed schemes (most of which remain unfunded currently) is here

https://tfw.wales/sites/default/files/2026-02/TTT-Final_ENG.pdf

The service to Bristol is number 22 on the map / list
(numbering is not a priority order, it is 7 near central Cardiff, then runs roughly clockwise from Anglesey via borders to SW Wales)

Just to be clear the Bristol services are from South West Wales, and are basically an extension of services that currently terminate at Cardiff.  It is not a Cardiff-Bristol stand alone service (which is the way some people seem to describe it).

My understanding is it will be operated by class 197 DMUs.   Although they were ordered in 2018 (yes, 7-8 years ago), a number are still not in service, and others keep failing.   Many of them are also only 2car and appears crowding on these short trains is common.

The work (funded) includes line speed improvements on the relief (slow) lines between Severn Tunnel Junction and Cardiff).  Looks like majority of the new stations will be a single island serving these lines with one track slewed around the new island platform.  From another document platforms appear to be 170m (sufficient for 8x20m EMU).

The new agreed funding includes enhancements at Cardiff West junction in 2028 to allow frequency increase.    There are ambitions to extend electrification in Cardiff area (Cardiff- Cogan) so that Penarth is within battery range of the class 398 tram-trains

The new document includes more south Wales electrification (proposed, not yet funded) including as far as Swansea - Burry Port & Pembray where a turn back will be added, although presumably bimodes could continue beyond here (or battery EMUs to Carmarthen), the final stage mentions Pontarddulais -  Cwrt Sart (I had to look this up, it is near Briton Ferry station), so is basically the north Swansea District line.

Although not mentioned it is fairly obvious that if growth (rail usage) continues in Wales, more new trains will need to be ordered soon.  It would appear to be daft to order more pure diesel trains if more lines will hopefully become part or wholly electric, allowing the pure diesels to gradually migrate to the mainly unelectrified bits.

 
From the Melksham News


and noting ...


Neston Park is just under 4 miles (just under 90 minutes to walk) from the nearest railway station, which is Melksham, contrary to the online information that says it's Chippenham which is about 7 miles away.

 
Original quiz may have gone ... but looking around I found this one and managed to name the 14 stations in the Bristol area in 2 and a half minutes of the five allowed. More a test of typing speed than having to think about the answers.

https://www.sporcle.com/games/opi96/bristol

 

Indeed - and I have read your mentions / views and factor them into the logic when I'm involved in any meeting setup decisions.

One thing puzzles me - you have active views about meetings, both lighttime and darktime ones, which would suggest a keen interest in attending them - and yet (to my knowledge) we have never met.    Do you come to any of these meetings but remain one of the crowd (not that they are all exactly crowded) or is there some [other] reason you don't make any of them?

 
I did mention a little while ago the benefit of,when,holding events(not just rail events) in day light hours.

This "could" improve footfall,I don't know any large company that holds AGM's at night time.

But,will things ever change?

 
From the BBC


The whole premise of the article is to consider driving yourself as the (only) way to get to evening meetings; sad but it's what the majority of people who have been active, self-propelling and interested enough to actually attend meetings and social events have done ... as they / we get older, ut gets harder.

I was - struck - by the number of people we met at Leekes in Melksham in the lead up to Christmas - handing out public transport timetables at a store with a huge car park (and a bus stopping just outside) as to just how many customers are headed for a potential mobility crisis and a need to change their habits as driving or being driven becomes an issue for them.

 

 
This morning's mapping ... Barnstaple still out, Newquay out again and Looe has been out for so long its disruption is no longer on the "changes" feeds.

 

 

 
This also includes the "union connectivity" improvements between Cardiff and Bristol including the upgrade of the relief lines.

Worth noting that the Cardiff to Bristol TfL semi-fast service starts in September 2026 - let's hope there's some money in that pot for wiring Filton Bank and Temple Meads :-)

 
Cancellations to services between Reading and London Paddington
Due to urgent repairs to the track at Southall fewer trains are able to run on the line. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Train services between Reading and London Paddington may be cancelled.

Customer Advice
Due to short notice engineering works being done over night, we have had to reduce the number of trains running between Reading and London Paddington tonight. Until Midnight, a more limited train service is operating, although customers can still travel between the two stations. A change at Reading may be necessary for some customers travelling from or to further afield.

However, overnight train services between London Paddington and Reading are cancelled. Although some road transport has been arranged to cover, this is very limited, and so customers are advised to delay their journeys wherever possible.

 
There has been incessant rain since 1530 in Cornwall, 18-Feb-2026, if this is being replicated around Exeter - Crediton I fear that a further closure of Okehampton imminently cannot be ruled out.

 

And crevettes are no longer on the menu on the Welsh dining trains, so it'll have to be BYO!

 
Thanks once again Richard for this excellent resource.

 

These days, the map uses the national database.  May be a bit old so a cancellation at Ashley Down may be a problem.

 
Richard, would you mind me to be so cheeky and bold, and ask if you can stick the Boot in?

When the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway was in its 3 foot days prior to WWI (Th’owd Ratty as was known), my great-grandmother told me - many years ago - of a journey she undertook as a young girl on a Sunday School outing around 1900. The terminus was, in those days, by the haematite mines just above the village of Boot (42-17).

When just before the war, the original railway became defunct, it was taken over by Bassett-Locke  & co. and reduced down to the 15” gauge of fashionable minimum gauge  railways of its day - becoming in the eyes of the locals, the ‘La’al Ratty’. Initially its terminus was also Boot but it was found quite soon that the final gradient up to the mines was just too great for the 15” gauge locomotives then in use, so the terminus was moved, eventually onto a mineral spur heading off to adits on the other side of the Eskdale valley. They terminated the railway where it does today, just shy of the main Hardknot Road at Dalegarth. The rest of this disused mineral line can still be seen today on maps and air photos marked with stone walls.

I don’t know if Boot falls out of a mapping criteria you have established for your wonderful work, but if it doesn’t and you don’t mind, please could I ask you to stick it in. Thank you!

 
All through platforms are bi-di....

 
Given some of the five car London Paddington-Oxford services have a lengthy layover at Oxford I was wondering if there is some scope for inter-working. 

I assume it’s not possible to arrive and go back from Oxford without the time consuming trip to the sidings and return. 

 
It’s when you see pictures like that you realise how vulnerable some drivers are in situations like this.

(Auto correct tried to turn that into venerable - which is probably true!)