Ran ECS, destined for Paddington.  Routed via Kemble

 
Same with the 10:56 from Chippenham to London Paddington this morning.  Journeycheck suggested it was a 5 car rather than a 9.   I was in coach H.

 
Meanwhile, it appears to have a rival that (1) looks to be ahead of the game, and (2) is revealed in a much more entertaining and informative way by YouTuber, the Tim Traveller in this video about a French version-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XX2K0YNnDQ

 
Deviating from the reason Grahame reactivated this thread, the original postings date back to before I joined the site but do make interesting reading in hindsight.

For the year to March 2008, which was around the time the thread was last active, the station usage for the seven main GWR exclusive stations totalled 950K. For the year to March 2025 this figure was over 1,860K, an increase of almost 100%. There has been some investment in the line in that time with the redoubling from Ascott to Charlbury and Evesham to Moreton-in-Marsh, the introduction of the IETs and the platform extensions but there are still times when there is congestion due to delays and the single track sections.

I do have an interest in Hanborough which is my local station. Back in 2008 there were some posts suggesting Hanborough (as well as Pershore and Honeybourne) should receive a secondary service to improve the service at the busier stations. Of course, what happened was that the number of trains stopping at Hanborough was increased (though there are still a couple which pass through) along with a massive increase in car parking capacity. And today, Hanborough has the most passenger entries/exits of all the stations.

 

 

Too many forget, though.  This, on the day British wartime Prime Minister's statue on Parliament Square was discovered to have been defaced and plastered with antisemitic slogans, allegedly by a Netherlands national, now arrested

 

Looks like there may have been a problem with a departmental off Honeybourne Sidings headed for Gloucester Horton Road, which left the sidings right time at 0940, but didn't get to Evesham until 1026, best part of half an hour late (according to RTT)  This impacted the Great Malvern to Paddington fast, which appears to have been stuck at Norton Junction for 12-15 minutes waiting for the single line

 
The male Mac ,the female picnic.

 

Booked for a 4-car Class 150.

Another spin of the famous JourneyCheck 'AM reality is PM fantasy' wheel - with the last three all now reinstated...using a 2-car 150.

 
From Realtime Trains:

0713 Great Malvern to London Paddington - this service was cancelled between Worcester Shrub Hill and London Paddington due to a points failure (IB).

 
Drivers and vehicles are usually employed for the duration of the rail replacement works, rather than just a day.
So a coach is brought down (or up from Cornwall) to where the operations centre is (probably Exeter, or Plymouth).
Drivers stay in a hotel there, and arrangements are in hand for vehicles to be cleaned and fuelled locally as well.
When the rail replacement ends, drivers and vehicles return to their respective depots.

 

With Barnstaple, Okehampton and Exmouth all running again ... and I suspect this week that in these days of specialisation there are trains in Plymouth that need to get to Exeter for repair but can't because the line from Totnes to Plymouth is closed for engineering works, and the old alternative from Bere Alston to Okehampton has been closed for much longer.

 
I have come back to a very old thread ... though it may be ripe for a split. Picking up a discussion on making proper use of facilities at some lesser used stations,

I am - noting - the Green byelection success at Gorton and Denton last night, and congratulate Hannah Spencer on her victory.  I celebrate the wide range of views to be expressed in parliament, and the thoughts expressed in her victory speech are good, though elements are of concern. And yet, the Green Party comes from environmental roots and references to that have faded away.

In the early days of "Save the Train", Denton station was one we compared Melksham to - a sleeping resource, hanging on to life by its finger tips. It still does; it still waits for an opportunity to be re-woken. That needs (and they have been suggested) purpose and flows - the trains, or trams, going somewhere people want to usefully go.    Last time I went through Denton by train, it was on the Aberystwyth to York service, long since gone.  I visited the station a number of years ago too - situated off a main road bridge and what a contrast between the busyness of the road and the lack of trains.

 
RTT not showing a 175, but 150'type.

 

 
07:12 Plymouth to Penzance due 09:19
09:50 Penzance to Plymouth due 11:47
12:18 Plymouth to Penzance due 14:14
14:50 Penzance to Plymouth due 16:45
17:00 Plymouth to Liskeard due 17:37

All cancelled due to "more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time" - more problems with these "new" trains?

 
Also in the Co-op news

https://www.thenews.coop/one-last-chance-for-go-op-passenger-train-co-operative/

The wider economic case for an Oxford - Swindon - Westbury - Frome - Taunton service makes sense.   The financial case, making it into a business operation, is a problem. That problem is compounded where a new business model - a co-operative - is to be used, and as a matter of so-far unbent principle. And the problem is compounded further where incumbent industry players may not be taking a "let's help you get this going" stance - perhaps the reverse. Final problems that the industry and structures are so s-l-o-w in picking up ideas and are hard to work with, and having tried for over a decade, Go-op finds itself considered a "that won't happen" laughing stock based on passed and failed projections.

The economic cases for Oxford - Swindon, Swindon - Westbury and Frome - Taunton all remain. You'll note that the first two have those have been improved under the auspices of First and the DfT since the formation of Go-op, and with further improvements to the first of those from May. Extra trains are running (calling) now Westbury - Castle Cary - Taunton, and Westbury - Frome, and to me these improvements confirm that Go-op does / did have a sensible analysis of where a service should / could run.

Now - if they were willing to tear up their principles, could the Go-op team sell / transfer their access rights to a commercial company?  Who runs open access trains under commercial or open access rights?   There are two other companies running trains from Taunton ... and a service from (say) Paignton to Marylebone or to Milton Keynes ... I wonder what the timing would be; what a joyous selection of journeys and for longer distance passengers the attraction of through services might be a factor that brought them on board.

 

With the closure of their public bus operation in the far west, my social media feed has been stuffed with reports of First shipping / driving buses out of Cornwall to all sorts of other far flung places in Great Britain.

 
Blimey!  It's nearly 3 hours by road from Walsall to Tiverton, and the same back: that doesn't leave much time for the coach driver to also go to Plymouth.

They must be staying overnight somewhere in Devon.

 

 

Yep - we found similar at The Queen in Chester a couple of weekends ago ... and we had similar constraints from in accessability access at our old (listed) home and business premises;  "don't even ask!" was the message from the heritage officer when we made tentative enquiries.

Booking-dot-com does have a "elevator/lift to upper floors" that we look for when booking.  We have learned that it does not guarantee that a disability aid will fit into the lift,  that you can get into and out of the lobby without going upon and down steps, or there won't be steps along the way from the hotel's lift to the hotel room.

 

Apparently, the Royal Hotel in Bath does have a lift - a very small one, not suitable for modern disabled access - as an alternative to the spiral staircase:

 
Always a very telling sign of the state of the U.K. coach industry and how difficult it is to source coaches for any rail replacement work, there’s coaches operating between Plymouth and Tiverton that are based as far away as Walsall!!

 

It's the building adjoining Bath Spa station, in Brunel Square. 

 

I came across this old picture from Bath showing a bridge across from the Royal Hotel to the station and it struck me as a level access ... all be it from the upper floors of the hotel.    I don't know if the hotel has a lift, but this "Garibaldi" bridge as I believe it was called might have provided a temporary ... or even a permanent solutions to the problems there seem to be of accessibility at Bath Spa




Where is the Ludo Sports Bar??

 
All of the above makes for some very sombre reading again, on this sad anniversary.

Lest we forget.

Chris. 

 
"...concerns about visibility for pedestrians..." "... vegetation growth on a steep embankment."

Mark