My understanding is that all the TOCs have been identified for this year, at a pace that transfers can be successful.

SWR, GA and C2C (I think) are the 3 for this year.

Next year's are still to be identified & dates given. So unless GWR have been given far more notice than the 3 periods that they have to be given (and that is entirely possible), they haven't yet received notice. But if they have been given many periods additional notice, it doesn't have to become public until those 3 periods of notice are due.

 

BPW lost Newport Hereford Malvern Wells in May 2022, all ECS moves from Stoke Gifford going via Charfield.

No idea whether it is DaFT or GWR behind it, or possibly both?

Other losses of route knowledge including BTM HSS saying goodbye to Lydney and Kemble. It has been predicted, the tunnel will shut after a London service has left Newport and when the BTM driver is asked to go the scenic way it will be a "Sorry but no. I could have last week but railway politics trumps common sense".

 
......and again.....

Alterations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Following a points failure at Twyford the line will be reopened shortly. Disruption is expected until 21:30 11/03.

Train services between London Paddington and Reading may be delayed by up to 40 minutes or terminated at Reading.

Customer Advice
Problems caused by a points failure near Twyford have now been resolved, and trains can run normally again. However this has caused significant delays and will take a while for the train service to recover.

 
BBC News

A police officer only paid the £34 fare between Axminster in Devon and Salisbury in Wiltshire "around half of the time" as ticket barriers were open and staff allowed him to travel for free on production of a warrant card.

 
Not another temporary casualty of Cheltenham Festival?

 
The idea of 4car 158s has fallen apart.

Today 1F25 16:27 and 1F27 17:27 Cardiff - Portsmouth (the busy peak hour workings) are both reduced to just a 2car unit

Earlier 1F18 from Portsmouth conked out at Fareham and continued to Bristol as empty 5F18

 
He stood as a Liberal Democrat and polled 190 votes, as did the other Lib Dem Laura Barry (no relation). That was a significantly lower number than the Lib Dems managed in the previous election.

 
So.....aren't the early trains that start at HFD driven by drivers from BPW? If not, how do they get from Hitachi to their starting point? At least one starts at Hitachi....

And 'who' is doing the forcing? GWR? DfT?

 
Browsing YouTube, as I do for some light relief, I (metaphorically) stumbled across this item about the Bath Two Tunnels Greenway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsstz_RdRYA

From the excellent Paul Whitewick, just over 13 minutes: well worth watching.

CfN. 

 
According to the article in rail magazine  175008 will not be moving toGWR but will be stripped for spares and scrapped.

Castle HSTs to be withdrawn from service as well as some class150s

 

And it's going to get worse from May when 30 or so drivers at BPW are forced to remove their route knowledge from Didcot to Malvern Wells via Evesham. Also BPW loosing Cheltenham to Worcester.

Other reductions are taking place as well.

 
Gosh...............any steam locos down there - the famous Strategic Steam Reserve !

 

Ironically not - the struggle is between Kyle of Lochalsh and Dingwall with leisure / tourism traffic, even this early in the year.  Train manager reporting as we returned (I was in front carriage) Duirinish to Plockton that the rear carriage was heaving with a group, and later in the day I came across the same 158 on the Invergordon to Inverness shuttle - its next working - with paper reservation still in place Stromeferry to Inverness.  TM explained that the turn around of the set at Inverness was a tight one and he hadn't had time to remove them.

There are now 13 trains a day inbound from Dingwall to Inverness, three before 9 a.m. and seeing a couple of them come in they had a healthy but not huge number of passengers.    Probably the same outbound - 3 trains in 90 minutes just after 5 p.m. but no personal report from me.

 

 

The "service" on the OWW and chocolate fireguards have things in common

 
Clean shaven or a days stubble at the most.

 
A tip...

If travelling first class on a ČD Railjet don't select seat 72 in the control car. That's an excellent view of nothing.

PS This Railjet was delivered as the IEP project was just starting, this is the type of train that should have been built for the UK.

Apologies for the swearing..

Decent comfortable seats in both first and second class
Plenty of luggage racks and space for a few bikes.
Full restaurant car with a buffet counter.

 

Different airlines have different seating plans. Ryanair want the maximum number of seats so don't care about window views. An airline could easily have a window for everyone and good leg room.

 
Don't get too excited, Grahame!

In the case of the West Highland line, this is simply one train a day in each direction will now have one of the converted class 153s (24 extra seats, plus plenty of room for bikes, skis etc.) added. I assume that it is just stations beyond Crianlarich that have been extended where necessary, as south of there (if its anything like the service I used a few years ago) some of the trains will be 4x2 car units, dividing or joining 2 sets of 2 at Crianlarich when the Oban and Fort William services part or join, some of the Oban trains being 2 units. If I recall correctly, the class 156 units are about 150 seaters, so a 300 (or 450 until Crianlarich) seat train to or from Glasgow gets a modest number of extra seats on one trip a day.

On the Kyle line, my recollection from a trip in 1981 was that the trains were 4 coach trains, consisting of Mk1 corridor stock. The seconds would therefore have each held potentially 64 passengers, 32 in the brake coach, but presumably there was either a first class coach (48 in an open coach, 36 if corridor) or a composite (56), so the nominal capacity of each train was between 166 and 220), whereas a class 158 is (I think) 138. However, outside crowded peak commuting trains, 4 people sitting across the bench seat of a second class Mk 1 compartment was unusual (and not that pleasant!), so it was actually more like 156 to 168. It looks like the capacity has actually increased, but presumably at the eastern end at peak times (Inverness commuters?) the trains struggle with the demand.

Did that last train to Kyle you mention in the old 3 out, 2 back service pattern simply return empty to Inverness? I do though recall getting up very early for my trip from Kyle to Inverness in 1981, joining the workers from the Applecross oilrig yard on the Kyle ferry to get to the station from our holiday accommodation on Skye, so it seems unlikely that there was not a train stabled overnight for this service.

 

Nothing to stop it being a short term thing. Don't forget it free up a class 166/165 or so for use elsewhere however I agree we need didcot to Coventry wired up not just for GWR but freight too.

Wires also need.to.go.to Bristol Tm and Swansea ASAP.

 

Very likely.  For example, some of the Bristol-Worcesters today are 9-car IETs instead of 3-car 165s, and this looks to be the pattern for the other three days of the races.

 

Was the 9-car set sacrificed on this service to make it available for the Cheltenham gee-gees extra traffic today?

Doesn't bode well for the rest of the week

Gone are the days of direct D1000 hauled 10-car trains of all first class trains between Paddington and Cheltenham Racecourse (In addition to originating from Cardiff and Wolverhampton)

 
I am confident that it is.

 
If batteries are added to trains so that electric trains can run between Didcot and Oxford instead of not completing the half-finished Didcot-Oxford electrification then I would suggest that we no longer live in a serious country.