First return trip to Hereford cancelled this morning.

 

Because the planners are programmed to provide the quickest journeys via valid routings....If you want the 'shortest'/fewest changes/different parameters, you need to specify - using the 'via' tool

 
  Anybody know why GWR have chosen not to operate the sleeper 21st /22nd /23rd December this year ?

 

Here's one that couldn't be found elsewhere ...

 
Perhaps saying "outdated" rather than "incorrect" would have been a bit clearer.
It does, in it's present form, read in a rather eyebrow raising way.

 

I have to have some sympathy for Hitachi, though.  There's far, far more diesel running than was planned / expected - these trains should be running under electric OHLE power to Bath, Bristol, Oxford, Port Talbot and Swansea.

 
Searched for a guide from TfW as to how buses in Wales work and landed on the following page.

"New and incorrect timetables"

The title made my head spin a little, is it just me?

Mark

https://www.traveline.cymru/disruptions/2197/

 

Looks as if TfW's fares cap is currently at £4 (with exceptions, one of which is for the 'T1C' service...).

Mark

https://traws.cymru/en/changes-fares-selected-services

 
This reminds me of living south of Aberystwyth, a field on a river bend that never flooded so was ploughed and a winter crop planted as the farmer didn't expect  what happened next - heavy rain saw the river take a short cut across the bend and took both crop and a lot of topsoil downstream and out of the estuary. This caused the finger to be pointed at forestry practices upstream by Pontrhydygroes - but then again, this did involve the river that was prone to surprises, e.g. it's the one that killed the railway south from Aberystwyth, so who knows.

(Unsupported assertion: the first diesel loco ever to arrive at Aberystwyth came via Lampeter etc...)

Mark

 
It is a pity that modern evolution can make technology winderful but often so sensitive. Trains are now especially so with all the electrics slung underneath.

Being old enough, I can recall my only return trip along the S&D branch to Highbridge in the middle of a cloudburst, c1964. Train (Ivatt 2-6-2?) plus basic coaches left Evercreech on time and then swam through 3ft+ deep water in the vicinity of Pylle with not a care. I observed very wet conditions along the Somerset Levels. On arrival at Highbridge it was still raining but we ventured to the main road/High Steet (A38 then). We found it so unexciting with nowhere to hide. So we simply had to return to the station and occupy the waiting room for around 2 hours to await the return trip. Travellers tales.   

 
I understand the old station footbridge at Chippenham is too low, and being listed or heritage status probably can't be taken away.  But these days there are special lifting and jacking techniques so can probably be lifted and riser spacers added.  Then just add a couple of extra steps at the bottom of each staircase.

As far as I am aware there is no remaining obstructions between Bathampton Junction and the K&A aqueduct either.  Clearly doing this would help BEMUs as they could change mode away from the junction where they need to accelerate.   I write this as I have just discovered East Midland new 810s cannot work to Corby on electric because they pass an engine warm up beacon as wires don't extend far enough.

But with 5 trains an hour (sometimes 6 if including freight) Bath really ought to be a section that gets urgent electrification.  Especially as Hitachi seems unable to keep all IET engines operational.  Although I do not know why so many fuel pumps seem to be low quality and failing.

I have heard Hitachi are self certifying defects, and GWR has option to audit the defect list, but I wonder if they actually do it (as in send legal and audit staff armed with spirit levels to check seat sag, microbe swabs to check cleanliness of edge of windows, gas analysers to check exhausts and toilet smells etc.  Hitachi are paid a lot, and don't really seem to fully deliver diesel mode and passenger comfort on IETs.

 

The National Rail website has somewhat changed and no longer offers (that I can see) a complete download of all the .pdf files - though they can be generated one at a time.   With several hundred, available, I have just selected a couple - London to Bristol and South Wales, and Cardiff to Portsmouth, and uploaded them for the moment.    Before I consider putting in a lot of effort to piece together a GB timetable for the Coffee Shop, has anyone seen a complete download we could use??

 
Not railway specific but here in West Wales we're seeing areas being flooded that haven't flooded before. The local farmers who have been here ages say its never been this bad but I'm not sure human memory is that reliable. I think seeing roads blocked and parts of towns and villages under water that haven't been flooded before is probably a better indicator.

Subjectively based on being here for several years each year seems to be getting wetter. More and more rain but the lack of dry periods means the water table isn't emptying out which makes things worse. We also seem to have numerous amber/yellow flood warnings that I don't remember but that might just be better comms/more awareness.

Rainfall seems to be at or close to record levels (apart from where there's a hosepipe ban!) but there's also more concrete and houses so less places for it to go.

I think this is probably what climate change looks like - the seasons blurring into one another rather than us growing Olive trees and grapes instead of leeks and potatoes.

 
175001 has departed Plymouth for Penzance. It was sitting in the dock platform all morning.

 

That was what struck me most - the "motley" coaching stock !

 
Route Hereford £64,75. Changing at Crewe in each direction. There are through trains from Crewe to Carmathan every 2 Hours

 
If it is one bus it should be capped at £3

 
The National Rail web site is happy to quote for... a route via Aberystwyth and then TfW's T1 bus - and also offers through fares, but not of the sort that people should buy - the site quotes Liverpool to Aberystwyth return as £44.05 but Liverpool to Carmarthen via Aberystwyth and the T1 bus as... £129.50 so possibly a prompt to explore split ticketing.

Mark

 
The problem is not new, attached is a screenshot of a report of an accident near Cattistock Mill in 1882 after heavy rain. In addition there was a slip at Holywell tunnel.

100 years later persistent heavy rain would need the inspection of the line before traffic could resume.

 
To further trim the distance, is Liverpool - Chester - Shrewsbury an option too? Though, watch the connections at Chester perhaps as some aren't' good.

Mark

 
£64.75 via Llandrindod Wells. Timings wise, there will be a big gap outward between 09:28 and 13:43

 

Money well spent on a passing loop and reinstating the platform at Newquay!

 
My grandson wishes to travel from Liverpool to Carmarthen, and back. The itineraries all seem to route him via Crewe/Stafford/Bristol - to me, a simpler, and possibly quicker, routing would appear to be via Crewe/Cardiff (Crewe to Cardiff using the mid-Wales line). He has done this trip, to Cardiff, before.

Ticket will be an off peak return  + 16/17 Saver Card. Both ways on a Saturday

Can anyone offer any thoughts as to the use of the mid-Wales route as opposed to the Bristol route on this same ticket...........it would appear to be a shorter route too ! I think each leg of the route will be using a different ToC - could this affect it, or does this not apply to an OPR ticket ?

 

 
The Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway have, in my opinion, a most interesting Drainage Blog at https://draingang.blogspot.com/?m=1

The work that they have to do to maintain what is a relatively short stretch of railway is really quite something.

 
Cancellations to services between Par and Newquay
Due to flooding at Roche the line is blocked. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
Train services between Par and Newquay will be cancelled.

Issued 10h03

 
Even after working on the Big Railway for some time, my move to the West Somerset Railway led to a much wider and deeper understanding of the infrastructure and and work needed to make, or keep, a railway in good fettle, sufficient for the safe working of trains

I guess the Minehead Branch is not unique in the number and complexity of the ditches, drains, culverts and other water channels that it has.  I was astonished to find out how much drainage infrastructure there is, and how much routine work is needed to keep it all working properly.  I was even interviewed for Points West, by Andrew Harvey, one time.  We were standing in a ditch at Woolston Moor, discussing how much work was needed.

I also discovered how easy it was for things to go badly and expensively wrong if the maintenance was neglected.  On the bit of the line that hadn't then been opened for traffic, near Washford, a blocked ditch at the top of the cutting by Bilbrook Bridge caused a landslip of the steep bank, in 1976.  Took weeks to fix.  And a similar thing happened near Lydeard Bridge, Crowcombe, a year later.

Keeping the water flowing is of paramount importance

I'm not at all convinced this vital work is done to the same standard on the Big Railway these days, as it used to be

 
Astute observation: people pick this up in school and higher education and many other places as they move between different environments - recognising the appropriate register for a situation so that they don't say submit a 1st year undergraduate essay peppered with phrases as though they'd typed it on their phone (bit of an extreme example). Then, people in organisations sometimes settle into funny ways, especially when they have to work with a script-driven set of phrases for communication, which gives us the lego-block-like messaging to the public from the rail industry, or the weird bonkerness of BBC continuity fillers.

Mark

 
The line to Newquay is flooded at Roche this morning.   The line to Looe floods regularly, and flood between Swindon and Bristol Parkway are common enough for us to just roll our eyes - "again". The Barnstaple line has its issues and they seem to have been more of late.  More seriously, part of the Spey Bridge has collapsed - now a cycle way and footpath, and in the "care" of another party rather than Network Rail.

Are things getting worse?  Climate change? More cautious approach with more check and safety measures?  Modern trains not able to stand up to the water? Better information systems bringing us the news of problems we wouldn't have heard about in the past?  Reduced preventative maintenance? Something else?