Thinking of the morning walk, Graham and I bailed out in favour of a bus back to Stroud, the last length of the canal we walked, above Brimscombe Port, was a stretch of towpath and on the opposite bank the site of the boatbuilding activities at The Bourne.

Here's a newspaper article written by another 'Ellis', covering a bit of the history of the works there.

Mark


https://stroudtimes.com/the-unlikely-story-of-brimscombes-boatyard/

 

You have a correct country, but it's not one of the biggest cities - a place with a population only slightly higher than Bath.   In the run up to Christmas, with 30 places each of which has two levels of answers, please feel free to post some further ones.

Kircaldy, York and Barry identified correctly - though no-one told me Scotland. England and Wales.   France correctly identiied and, yes,  Perigueux.    And Budapest, Hungary and Regau in Portugal.

 
14 - although I am currently on a potential hat-trick of wrong conclusions, I'm going to put Rotterdam Centraal forward for this one.

There's one or two more where I think I have add idea....

 
The number 16 bus runs down Avon Street then onto Feeder Road, which is probably about as close as anything will get to serving the new eastern entrance of  Temple Meads, although as more residential blocks are built on St Phillips and the new secondary school opens it seems likely that new services will be provided.

The southern entrance pick up/drop off zone will be useful for many living south of the river who currently have to go up to St Mary Redcliffe and loop back.

I seem to recall a plan that taxis would be removed from the approach and it would be pedestrianized, is that no longer the case?

 
Also the value of through trains pls.

Mark

 
30. Barry

 

The word "Chaos" had appeared in 1667 posts across 710 threads over the years ... here are some other counts

Delayed - 8890 posts in 2475 threads
Cancelled - 6275 posts in 1046 threads
Chaos - 1667 posts in 710 threads

Fare - 22445 posts in 5122 threads
Timetable - 16766 posts in 4310 threads
Connection - 9531 posts in 3588 threads
Environment - 2989 posts in 1474 threads
Catering - 3991 posts in 764 threads

Which rather confirmed to me the importance of connections

 
Watch on the BBC website as a boat is swallowed by the hole.....

 
1W13 06:52 London Paddington to Great Malvern (09:29) (set 802 022) was obviously ill.
It departed Oxford +10, but was further delayed between there and Wolvercote (+72). Indeed, it was overtaken by 1W15 07:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern.
1W13 arrived Worcester Shrub Hill +87 and was cancelled thereafter.

1P20 09:56 Great Malvern to London Paddington was started from Worcester Shrub Hill (+17) and arrived +21.

1W02 1152 London Paddington to Hereford (14:44) : Oxford +9, arrived Great Malvern +21 and was cancelled thereafter.


This train is due out of Great Malvern at 15:55. "Full and standing" at 14:25?

 
OFF TOPIC ALERT.
In my previous to previous occupation, we discharged product oil just North of Istanbul, then back out into the Meddi Sea.
Going back down the Bosporus Strait (compulsory pilotage and single line traffic), our Old Man (Captain) found it quite amusing that we headed a long line of outgoing ships.
Right behind us was a Russian Warship, and all those in our line confined to our top speed of around 11 knots.
Guaranteed the Russians would have liked to 'get a move on'.

 
I think you only have to look at many of the topic headings in several of the boards on the Coffee Shop forum to see that 'chaos on the railways' has been ongoing for many years now ... 

 


Having checked the "Onward Travel Information" poster at Melksham, passengers should proceed to the rail replacement stop on Station Approach, as the rail replacement buses do not call in the car park as described on the poster. 

 
Here's the running for the last fortnight, weekdays





In the absence of any official answer, what the **** is going on with the 17:35 train from Swindon - the busiest of the day?

Rumour has it that the 16:23 Westbury to Swindon and 17:35 return are rostered to a driver based in Exeter who's one of their IET drivers, and used as a route refresher turn so that (s)he knows the road via Melksham and Swindon in case or diversions.  Problems arise when the driver in question has been off that route so long it has to be relearned and (s)he can't take the train alone, or that (s)he is an IET driver who doesn't have traction knowledge for a 158 / 165 / 166 as might be in use on the Swindon train that day.

One of the questions asked at the Central Timetable Briefing a couple of of months ago of the timetabkle planners concerned how the base timetables were built / made more robust in consideration of how things are handled on imperfect days.  The question was sidestepped at the time, and I have not really been filled in since; it rather suggest to me that ruggedness in the event of being able to handle something going wrong is not a priority.

 

Interesting thought - though with 15 ticketed passenger journeys on average per day, I wonder what the case is. Having said which for robustness of the service through Roche, if slewing would make the service more robust there could [have been/be] a stronger case.   Are there predictions for traffic growth at Roche and other intermediate stations between Par and Newquay?  Are any of them anticipated to be growth hubs to help HMG reach towards its new housing targets??

 
Just a thought brought about seeing pictures of the flooding at Roche on the Newquay branch.

With all the money being thrown at this metro idea, I would have thought, in the interest of H&S, the old up platform at Roche could have been rebuilt and the track slewed slightly and therefore negating the need for passengers to cross the track via the barrow crossing.

 
9. Kirkcaldy

 
13: Budapest, Hungary

 
This started yesterday 22/12 when some services ran SAL>EXD with 3 cars when 6 would have been expected, and some trains were 3 cars for the entire WAT>EXD trip.

Many services were reported as 'Full & Standing' and consequently delays resulted, one assumes, from issues with pax changeovers at stations.

1L33, the 1220 ex-Waterloo, departed as a 5 coach train, was almost full when it reached BSK, where one of my sons boarded, and then dropped the 158 unit at SAL. It arrived at EXD 48 mnutes late, ran into Platform 1 rather than the customary P3, skipped the Exeter New Yard 'tea break', and immediately returned 10 minures late to WAT as 1L64.

Given that this seems to have taken SWR by surprise is fuel contamination a possible cause?   

 
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:06
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:06 will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Kemble, Stroud, Stonehouse, Gloucester and Cheltenham Spa.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 
20. Périgueux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.

 
No.16 .York.

 

I had a quick look at 1X01's schedule on RTT and the passenger stations that stood out to me as having variations on the standard calling pattern are: Winslow, a nameless station between London Fenchurch Street and Barking, a nameless station between Elsenham and Bishops Stortford, Altnabreac, and Aberdare, presumably for various reasons.

I was reassured to see that Naughty Kid is due to receive their usual present.

 
2. Regua, Douro Valley, Portugal.

 

I'm happy with either / both - some of the locations within the countries are very difficult questions

 
Cancellations to services between Liskeard and Looe
Due to flooding between Liskeard and Looe the line is closed.
Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled. Disruption is expected until the end of the day on 04/01/26.

 

My quick glance through the Garry Keenor pfd it is very comprehensive, anyone reading it cover to cover will have a very good understanding of OLE railway electrification.     Although I will add the techniques, equipment and systems are evolving all the time

 
05:03 Penzance to London Paddington due 09:54
Facilities on the 05:03 Penzance to London Paddington due 09:54.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.
Will be formed of 5 coaches instead of 10 from Plymouth. There are no reservations on this service

04:54 Plymouth to London Paddington due 08:35
Facilities on the 04:54 Plymouth to London Paddington due 08:35.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.
Will be formed of 5 coaches instead of 10. There are no reservations on this service.

 
Sorry Grahame,  can you clarify please,  are you looking for the precise  location or just the country for each photo?

 

 
Tuesday December 23


Sad news indeed, especially at this time of year.

Service changes currently reported on JourneyCheck:

EDIT (08:45):

Line now reported open. Updated service changes: