Looking at the governments recent decision to abolish NHS England deemed a quango; is the new Briitish Railways just another quango overseen by the Department of Transport.

... and Wales were well and truly stuffed.

Oops - I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that out loud. 

Chris from England. 

Glen Sannox ferry sailings to resume after crack repair

The new Glen Sannox ferry is expected to resume sailings on Sunday after repairs have been completed on a crack in the ship's hull.

The brand new vessel only began operating in January after being delivered almost seven years late and costing more than four times the original contract price.

CalMac confirmed the news after divers carried out a detailed assessment of the damage on Saturday.  The ferry had been operating for just over two months between Troon in South Ayrshire and Brodick in the Isle of Arran.

A CalMac spokesman said: "The dive inspection has identified a hairline crack on a weld seam on MV Glen Sannox's hull earlier today and we can confirm repairs are now underway at Brodick and expected to complete later today.  We anticipate MV Glen Sannox to resume timetabled service on Sunday 16 March and will confirm this evening."

It added the MV Alfred would operate an extra return sailing on Saturday to provide cover and said the "vast majority" of booked customers had been able to travel.

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Work has begun to remove five sunken boats from the River Avon in Bath.

Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES) said the submerged vessels near Pulteney Weir are dangerous to others and pose a pollution risk.

Councillor Tim Ball, cabinet member for neighbourhood services, said: "We have exhausted our attempts to work with the owners to arrange self-recovery, so as a last resort we will be carrying out the operation on their behalf."

The work begins on Saturday and is expected to last approximately one week.

"We're chasing the owners for recovery costs when we know who exactly owns the boats - but we only know one or two of them," Mr Ball said.  The council is hoping to recover the £72,600 costs of the removal once the work is completed. "The sunken boats have been creating a hazard in the waterway and posing a risk to its ecology for a long time, however they are the property of the boat owners who are responsible for them," Mr Ball said.

Several of the boats have been left for several years, and the logistics of such an operation present a challenge, the council said. "Some of them are in difficult positions and whether we can actually pull them out on Wednesday and Thursday next week is largely dependent on the weather," Mr Ball said.  The same project was attempted last year but was abandoned due to the weather.

The works are being done as part of the council's Better Moorings Project, which seeks to address a range of boat mooring-related issues. Several other sunken boats along the river have already been removed by the Canal and River Trust.

The council has promised to try to minimize disruption, but sections of the towpath will be closed while the boats are removed.

From the BBC:
Villager Derek Harris ... said the phone had been used for a 999 call by people who lived nearby, and only last week by an ambulance driver who could not get a mobile phone signal in Sharrington ...

Minimum of 60p in coins required for any call these days

Warminster to Dorset strategic route remains via the A36 to M27 junction 2, then westward via the A31. I saw a discussion on the SABRE roads forum…

Paul

The objective is to avoid Bath. 

The proposed route is the A350 as far as Warminster then the A36

It is not ideal I agree, but the existing route is the A46 from the M4 to Bath then the A36 from there. So there is no change in route from Warminster to the Dorset Coast.

Little Stoke bus driver thanked for actions



A bus driver from Little Stoke has been praised for his actions in dealing with a series of medical emergencies affecting one of the regular passengers on his route.

First West of England driver James Mills has sprung into action on four separate occasions when regular customer Rachael Jay has suffered seizures or hypoglycaemic attacks whilst travelling on his service.

Rachael, aged 46, from Yate, suffers from epilepsy and has type 1 diabetes. She travels regularly on the Y2 service between Bristol and Yate. She wanted to say a formal thank you to James, and so the two recently met up in happier circumstances at Marlborough Street bus station in Bristol.

Driver James, aged 27, has had to call for an ambulance on four occasions for Rachael when she has been suffering an epileptic seizure or hypoglycaemia caused by low blood sugar – once in Downend, once in Coalpit Heath and twice in Yate – staying by her side until paramedics arrived.

Rachael has since had her medication changed and says her condition is now “more under control”, but she wanted to thank James in person as well as raise awareness of the effects of epilepsy and diabetes and how it can affect everyday life.

Rachael, whose eight-year-old son Jacob has also recently been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, said: “I want to thank James for being so brilliant and acting so quickly when I have suffered attacks on the bus. Living with epilepsy and diabetes can really affect your lifestyle and for James to have presence of mind and to act so swiftly on all those occasions really helped.”

Chris Hanson, head of operations, First West of England, said: “We are very proud of James, who responded as we would hope all our colleagues would do in the same or similar circumstances. We are pleased that Rachael seems to be none the worse for her experiences and really touched that she has taken the trouble to recognise James for his actions.”

IT’S been almost six months since the Enterprise rail service between Belfast and Dublin extended its timetable to provide hourly train journeys between the two cities. As one of the main transport routes along the east coast of the island, commuters rely heavily on the rail network as a means of facilitating both trade and leisure.

The service now runs fifteen times during weekdays – between 6am and 9pm – and eight times a day during weekends. Enterprise received nearly €25 million of funding from the Irish Department for Transport in one of the first manifestations of the Shared Island Fund.

Government ministers on both sides of the border have been enthusiastic about what the new service could mean for intra-island cooperation. Speaking in the wake of increased timetable operations in October, then Taoiseach Simon Harris called it “really, really important for the all island economy, for the island of Ireland, from a public transport point of view”.

Former Northern Ireland Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd said that the expanded service “offers opportunities to drive jobs and growth, stimulate development and regeneration and boost access to services and education… [It will also] help decarbonise transport and encourage behavioural shift to public transport”.

Environmental impact concerns have been at the heart of both Translink NI and Iarnród Éireann’s lobbying around Enterprise. Yesterday, a spokesperson for Translink said that boosting the economy and meeting climate change targets justified increasing the number of daily trains, despite any potential breach of planning rules by the service.

Translink revealed that they had been asked by the Department for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland to justify granting retrospective consent for breaching a condition that the number of services would not exceed more than eight journeys each way.

This, they said, was one of the main contingencies for receiving nearly £340 million to open a new state-of-the-art train station at Grand Central in Belfast. Residents in the nearby Sandy Row area of the city have claimed an increased level of noise and a deterioration in the quality of life. Residents in the Co. Armagh town of Lurgan – which the rail network passes through – have also claimed disruption as a result of increased level crossing closures and higher car traffic.

Villagers fighting to save their phone box have queued to make calls from the "under-used" kiosk to help boost its chances of survival.

BT is considering disconnecting the phone in Sharrington, near Holt, Norfolk, as it was used fewer than 10 times in the past year.

Villager Derek Harris, 89, mounted a David and Goliath campaign against the telecommunications giant, arguing the phone box was a "lifeline". As the phone clocked up more than 40 calls on Friday, he said: "I feel reassured it's not David alone. There are many people supporting us locally, nationally and internationally."

Mr Harris said it was a "heartwarming" sight. "They're turning out to save the life of their K6 kiosk. It is an icon and, more importantly, it is a lifesaver," he said.

He said the phone had been used for a 999 call by people who lived nearby, and only last week by an ambulance driver who could not get a mobile phone signal in Sharrington, which has fewer than 100 residents. "That does really undermine the point that BT are trying to make; that the signal strength is good here," said Mr Harris. "Connectivity is absolutely fundamental."

Mr Harris, who used the phone to tell his son and daughter about the day's campaigning, added: "Today is only a wake-up call; we will go on making calls from this kiosk."

The classic K6 phone box was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935 and went into production the following year.

Roberta Hamond, 73, from nearby Morston, was among those who queued to call to family and friends.  "It's hugely important," she said. "It's about caring about your village; it doesn't mean you'll always win. It's that unity, and knowing the value. More and more, it's hard to feel the value in north Norfolk when they suddenly shut down the local surgery or the schools because there are not so many children, and we're older and the wrong demographic. It's much bigger than this one phone box. We are losing sight of history, and this is a little bit of our history - and it's saved a life."

North Norfolk Liberal Democrat MP Steffan Aquarone said the phone box was a "beautiful example" of a K6, and a community lifeline.  "BT will find the phone box usage has gone up quite significantly due to this today, but it's the significance of those calls that matter," he said.  "This is against the backdrop of rural communities losing so many services over the year. This is the village standing up and saying, 'We want to keep this.'"

BT said it was reviewing its payphone estate, removing those that were no longer being used, and retaining those "where there is still a critical social need or high usage".  It added: "The payphone in Sharrington saw fewer than 10 calls made from it in the last 12 months.  Maintaining and operating a large estate of payphones costs BT millions of pounds each year, an obstacle that prevents more investment in full fibre broadband and mobile networks, which our customers tell us they want."

I find myself looking at this


And find myself wondering if the number of trains running via the Berks and Hants is reduced, and if a couple of IETs from Longrock have moved onto the connected network to help out into South Wales.

I seem to recall the plan was to use 8 or 12 car 387s to run extra services to/from Cardiff on match days?

13:05 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington due 15:22 will be terminated at Oxford.
This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident.
Last Updated:15/03/2025 14:33

13:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 16:17 was started from Oxford.
This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident.
Last Updated:15/03/2025 15:02

14:52 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 17:14 is being delayed at London Paddington.
This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident.
Last Updated:15/03/2025 15:00

15:52 London Paddington to Great Malvern due 18:29 will be started from Oxford.
This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident.
Last Updated:15/03/2025 15:48

DPM - "Dense Passenger Mode" - why "have to"?   Why are there direct trains at 30 minute intervals from Plymouth to London from 04:54 to 08:35 with two of them being overtaken by others on the way?  I can appreciate the need for a good flow of trains off the B&H into London and they will be busy - but I always imagined them to come off Laira / Longrock in such droves to "feed" busyness further in for operational reasons more than for capacity out there at 5 in the morning!   Why not start the ones that are overtaken in passenger service from - say - Taunton on Mondays that the line though Totnes is close on the Sunday?

Divers assess crack in hull of new Glen Sannox ferry



Divers are inspecting the new Glen Sannox following the discovery of a crack in the ship's hull.

The brand new vessel only began operating in January after being delivered almost seven years late and costing more than four times the original contract price.

All of the Glen Sannox's Saturday sailings have been cancelled while the MV Alfred will operate an additional service.

CalMac said it would provide an update on Sunday's sailings once a dive team had carried out a full assessment.

The ship had been operating for just over two months between Troon in South Ayrshire and Brodick in the Isle of Arran.

The vessel was removed from service on Friday after a crack was found on a "weld seam close to the waterline".

The ferry operator said reports that the boat had hit the harbour or that water was leaking into the car deck were "categorically untrue".  However, CalMac advised that a "very small amount of water" had entered part of the rear of the ship near the steering gear.

Additional sailings have also been added between Lochranza in Arran and Claonaig in the Kintyre peninsula.  The operator said all passengers should have a booking prior to arriving in Troon, adding that those who had not booked could not be guaranteed travel.

Divers from Shearwater Marine Services arrived at the port on Saturday morning.

A decision about Sunday's sailings will be taken later, the operator said in a statement on its website.  It added: "We apologise for the disruption, and our port teams and customer engagement centre will be working hard to contact affected customers."

The Glen Sannox has space for 127 cars and 852 passengers.

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Unfortunately those sets have to be back in position for the start of service Monday morning. So how do they get back and with what drivers?