You can't - but you can edit it to say "deleted" for a considerable time after you have posted it, and the moderators / admins will tidy up in due course.   

Very sadly, in the distant past we have had members go rogue and had to remove a facility from the many because of a very few - very much like the airports put you through an whole screening process just to pick up one rogue in a million. We keep an eye on policies / settings such as this one; for the sake of a very occasional slight inconvenience, I am inclined to leave things as they are. The damage done by one particular former member who wrote a destructive script (in 2013) could be repeated more easily if we turned in back on.

 
The station sign didn't like it:



(National Rail app info was ok)

 
[how do you delete a post, or can't you?]

 
The new station was built on flyash foundations  from the old CEGB Portishead A and B power stations.and had subsidence from the very beginnig. Towards the end, at least one of the platorms had to be cordoned off as unsafe, in case a window or door fell on you!

 
How great an effect on capacity would be achieved by creating a double track section for Okehampton and Barnstaple services between Yeoford and Crediton, and restoring the junction for Okehampton and Barnstaple lines at Coleford? This would of course mean bringing the second platform at Yeoford back into service as well, so wouldn't come cheap.


   

 

First frost of the season here in Melksham.  Lisa and I, Lulu and Lightning tucked up in our bedroom as our central heating boiler is being replaced this week and we have no heating.

 

Perhaps there were some acting civil servants ... bearing in mind that many of them work for a company that receives £1 million per day from the public purse, and who's operation of GWR will be part of the public sector within a year from now.   Several times during the meeting, it was asked that we reduce the time being spent on background information highlighting some of the positives that can be presented, and the intent and analysis, and move more closely onto customer issues.  It is natural for people who are or will be, directly or indirect, paid by civil servant masters to want to protect their positions.

A reminder that people need reliable trains to travel on, and they cannot travel on promises of reliable trains.  GWR are in a difficult position at meeting like this.  We all understand that they do not have an instant solution to all their woes - but so many promises have been made in the past that it's hard to accept more promises.   Reference was made - for example - to the strong request from Melksham council on 2nd September - 2024 - to bring the service through Melksham up to a reliable standard. And we are still at the same order of magnitude of level of cancellations, 3 times what their RSM for the Bristol area considers suitable and is already achieved at many stations - examples such as Bath Spa and Yatton are the ones I have chosen to use as typical controls.

 

Absolutely brilliant!
Thank you 

 
Seemed to be quite a bit of wheel slip on the 06:46 Trowbridge-Bristol train this morning (-2C according to the Met office) - engine revs rise, train judders, revs drop, repeat. Didn't seem as bad once we got onto the main line.

 
I believe it 'broke' at least a few days before that!

 

.........are you sure that there weren't any civil servants present?

That one sounds straight out of Sir Humphrey's "we're not going to do anything" phrasebook! 

 
Not a good afternoon and evening either:

1P04 13:18 Hereford to London Paddington (16:24) : started from Great Malvern.
1P05 15:18 Hereford to Paddington (18:29) : started from Great Malvern, arrived +15.
1P39 17:26 Foregate St to London Paddington (19:52) : held Norton (+12) and Charlbury (+20), arrived +17.
1P40 18:02 Foregate Street to London Paddington (20:29) : held Norton (+11) and Charlbury (+18).
1P42 19:02 Great Malvern to London Paddington (21:26) : cancelled after Shrub Hill.
1P44 19:45 Great Malvern to London Paddington (22:24) : departed +20, saved 8 at Charlbury.
1P06 22:00 Hereford to London Paddington (01:17) : held Ledbury (+21), arrived Shrub Hill +48 and cancelled thereafter (points failure).

1W01 09:52 London Paddington to Hereford (12:46) : held Reading (+34), Evesham (+52) and Shrub Hill (+61), arrived Great Malvern +66 and cancelled thereafter.
1W02 11:52 London Paddington to Hereford (14:44) : lost time (37 mins Ascott-Evesham instead of 30.5 schedule), +22 at Newland, cancelled after Great Malvern
1W29 14:53 London Paddington to Foregate Street (17:04) : started from Reading, held Evesham (+12), arrived +14.
1W31 15:52 London Paddington to Great Malvern (18:26) : held Evesham (+16), arrived +17.
2E14 17:04 Didcot to Evesham (18:23) : held Wolvercote, arrived +17.
1W33 16:58 London Paddington to Great Malvern (19:25) : lost time (36 mins AUD-EVE, scheduled 30), arrived +24.
1W03 17:34 London Paddington to Hereford (20:25) : Oxford +19, lost time (31 AUD-EVE, scheduled 27), arrived +24.
1W34 17:57 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street (20:11) : held Wolvercote (+16), arrived +24.
1W05 19:53 London Paddington to Hereford (22:57) : arrived Shrub Hill +15, held there, Foregate St +48 and cancelled thereafter (signal failure).
1W41 20:52 London Paddington to Great Malvern (23:13) : delayed Evesham - Norton, arrived Shrub Hill +17 and cancelled thereafter (points failure).
1W43 21:53 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill (00:01) : held Evesham (+36), arrived +50.
1W45 22:51 London Paddington to Worcestershire Parkway (01:06) : held Evesham (+31).

The short working of 1W05 has consequences for this morning, Thursday November 20:


Unreported on JourneyCheck, 1P11 05:16 Worcester Shrub Hill to London Paddington (07:24) is formed of a five-car set.

 

I don’t know the area well enough to comment on that, though the report makes frequent references to new housing and improving transport links/parking at several other of the stations along the line, including the new one to connect with the ECML at Tempsford.

 
The line, and others in the Southwest are a victim of their success. The line is pretty much at capacity, and no ability without mega money to up capacity further.
Additonal passing loops to increase frequency, or platform extensions to accommodate longer trains

 
Ahem.

I drove my Mercedes Sprinter van through various flooded locations in Yatton, the Wrington Vale and Chew Valley - not Nailsea.

They were indeed a good ten years.

 
Remnants of travellers from the Tarka Line (has it reopened yet?)

 
Including those of us  that drove a Waitrose 'Sprinter' van,,,,shome mishtake shurely....around the flooded fields of Nailsea for a good 10 years...

 
Portishead: a whole new station built in 1954, only to be closed to passengers completely (and turned into a car dealership forecourt) in 1964.

Oh, the irony. 

 

Too true, and not just stations. I remember my Dad telling me how a level crossing on the Avonside Wharf branch got a new set of beautifully-painted gates the week before it closed...

 
Long time lurker but infrequent poster!  We normally drop and pick up from Tivy during the day, but today we decided we'd park up for a trip to Okey. Couldn't believe that all 3 car parks were full at 0900! Ended up parking back on the Sampford Peverell road.
When we came back at 18:00 there were about 20 cars queuing to pick up passengers, the overflow parks had cars parked on the grass and off the edge of all the rows, and 15 cars were on the approach road, trying to park on the grass and off the double yellows!
Is this normal now or wednesdays only, or more than usual people enjoying the sights of Bristol or London??
Thanks

 

I wonder if it's a similar story to Waterbeach where - however - the solution seems to be a new station - https://www.greatercambridge.org.uk/sustainable-transport-programme/other-transport-schemes/new-station-for-waterbeach.  I recall being there / using that station before Cambridge North opened and again two platforms by a busy level crossing which I'm sure Network Rail would be delighted to shed!

 
Thank you for your detailed and well-referenced post here, ChrisB.

 
The 'speed at which' anything can happen in North Somerset is worthy of headline news.

 

Agreed it's a grim walk, and there are plans for a new entrance on the east side provided it's funded by third parties.

East West Rail say in their report today:

 
Closing Bow Brickhill does seem mad, and Grahame's theory about the suggestion being part of the planning game may be correct, though the bridge problem may prove insurmountable.  Maybe they'll manage to come up with a new station design that works.  Fenny Stratford closure could perhaps be mitigated by a new entrance on the east side of Bletchley station, which may even be planned anyway; when I was last there a few months ago walking to the only entrance involved a depressing trek under the entire West Coast main line (one of those bridges that always seems to be dripping even during a drought), then doubling back up an unpleasant staircase and past a couple of staff car parks.

That “some of the lowest usage in the country” statement is pushing it a bit, none of them being in the lowest 100 and Fenny Stratford at least should have scope for increased usage even if Bow Brickhill apparently wouldn't.  If closing stations to improve the service to others is now in vogue, a better case could be made for closing at least a couple on the Barnstaple branch, which might help with the situation discussed in another thread https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=31055.0.

...and don't get me started on "Parliamentary" services.  The current closure process provides no real protection, and just results in the expense of providing the occasional train which is of no use to anyone other than us enthusiasts.

 
The speed at which the clearance is going is amazing. The line being lifted in short 3 sleeper lengths and neatly stacked for recycling/retrieval.