Churston very unlikely to have a park and ride and it is all single line except for the passing loop at Churston station. I don't think Network rail would want the upkeep of the  two viaducts at Broadsands. The steam railway have modern signalling and is well kept because it employs a lot of staff and uses very few volunteers.

Having said all that Goodrington has a huge car park, closed during the winter and a disused platform face (fenced). A park and ride could greatly increase traffic in the area and the roads not up to it.
The steam railway also own all the tracks south of the south crossover including Happy Valley sidings alongside Goodrington station.

The number 12 bus route to Brixham is well used as a feeder to Paignton Station as does the 22 and 23 to/from South Devon College. The 120 from Kingswear only takes 25 minutes to Paignton.

 

Cross Country mainly use 221 super voyagers at Paignton including the last train to Bristol that reverse via the north crossover.

 
And it's an un-refurbished unit. On another site, water from the air condition unit coming down the windows inside.

 

Well .... it's complicated. While the the train derailed on top of the crossover that links the two railways (but not because of the points), the whole crossover is Network Rail's. They also own/are responsible for a short stretch of the DSR's route (the Down Torbay) including the crossover and the level crossing (so they have the whole of both). Consequently DSR have running powers over that six chains or so!

 

It was posted elsewhere last night by somebody inside GWR that Max 4 car trains can visit Paignton due to signalling constraints following the derailment.
Cross country only use 4 car to Paignton, that is why GWR Iet are the only ones that don’t use the north crossover. They’re the only booked trains longer than 4 car.

 
Bought a rail ticket online the other week which might have prompted this online survey from GWR.

https://tinyurl.com/3pyps8f4

Unfortunately the page resolves to a simple 'Thank you for your time' which is quite funny considering that my last train trip involved my returning 25 hours or so late.

Mark

We know your journey with GWR is more than just getting from A to B — it’s about how it feels along the way.

Whether it’s the ease of booking, the comfort of your seat, the confidence in your journey, or even what happens after you step off the train — we want to hear about it. We’re running a short survey (just a couple of minutes!) to better understand what really matters to you when you travel with us. Your feedback will guide us to focus on areas where we can improve how we support you, every step of the way.

 
Thanks to this thread I discover I'm hazy about where the national rail system ends in that part of the world and where the heritage rail begins.

Also, not entirely convinced that the national rail system should reconcile to having Paignton as the terminus of that line - there should at the least be an appropriate scale park and ride at Churston. Oh, & shared use for the Brixham branch trackbed as far as the edge of Brixham deserves priority funds at a national level.

Mark

PS Ah, something stirs: https://brixhamrailwaytrail.org.uk/

 
175007 out in public use today on 2C49 12.42 Plymouth - Penzance and 2P24 15.15 Penzance - Plymouth

 
On Underground signalling we had a thing called route locking (same as approach locking) which may have happened here preventing platform 2 being used. It prevented a signal operator changing points under a train that had been given the green signal. Track locking also came into play when the train was passing over the points stopping the signal operator moving the points.

So I expect your right in that the platform was somehow kept in play for short trains.

 

Or the same, quite likely. Have you ever seen "safety inspection of the OHLE"....or similar. I suspect they include OHLE in 'track' for this purpose.

 
2026 really off to a great start............ Image not available to guests

Cancellations to services between Reading and London Paddington

Due to a safety inspection of the track between Reading and London Paddington fewer trains are able to run on some lines.

(TfL are blaming an OLHE problem, could quite conceivably be both I guess given the state of the infrastructure)

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 11:30 17/01.

 

It is South of the Level Crossing but, at a guess, the train may have been initially (or still) under protection arrangements which falls within the platform area limiting train lengths.

Again, that restriction might have only been in place until Network Rail disconnected the track circuits.

 
If it's south of Sands Road level crossing then it should not affect the length of train to four cars. Except for GWR IET's most trains including Cross Country use  a shunt move via the north crossover to get from platform 1 to 2.

If is a problem for 9 car trains they would probably be diverted to Plymouth to reverse or kept at Newton Abbot for a an hour and half. Been done before.

 

The re-railing team should have been on site at 20:00, won't take long to get it back on the rails.

The train won't be out of service for very long either, a wheel set change at most. 

The infrastructure, that's hard to say, A repair could take a day or two but getting resources and materials might mean a few weeks.  Upto 4-cars can still run into Paignton so not significant disruption.

 
The motion tabled by Councillor Mark Weston to debate the Henbury Loop at a Bristol City Council meeting apparently fell short of time but instead there's been some proposal to run the Severn Beach Line to Bristol Parkway which falls short of a loop.I t's reported in the below link to Bristol Live:

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/transport-planners-looking-extending-severn-10758098

Frankly the scheme seems somewhat half baked to me, requiring seemingly a reversal at Parkway and not realising the gains that a loop would achieve.  A  compromise that ultimately helps hardly anyone?

 
So long will it take to sort that out?

 
Have seen some pics on social media and it doesn’t look like there’s much damage to the train. The track underneath (wooden sleepers) doesn’t look too clever though when it comes time to re-rail the train.

The other problem created is that it’s a 9 carriage IET that’s going to be out of service for a while at a time when GWR can’t really afford another set out of service; particularly a 9 car set.

 
Have Network Rail managed despite the events of last weekend to complete all the work planned on the St Ives branch? If so they must have been heroic.

 
Apparently cancelled due to signal failure (per real time trains)

 
5A87 has derailed on approach to Paignton South level crossing as it left Goodrington yard

 
Just to say, that film (and the link to it) was by a gentleman named Steve Court who has, throughout this whole awful incident, reported factually, sensibly, undramatically and with extreme sympathy to everyone concerned. He's a credit to the canal "family", just as several people hereabouts are a credit to the wider railway scene, and deserves to be applauded for his efforts. I happen to know him personally, and he gives up a great deal of his valuable time (he runs his own very successful plumbing business here in West Wiltshire - my home restoration a decade or so ago happened to be his very first job when he resigned from British Gas and went solo!) supporting good causes such as the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust. He can also be seen on a couple of DIY SOS programmes that air on catch-up TV from time to time, selflessly installing plumbing in the homes of deserving members of the public. A top bloke in other words.

 
Nothing from Wolverton in the past two hours. Maybe they have gone to get some clear cello tape. Perhaps the tide is in at Dawlish when the train is due?

 
Thanks for that link. Good to see this handled somewhat sensitively here and also reflects well on the Canal and River Trust.

Mark

 
The two boats that were down in the breach had been pulled out onto the level canal bed by yesterday evening, today should see them refloated by building a portable dam behind them.  There are loads of YouTube videos of yesterday’s work, but here’s one which covers both and has the best coverage of the more difficult second boat, (the one with the bow partially buried), which was pulled stern first:

https://youtu.be/9ErDrPh4hD8?si=hewNSddJSQiiu4qP

 
Last night I dreamed that I caught a TfW class 175 train from Hereford, the train calling at Bath on its way to Southampton - and on the train's exterior, as branding, that glyph, used by TfW for their interregional services through Wiltshire.

Today, the Cornwall glyph's shrunk, but it's lent its strength to a second more ghostly one centred on Reading and Basingstoke.

Mark

 
175001 (paired with 009), the only unit that can run in public traffic, was terminated on its training run at Liskeard as the windscreen spontaneously cracked in 2 places.

 

I think that's reasonably well known - the maintenance contract was taken away from Alstom (who built the trains) and given to CAF (who built their replacements), and CAF were either uninterested or unknowledgeable. There was a series of Adelante-like fires in 2023.

 
Even by railway standards, the entry into service of these existing trains is happening at glacial pace. It does make you wonder how they were maintained towards the end of their time in Wales and the length of time they were stored outside has played a part.