From the BBC:


"Some travel disruption is likely in the next few days as strenghtening winds develop across the United Kingdom"

Hopefully, Simon King, the BBC Lead Weather Presenter, is rather better at forecasting than spelling.

 
I am looking forward as the days get warmer and longer to travelling to new places.   Interrail are having a 15% off sale for the rest of this month - https://www.interrail.eu/en/interrail-passes/global-pass - on their global passes allowing anything from 4 days to 3 months of travel across 33 countries - and here are some pictures of mine taken (all bar one) during such a trip











On virtually all local and regional trains across mainland Europe, you can just "toggle" a train and jump on and off trains as you wish. 

Small print

In your home country, you are limited to 2 days - outbound and inbound is the idea.  And on long distance and international trains in some countries reservations are required at extra cost, and limited numbers only may be available.  Local tram underground, metro, tram, bus systems not included nor are private railways or many open access operators. And the price does not include accommodation, food and drink, entrance to museums and sites, phone roaming, shoe leather, souvenirs. or gifts to bring home for loved ones, all of which can add up

 

I agree the taking of the GWR franchise into GBR could be heralded with a fanfare of GBR have taken the initiative to order new trains for the TV and the West of England

 
From the BBC:

 
This topic has been moved to Railway History and related topics and merged with other related posts there.

https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=11449.0

 
This topic has been moved to Railway History and related topics and merged with other related posts there.

https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=6335.0

 
From https://www.cliftonrocksrailway.org.uk/

 

You can.  Indeed the forum header text links to a few of the busier ones.

Here is Melksham:
https://tiger.worldline.global/MELKSHM/cisds

 

You can view the boards online can't you? How do the boards I see in people's houses work? That feed is presumably free?

 
I’ve only used my bus pass twice, Gateshead to Newcastle upon Tyne and return. It’s coming up to 6 years old, I live in the middle of Hampshire but can’t remember the last time I used a local bus.  I think Hampshire is on the bog standard timings.

Paul

 

However: if that is apparently the dress code for the event, I will be the slightly less tall bearded one in a yellow T shirt!

My T shirt, by the way, will be an historic TransWilts one, rather than the current official Bristol Rail Campaign one.

 
Which backs up Mark Hopwood's comment last Friday that GWR's transfer date would be more 'winter' than autumn. Presumably around 3 months from Chilterns date above.

 

There is scope certainly - but rather like the NHS it isn't necessarily about throwing more money at it, but using the vast amounts already in the system more efficiently.

 

My understanding is that I can use my North Somerset bus pass in Wiltshire on weekdays after 9:30am - and I have done so, with no issue on my part.

CfN.

 

The Wiltshire Council website says 09:00 to 11:59pm Monday-Friday in Wiltshire for holders of Wiltshire issued passes, but 09:30 to 11pm in Wiltshire if pass was issued in different county

So acceptance time is different when at a Wiltshire bus stop depending on where it was issued.

 

Red diesel is indeed still a feature of the fuel supply - allowed for agriculture, forestry and domestic power (not propulsion) on private narrowboats, for example. 

Our local garage used to sell it - from a specific pump, which had a separate key to operate it, and which had to be obtained from the garage office by legitimate users for each transaction. That facility disappeared when our local garage changed hands, and, to be honest, we never had that many tractors (or narrowboats) passing under the railway bridge at Nailsea & Backwell who would have refuelled there. 

CfN. 

 

Announcement of Chiltern date

 

I appreciate that - perhaps a bit more than I made out.  I did understand that these is a special "agricultural diesel" rate - "red diesel" at a much lower rate- or is that a thing of the past past?


Yes - and of course some public transport IS road transport  . ...  I did a "reductio ad absurdum" exercise and, agreed, it WOULD be absurd to take it all the way!    There's is some scope though - and the example a gave at looked at a single year, where in practice investment in one year would reap benefits for many years thereafter.

 
Dft have announced update to rail public ownership programme

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/great-british-railways#full-publication-update-history

It's about 3 months since previous operator conversion date was announced, but I cannot work out what has been updated.

 
In Gloucestershire the rules are the usual 9.30am to 11pm on weekdays and any time at weekends and bank holidays.  In addition it can be used before 09:30 on certain routes - I think these are very infrequent rural routes where there otherwise be a big gap or even no other service that day.

 

Graham this isn't just about people and their private cars

Fuel duty affects manufacturers, distributors, retailers, logistics, haulage and agriculture.

Increase these costs and inflation will rise with them as they are passed on through supply chains to end users, who are quite often already struggling to make ends meet, and it potentially has a devastating impact on an already shaky economy.

Public transport complements road transport - it cannot and will not ever take its place in the way some aspire to, it is simply not living in the real world to suggest otherwise, and politically I think you will find there are far more appealing homes for additional tax revenue than the railway, at least in the proportions you are suggesting.

 
Worse time to catch a bus in Swindon is 09:15.  You seem to get an endless stream of people who then appear surprised their pass is not valid.   I am sure some of them do it regularly in the hope they will be waved on board.

 
From the BBC


The headline rate on standard petrol and diesel is 52.95 pence per litre, which has been frozen since 2011-12, including a "temporary 5p cut" introduced in 2022-23 which is supposed to be being withdrawn later this year.  Fuel Duty - £24 billion - £835 per household

For the financial year April 2024 to March 2025, the UK rail industry's income from passenger fares was £11.5 billion (and £12.6 including other sources). Government funding for the UK rail industry in 2024-25 was £11.9 billion, supporting nearly half of the total £25.9 billion in industry income.

52.95 pence in 2011 would be equivalent to 77.89 pence today.  If that 25p fuel tax that has been foregone were to have been taken this year and invested in the railways, it would amount to an extra investment / income of around £12 billion. So fares could be halved and £6 billion invested too.

Of course, it gets more complicated; reduced fares and increased investment (if it's done right) will rocket passenger numbers, and passenger numbers will grow; being mass transit, the cost per passenger reduces and you have whole new balance of sustainable public transport becoming the norm.  UK electification rates more in line with other counties in Europe?   People moving even more rapidly away from fossils fuels?  `Inflation stoked by the tax increase and political unrest from those reliant on private cars?

 

Our machines were set to accept them from 0927, so we could load for a 0930 departure ready to depart on time.

Plymouth city council issue passes with a + symbol on top right to holders who are over 80 or visually impaired. These passes are valid at all times.

 
From the BBC:

 
In West Berks, it's 9-30 am to 11 pm!

 

Very likely - though I'm not when. Not there to observe


Something to do with the 11:56 arrival at Westbury from Paddington not getting there until 12:31, per chance?   The 12:17 to Swindon left at 12:34.   Thank you [whoever] for not cancelling the round trip to Swindon as has happened too often in the past with this train.

 
Heading off-topic: the other day, a road closure to enable services to be taken to a new-build. The road has a one in seven slope, and in the transverse trench, existing runs of various things - a c. 6" plastic pipe, somewhat enwrapped, and a cheerful c.18" jointed ceramic pipe, still not at great depth, both inclined to match the road's 1/7 gradient, the joint that was visible being in less than perfect condition with at one point a triangular piece as big as a thumb allowing access to the inside - though on the upper side of the pipe - and the joints being more or less aligned.

The workforce beavering away methodically on their new stuff.

On the third time of passing I plucked up the courage to ask them what was what and they immediately switched to cheerful conversation mode: "The grey pipe, that's your gas - the ceramic pipe, that's the fouls." (I think they called it that...). When I expressed surprise at the, er, poor condition of the foul sewer's joint, they said "Yup, everything underground in Bath is broken - that one's actually quite good!"

It was then time to reflect on the widespread existence of jointed ceramic pipes beneath the streets of the UK, of indeterminate age and often at no great depth, and now coping with increased loading and ground movement brought about by present day road traffic.

Mark

 
There is intention to add another 175 in to passenger service from 16 March to run Plymouth - Penzance - Exeter St Davids - Penzance - Plymouth as there are now 6 serviceable sets that can run in passenger service.  However 175006 broke down again today with a bogie fault and 5Z13 training run was cancelled as a result.