Yes indeed the promise was preCovid

I am answering this - I hope - as a critical considering everything including the elephants in the room

Traffic levels (in terms of passenger ticket purchases) are back to virtually where they were - I have taken Bradford-on-Avon and Warminster as being the best indicators, because the Cardiff - Portsmouth cross country service is only a part of the story elsewhere as it crosses over all the various spokes coming out from the hub of London.

534086 (2018-19) - 532216 (2024-25) BOA
348658 (2018-19) - 355954 (2024-25) WMN

So there is, perhaps, a need for those plans to be back on and promises kept. I fear that the incoming fleet of class 175 trains, as it picks up Castle duties, releases units to supplement services on the St Ives branch for the summer, allows strengthening of trains in the Exeter area, releases IETs by May for the Bristol - Oxford service (which I agree is needed) will leave little or nothing for the Cinderella line from Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central. We may get a couple of 158s back - but there are 8 daily diagrams / trains cycling round.  Slightly better news, perhaps, is that post-covid the awkward peaks that are hard to resource for are not so peaky.

It may be that I should be posting in "Smoke and Mirrors" as we have GWR pointing towards the DfT as the place to take blame for the state of affairs, and we have the DfT suggseting that it's down to GWR.  Convenient for both oraganisations and the truth, perhaps, is that we are in the current state because of both of them.  And when GWR is nationalised, it may mean an end to that convience of buck passing. 

Or perhaps we could think of unpalatable options - perhaps 5 car trains could be provided, overloading reduced, and crews saved by reducing the service to running every 90 or 100 minutes, reducing the number of trains needed in the cycle to 6 or 5?  And perhaps a frequency reduction would also help keep the trains for the people who really need them, helping to keep ovecrowding down. And would a network with fewer services be more robust, helping meet the stated government objective of improving reliability? Just asking.

 

Ah, yes.

Was that pre-Covid? 

Was that before the DfT instructed GWR to make savings on costs?  Which led to them shelving the Class 769 programme meaning 16 Turbos had to stay in the Thames Valley, and a cull of most of the HST Castle Class fleet, which just about limped along until a couple of weeks ago?

Did that prompt a GWR insider to say "With the loss of the Castle sets as well as the expected 165/166 sets we are really squeezing things quite a lot.  Which does concern us, but we will have to work to make the best with what we have."

 

3 Carriages ... do you remember the days when we were promised that Portsmouth to Cardiff trains would all be five carriages?

 
From the BBC:

 
I know you have a keen interest in trains, but I think your long ex would not be impressed with forum's interpretation for her. :-)

 
Shoehorning this into this particular forum topic but in doing so throwing no shade on the coffeeshop... diversions on the 2nd January gives Bath and Bristol Temple Meads a considerably enhanced service to South Wales (& vice versa) with direct & fast trains as far as Carmarthen on that day only - which may offer people an opportunity to visit family or travel with fewer changes of train.

Mark

(Looking at the heart of Wales circular ticket, it's been beefed up in terms of both cost and capabilities - the price is up a bit and it now covers travel over two days - and also, for some time, it's been a TfW-services-only ticket, which complicates things for people travelling into the country.)

 
Still tickled pink that in 2025, GWR services from Swindon at Gloucester still stop at the long platform in a location that... optimises walking times to nowhere other than across the vanished walkway to... Gloucester Eastgate, the adjacent station that closed in December 1975, so, 50 years ago.

Gloucester's arrangement must be coincidence perhaps, Eastgate being the Midland station, little incentive even then to hand passengers to the competition. Turning to the two companies at nearby Cheltenham, nothing beats the absence of platforms, ever, on the now lifted GWR lines at Cheltenham Lansdown: that's truly singular, the two companies really were hostile to each other.

Mark

 
Saturday December 27

Definitely not reported on JourneyCheck.

Meanwhile...


EDIT (12:30):


Departed +6, Oxford +20...

Departed +30, Oxford +31...

 

The heart suggests they should sort out the reliability of the current service before they think of adding even more. Today:


The head says that both need doing in parallel - staffing needs sorting out, AND that the 2 trains per hour and through service to Birmingham would be useful

I would agree that a change at Cheltenham Spa usually but not always makes more sense and should be the default. But there have been a couple of occasions where a sprint over the bridge in Gloucester has resulted in an earlier arrival into Birmingham.

 

Surely you change at Cheltenham Spa in the vast majority of cases?  Same platform and three onward connecting trains per hour rather than just the one from Gloucester. 

Anyway, I would describe it as a useful link, though I would place some other routes on a higher priority in terms of a regular service.  It looks like one of those (Bristol<>Oxford) may well be happening soon, and by coincidence that is likely to improve the journey from Swindon to Birmingham in itself.

 

I cannot stick my hand up and say "me, me" because I stood at and used Holborn Viaduct many, many times - 4 departures an hour. Two were via Wimbledon to Sutton, Carshalton and West Croydon with a change at Herne Hill for Orpington; The train dallied there for a few minutes making a two way, cross platform connection in the way I would like to see at Westbury, with the Swindon to Weymouth service passed by the Bristol to Southampton service.  And two via the Catford loop and Eynsford to Sevenoaks, with a none-connection at Bromley South for Orpington.  Can't say I was even on the last train out or Holborn Viaduct, though - my on and off GF (her parents though I was too much below her) was a student nurse at Barts and after the last train of the night from Holborn Viaduct, there were other from Blackfriars right up to 00:20 (which I used) and the 01:02 which was later even than I needed.   I learned many things at the time, including to have a fallback plan / train.

I didn't wonder what the old track was - even in those days I knew. The more difficult question I had was "why on earth has such an obviously useful connection been abandoned?"

 

Perhaps GBR could get back into shipping, the railways could contract one of the trip boat operators to timetable a rail replacement boat to serve Avoncliff, running a shuttle to and from Bradford-on-Avon.

Mark

 
I knew it would be a mistake for this community to engage in a few rounds of Mornington Crescent: the game's immediately spilled over into reality. :-)

My destination's served by the 127 bus route so the railheads can be Carshalton, Wallington or Purley (and probably others) which is why a day return to London zones 1-6 is good for this (though not available from Bath) - and also, surprisingly, the Elizabeth Line and various Thameslink routings is useful too (though with Thameslink services at Carshalton, the gap between the train and the plaform feels like about 3 feet, it's a bit like stepping across the gap made by one open gate of a pair at the tail of a narrow lock**).

Thinking of 'Thameslink' and 'Gaps', the Carshalton chasm isn't as big as the gap there was between Farringdon and Holborn Viaduct. It must have been a lot of work to get the rail systems north of that gap and south of it to talk to each other, but the intensity and level of use of the resulting service is impressive.

Who among us hasn't stood on the platforms at Farringdon, looked at the dark and trackless mouth of the tunnel there and thought "I wonder what that once was?" Or, waiting for the last train on the platforms at a draughty, badly lit, ill-served and near deserted Holborn Viaduct, glanced down and thought "That's a funny place to see and abandoned trackbed, what's it doing down there?"

Mark

** OK, exaggerating but hopefully, once you know, a ramp's available on request.

 
The IP16 8:13 from Shrub Hill which I was hoping to catch at 8:50 from Moreton in Marsh was cancelled. Realtime Trains is saying this is due to operators request.

The following service IP66 the 08:28 from Foregate Street is running late due to the engine running on reduced power. This train is also shortformed 5 rather than 9 cars and as a result has been full + standing since Hanborough, only train available at Worcester this morning to form the service. There are no seat reservations and there are loads of people on the platform at Oxford where we have just stopped. Some unhappy people onboard.

 
Here is the complete list - in bold for those places not previously identified.

1. Lithuania (Silute)
2. Portugal (Regua)
3. Germany (Zittau)
4. Poland (Zbaszyn)
5. Belgium (Leuven/Louvain)
6. Latvia (Riga)
7. Slovenia (Maribor)
8. Denmark (Tonder)
9. Scotand (Kirkaldy)
10. Slovakia (Banska Bystrica)
11. Norway (Bodoe)
12. Republic of Ireland (Manulla Junction)
13. Hungary (Budapest)
14. Netherlands (Breda)
15. USA (New York)
16. England (York)
17. Italy (Salerno)
18. Croatia (Zagreb)
19. Canada (New Brunswick)
20. France (Périgueux)
21. Spain (Ferrol)
22. Estonia (Balti Jaam, Tallinn)
23. Finland (Helsinki)
24. Luxembourg (main station in city)
25. Switzerland (Rapperswil)
26. Czech Republic (Tynec nad Sazavou)
27. Northern Ireland (Belfast / Lanyon Place)
28. Sweden (Ostersund)
29. Austria (Lillienfeld)
30. Wales (Barry)

 
Charlbury is half a mile away up a steep hill. The two locations actually have different CRS codes: CBY for the station, CVG for the RRB stop. (The latter was derived from “Charlbury Village”, but it was pointed out that Charlbury is officially a town, so the stop is now called Charlbury Nine Acres Lane.)

The reason is that the road from the town to the station has a weak bridge over the River Evenlode, so buses can’t access the station without a long detour. In practice Oxfordshire County Council turns a blind eye to RRBs using the bridge, but for week-long closures the CVG stop is used.

 

Boxing Day has never been such a big deal in Scotland, it's only been a public holiday since the mid 1970s, once Christmas Day is over it's all about Hogmanay for the Scots!

............looking at Journeycheck today, aspiring to a service on Dec 27th may also be quite a challenge for GWR! 

 

Agreed - Dovey Junction (and perhaps Berney Arms, Altnabraec and Corrour) is / are the stations where it most makes sensed for pickups / droposffs to be at the nearest road, some distance on foot from the platform at which the train calls.   Though Dovey Junction is, I think, unique in being somewhere that people change trains.  It's my understanding that at Rail Replacement Bus times, Macynellth is the point at which you change between the train and the pseudotrain.     If, for example, the line onward to Aberystwth were closed, passengers from Shrewsbury would not take kindly to having to get off the Pwllheli train at Dovey Junction and walk up to the main road for their ongoing bus.

There is some sense in St Keyne Wishing Well, and Cynghordy, having a bus stop in the village as there's nothing much around the station; the occasional person is bound to get caught out and thus irritated.   Avoncliff is different.  There's a community within a short distance of the station - houses and even a couple of businesses, on both sides on the Avon.   And that cluster around the station is the source of/ destination of passengers there.  To have the buses stop "miles away" on the road through the next village is understandable for reasons of geography and efficiency (read also cost), but is a significant issue for the community.

 
Cancellations to services between St Ives and St Erth
Due to a points failure at St Erth all lines are blocked. Disruption is expected until 09:00 27/12.
Train services between St Ives and St Erth will be cancelled or delayed.

Not the first time this month those points have taken a rest day!

 
From Rail Advent

 
Where was the recent Sonning slip in relation to the historical one? Looking at the work done to both sides of the cutting just west of where the A4 crosses the railway at Shepherds Hill it can't be far different.

 
No Scotrail service on New Years Day though.

 
Report of plans to widen the crossing appear in Somerset Live

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/somerset-level-crossing-could-widened-10720337

this photo shows the manual gates in operation and dates to between May 1967, the singling of the line and November 1967 when the AHB was introduced. The diagram for the 6 lever ground frame is part of my local collection.

 
I met Timothy West, once. He was a true gent.

Your post,

... had me ROFL.

 

Added, and will come up next year.   An early example of a cutting sliding onto the track

 
The Reading to Waterloo normal route appears to be closed at Richmond, with the train diverted via Wimbledon.  If that's the case, under routing rules I would expect Reading to Clapham Junction or Waterloo to be offered on the direct train, but if you expand the route further so that it means you have to change trains between routing points, the train that runs via Wimbledon as part of the journey is no longer the shortest route so you have to go via the Hounslow loop.

Where are you actually going - Carshalton?   I wondered about changing you into Trameslink and Wimbledon and send you via Sutton, but it looks like that's closed for engineering too ...

 

Not watching the programme, I had no idea that Timothy West had appeared in Eastenders. It looks like the BBC didn't want to mention the many and varied things he did on stage and screen elsewhere.

 
A candidate for addition to our 'On This Day' topic on the Coffee Shop forum, from Wikipedia - two days late, for which I do apologise: I only just became aware of it, this evening.

CfN.

 

The X22 doesn't go past Tiverton Parkway, but through Willand and Uffculme, the X prefix being a bit of a stretch of the express principle. There are only 5 daily, the first leaving Taunton at 0905, so no use for commuters. You aren't the only person to park at Tiverton Parkway - commuters from all points as far away as Cornwall have been filling the car parks and roads daily, seemingly because of last May's timetable changes making direct trips past Taunton difficult to find. The bus service from Tiverton is of little practical use, being only hourly and finishing at 1845 from Tiverton, 2024 to Tiverton. It is less than 100% reliable, and I have never had the courage to use 0it.

The Swallowfield site would obviously have been far better, but I doubt there will be any change to the present plan now if the do close. A lot of time and money has been spent planning the new station, and pausing would risk losing it for decades to come.

 

Beware that the normal bus service does NOT run on 1t January.  I was planning to catch the first bus at 09:11, or failing that the second bus also at 09:11.  Fallback in case the train is cancelled is the bus at one of the following buses.   I don't have the bus safety net in Melksham either.   Also happy to stop for a breakfast at the Knights Templar ...