Does anyone know which bridge was struck?

 
Cancellations to services between Slough and Reading

Due to a road vehicle colliding with a bridge earlier on this train's journey between Slough and Reading trains have to run at reduced speed on some lines.
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed.

 Disruption is expected until 14:00 04/06.

 
I believe it's a little duller than that. Basically the reinstatement of the 2027 to 2032 Mayoral Authority funding settlement which was announced in Oct 2023 but frozen by Labour when they came into power.

It follows on from the 2022 to 2027 settlement which in the case of WECA, has mainly been bus and road focused, although there's been a fair amount of rail strategic planning with NR including a study into whether Parkway to Temple Meads could be electrified for less than originally budgeted.

I'm not sure if a detailed pipeline for 2027 to 2032 is in the public domain - the main commitments I can find are reopening Portishead (MetroWest 1b) and Henbury (MetroWest 2).

Mass transit development could be something exciting, but realistically it's probably just bits like moving the busses to the north side of Temple Meads, roadworks along the A37 and A4 corridors to make the busses run faster etc.

I suspect that in the case of WECA it's PR fluff rather than anything meaningful.





 

 
Government announcement with the amounts and main projects by region

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/biggest-ever-investment-in-city-region-local-transport-as-chancellor-vows-the-renewal-of-britain

For West of England £800m
£150m to improve rail infrastructure across the region, including funding to support WECA’s ambitions for increased frequency of services between Brabazon and the city centre. £200m for Mass transit development between Bristol, Bath, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.

Doesn't say what the other £450m is for.
WECA haven't uploaded anything about it, so at moment what else is funded is a mystery.

 

You may be selected...

 

Indeed ... and I also have rate clarification from Bryony

 
If you might report a precis back here, it would be helpful - ticketing on day 1 & Mark Hopwood on Day 2 the most interesting - along with Bryony's 'Women in Transport'....

 

Full conference welcome details are mirrored at https://www.passenger.chat/mirror/25_06_Participants_Practicalities.pdf for members of the forum

Further details at
https://www.epfconference.eu/  (this one with signup links)
https://railway200.co.uk/activity/european-passenger-federation-epf-annual-conference/

 
From The BBC

 
From The BBC


Good.

Looking at Wikipedia , 356 (yes, three hundred and fifty six) new stations have opened in the last 25 years - 100, 50, 98, 69 and 30 in each five year period.  Some of these have not been on National Rail lines, but many/most have. 

How have we done in Wiltshire?  ZERO.   The last new station was opened in 1937, and there's has been one solitary reopening (in 1985) of a station closed in 1966.    It looks like the new announcement is also a duck (zero) for us - we are not in a mayoral authority, even though parts of our county are very much part of the catchment area for WECA - where the mayoral authority is slated for a headline spend

 
I have been asked to bump this topic with a view to encouraging more to sign up by the end of this week. I am in Rouen today so peculiarly approporiat and will be signing up from here. There IS a fee involved - in this case I will be happy to pay where I am normally exceptionally limited in paying for public transport events / conferences.

 

Indeed - a battery change at an intermediate stop that's this quick would be faster that the dropping off and picking up of passengers.    Of course, the need for battery changes quite frequently would mean there's a need for exchanges at places like Devizes Gateway, Somerton/Langport, Wellington and Cullompton.

 

There is also an excellent article on the Legal Art Wall which has transformed the pedestrian subway under the bypass which separates the town from the station

https://melkshamnews.com/melkshams-legal-art-wall-to-serve-as-model-for-other-towns/

 

Uber will have to fund it.  The cost of border formalities is one of the main reasons why Eurostar are not using Ebbsfleet and Ashford


Temple Mills will be the challenge to anything more than a few trains a day.  An option for a serious contender could be a new depot at Dagenham or make use of space at Dollands Moor 

 

Neither. Any exclusivity was disposed of by EU directive 2007/58/EC on the liberalisation of international rail passenger services. For details see the Government's guide for potential new operators:

Gemini, and other contenders, are however asking the ORR for access to Temple Mills depot, which is managed by Eurostar. This is also a question of limited space, and it's not clear yet much space can be made available and how this might constrain the umber of new services or operators.

That report has made a big thing of Uber's involvement, even saying "Uber will soon be operating trains across the English Channel". But the original launch publicity from Gemini in March didn't mention Uber, who joined in two weeks ago offering branding and the use of their app for booking. I can't find their joint press release on Gemini's site, though it is on LinkedIn.

 
How are they going to deal with border formalities at Ebbsfleet?   

 
Upgrades needed to town’s railway services 40 years on.

https://melkshamnews.com/upgrades-needed-to-towns-railway-services-40-years-on/

 
On our Interrail trip last March my expectations were definitely upset by our experiences.

We traveled on trains in the following 8 countries:

UK, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany and Belgium.

Obviously in many of these, we were on trains that crossed international borders (so delays may have been caused elsewhere). But of these 8 countries, only in one did all the trains we used run to time.

And that was...






The UK!

 

but ... another two cancellation.  Not exactly customer friendly, is it?

 

Don't know ... but new MPs are not committed to the views and policies of previous ones.

 

With the power to the signalling at Newbury restored, the latter pair above have now been re-instated.

 
Thanks for correcting my typo!

 

Winslow I suspect or has Cheshire been getting rebuilds?

 
Anyway, I'm off on Friday to the new station at Wilmslow, to check it out for accessibility.

 

And the previous incumbent didn't notice that?

 

Complain now because you're now in the role of representing the people of your constituency which wasn't a role you were in when the project was initially classified, perhaps?

 

Something looked odd here ... then I found it ... the fault isn't even on our line ...

 
I don't believe that this has only just been classified as an England & wales project at this stage - so why complain only now?