A local care home to me has about 80% of their staff from Asia. The proprietor was telling me he gets very few applications from white English people. He said many have the attitude they’re too good to do that kind of work.
My own experience from a hospital stay last year that most of the nurses and care assistants who cared for me were Asian and South American. I found they had far more empathy and gave better attention to detail to my care than the small handful of white British care assistants.

 
Thank you for your very detailed answer, grahame. 

Purely for information: before I retired, I also wouldn't have been able to attend any such meeting on a Friday.  It suited me to agree with my employer that I would work every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  So any weekend meeting would have been similarly difficult for me to attend.

I agree with grahame - there is no ideal day of the seven day week that works for everyone. However, with sufficient advance notice, many of us (retired or otherwise) will hopefully be able to make arrangements.

CfN. 

 
Further report, quoting from the latest BBC update

 
Why a trip to Lubeck? There were two reasons. Firstly, my wife, having studied various European cathedrals as part of a WEA course would like to see the one in Lubeck, and its historic city centre. She enjoyed our trip by rail to Aachen. Secondly, I like birdwatching along the Baltic coast in autumn, when many birds are on return migration from Scandinavia and the Arctic. My wife could not do a trip this autumn, so I decided to combine a birding trip with a “proof of concept” rail trip to see if it was possible and convenient to travel from home to Lubeck by rail in a day (and also do the return trip in a day).

I booked a Eurostar to Amsterdam, and Trainline produced an onward outward journey with changes at Osnabruck and Hamburg for a very reasonable 38-99 Euros and a return to Amsterdam from Lubeck with one change at Hannover for 63-99 Euros.

Here's part one of my account and impressions (spoiler alert - it's not the most positive part of the holiday!)

The Outward Journey.

At first mostly all went well. There was a slightly puzzling email from Eurostar about a week before departure telling me that the departure time from St Pancras was now 10-34 but arrival at Amsterdam would be at the same time – but this was the departure time I had booked and was shown on my ticket! There was also a problem with the train for a preceding Paris service, resulting in the need to change the set on that service involving a delay to both that service and the following Paris one, so that the waiting area after check-in and passport control became very crowded and access to it was closed for a while. Luckily, I was already inside, and had a seat. Our Amsterdam departure was not delayed.

The Eurostar journey was uneventful. There were only two negatives to report, my window seat turned out to be a pillar seat, and as a culinary tip I suggest avoiding the dry, chewy chicken and sundried tomato baguette. Apart from the poor alignment of seats and windows, the newer-type Siemens train was a pleasant and comfortable ride.
Arrival at Amsterdam Centraal was on time. It was my first visit after the recent works, which are still in progress on platform 14 alongside the platform used for Eurostar trains. I had just over an hour and a half to wait for my connection to Osnabruck at 17-59, so decided to have a tour of the extensive selection of eateries on the canal side of the station and have an early evening meal. These are one of the good features of Centraal, as you can feed yourself and enjoy a view out over the water. I selected the Brew Dog bar, but their mac’n cheese was not a good choice. Not only was it lukewarm, but the thin sauce didn’t have any cheese flavour to it to redeem itself. The New England pale ale was though very good.

The Osnabruck train was a joint DB (German) and NS (Dutch) operation, final destination Hannover. The former provided a rake of coaches that looked of similar vintage to the later BR mark 2 stock, with air conditioning, but no internal passenger information signage. DB also provided the on-board staff after Bad Bentheim, the first station in Germany. NS provided the locomotive and staff for the first part of the trip. It was clean and comfortable, if somewhat leisurely in its progress across the Netherlands, and lightly loaded. I’d guess that there were not more than 10-12 passengers in my coach at any one time during this journey. Travelling on a train with four-across seating with a much larger loading gauge that the UK brings home (again) how cramped five-across seating is at home. Full marks too to the train staff, who made announcements in German, English and Dutch before each stop that were clearly audible and included a list of times and platforms for onward connections.

We were 5 minutes late at Osnabruck, almost all that delay being due to having to wait for our platform to become free as explained by the announcement on board. It is a two-level station, with upper platforms serving lines that run approximately west to east and lower platforms those running approximately north to south. It is not a well-signed station, particularly at the upper level. There were two directional signs near where I disembarked, one for platform 1, and another for platforms 5 and 11-14. There were no signs for escalators or lifts visible nor mention of the other platforms, to the evident distress of an elderly man of (I’d guess) Turkish origins who was travelling with two large bags. The signs both led to staircases. As I had 32 minutes for my next train (27 after delay), I descended one to arrive in the foyer. This at least had a couple of food outlets and a newsagents open, and as it was a warm close evening an orange iced lolly provided welcome refreshment.

However, it was clear that the curse of DB had struck. My train, ICE 104 whose journey had started in Switzerland, was shown as being 23 minutes late. As I had an 18-minute connection at Hamburg, it would miss my connection. As I was ware of DB’s less-than-stellar reputation for timekeeping, I had checked and knew that there was a later train, leaving Hamburg for Lubeck at 00-06 that would get me there at 00-52. I had even seen that as a fallback there was a last train running an hour later.

Matters went from bad to worse. The main departure board in the foyer continued to show ever later estimated arrival times. Checking DB’s website, it stated that there had been a problem with a preceding train. Eventually the departure board settled on an arrival time at Osnabruck of around 22-06, some 43 minutes late. If it ran to time after Osnabruck, I should just make my 00-06.
 
By 22-04 or so, platform 3 was filling with passengers for my train. As we stood there, we could see the front lights of a train to the north, but no sign of anything to the south, from where our train should be coming. Eventually it arrived at 22-13, now some 50 minutes late. My next connection was looking doubtful.

At least the ICE train has on-board passenger information signage that goes through a cycle of information screens, so I could monitor progress (or lack of it). These started off showing an arrival at Hamburg Hbf of 00-03, just three minutes to get my onward train. The helpful train manager/guard told me which way I should go from the over-bridge at Hamburg, and which end of the platform I should head for. For a few hopeful minutes the estimated arrival time slipped forward to 00-02, but then it slipped back, notwithstanding indicated running speeds of 160-197 kph to end up at 00-08, two minutes after the departure of the service to Lubeck I hoped to catch. The guard helpfully gave me a form to apply for compensation for delay, which was in both English and German. It is not a generous scheme, 25% after an -hour’s delay, 50% after two hours.

I have now found a German website (www.zugfinder.net) that gives ratings for German train services baed on punctuality. Today's score for ICE104, based on the last month's performance is 26% percent punctuality based on less than 5 minutes late being "punctual". It also shows that on neither of the two days after I travelled did the train even reach Osnabruck, being terminated beforehand.

So I arrived at Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, the city’s main station with nearly an hour to wait for my last train. It is not a good place to be after midnight. It’s not well-lit, but is still quite busy, but many are well-lubricated or down-and-out. I was approached by a beggar on the over-bridge, and the end of the platform from which the Lubeck train would depart was not under the station’s impressive looking roof. There’s also not much by way of seating, but I found an empty bench in the dry and watched You Tube on my phone to pass the time. For a while I was joined by a youth with a bleeding cut on his wrist he was attempting to staunch with one of those small packs of paper tissues they sell at station shops. Eventually, my train, a four-coach double decker arrived and I boarded to await departure. Soon after, an elderly female beggar in dirty rainwear reeking of stale tobacco entered to train and went down it seeking donations.

I finally arrived seven minutes late (01-59) at Lubeck. Thankfully, my hotel was a 10 minute walk away, and they had previously confirmed that their reception was open 24 hours a day. I was glad of my bed!
Next time…a ride on the Molli Bahn!

 
Alterations to services at Penzance
Due to a points failure at Penzance fewer trains are able to run.
Train services running to and from this station may be terminated at and started back from St Erth. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

 


It has indeed been raised before - but it's good to consider from time to time whether the current general meetings arrangements are the right ones, especially as metrics change.

There is no perfect date, location, frequency. 

Current logic is that the meetings are held in the middle of the patch - Swindon to Penzance, Bournemouth to Ashchurch, and all points between, and to be accessible (in all meanings of that wording) by public transport.  Which rather brings us to somewhere in the Taunton / Tiverton / Exeter area;  meetings have been held in Taunton and Exeter, none to my knowledge in Tiverton - I don't know that there's a suitable venue near the station there.  At Taunton there are several venues in sensible reach from the station; memories of Exeter meetings is that they have been nearer to Central than to St Davids.

Meetings are held in the middle of the day too, so that people can travel there are back home without too early a start or too late a finish; an early start means higher (peak) fares and for some who have to start off with a bus to the station or are coming from separated / awkward places (Bude, Moreton-in-Marsh, Ludgershall, Christchurch for example) it can be peak-expensive or impossible to start earlier.   Getting home similarly rules out evenings.

Now - the thorny question of "which day".   The meetings are targetted to attract multiple groupings.  The transport industry management professionals and contractors. Local and national government officers an responsible elected officials, including MPs.  Academics from travel and transport departments and think tanks.   Representatives of community and user and special interest groups. And interested independents who perhaps don't fit in to those categories such as lone or new group campaigners.   Friday - on past consideration - has been the best of an imperfect set of options.   Look at each of those groups and you would loose significant numbers of people employed and coming as part of their Monday to Friday job - and indeed for them, where they have to make a decision to come Friday sits well because is doesn't break up their week. We would love to have a time for those in employment of college on Mondays to Fridays during the working week - really love to ... However, with the meeting being primarily for user group leads / reps, they tend to have the enthusiasm and flexibility to take a couple of days off each year to come along; rather a different metric than a local user group which will tend to fall better to an evening or even at a fete at the weekend.

Virtually no thought has been given to changing frequency - annually is probably too little, quarterly too much and adds the hazard that the other meeting could hit Christmas and summer holiday issues. There have been some specialist online / Zoom / Teams event though they donut encourage the same networking and as with nearly evenything else transport there's a question of where TWSW fits and how it finances into the future.

There ... is the logic.  Like a say, it's not set in stone (for next month, it IS because of bookings and giving good notice) but I know there will be a serious TWSW board discussion before the March '26 meeting is set.  All things being equal I would getting a Friday, middle of the day, again - but any alternative suggestions, especially with your inputs as to how we might reach all the various groups, will be looked at very seriously.  And also please note that there are a lot of "regular"s - if we were to change the day / timing during the day, some would no longer b able to come (they have told us that in the past)

Edit - to add the frequency and financing paragraph


 

 
The death toll has now been adjusted to 16, according to the Portuguese Prime Minister.

From the BBC:

 
Hmm. That's an interesting question, matth1j, and it has been raised on previous occasions.

I will leave it to my boss, grahame, to answer specifically, as he is much better informed on the public meeting date and venue selection process at TravelWatch SouthWest.

CfN. 

 

Following up on that particular news story, here is an update, from the BBC:


Posted by Chris from Nailsea, with my highlighting added for emphasis. 

 

What about those of us who aren't retired?

Of course I understand it has to be in working hours, but it does make it more difficult to attend just because it sounds like a nice day out.

 
An update, from the BBC:

 
Alterations to services at Penzance
Due to a points failure at Penzance fewer trains are able to run.
Train services running to and from this station may be terminated at and started back from St Erth. Disruption is expected until 13:00 04/09.
Customer Advice
We're sorry for any disruption this brings to your travel plans today.
-
We're reducing the number of trains between St Erth and Penzance due to the decreased platform capacity at the station. Please check your journey at gwr.com/check
Additional Information
Points allow trains to switch between different tracks. When points fail, some parts of the railway can become congested or even blocked. Points can fail due to many reasons, such as debris, cold weather, or even due to the fail-safe system activating.

 

Saw the same problem and couldn't find it again on a search ... I have found

https://www.facebook.com/groups/385672148111486/?multi_permalinks=8488949487783671&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen

 

Page doesn't load - just shows "This page isn't available at the moment"

 
From the BBC:

 
Sadly, the death toll increases.

From the BBC:

 
To reassure any of our Coffee Shop forum members, who have an item they want to post but aren't sure which board to put it on, please don't let that put you off.  Post it where you think is best.

If any post is subsequently found to have a better home on a different board, one of the admin / moderator team can easily move it there - with an explanation of their reason.  I know - I have occasionally been known to move one of my own posts, when the benefit of hindsight shows that I could have put it in a more relevant place.


That's a good example: posting about 'Bath' could be equally appropriate in any one of many boards.  Please, do post, wherever you feel is best: we can always revise its location, and nothing will be deleted 'because it's in the wrong place!'

Chris from Nailsea. 

 

Don't forget Pilning!

It would make more sense to me if the existing Cardiff to Bristol (and beyond) trains were the true stopping services, and that services starting in west Wales stopped at the stations those trains stop at at the moment. And I say that as someone who does enjoy whizzing through these intermediate stations at the moment on trains that only stop at Filton Abbey Wood and Newport.

 

Fine where it is ... where a line is shared by multiple services (as in this case) or where we're talking about specific shared / interchange stations, there are multiple and equally good places to post things like this. And though we have looked, we've not found any better alternative way of arranging it.


I would suspect it's also because they're expecting a much reduce traffic to handle on a reduced number of trains and at a reduced operating cost.  I would hope that with fewer trains running, they could all be long enough to let passengers travel in a modicum of comfort.

 
From the BBC:

 

Research suggest that the last working sideponds on the British canal network were taken out of use around 2018 (I may be a year of two out). I certainly recall using them - more on principle rather that through official encouragement - in the 1980s.  New sidepound (or equivalent side water storage) have been installed recently on the new, larger locks on the Panama Canal.

 
Not sure if this should be in a different section eg Bristol area commuter services.

But it now appears the Mon-Thur (27-30 Oct) closure of Bristol-Bath has a spin off as all local stopping trains Bristol-Filton Abbey Wood are suspended too.

Seems some local trains in Westbury-Bath area have also been withdrawn during the works.  (Probably because East facing bay platform at Bath Spa was deemed never required during disruption so is nowadays trackless).

 
Thursday September 4

 


I've done some more 'dredging', and I've found that the BBC have previously used that same image to 'illustrate' their news stories about, for example, the Trent and Mersey Canal and the Oxford Canal.

It seems to be yet another use of a 'stock picture' to illustrate any 'canal story'. 

 
Another attractive quality, the venue's built on the tail of the site of the first of the Grand Western Canal's boat lifts, a not entirely successful structure which survived, out of use, long enough to be recorded on a 1:500 Ordnance Survey town plan.

Surprisingly, west of the venue, canal era masonry survives almost as far as the approach to the long vanished aqueduct that took it across what became Station Road. Unfortunately no photographs survive of these relics.

Mark

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=19.2&lat=51.02205&lon=-3.10262&layers=117746211a&b=GoogleSat&o=100

 
I think it's the case that depending on how it's operated, a staircase lock doesn't consume more water than two locks with the same fall arranged sequentially. Also, the staircase had sideponds which mitigates the water consumption.

i'm now wondering if there are locks anywhere on the system with both working sideponds and the expectation that they be used.

Mark

 
Hmm. 

I'm reminded of a rather scurrilous suggestion, many years ago: RAIB means, 'Reporting About It, Belatedly'.

"You may very well think that: I couldn't possibly comment." 


(That is a comment from me personally, not from the Administrator / Moderator team here on the Coffee Shop forum. CfN.)

 

Not just you - I was disappointed too ...

 

The Aylesbury arm... with ambitions to reach Abingdon and thereby bypass the horribly obstructive and influential Thames Commissioners, who duly slaughtered said ambitions...

Mark

 

I did get a little frustrated by this; surprised/impressed by the speed the RAIB had apparently worked at, I eagerly clicked the "preliminary examination" and "safety digest" links to find they just took me to pages telling me what those phrases meant, the actual safety digest itself understandably not likely to be ready for some time yet.  Is it just me, or could that paragraph in the RAIB press release have been more helpfully worded?