I reflect that Electric Train might be having his Christmas this year rather than in the thick of the chaos planned engineering work.

 
Remember that significant sums connected with the project do not include rail infrastructure but are assigned to public realm enhancements (streets and pavements of a tarted up variety). This restricts the amounts available.

 

It is - and a favourite country of mine. Planning to be going that way in 2026.


Correct - now known as Lanyon Place

 
From the small amount of writing visible, I think 7 must be Slovenia, a country I have never visited but is definitely high up on my intend to list.

 
27. Northern Ireland, and with an Enterprise train stopped in the platform that narrows it down to Newry, Portadown or Belfast. By process of elimination, it can’t be either of the first two, and it’s not Grand Central in Belfast, so I’ll say Belfast Central (before it was closed)

 

both correct.   Tonder was supposed to catch you out too, as that's the international train service run from Germany into Denmark that's shown on the picture.

I am happy to confirm answers that are just the country ... half mark for a correct answer.

 
From a Facebook post concerning Cynghordy  where the bus now calls (according to a comment) on the main road.


In the Great Western area, Avoncliff has become almost as bad - with the rail replacement buses calling in Westwood, some distance from the station and the walk to the bus is a significant uphill along a road under the trees that's very slippery in leaf fall season.   Are there any other stations where the RRB calls only a significant distance away?

 

Yes, I fear that this large batch are a big ask; the one-per-country limit is not much help and anyway a lot of the trains have indicative writing on them. Getting to closer than what country will still call for extra knowledge or inspiration, in most cases. But these -
8. Tønder, Denmark
19. Place Fort la Tour, New Brunswick, Canada
have the place written on them, if you peer closely enough.

 

You are correct - in the location, the country and the relaxation.   We are not going to run out of places to have identified even if you identify two or three (more).

 
Since the usual 24-hour rule appears to have been relaxed for today’s quiz, I shall take the liberty of offering 12. Manulla Junction, Republic of Ireland

 
I hope it goes ahead, but don't see it as being much use for us personally. Still need to get to Taunton or Tiverton P for inter-city services. The bus is easy and convenient for most people going to Taunton from the west and north of the town centre. Why can't the Tiverton to Taunton bus stop at the Parkway, surely the added time would be worth it? For Exeter we drive and park - or get dropped off - at Tiverton Parkway or even go down the M5 to Honiton Road Park and Ride, as driving into and parking in Exeter is expensive and a crawl.
And we now have a elephant in the room that Swallowfield have announced they plan to move production away from the old station site up to Scotland. Whilst the thought of losing a major employer is horrible, the only positive could be a much more centrally located station, with the space for reintroducing platform loops should capacity be constricted on the 2 line railway.

 

As a Lancastrian, I appreciate the independent attitudes and aspirations of those east of the Penines and north of the Humber and Aire.  However, for this quiz I have treated that area as a part of England.

 
Edit applied to my York entry....

 
Thinking of the morning walk, Graham and I bailed out in favour of a bus back to Stroud, the last length of the canal we walked, above Brimscombe Port, was a stretch of towpath and on the opposite bank the site of the boatbuilding activities at The Bourne.

Here's a newspaper article written by another 'Ellis', covering a bit of the history of the works there.

Mark


https://stroudtimes.com/the-unlikely-story-of-brimscombes-boatyard/

 

You have a correct country, but it's not one of the biggest cities - a place with a population only slightly higher than Bath.   In the run up to Christmas, with 30 places each of which has two levels of answers, please feel free to post some further ones.

Kircaldy, York and Barry identified correctly - though no-one told me Scotland. England and Wales.   France correctly identiied and, yes,  Perigueux.    And Budapest, Hungary and Regau in Portugal.

 
14 - although I am currently on a potential hat-trick of wrong conclusions, I'm going to put Rotterdam Centraal forward for this one.

There's one or two more where I think I have add idea....

 
The number 16 bus runs down Avon Street then onto Feeder Road, which is probably about as close as anything will get to serving the new eastern entrance of  Temple Meads, although as more residential blocks are built on St Phillips and the new secondary school opens it seems likely that new services will be provided.

The southern entrance pick up/drop off zone will be useful for many living south of the river who currently have to go up to St Mary Redcliffe and loop back.

I seem to recall a plan that taxis would be removed from the approach and it would be pedestrianized, is that no longer the case?

 
Also the value of through trains pls.

Mark

 
30. Barry

 

The word "Chaos" had appeared in 1667 posts across 710 threads over the years ... here are some other counts

Delayed - 8890 posts in 2475 threads
Cancelled - 6275 posts in 1046 threads
Chaos - 1667 posts in 710 threads

Fare - 22445 posts in 5122 threads
Timetable - 16766 posts in 4310 threads
Connection - 9531 posts in 3588 threads
Environment - 2989 posts in 1474 threads
Catering - 3991 posts in 764 threads

Which rather confirmed to me the importance of connections

 
Watch on the BBC website as a boat is swallowed by the hole.....

 
1W13 06:52 London Paddington to Great Malvern (09:29) (set 802 022) was obviously ill.
It departed Oxford +10, but was further delayed between there and Wolvercote (+72). Indeed, it was overtaken by 1W15 07:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern.
1W13 arrived Worcester Shrub Hill +87 and was cancelled thereafter.

1P20 09:56 Great Malvern to London Paddington was started from Worcester Shrub Hill (+17) and arrived +21.

1W02 1152 London Paddington to Hereford (14:44) : Oxford +9, arrived Great Malvern +21 and was cancelled thereafter.


This train is due out of Great Malvern at 15:55. "Full and standing" at 14:25?

 
OFF TOPIC ALERT.
In my previous to previous occupation, we discharged product oil just North of Istanbul, then back out into the Meddi Sea.
Going back down the Bosporus Strait (compulsory pilotage and single line traffic), our Old Man (Captain) found it quite amusing that we headed a long line of outgoing ships.
Right behind us was a Russian Warship, and all those in our line confined to our top speed of around 11 knots.
Guaranteed the Russians would have liked to 'get a move on'.

 
I think you only have to look at many of the topic headings in several of the boards on the Coffee Shop forum to see that 'chaos on the railways' has been ongoing for many years now ... 

 


Having checked the "Onward Travel Information" poster at Melksham, passengers should proceed to the rail replacement stop on Station Approach, as the rail replacement buses do not call in the car park as described on the poster. 

 
Here's the running for the last fortnight, weekdays





In the absence of any official answer, what the **** is going on with the 17:35 train from Swindon - the busiest of the day?

Rumour has it that the 16:23 Westbury to Swindon and 17:35 return are rostered to a driver based in Exeter who's one of their IET drivers, and used as a route refresher turn so that (s)he knows the road via Melksham and Swindon in case or diversions.  Problems arise when the driver in question has been off that route so long it has to be relearned and (s)he can't take the train alone, or that (s)he is an IET driver who doesn't have traction knowledge for a 158 / 165 / 166 as might be in use on the Swindon train that day.

One of the questions asked at the Central Timetable Briefing a couple of of months ago of the timetabkle planners concerned how the base timetables were built / made more robust in consideration of how things are handled on imperfect days.  The question was sidestepped at the time, and I have not really been filled in since; it rather suggest to me that ruggedness in the event of being able to handle something going wrong is not a priority.

 

Interesting thought - though with 15 ticketed passenger journeys on average per day, I wonder what the case is. Having said which for robustness of the service through Roche, if slewing would make the service more robust there could [have been/be] a stronger case.   Are there predictions for traffic growth at Roche and other intermediate stations between Par and Newquay?  Are any of them anticipated to be growth hubs to help HMG reach towards its new housing targets??

 
Just a thought brought about seeing pictures of the flooding at Roche on the Newquay branch.

With all the money being thrown at this metro idea, I would have thought, in the interest of H&S, the old up platform at Roche could have been rebuilt and the track slewed slightly and therefore negating the need for passengers to cross the track via the barrow crossing.

 
9. Kirkcaldy

 
13: Budapest, Hungary