ITV news last night was reporting that the car-on-track closed the line and inconvenienced thousands of commuters getting to work.    At first I thought the number was a bit over the top - but perhaps we are approaching 1000 journeys a day now on the trains that pass thought Melksham.   Say 250 journeys at Melksham, twice that number passing through, and a significant number making Swindon <-> Chippenham and Trowbridge <-> Westbury journeys.

With the "local plan" for Wiltshire thrown out, we are likely to see a building environment in which the NPPF and the Neighbourhood Plan provide the guidance framework for planning once the core plan expires, and it's predicted that this will bring a great deal more housing even than was outlined in the local plan.  Taken forward with a reliable, all day every day train services in conjunction with buses that connect with trains in addition to meeting other transport needs that don't involve a rail "leg", we may well be up to those thousands by the end of this decade, and then grow beyond.

 
18/03/2026  (It's been a while since this thread carried news.  Something of a record in terms of recent performance)

 

Good to see that stupidity is still widely available

 

Something good about the sound of "Holt Halt"  or "Holt Halte"

 
The date is on the page , it’s found by clicking on the add to calendar button,carefully hidden behind the  beware of the leopard signs!!

 
I'd need to answer: 'It depends'. I've not been on one since 2018, and that was by then the perennially-defective-at-the-edges angloscottish sleeper stock and the defects rather disrupted the mindset that's needed of 'Sleep wiith a few wakes that are nothing to worry about.'

On the west country sleeper this can be dreaming that one is actually standing upright on a bed that's now mounted vertically on the wall - but then one thinks "Oh yes, the Crofton bends, nothing to worry about".

Or, carriage detaching noises, locomotives, and wakening to think - 'Ah, Edinburgh. That's the Inverness portion, poor people who have to get up at silly o'clock to move their touring bikes from the other part of the train to the Fort William portion. I should wake up again in a bit to see a glimpse of the view from the back-after-50-years Airdrie to Bathgate line'.

Or, the Aberdeen sleeper, waking up repeatedly at the continuous, aggressive and frankly ominously dangerous sound from the loco and thinking 'Yes, Alycidon - an odd choice of loco for a sleeper train'.

Earlier still, the sleeper service between Liverpool and Euston - sleeping straight through, waking up at the terminus convinced that the journey hasn't happened at all and being thoroughly surprised at being in a completely different city to the one in which I went to bed.

Mark

 
I am not sure my vote carries much statistical weight!

Normally I find it difficult to sleep in any moving vehicle or plane.  The only time I have used sleeper trains was nearly 40 years ago in India, when I surprised myself by how well I slept on overnight journeys from Agra to Madras/Chennai, and Vasco da Gama (Goa) to Bombay/Mumbai.  Indian cities were undergoing their renaming at the time.

 
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/travel/caledonian-sleeper-releases-soothing-train-36859967#Echobox=1773360970


I looked ASMR up ...

 

I couldn't see anything except the speaker's name, time (not date!) venue and cost on the page linked.  Good example of a page that has either not been thought through by its author, or is not intended to stand in isolation as a landing page.

It's by Bob Tinker and costs £2 for members and £4 for others, at 14:30 what I have worked out to be this afternoon.   Whether it is just seaside piers, or includes piers that support various bridges, and when it will be followed by part 2, I know not.

 

 
Not sure if it might be just about piers in W-S-M,or other locations around the U.K.

https://westonmuseum.org/event/friends-of-the-museum-talk-british-piers-part-1/

 
At Cardiff Bay Station today it seems that the works on the rather spacious new entrance is coming on so here's a photo I took. 
The old platform is yet to come back into use and it looks like completion is more months than weeks away going by the current rate of progress and off course, the tram platform has yet to be started at some point in the future.

 
Passing through Temple Meads, I noticed that the (very) gradual refurbishment of the former Bonaparte's cafe/bar has taken another modest step forward with new wooden herringbone flooring so I took this pic.
I also noticed that most of the "boxes" on the platforms from the roof refurb have now gone, save for a few at the far southern end of the station.

 

Anyone else out there hoping that the dreaded RingGo follow them soon?

 
Some have wondered how some multi-storey car-parks will cope with the extra weight of SUVs  (which may partly be the cause of so many pot-holes).

 

Before my time (just), but apparently it was only ever called Holt Junction. Seems like a missed opportunity nonetheless!

 
Out on the bike this morning passed 175002, immediately north of Starcross, exhibiting an impressive turn of speed. As above running to time on the 2C20 EXD > PNZ.

 
 

A whole series of these - excellent to get train services back on track rather than a car on the track. 

Good to see that that contingency was in place for later services, though proved to be un-needed;  one of the cases where cancellation notices that are revoked are a good approach.

 
NCP seem to have lots of multi-story car parks in city centres, that are of the 1950s and 1960s design, often with other businesses in the ground floors.    Many of these concrete car parks have very tight spaces by modern (fatter) car standards.

Last time I used one of these (in Nottingham) it seemed to be really unpopular and run down, and required careful manoeuvring to park, so I can see why many prefer other car parks that are more modern, better lit, with working lifts, and bigger ramps and spaces.

 

It is GWR territory. I think you mean 'halte'. 

 
The rot probably set in when all those German engineered parking areas in our inner cities started to get built on. I have memories of lots of NCP sites in London in my youth.

 
What that quote doesn't say is that there are only two access points - via the low-level station or the vehicle access drive. all other access points are staying closed as are all the retail points too

 
I'd just assumed they owned all their sites; I wonder how much debt they are carrying too?

 
Some feel that they are entitled enough that the general rules don't apply to them more like.

 

 

It's brought railway services to a halt. 

 

So someone who is clearly well au-fait with travel and health issues, then ... and obviously a good communicator as she got her views very clearly across to the staff involved.    But then, perhaps, we can all snap and perhaps some try to push the system for their nearest and dearest.

 

From Wiltshire 999

 
A couple of points having looked at Wilmslow Railway Station via Online Maps:

'Police were called to the station which has received complaints online over a lack of free short stay parking close to the main entrance due to 'aggressive' cab drivers 'hogging the drop off area.'
Maps - dated 2026 - clearly shows segregated Taxi & Drop-Off zones at the front of the station (the boundaries of which need repainting); if this is really that much of an issue start issuing PCN's to transgressors. Hitting people in their wallets generally solves stuff like this.

...Waring said her mother had 'severe mobility issues' and she parked her car temporarily in the restricted area of the station to help the elderly lady climb the steps to the platform.
Maps also quite clearly shows an accessible ramp leading from the main car park to the station concourse. Perhaps the signage is not good enough.

 

It will be interesting to see how it works in practice.  The Camp Hill line has been a useful quieter line that has been available to Cross Country trains, except those calling at University, when they would conflict (by timetable or by delay) with local trains.

Some Cross Country trains ... from what I see ... have generous pauses at Bristol Temple Meads and at Birmingham New Street.  Part of that is, I'm sure, because of the very large passenger turnover at those stations as the regional passengers are dominant over the very long distance ones, but it also means that the trains can get stuck behind a local service all the way from Barnt Green to Five Ways, yet still be on time into Waverley.