4th January ... those were the days when "it will open in 1954" probably meant as early as possible.  I see suggestions in other thread s of "2027" for Portishead to reopen - 12th December, anyone?

 
I am currently transcribing various online diary engagements into the excellent bound A4 and 'steam train' wall calendar versions which I was given, as very welcome Christmas presents.

As part of that process, I have clarified the topic heading here - and I do commend this event. I have every intention of attending - although, in previous years, Covid19 lockdown, my own (unrelated) medical issues and significant last-minute train disruption have caused me to 'fail to appear' at the last moment.

However: this is planned to be a weekday mid-daytime meeting, at an excellent user-friendly venue, very close to the mainline railway station in Taunton.

I cannot make any promises in advance, but please do take into account that I (or indeed others) will be available to help with access to this meeting, if required.

Please do bookmark this meeting in your diaries - whether they be online, on paper or merely 'at the back of your mind'.

I will update here, nearer the date.

CfN.

 

I would imagine that within 5 years that option will probably have disappeared, along with most ticket offices.

 

Only engineering trains

 
Purely in the spirit of 'on this day', I'd like to give this topic another gentle 'bump'.

 
Very sad, out there.

From the BBC:

 
I have a senior railcard.  In the TfL world, I have added it to my Oyster card, and I know that conversely it can't be added to my bankcard: so I only use the Oyster card.

Beyond the Oyster world, I'm trying to work out whether I would want to use contactless, and I'm coming round to the idea that the answer for practical purposes is no, though I haven't found a definitive answer.  All I have found is a suggestion that currently the answer is sometimes no:

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/tickets-railcards-and-offers/buying-a-ticket/pay-as-you-go-with-contactless/

I'm only an occasional traveller so I think I'll just stick with buying tickets in the same way as I have always done.

 
Sounds like my kind of day out.  Travelling solo and free to change plans on the hoof, as it were.

Regarding the canopies at Chippenham.   A lot of them were removed last summer after concern at the amount of corrosion in the metalwork holding them up.  Network Rail do plan to replace them when funds allow.   I am not sure if they are still there, but the removed woodwork was neatly stacked at the country end of the disused platform.

 
Part 3 - Homeward Bound.  The timetable suggested buses home from Glastonbury Town Hall at 14:14, 14:44, 15:14 and final bus of the day at 15:44 - but as I walked down Glastonbury High Street towards the Town Hall, one passed my headed where I wanted to go, at around 14:30.  Odd - 15 minutes late, perhaps?

This was where I felt the real lack of a tracker - no way to know what was going on / whether the 14:44 would be on time.  I got to the designated stop for the 14:44 some 5 to 10 minutes before it was due.  The Town Hall clock suggested I had 15 minutes to wait - turns out to have been significantly slow (can't rely even on official clocks these days!).  The bus stop looked uncared for; some dusty posters including departures of 373, 374, 375 and 376 to Bristol no indication of different routes, and three columns of data - "Monday to Friday", "Saturday" and "Sunday and Bank Holidays".  Times clear enough.

A chap with a small (day) rucksack comes along and looks at the Sunday column, and I take it upon myself to tell him that the only bus running today is the heritage bus; he thanks me for the information I give him from the Facebook page I had printed before the trip. "That will do then"; I ask him if he wants to get back from Wells, and when he confirms that he does I tell him that last bus is 15:05 - leaving before he will get there.  He decides to postpone his trip to the next day.

A lady with a large double buggie and two children running around comes and looks at the timetable. Again, I take it upon myself to tell her that it's only the heritage bus today.  She thinks - "Oh good - that will be an adventure for them". By that time, the bus going the other way to Street had passed, on time at 14:53, and I knew it was the same vehicle due to return at 15:14.  "Will I be able to get the buggie on" she asked nervously - "I really don't want to have to walk all the way back up to the top of town".  I re-assured her that there probably would be no level access, but I'm sure a way would be found.

And indeed - at 15:14 - up rolls the bus.  Steps up!  For, I suspect, the first time in its life the pushchair is folded, lifted up, and stacked awkwardly in the luggage, with the driver asking it not lean against the window.  Mum, sheepdog-like encourages her two little lambs onto the bus, we grab seats and off we go. Conductress comes along with a box of sweets. (Why can't we have sweets given out to passengers on our local bus).  But then "how do I stop the bus to get off" and I suggest having a word with the conductress who's standing with the driver.  Mum goes up, asks for her stop by name and I hear a slightly tetchy comment from the driver "I don't known the route - you'll have to tell me where that is". And indeed she does, bus stops, mum and children get off.

It's very interesting to observe that even with prior publicity from bus operators, there were multiple assumption they were running - and that was just one stop.  Others were looking for regular buses at Bristol before we left, and also at Wells bus station.  Probably a pattern the region over!



15:14 back to Wells - "Everyone off - we terminate here" at 15:29 ... and it turns out to be the same vehicle at 15:47 for Bristol.  Different crew.  And a pretty much uneventful run, getting dark along the way.  Arrived 16:45 - so about 15 late - at the bottom of Temple Meads station approach; not sure why we late - probably the older bus being driven gently; no great issue as I came towards the final part of the journey.

---

My plan had been to catch the 17:00 to Chippenham, arrive around 17:30, change to the 17:50 to Melksham, arrive 18:00.  I had already noted than the following option - change at Trowbridge - was bustituted from Trowbridge and I was not keen on that option, as waiting around at an unstaffed station for rail replacement isn't my idea of fun.

But then, due to a safety check at Oldfield Park, the 17:00 was going to run without calls at Bath and Chippenham, and it was far from clear to me that the train via Trowbridge would actually be running, and if it did whether the rail replacement bus would be caught.  No Faresaver buses from Bath to Melksham on New Year's day - so no safety net.



A mixture of broken down train and lack of staff reasons were being given for the Swindon to Westbury shuttles being cancelled - and indeed the 17:50 connection I wanted from Chippenham had also just flashed up "cancelled" on journey check as the bus reached Bristol.  So - plan "D" or was it "E"? - the 17:00 nonstop to Swindon, then the 18:44 to Melksham - still running and a physically different train to the one broken down, 19:10 into Melksham and a lot more assured than a dubious train and a bus/taxi that was only due in about 19:00 anyway.

I asked the guy on the BRI gateline for his advice, and the look it up and suggested train to Trowbridge and train to Melksham.  I queried this, as I understood it to be a bus from Trowbridge and he looked again and confirmed that to be the case.  I asked him if I could go via Swindon and he confirmed that I could; I pointed out my ticket was "via Bath Spa" but he assured me it would be accepted via Swindon in the circumstances. 

And so I joined the 17:00 - "this train will not call at Bath Spa or Chippenham this evening".  We pulled out a couple of minutes late.  On board announcement -"sorry we're a couple of minutes late, but a late change of plan, we're going via Bath and Chippenham after all". Further announcement as we approached Bath - "sorry we're been running a bit slower than normal - but we've been on the other track that's normally used for trains headed to Bristol". And indeed we crossed over, normal platform at, no-one got off (I wonder why!) but some go on. And so on to Chippenham.

At Chippenham ... screen shown 17:50 to Westbury cancelled (and also the 17:37 to Taunton cancelled which would have been alternative for Trowbridge and beyond via a change at Bath).  Once 17:37 had passed, the display changed to show the first train, cancelled, being the Westbury, and there was an announcement that "The 17:50 to Westbury has been cancelled and your next fastest train is the 19:00 from platform 1".  Nothing incorrect there - 19:00 WAS the next train - but no suggestion made to seek assistance if you didn't want to wait for over an hour.



I went over to the gateline - manned with two staff in addition to the dispatcher on the platform - and asked for their advise for Melksham. They are clearly well used to this. Another couple waiting too.  Taxi came in from Trowbridge - must have been substituted for the train due in the other direction at 16:48, and the driver stated that his instructions were to go on to Swindon and then return vi Chippenham and Melksham to Trowbridge. Staff pointed out that he wasn't carrying anyone and some trains were running to Swindon so he could turn round, but he declined; I think he carried on as he had been booked.  Another taxi arrived, this time a local Chippenham one ordered by the GWR central team, and after checking that it was after 17:50, us three passengers got in and we were taken to Melksham - arrival 18:14 at the station.  With all that was going on, not too bad an outcome. 

For locals to Melksham, I was amused that the driver's Satnav took him down Dunch Lane and then Southbrook road to get him to the station. And I was please to see that he stopped at the station and checked on the platform for onward passengers to Trowbridge.  Being a Bank Holiday and on the meter, GWR will be invoiced for £44.25 just for that one leg. I don't know how much the other couple had paid but they were on their way home from Bath / usually bus users and I suspect the man had gone along to support his wife who had to work the day. My ticket from Melksham - Melksham to Avonmouth off peak return with disabled rail card - had cost me £8.70, and I suspect the couple had each paid £10.70 for an undiscounted off peak return, so that taxi fare alone put GWR into a loss. Shows the cost of rail replacement; but really GWR should have enough train crew and enough operational trains to make this sort of thing a rarity!



In Summary - 3 trains, 4 bus rides (3 different vehicles), one rail replacement taxi.  15 minutes late into Melksham.  Many "state of public transport" experiences shared above, many learning points; while some were specific to New Years Day, others certainly were not.

 
Hmm.

At no stage in this BBC report, nor associated local news reports, is there any explanation as to why those sausage rolls had been consigned to the food waste bin.

If they were 'outside date', no excuses - even homeless charities wouldn't want them.

 

That's how the admin / moderator team seems to work very well, here on the Coffee Shop forum.

Graham does the (to me, scary) 'back of house' work on the servers and databases, and I do the rather easier 'front of house' work on splitting, moving and merging topics.

To reiterate: if anyone has an issue with posts I've moved or merged (they won't have been deleted!), please do contact me - details are all available in my profile here.

Chris from Nailsea. 

 
From a quote within one of my previous posts on this subject:


If I were a professional diver, looking down into that swirling mass, I too would be politely reluctant to enter that floodwater, venturing into the unknown.

CfN.

 
From The BBC

 

I confess to enjoying both the technical challenge of updating all of our pages as seamlessly as possible, and of explaining it.

Going quite well - here is a log of 25 seconds of requests for flow pages a couple of minutes ago


So that is - already 3 cached, 4 pages newly generated and when called up again will come from the cache, and 3 pages where the requester was a robot and it was asked to try again later.  There are no tic_busy lines which is what would be logged (and was sometimes in the first hour or two) if the worker could not cope. 

tic_cached will become a far higher proportion over coming hours and days as our receptionist says "someone asked me that earlier, and here is the answer"

 
For the canals, that's the equivalent of the 2014 Dawlish sea wall railways incident.

 
Thanks, TaplowGreen.

I am a self-avowed Luddite - I don't understand how the new technology works, so I'm inclined to distrust it.  However, my home IT department (daughter) has shown me how it works, and I have begun to trust it.

Agreed, contactless is the future for rail - and bus - travel.  I am becoming a fan, once I begin to understand it.  Contactless provides an audit trail, electronically, as to which 'ticket' was used where.  This is better than a 'paper trail' of manual tickets, which can be rather more difficult to replicate, in case of any dispute, for example.

CfN.

 
That's exactly how I would have explained it. 

 
Do any freight trains run on Christmas or Boxing days?

 
Part 2 - And so onward ... from the bus station in Wells on the Lodekka that claimed to be the "23A to Imber" but really was headed for Street via Glastonbury.  Ticket, free of charge, issued by the conductress as we joined this back entrance bus.  Big step up - these were vehicles from before the days of universal access and that's probably why they can't make it a chargeable public service.  Lovely old bus - seems to be in better condition and cleaner than modern ones.  Old feature like cigarette stubbers remain. Bus dates, I think I saw, from 1959. Not full, but pleasantly enough room for everyone.





Glastonbury was on my list of places to (re)visit after many years, Street less so so I bailed at the Town Hall - don't think anyone else got off or on; very much a bus on this leg of the journey for the ride. 

Like at Wells, I decided not to spend money looking around the Abbey; something for a different time of year, and on a more relaxed schedule.  Plan was an hour in Glastonbury, looking in shop windows and taking in the Bohemian vibes of the place.  The organic food supermarket.  The clothes shops for the camping and outdoor life.   The tarot card readers, the witchcraft shop and the natural birthing centre.   Many of the things we lack in Melksham, even though Melksham has twice the population.











Glastonbury Tor is a conical hill about a mile from the town, set in the Somerset Levels.  I climbed the 500 feet via the "back way" - public footpath from the town to the roofless tower of St Michael's church on the top.  It's so steep that there are steps, and the even then the path needs to zigzag back and forth as it wraps around the hill.

Not really much "public transport" connection here.  I met a Scotsman from London as we walked up, both stopping to admire the view and recover our breaths. I asked him how he came to be in Glastonbury.  "How did you get here?"  "I drove - wouldn't trust public transport" and he looked at me as if I was wildly brave by doing so. "Too unreliable" he told me.





The top of Glastonbury Tor is lovely - and was also crowded out crowded - to the extent that it reminded me of pictures I've seen of Ayers Rock where the public have now been restricted / banned because of wear.    And this was 1st January - I don't think it's a "special" day there, and certainly not the holiday season. Many people probably local - lots of families.  But also a noticeable load of accents which suggested to me that there are many people around who were not raised locally.



Back down the "front way" - standing aside to let people up, and faster people downhill pass.  Everyone very positive.  I did wonder as we got towards the bottom whether everyone would have time to get up and back before dark, but I am aware there's a full moon at present.



There sheer numbers of people and - I suspect - I was the only one to arrive in Glastonbury that day by public transport and walk up to the Tor - says volumes to me.   The car park at the bottom of the tour was jammed and doing a roaring trade at £4 (3 hours) or £6 (all day) and the coffee van was doing a roaring trade to warm up people as they came off the hill.   I walked on into town - other pedestrians traffic down to a handful again.  Journey home post to follow.

 

The caution is reasonable in that the divers don't know what they will find.    The use of the words "even if" suggests to me that the divers might not even be booked to come and take a look!!

 
From the BBC

 
It's a pity we're seeing these glitches as contactless is definitely the future for rail travel.

 
Latest update;

We are working with Network Rail to re-open the line. The water levels have now dropped and Network Rail will need to inspect the bridges to make sure that the flooding has not caused any damage to the bridge structures.
As parts of the bridges below the water level need to be inspected, specialist divers are required but none are immediately available. Even if divers are available on Monday 5th January 2026, it is quite possible that the line may not be safe to reopen. Please check your journey as updates to the service may be made at short notice.

 

Signalling centres, electrical control rooms, route control etc are all staffed over Christmas.  The number of staff working will be small, larger if engineering trains are operating, also when systems testing / commission is being carried out.

 

Ticket Flow data has become available and was uploaded overnight.  If you visit a URL such as https://www.passenger.chat/MKM.html you will see the comparison back to the year 2018/19 (the last full year before covid)  of the station, split down by destination.

Please bear in mind that this is significant new data and some 25,000 pages are being generated when first asked for from a database of just under 10 million individual flows, and when a particular result is first asked for there is a noticeable lag from the server.   The search engines are already indexing these amended pages and until our cache is substantively refreshed, the load on our pair of servers will be significant and you may see slow running - my guesstimate is that this will take a couple of days to fix itself.