I suspect it wouldn't be acceptable to people travelling on the 16:30 and 17:00 expresses to Bath and Bristol, which would (I suspect) get delayed behind the 16:22 and 16:49 if they had extra stops.


Agreed, but then again after refits which leave close pitch seating and very little luggage space indeed, you could argue they're no longer designed [just] for long runs only!

I came across one of these while browsing and thought I would look and see what else is a bit unusual in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).   Have I missed anything really special?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-23811312

http://old.towerstimes.co.uk/attractions/transport/monorail.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-23808317

http://www.hovertravel.co.uk/about-the-hovercraft.php

http://www.sandtoft.org.uk/index.html

http://www.lartiguemonorail.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11417063

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2013/04/22/400753/

http://www.sandbanksferry.co.uk/

http://www.waverleyexcursions.co.uk/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-guernsey-14589154

http://www.cairngormmountain.org/funicular-railway-panel/

http://www.hiremytandem.co.uk/

We seems to have solved the adhesion to pull problem for passenger trains of various length by using powered vehicles along the length of the train which also carry the passengers. Perhaps the next generation of freight train will follow the same solution, thus keeping the pull to weight ratio pretty much the same no matter how long the train is. 

We went from locomotive hauled trains from Paddington (I'm told - it was before I got involved in these parts) to trains with locomotives at both ends, and we're moving on to units with traction distributed throughout in the case of 10 car trains.    Freight's a bit behind - we've moved from locomotive at the front to locomotive at both ends in many cases, and the next step seems logical, doesn't it?

and ...


I've know about the time change for a while, but the reason is a bit of a surprise. 

On a regular Saturday, the Westbury - Swindon train gets into Swindon at around 15:50, and then forms a train via Kemble to Cheltenham Spa.  An earlier train from Cheltenham Spa via Kemble forms the 15:22 to Westbury.   I had assumed, incorrectly it seems from the above report, that the delay to the down train was so that the same set could be used for both trains during the Kemble blockade - "retimed for OPERATION CONVENIENCE" as might be written elsewhere 

Do they really mean "engineering works between Westbury and  Swindon", or it done to let a work train from Westbury to Swindon, of which there are plenty at the moment, through from Bradford Junction to Thingley?

Agreed as well, but there are times that you really need to know your rights to avoid being out of pocket ... and you aren't going to be informed otherwise by the system.   For example, I travelled on the 18:00 off Paddington on Saturday and there was an announcement that "ONLY Advance tickets with reservations for the 18:00 train will be accepted on this service.   If you are travelling with an advance ticket for any other train you will have to pay the fare as if you did not have a ticket".  Sound reasonable until you consider Mr and Mrs Brown who are travelling on advance tickets from Beccles to Bath, and go held up by an hour when their train from Beccles got delayed at Saxmundham due to a passenger being taken ill ... as they're not regular travellers, I can quite imagine them following the instructions given by the railway employee - the conductor - and looking to claim back via thetrainline through whom they had booked to get a great deal 

From Which?

http://conversation.which.co.uk/transport-travel/compensation-for-train-delays-national-rail-vouchers/?

If anyone's new / missed seeing my wife (Lisa) and I on TV when we appeared in January and wonders what we sound and look like, there's another chance to see us on More4 (it's on free view and many packages) on Sunday 1st September.


We visit Chick and Jason at Knock Castle at 14:40
We visit Jo and George in Barton House at 15:15
Other contestants visit us at Well House Manor in Melksham at 15:50
And we visit Ben and Keri at Applewood Glamping at 16:20
Finally, it's payment day at  16:50

Almost nothing to do with trains and travel ... expect we had quite a bit of train travel when we recorded the show!

And from journey check


I'm scratching my head when the bus runs ... I suspect you can't trust everything you read 

On Saturday I found a huge poster on the platform at Chippenham - the final version rather than the prelim one that is shown twice in the booking office.   I was last at Melksha station last Friday, nothing there on that day.   And I was in Trowbridge this morning.   An A4 sign in the booking office tells of the changes:



Hugely better than nothing - it provides the information needed, and at the point people will buy their tickets for the train. 

Also - really nice to see the station flower planters looking so good

They don't, though ...


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b06a7f6e-0440-11e3-8aab-00144feab7de.html#axzz2cddsTTYD


https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/environment-and-planning/planning/development-and-population-information/employment-and-visitors/Documents/DP_PL_CityofLondonWorkforceTravelSectionCInternet[1].pdf

The City data is old, but it's not going to have gone down by 75%!    That report also show you where people commute from.     For every 1 who commutes to Docklands, 3 commute into the City itself.   Now - how many go to Westminster ...

As a general point, rush hour trains fill up quickly.

A service that calls at each station on a 10 station line during the day (Off peak), picking up an average of 40 passengers at each of them, reaches London with 400 people.    A similar stopping pattern in the peak, where 100 people would joint at each station, would reach London with 1000 on board - a significant problem if there was only space for 600.   Each train is expensive to operate and people want fast journeys; sometimes the solution is to have some faster services with fewer stops to increase overall capacity.   You will note occasional trains which don't even call at Reading.

As the linked page points out, how very appropriate for Shrub Hill. I wonder what Flowery Fields is like ...

Two months on ... almost all of our regular visitors have reset their passwords and the visitor pattern from Googl Analytics looks pretty stable.   This graph is daily visitors from the start of the year, and you can see the blip where the site was moved to a different server without the preplanning that would have made it seamless.



Posting graphs are (and always were) erratic - we have a lot of regular readers and posters, but posters are minded to contribute only if they see a specific topic of interest to them, and that correlation between users makes trends almost impossible to spot over a short term.

There are - perhaps - three of four members (no more) who were quite active prior to the move, but haven't come back since.   If you're one of those and now reading as a guest because you can't get your password reset for some reason, please get in touch by email - I'm graham@wellho.net and I can probably get you contributing again within a short time - we miss you 

Hi, Hugo and welcome to the forum .. it will indeed  be interesting to see where we are in 50 years.  I fear that some of the lines you mention are going to work out to be more from the heart than the head (and I have a heart too);  some are well blocked and would be very hard to re-open and others my have alternatives that would be more practical - for example Cirencester from Kemble, giving a much more frequent service than a re-opened Midland and South West Junction.

I notice "FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Huge" as your user name. To clarify it for us, do you work for FGW [and post representing their views (I think I can work the answer to that one out from your post  ) ] or did you make that choice of name because you're an admirer?