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166
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Major Disruption at Winchester 12/13 November 2014
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on: November 13, 2014, 20:46:56
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....and a bit more detail from the SW Trains website: Disruption to trains between Basingstoke and Winchester expected until the end of service today
Multiple track circuit failures occurred late yesterday evening and a specialist team joined our engineering team to investigate the problem. Work was carried out to replace multiple elements of the equipment to rectify the problem, but unfortunately this was not successful. The work has continued overnight and today to find the fault and will carry on until this has been repaired. Several modules and specialist equipment are being tested on site and will be replaced until we have repaired problem affecting the line. This will take some time to resolve. Sounds quite serious  If in doubt replace things until they work again I guess?  |
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167
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All across the Great Western territory / Looking forward - after Coronavirus to 2045 / Re: IEP - Capacity shortfall or plenty of seats?
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on: November 13, 2014, 13:45:26
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Gloucester/Cheltenham:
The route sees a healthy 25% increase in London seats, due to the direct train service frequency increasing to hourly from one every two hours, though this is partly tempered by the removal of the shuttle service to Swindon which also carries plenty of London passengers.
Always seems to be a large flow of passengers connecting at Swindon for Cheltenham Spa. Always a rush for the 13:38 where passengers are connecting from (I assume) is the arrival on platform 4 from Paddington just before.  |
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170
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All across the Great Western territory / Fare's Fair / Re: Railcard commencement date
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on: November 07, 2014, 13:46:42
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What I would add about the photos, in the past I've had some passport photos handy that I've scanned and printed out with an online photo service (8 or so "up" on each glossy 6" x 4" print). They've been useful for membership cards, rail photocards etc. where I assume the requirements aren't as strict (c.f. expensive) as say, the passport office (in any case, they've been accepted without question).
Equally a digital camera, some photo editing software and a colour printer/decent photo paper would do the job.
I don't know what those booths charge now, probably a small fortune.
A small fortune in pound coins specifically, usually. |
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171
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Journey by Journey / London to the Cotswolds / Re: Slipping and sliding in the Cotswolds
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on: November 07, 2014, 13:42:41
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Another area where RTT» doesn't appear to cope is when a train is diverted en route. There doesn't appear to be the facility to record that it is now going a completely different way.
That is a problem for other systems like the CIS▸ . If a train from the West is booked to run via the Berks & Hants but is sent via Melksham and Swindon at the last minute the system "loses" it at Westbury and after the default 10 minutes the CIS starts showing the train as "Delayed" until it reaches Oxford Road Junction just outside Reading. At that point the screens then revert to showing a time. I'm pretty sure there is way to figure that out with the data from the network rail data feeds. I've been nerding out with them over the last couple months. But I'm guessing that discussion would be the place of a dedicated board/thread for it. If that could be done, MODS? As a software developer it has interested me how these things work, but I haven't been able to see under the covers, only the data Network rail has made available which even in itself is very interesting. |
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172
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Journey by Journey / London to Swindon and Bristol / Re: Buying a ticket at Swindon
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on: November 02, 2014, 21:36:43
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That's all fine and dandy if travelling by FGW▸ , but what if you have a 5 min connection at Reading or Bristol Parkway onto another operator's services? Are you supposed to miss your train to get your tickets or run the risk that the on board staff of the other TOC▸ 's service are as well informed?
I'd think one or more of the following would be able to take place: - FGW on board staff could issue a ticket.
- The staff on the other TOC would be understanding, if said passenger had as much relevant information with them (reference number, etc.).
Of course those are ideals, I'm just an average passenger who has seen lenient staff as well as the opposite. |
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173
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Journey by Journey / London to Swindon and Bristol / Re: Buying a ticket at Swindon
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on: November 02, 2014, 20:29:00
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I wonder whether the pre-booked machine is working? And if it's not, are you OK to travel?
I'd imagine if you kept your reference handy the staff on board would help you. They'd only have to check journeycheck if they hadn't been told already. I think its been mentioned before to 'inform staff on the train as soon as possible' or something along those lines. |
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175
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Bidirectional running
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on: October 26, 2014, 15:20:07
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I think the only thing that isn't (or can't be?) done at Swindon is a Paddington bound service from Platform 4. 1 and 3 are pretty much constantly used in a bi-directional manner. - Bristol Temple Meads / Cheltenham Spa services are often turned around/restarted from platform 1 at Swindon if there are (major) problems towards pad. - The transwilts service sometimes uses plat 1 instead of plat 2 if either of the services that use 2 are late. - Weekends usually see late night services not using 4, etc. My point being that the bi-directional working at Swindon has more than likely saved a lot of problems with the works and signalling problems we've been inflicted with recently.  |
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176
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Journey by Journey / London to the West / Re: Slow trains out of Paddington - overnight 25/26 Oct 14
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on: October 26, 2014, 10:41:16
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According to RTT» , you were switched to the relief line from Stockley Bridge Jn to Slough and were following a slightly late stopping service to Oxford hence the slow running Though there's no obvious reason why you continued to lose time nearer Swindon.
Of mild interest, beyond Swindon the service was routed via Gloucester, and passed the Westbury bound service between Swindon and Kemble. Pre doubling, having been 16 down it would have been held and lost further time, but was able to continue unchecked.
From reading elsewhere on the forum this was the exact plan. When the route via Bristol Parkway is closed the diverted trains can more or less have a good run on diversion up to Gloucester. EDIT: Was still a bit of a tangle at Swindon though. We arrived on plat. 1 with the Cheltenham Spa service ready to go on 3. I'm guessing that one was held to let the Swansea service get in front. |
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177
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Journey by Journey / London to the West / Re: Slow trains out of Paddington - overnight 25/26 Oct 14
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on: October 26, 2014, 09:34:45
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Was a long crawl from Paddington to Swindon last night. I was on the 1936 Paddington to Swansea and it was 11 down at Reading and about 15 down at Swindon (made the weekend first upgrade worth while though, was able to have a look at the new first class, but I digress ). The announcement from the TM‡ was along the lines of "this is due to a two track running this evening due to engineering works". But it really did feel like we were chasing yellows all the way and just about avoided the need to completely stop at a red. I'm sure some of the others can be more insightful but that was my view from the passenger seat |
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