Tickets are on sale as of a couple of hours ago. Grabbed mine already. 

Swindon bus station (probably).

Ah it's been a while since we've had a Crossrail/H&H rant. 

I remember once a TM^‡(resolve) had a 'ticket punch' that marked a date and the service headcode, e.g. 20160808-1L40.

Haven't seen it used since, but that would be a pretty decent way of proving which train you were on. Probably made things too easy for people claiming delay repay! 

Looks like quite a "beefy" powerline is down Guessing from some tweets it was feeding the Signalling power.

https://twitter.com/wpduk/status/802467474444812288

"#Urgent works required in Westerleigh Road #B37 due to a line down. The road will be closed for most of today. Apologies for the disruption."

This will help greatly on Sundays / Bank holiday mondays where the timetable and services are shared by both operators.

As a 'casual' traveller I'm not used to being caught up in major disruption like this (guess I've been lucky) but the mood did seem relatively calm travelling from Oxford to Swindon (with an extensive wait at Didcot for a train west). Really couldn't fault GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) people on the ground.

- When an 'express' to Reading arrived the DM at Oxford endorsed my ticket to go to Reading, didn't need it in the end though as a Didcot call was added last minute.

- Staff at Oxford, Didcot and Swindon were out and about checking up on us all personally in waiting rooms and on platforms, as opposed to sticking to over air announcements.

Managed to help a few people out with plans using the real time signalling maps on sites like OpenTrainTimes too. People were happy to know "train has started its journey, so its worth waiting for now" and the like.  It's times like these knowing the extra information really helps.. 

An interesting experience none the less, hope it all clears up soon though. 

// end of two cents.

Quite ironic that I'm heading up to Edinburgh Monday night on the sleeper (Swindon, Paddington, etc) when there are direct services all weekend. Putting my bets on the sleeper being more comfortable though! 

Pic 2...A train not severely overcrowded on bank holiday? 

Pic 3...2M18 seems like a later service? -shrugs-

Hate to be a cynic, but thats a lot of pressure on a line if something was to go 'bottoms up'... 

Here's to hoping I haven't jinxed it!

This does seem odd. Would it have connected with a late coach at Chippenham for Swindon/Reading? The last train/bus did seem earlier than normal last night.


This service would've run to Chippenham and terminated due to the works around Swindon, I believe. 

Limitations of the system(s) I'm afraid. If no updates are sent (which is generally the case when a train is stationary at a platform in Paddington for example, then the system can only assume 'delayed' until the train departs and suddenly becomes 'Departed 40 mins late'.

There has certainly been an improvement as time goes on.

The automated announcements are clearly included some more useful details "Passengers for Reading and London Paddington, your next fastest service is expected to be the xx:xx service from Platform x"

The rain had me heading back to Swindon early, but I was punished with a 150 unit failure at Temple Meads and congestion on the M4 for not heading to the spoons meetup. This was my first time at a depot open day / event and I found it really fun.

Here's most of the photos I grabbed today, some need work, but some I'm fairly happy with. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132934438@N06/albums/72157667877209755

Looking forward to this one tomorrow, the bus from Swindon not so much though. 

10. Melksham? On the sacred HST^▸ (High Speed Train) day?