So not dissimilar to the situation a few years ago when FGW^▸ (First Great Western) (as was) reached a break point and decided not to carry on? It was perfectly entitled to do so under the contract, but was widely regarded as walking away from its obligations.

And in ten years it's achieved?

I do wonder at what point whoever is backing the project will decide that enough is enough.  Or maybe given other news today we'll get an announcement soon that they are making a pitch for some Castle Class sets.

Just passed through Melksham to add to the excitement of any passengers expecting a journey via Newbury.

I do hope those adverts weren't personally targeted at you Grahame.

I would assume that is taken into account in coming up with the 62 mile range quoted, based on an assumed typical cycle of acceleration, braking and coasting.

All TfW services withdrawn tomorrow and GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) only going as far west as Bristol Parkway.

How does that work? If it's a half hourly service on a 5 mile return trip then it would need recharging at least every 6 hours. And surely better to get used to topping up every time so that there are as many opportunities as possible to ensure that the process is robust and works every time, even if time constrained.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/business-48764903

An interesting report from a couple of years ago in Guildford, where a storage facility is used to draw charge from the grid during the day to avoid putting too much pressure on the local supply overnight.  That's only for 9 buses as well.

Even better, use a four way extension lead and you could charge a small fleet all at the same time. Simples.

Great Western Railway has signed a deal with manufacturer Vivarail to trial new battery-charging technology on its network, paving the way for battery-only trains to run in regular passenger service in the future.

The trial, supported by Network Rail, will take place on the Greenford branch line later this year and test Vivarail’s trackside fast-charging equipment in an operational setting for the first time.

It is hoped that the project will demonstrate that the equipment works safely and reliably in a ‘real-world’ environment.

The use of batteries for extended operation has typically been constrained by their range and meant widespread implementation has, until now, not been feasible.

Fast Charge equipment will be installed at West Ealing Station later this year and tested with Vivarail’s battery-only Class 230 train, first showcased at COP26 last year.

The train has a range of up to 62 miles on battery power, recharging in only 10 minutes using the Fast Charge system in off-network tests.

https://news.gwr.com/news/gwr-fast-charging-trial-brings-regular-battery-only-rail-services-a-step-closer

Let's hope it's successful. It would seem appropriate technology for, say, some of the West Country branches.

Thank you, (although that looks very complicated - I think I'm going to be out of my depth if this conversation continues!)

Yes, thank you! And of course, 1918 to 20 was also the period of the Spanish Flu pandemic, just to give a parallel with modern times.

Sorry, we've drifted a bit off Crossrail haven't we...

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/ageing/bulletins/estimatesoftheveryoldincludingcentenarians/2002to2020

No sorry , I meant Figure 3 here, which you can see how births drifted down during the war, shot up immediately afterwards, and quickly drifted back down again.

I think that's as much to do with birth patterns a century ago too, in that the post war baby boom was very short lived, so the columns below 100 are already drifting back downwards after the sudden spike.  I can't seem to post an image, but there's a chart in the link you posted where you can see the spike.

Interesting to see in that table if you look at the bottom left you can see a pattern in recent years where there's a sudden big increase of around 50% in the number reaching each age. It's most obviously seen in 2020 where the number aged 100 goes up from 4980 to 7590 (and it happens a year earlier for 99 and so on).

That looks like the effect of the end of WW1, when everyone who survived returned home and family life resumed.  Amazing that we can still see a pattern in our population due to an effect of the Great War.