http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/headlines/10600771._/?


There are an excellent local firm - one of a number of really top quality highly advanced companies who have their main UK^▸ (United Kingdom) operation in our town.

It took me a while to realise just how interlinked all the various elements of railway provision, operation and finance really are.  I've no idea how this one "morphed" either, but I'm not surprised. When you start a thread, you've no idea where it will go; you may feel you have some sort of "grandfather" rights over it and in terms of influence and advise, yes you do ... but only a very little.  In fact, the more I think of it, the more grandfather / granddaughter  it reminds me of; we have a lovely granddaughter, we have everything needed for her to visit us and perhaps stay. But it's all been outgrown and never used because in an extended family riddled with nursery school qualified people, we're untrained apart from through the school of life. So - we celebrate our granddaughter, we see her occasionally, we rejoice as she grows and becomes a person rather than a baby.   So, James, celebrate your thread and the fascinating discussion you've triggered.



I'm going to leave it to another of the moderator team who, I suspect, has been following more closely than I have and will know whether and where to split to make the discussions more followable and a better resource for the future; and I'm certainly going to restrain from deleting anything; such action's unnecessary and I always feel that deleting even a single post is changing history, and is showing a disrespect of the person who put time and interest and knowledge and his/her personality into writing it.  Splitting and moving to give better indexing / exposure?  Maybe.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/08/07/article-2386458-1B303128000005DC-229_634x421.jpg

from

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2386458/End-Ramadan-rush-sees-trains-Bangladesh-spilling-passengers-racing-home-prepare-Eid-festivities.html

The script to search hotels mentioned by our member has been - err - amended as it wasn't working.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/hotels.php

Re-launched today ... by the Chuckle Brothers.
http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/update/2013-08-05/full-report-chuckle-brothers-on-hand-to-relaunch-train-service/?

Who would YOU choose to relaunch a train service in the South West?

Timings at http://atrebatia.info/daysout.html ... and plenty of other opportunities that day too ... how about a rail enthusiast outing to Lymington Pier (fares are good - if you're going to Isle of Wight, buy a separate ferry ticket as that will save you money)

Here are "crime maps" for the TransWilts line ...

http://crimemaps.btp.police.uk/data/?q=Swindon,%20UK#station
http://crimemaps.btp.police.uk/data/?q=Chippenham,%20Wiltshire,%20UK#station
http://crimemaps.btp.police.uk/data/?q=Melksham,%20Wiltshire%20SN12,%20UK#station
http://crimemaps.btp.police.uk/data/?q=Trowbridge,%20Wiltshire%20BA14,%20UK#station
http://crimemaps.btp.police.uk/data/?q=Westbury,%20Wiltshire,%20UK#station
http://crimemaps.btp.police.uk/data/?q=Frome,%20Somerset%20BA11,%20UK#station
http://crimemaps.btp.police.uk/data/?q=Dilton%20Marsh,%20Wiltshire,%20UK#station
http://crimemaps.btp.police.uk/data/?q=Warminster,%20Wiltshire%20BA12,%20UK#station
http://crimemaps.btp.police.uk/data/?q=Salisbury,%20Wiltshire,%20UK#station

And a note from the web site: "Please note: Crime statistics need to be viewed in context. For instance, busy stations will inevitably generate more reported crime than those that are less busy. Long term trends are usually a better indication of the true picture."

The best comparison is, then , the "crimes per 100,000 journeys" but bearing in mind that the numbers are so small that just a single incident can make a significant change at some of our less busy stations.

Good question .. I asked it in reply #26 and didn't get an answer.   I'm guessing the answer is one of
* they're taking advantage of the engineering works to have an extra train serviced when it's not needed
* we have nowhere to turn it around.  There are platform / path issues
* it wouldn't take many passengers and we would make a loss on it
* it doesn't work out for crew rotas
* too complicated to work out
* because I say so
* I don't know
* all of the above

I expect the accountant look at it like this:

"Let's try fare differentials over second of 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 pounds ... and estimate you'll get 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 travellers going first class if you do.   So the train company takes an extra 50, 80, 90, 80 or 50 pounds.   Right - we'll set the extra fare at 30 pounds.   For sure, we'll only carry 3 people rather than 5 on that fare, but we make most money that way"  ... balance point arithementic and, sorry MrTrout, in this case you're one of the two who has been dis-suaded to go first because of the markup.

I expect the logic and sums are different for each journey, and you should proabbly note that the typical first class passenger probably has different metrics to the typical standard passenger.  I recall a certain member commenting that people are surprised to find that he does have a first class ticket because he looks so young.   And I wish I still had his young looks!

I've been a passenger - three times - on services that have suffered extreme delay.  Before you panic and vow never to travel with me, I'll tell you that I have travelled an awful lot in my time.

What do I note?  When the train comes to an unexpected halt the passengers don't know what's happened and what the delay and cure will be and neither, usually, do the crew. Hindsight is marvellous stuff, but it's never available until too late in the incident, and the crew have my hugest of sympathys.  On two out of the three incidents, the rail staff were excellent in keeping us informed ... in the final case, information was sporadic and we were left with an honest "it will be a while but we don't know how long" for two hours, by which time we were all getitng rather tetchy.  But in all three cases, there were seats for everyone and they were comfortable seats designed for long distance travel.

When we eventually reached the train's terminus  - 3 a.m. for a 10 p.m. arrival into London in one case,   taxis had been alerted ahead, lists of destinattions drawn up, and taxi shares in order to get everyone off as quickly as possible set up.   Incident ended in the best of humour al around, with no-one I saw saying "never again".

Now - all three incidents were on the West Coast line, and two of them were caused by the overhead wires coming down (in one case on top of the train I was in).  A diesel loco with a couple of coaches was backed up in front, and we all got down, walked past our "86" or whatever it was on the front, and climbed up.   And I do hope that whoever operated the London - Swindon - Bristol / Cardiff / Swansea services once their electirfied has some sort of plans in place that can work rather more quickly than happened yesterday, even with the extra "oops - the train's tied up in wires" issue!


I wonder if we'll hear any outcome from the investigations ...

And a new Chief Executive will be needed soon as well ...

http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/business/business.php?id=1322862

Many commuters from Chippenham drive to Chippenham station, which has quite a wide catchment area. They're from Calne and Corsham, Melksham and Malmesbury to name but four towns.

Season tickets from Chippenham to London (Paddington) and from Chippenham to Reading cost exactly the same (be they weekly, annual, or in between) as season tickets for the longer journey from Melksham, and Melksham tickets are also valid for use at Chippenham.

So - is it a good idea to suggest to commuters who originate to the south of Chippenham that when they renew their seasons, they get a Melksham ticket?  On days that the 07:20 from Melksham / 17:45 from Paddington work for them, they'll already be save the drive into Chippenham, and they'll be able to make Saturday trips from Melksham to Swindon at no extra cost.   And - come an improved service - they'll be able to start using it straight away on their annual ticket without any trade-in and rebook penalties.

An excellent event in past years, as I recall ...

http://www.steam-museum.org.uk/steam/swindon_railway_festival_2013.htm

A suggestion for the Saturday.   A day at Steam, followed by an early evening meet up of Coffee Shop regulars somewhere near the station, and I've posted in public so that regular lurkers can come along too (who knows, we might even persuade them to post!)

Make your own way to Steam ... spend the day there ... then 5 p.m. at the "Sir Daniel Arms".

In previous years, we have checked and combined rail and steam admission tickets do / did allow entry to the special event without extra charge - so this is a great chance to see Steam and more at a good price. See [here] for example.

Following up my own post here ... quoting a rail forums thread:

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=87702&page=2
and

I believe we're in that stage of news gathering where it's clear that there is news, but that the news may yet come up with twists and turns before there's cast iron authority in it.  Open Train Times shows a very very marketable service. There are a couple of "WIBNIF"s in there ("Wouldn't it be nice if ..."); tweaks and fine tunes that could make it even better, but may very well not work for operational reasons I'm not aware of, or may break something else that we hadn't noticed.  But then that applies to any and every service.   Let's support the service as proposed, but not consider it cast in stone just yet through we would endorse it if that were the case.

More than you think ...

http://www.wellho.net/mouth/4146_A-few-more-trains-means-a-LOT-more-passengers-Why-.html

[older diagrams used; does not accurately reflect the Open Train Times data]