Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 13:55 29 Mar 2024
- Delays at Dover as millions begin Easter getaway
- Attempted murder charge after man stabbed on train
- KFC Nigeria sorry after disabled diner refused service
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
29th Mar (1913)
Foundation of National Union or Railwaymen (*)

Train RunningCancelled
12:30 London Paddington to Weston-Super-Mare
13:15 Swindon to Westbury
13:15 London Paddington to Cardiff Central
13:48 Bedwyn to Newbury
14:12 Newbury to Bedwyn
14:19 Westbury to Swindon
14:57 Bedwyn to Newbury
15:14 Swindon to Westbury
15:22 Newbury to Bedwyn
15:28 Weston-Super-Mare to London Paddington
15:50 Bedwyn to Newbury
15:54 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
16:15 Newbury to Bedwyn
16:23 Westbury to Swindon
16:55 Bedwyn to Newbury
17:36 Swindon to Westbury
18:37 Westbury to Swindon
20:13 Swindon to Westbury
21:16 Westbury to Swindon
22:30 Swindon to Westbury
Short Run
10:55 Paignton to London Paddington
12:35 London Paddington to Exeter St Davids
13:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
13:42 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington
13:55 Paignton to London Paddington
14:36 London Paddington to Paignton
15:42 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington
16:35 London Paddington to Plymouth
16:50 Plymouth to London Paddington
17:03 London Paddington to Penzance
17:36 London Paddington to Plymouth
18:03 London Paddington to Penzance
18:36 London Paddington to Plymouth
19:04 Paignton to London Paddington
20:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
21:04 London Paddington to Plymouth
Delayed
09:10 Penzance to London Paddington
10:04 London Paddington to Penzance
10:20 Penzance to London Paddington
11:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
12:03 London Paddington to Penzance
12:15 Penzance to London Paddington
13:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
13:15 Plymouth to London Paddington
13:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern
14:03 London Paddington to Penzance
14:15 Penzance to London Paddington
15:03 London Paddington to Penzance
15:15 Plymouth to London Paddington
16:03 London Paddington to Penzance
16:15 Penzance to London Paddington
etc
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2024-03-25 Easter Escape - to where?
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 29, 2024, 14:04:16 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[153] 2024 - Service update and amendment log, Swindon <-> Westbury...
[97] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[53] Travel for free on the m2 metrobus - Bristol - 4,5,6 April 202...
[41] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[38] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[37] Reversing Beeching - bring heritage and freight lines into the...
 
News: the Great Western Coffee Shop ... keeping you up to date with travel around the South West
 
  Home Help Search Calendar Login Register  
  Show Posts
Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 6
31  Sideshoots - associated subjects / The Lighter Side / Re: Quiz - Railways now closed for longer than they were open? on: July 16, 2020, 22:28:07

The second of my 'hunches' has not been mentioned yet. It is

- in our area
- standard gauge
- carried passengers
- has an unusual characteristic
- closed remarkably early

Any guesses?

No one has got this one yet....
32  Sideshoots - associated subjects / The Lighter Side / Re: Quiz - Railways now closed for longer than they were open? on: July 16, 2020, 21:44:38
The second of my 'hunches' has not been mentioned yet. It is

- in our area
- standard gauge
- carried passengers
- has an unusual characteristic
- closed remarkably early


Hallatrow to Camerton ... 1882 - 1925 is, I suspect, the one you may have in mind....

I'm afraid it isn't....
33  Sideshoots - associated subjects / The Lighter Side / Re: Quiz - Railways now closed for longer than they were open? on: July 16, 2020, 21:26:41
Wonderful suggestions, all!

The second of my 'hunches' has not been mentioned yet. It is

- in our area
- standard gauge
- carried passengers
- has an unusual characteristic
- closed remarkably early

Any guesses?
34  Sideshoots - associated subjects / The Lighter Side / Re: Quiz - Railways now closed for longer than they were open? on: July 16, 2020, 20:55:27
The WC (Wiltshire Council (Unitary Authority))&P was one of my hunches!
35  Sideshoots - associated subjects / The Lighter Side / Re: Quiz - Railways now closed for longer than they were open? on: July 16, 2020, 20:18:10
Those Wiltshire answers hadn't occurred to me, Graham!

Gosh, I wonder if there are many more of these than I thought?
36  Sideshoots - associated subjects / The Lighter Side / Re: Quiz - Railways now closed for longer than they were open? on: July 16, 2020, 20:00:52
Fawley (for passengers) - a good answer, and not one I had thought of.

My two hunches (now verified by wikipedia) are very much completely closed.

(I did have a third hunch, but it won't get there until 2027...)
37  Sideshoots - associated subjects / The Lighter Side / Quiz - Railways now closed for longer than they were open? on: July 16, 2020, 19:46:33
I've just come back from a very pleasant cycle along the old railway between Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton, and it set me thinking:

What stretches of railway have now been closed for longer than they were ever open?


Initially I wondered if Exmouth-Budleigh might be a candidate, but it hasn't got there yet (open for 64 years, 1903 - 1967; closed for 53 years 1967 - 2020). I suppose it will become one in 2031, though!

Can forum members think of any bits of railway now closed for longer than they were open?

(Off the top of my head I reckon I can think of two examples in 'our' area, but won't mention them yet. Partly not to spoil things and partly because I need to double check on wikipedia...)
38  Journey by Journey / Shorter journeys in Devon / Re: First experience - by train to Exmouth on: March 08, 2020, 07:39:13
I'm glad you enjoyed your trip on our line, Graham.

For the record - the line was double track from Exmouth Junction to Topsham until the early 1970s (when the M5 was built), but it has only ever been single track between Topsham and Exmouth. Lympstone - now Lympstone Village - had a goods loop (but no second platform) until the 1960s. I think the current service is the best the line has ever had.

Topsham is indeed 'worth a visit' but I should point out that The Swan (in your picture) is in the wonderful village Lympstone, which is worth a visit too!  Smiley
39  All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: Estimates of Station Usage, 2018-2019 - publication date 14.1.2020 on: January 14, 2020, 12:11:42
I have updated my maps based on the ORR» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) daya to include the 2019 figures, and trends for the full period 1998 - 2019, and the 5-year period 2015 - 2019:

http://empslocal.ex.ac.uk/people/staff/tej202/stations.htm

40  Sideshoots - associated subjects / The Lighter Side / Re: Advent Quiz - 2019 on: December 23, 2019, 05:44:48
Ilfracombe?
41  Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Two Track, Now! on: November 15, 2019, 18:27:40
Interesting analysis here https://www.railfuture.org.uk/display1587
42  Journey by Journey / Transport for London / Re: Shortest journey on the tube ... what is shortest on GWR? on: October 28, 2019, 09:38:59
I wonder if it is possible for someone to leave a southbound train at Exton and run along the path to Lympstone Commando before the train comes to a halt there?

(I reckon it must be nearly 700 metres between the stations, and so it would take someone very much fitter than I to run it in under 2 minutes - a challenge for the Royal Marines?)

In case anyone wants to get in training for my challenge(!) I have just timed a journey in the other direction (LYC -> EXT, with the train stopping at both).

Time between doors opening at LYC and doors opening at EXT: 1 minute 45 secs
Time between doors opening at LYC and doors closing at EXT: 2 minutes
43  Journey by Journey / Transport for London / Re: Shortest journey on the tube ... what is shortest on GWR? on: October 26, 2019, 21:46:33
I'd hazard a guess at Exton <-> Lympstone Commando. Since the two are also connected by a footpath / cycle track alongside the railway I have often wondered (as I pass on the train) if it could be the venue for a 'runner races the train' stunt along the lines of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaMiV3Wus9c.

The public are not allowed to alight / join at Lympstone Commando so I suspect very few passengers have made the journey by train. (Marines would run!)

I wonder if it is possible for someone to leave a southbound train at Exton and run along the path to Lympstone Commando before the train comes to a halt there?

(I reckon it must be nearly 700 metres between the stations, and so it would take someone very much fitter than I to run it in under 2 minutes - a challenge for the Royal Marines?)
44  All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: HS2 - Government proposals, alternative routes and general discussion on: September 24, 2019, 09:12:42
I do wonder if there is any sum of money at which the HS2 (The next High Speed line(s)) fan club would eventually admit that it's too much.

A good question put in a slightly patronising way.


Indeed. "How much is too much?" is a good and interesting question. The answer may be complex, and there is always a danger that costs can be made to 'seem' large, or 'seem' small according to people's pre-existing views and how they choose to frame the numbers.

As an example, expenditure of £1bn can be made to sound large (by calling it £1bn!), but it is (approximately) equivalent to £20 per person in the UK (United Kingdom) (which doesn't sound nearly so bad), or 40p per week per person in the UK (which sounds positively affordable).

I find that '£1bn is twenty quid a head' is a good ready reckoner to carry around in one's head.

So - what to make of the cost of HS2? Let's work with a round £100bn.

£100bn is - roughly - 1 year's total UK govt education spending, or 3 year's total UK govt transport spending (see  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_spending_in_the_United_Kingdom  ), or Network Rail's total budget for about 14 years ( https://cdn.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Annual-report-and-accounts-2019.pdf ) . To put it another way - it is roughly 10% of annual UK govt spending.

£100bn is - roughly - £2000 per person, or £40 per person per week over a year, or £4 per person per week over a decade, or 80p per person per week over half a century. So - near enough 10p per person per day for the next 50 years.....

Is that too much?  Well, I suppose it depends on the benefits - which I don't feel qualified to quantify, but must surely include uplift in GDP due to greater connectivity, north-south rebalancing of the economy and savings from work that would otherwise have to be done on WCML (West Coast Main Line) / MML» (Midland Main Line. - about) / ECML (East Coast Main Line) to provide capacity.

My own (current) hunch is that HS2 is well worth it. Does anyone have any quantitative arguments to suggest that it isn't?



45  Sideshoots - associated subjects / The Lighter Side / Re: Out of Office quiz - September 2019 on: September 03, 2019, 06:30:15
Knaresborough?
Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 6
Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page