I've put this in the lighter side, but I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

I happened to be in Kings Cross arouns 11:30 this am, time to spare before a meeting.

This was the sequence of trains:

11:27 Grand Central to Sunderland HST^▸ (High Speed Train)
11:30 Nex to Newcastle HST!
11:35 Nex to Leeds HST!
11:48 Hull Trains to Hull Adelante still in FGW^▸ (First Great Western) livery
12:00 Nex Inverness HST

Now I thought I read somewhere that the ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line) is electrified as far as Edinburgh.

The Newcastle and Leeds wires all the way! The others loco changes especialy for Inverness.

I think we've lost the plot somewhere along the line.

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that D(a)fT rail policy is totally stupid.

How much would a bit of extra wire in Walsall station and Pleck to Darlaston Junction cost . If you didn't have to buy a new 172 for the service I would suggest it could pay for itself in under 5 years. Provided Network rail is not ripped off by the contractors.

I expect Lee will post elsewhere the latest warning of higher fares and more crowded trains because of shortages of stock. An aside on the Today programme.

It's also one of the silliest as most of the line will remain open as it acts as diversionary/freight route when the Stour Valley is closed. Many Wexham And Shropshire are also routed this way.

Unless they are closing Pleck Junction to Darlaston Junction which would also be stupid, as it forms link from the Midland line via Sutton Park to Wolverhampton and the North avoiding New Street. I've been on a railtour from Shrewsbury back to Wellingborough this way.

There has also been talk of reopening Walsall to Angelsea Sidings which is why the bridge ove the M6 toll is double track.

I know Bescot to Wolverhampton Crane Street Junction and Bushbury Junction are electrified, as is Bescot to Walsall. The latter was an add on when it was realised the New Street - Walsall service was diesel and ran most of the way under the wire.

Is Pleck Junction and Darlaston Junction electrified?  If not a few hundred yards of wire means it could be an electric service New Street Walsall reverse Wolverhampton. If it is electrified I thought we were realtively flush with AC Emus.

Also  Walsall - Rugely is another cheap in fill wiring job to help eliminate diesel working around Birmingham and the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line). Seeing  a 153, from the canal, on  a Stafford to Birminham via Cannock, or to Coventry via Bedworth on the 4 track section makes me wonder just how stupid D(a)fT really are.   

Tim and bemmy are both right. Although I wonder whether auto couplers make the task easier.
See article in October Modern Railways over the mess we are in with incompatible couplers.

Splitting and joining is an excellent idea Southern Electric thrived on it for years, every half hour at places like Staines and Ascot. But bemmy is also right we would get the trains joining at the right time.

Along with loco changes we seem to lost the art of running a railway properly. It's like most things these days we seem to fall down on attention to detail or fall prey to imaginary health and safety concerns or polictical correctness.

Tale from Gerry Fiennes "I Tried to Run a Railway" Pre war LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about), Doncster Division bottom of the league for timekeeping a new manager was appointed and gradually they climbed out bottom place and up the league. When asked by God (General Manager) how he done it "Personal Supervision Sir". What he didn't say was this supervision comprised standing in the Buffet doorway on Doncaster Station with a pint in his hand just watching.

Or as Tom Peters the American management guru put it MBWA:  Mangement by Walking About.

Better still why not 372s put the wires and do away with the diesels as far as possible.

But don't forget it's not in a Tocs interests to own any rolling stock as they might not get a renewed franchise and they would be dependant on the new TOC taking on the stock or renting it to someone else. If all their rivals have also bought new stock there may not be a market.

Also there is absolutely no risk in being a TOC you have no real assets only staff and rental costs which are paid from the fare box. If the fare is not big enough you stop paying pemiums and the government takes the franchise away. Who remembers GNER^▸ (Great North Eastern Railways)? The trains will still run for under BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) like South Eastern until the franchise is relet to buggins. Most staff will have worked for several TOCs since privatisation even if they are doing exactly the same job they were doing in BR days.

We must keep asking the Wolmar question "What are TOCS for?"

After several years of asking he still doesn't seemed to have been given a satisfactory answer.

I got a polite note on my car in NSE^▸ (Network South East) days for parking outside a marked bay in Slough West car park, the old shed site. I don't know whether they subsequently fined people. because it was a one off, as my usual commute was walking to Taplow.

However, this whole thread just illustrates another case on "non joined up government" I presumme the D(a)fT wants people to commute from Nailsea rather than driving their cars into Bristol. I also presumme that most people aren't able to catch a bus to the station due to lack of services so have to drive.

In a sensible world you would think that increasing carparking  capacity, if that's possible, and/or improving bus services integrated with the train service would be benficial.

Now this is where a tame "bean counter" could do some usuful work in working out the benefits of several hundred cars not entering Bristol compared with the cost of extra parking at Nailsea. The local council could then issue 7% 25 year bonds to fund the work. In the current climate thay would be snapped up and would probaly sell at a premimium.

Or is that a pig I've just seen flying past?

The most interesting thing to me about this story is why did the ticket say 10:45 and the itinerary 10:15?  I thought they are produced at the same time.

Note the mail only printed the ^115 ticket.

However it does highlight the problem with advanced tickets and a frequent service, more than one train an hour. People are likely to arrive early at the station to avoid missing the train which hopefully the booking clerk has told them is the one to catch and matches their ticket.  They then see a train to their destination displayed or ask where's the X train  and assume it's their train.  They don't realise that there might be earlier trains to their destination. As far as they are concerned their train is the only train to their destination because that's the one they've been booked on.

It's actually a disguised compliment to those TOCS that run frequent, more than one an hour services, that incidents like this can occur. Had it been an hourly service this lady would probably had no problems because there wouldn't have been a 10:15 to catch.

As an aside DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about) are experimenting with new cashless ticket machines. We used them in Dresden Hbf last year admittedly under supervision as they were brand new.

You put your journey requirements into the machine and it gives you your journey possibilities.

You select the servie you require any reservations etc and it gives you the times price etc. It can price ICE/IC^▸ (Inter City)/EC and RE^▸ (Religious Education)/RB. It can also deal with Lander tickets which are go anywhere in the Lander on RE/RB for 5 people after 09:00 around 26 Euro. It is also able to issue two Lander tickets (Saxony Berlin  Brandenburg) to cover RE from Dresden to Berlin.

Having selected your journey it prints out the details including the platform you start fromand  arrive at and the platforms at the chaging staion together with a bar code. You take this to another machine to pay. The second machine reads the barcode  you pay by cash or card and it prints the tickets. You can print several itineries to study beofer chosing one as the barcode remains valid for a couple of hours.

Thus five of us travelled from Dresden to Berlin for 10.40 Euros each instead 35 E each on the EC. It took slightly longer but far less crowded. Double deck coaches push pull electric one same platform interchange.

Thinking about it's exactly how on line booking works with National Rail Enquiries, except you don't have the nonsense of chosing a TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) to issue tickets. I recommend Chiltern  (the least worse TOC) excellent service tickets usually arrive next day and they get 9% even if your journey goes nowhere near their line.

I think you've hit the nail on the head this was a way getting some time back: heavy passenger flow was the excuse.

Does anyone know if there was large party from BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) to Highbridge Bridgewater or Tauton?

I thought the Avonmouth branch went across a taxiway or something I've been across on a railtour and we seemed to be well inside the airport perimeter.

What happens to the Avonmouth branch?

This does seem to be a case where "joined up thinking" has gone by the board. If the lights are too bright they dazzle track workers  and drivers coming the other way. Remember the fuss when the Voyagers first came out over the brightness of their headlights? However, if they are too dim track workers can't see the train coming and the driver can't pick up the reflective signs, usually speed limits sign so very important, and track workers hi vis vests aren't glowing.

I still believe a triangle of equal intensity lights is the way to go. It can't be mistaken for a car or motorbike on an adjcent road or any other pair of white lights near the railway. It would be unique to trains. Maybe there should also be another look at reflective signs, speed limit signs used to be yellow stencilled number so they showed up as silhouettes. It didn't matter if they were graffitied  I've seen many reflective signs made almost illegible, particularly going into to Padd.

Is it an HST^▸ (High Speed Train)? Don't they have sand?

I would have thought even if the front power car was slipping the rear would still grip.

On a personal note it means freinds of mine who are joining us next week in Wernigerode and are coming by Eurostar will not now arrive until 22.29, instead of 19:28.

I'm just hoping BMI won't be going backrupt until after Thursday next week.

It is even siller than you think the headlight is switchable by the driver for night and day time running. I can't remember which way round but it's something to do with not blinding track workers. Or at least that's what I've been told. Thus at this time of year we used to get trains at Taplow at dawn and dusk some with offside bright and others nearside bright as some trains started in the dark and other in the light.

Why don't we just adopt the the UICC triangle of equal intensity of lights? If you see three white lights in triangle coming towards you at 125 mph you are not going to think it's a car. Even where there is a toplight such as Voyagers and sheds you still have one bright headlight.

Now don't get me started on standardising couplings. Did any read the excellent article in October's Modern Railway outlining the mess we are in with interoperability of couplings?

Whilst I find mathematical probability fascinating I think the the real question here is not the accurracy of the information but why are 1 in 10 trains cancelled and not run?

I can only assummed FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are trying to run too many trains with too little stock and staff. Now that is another whole batch of statistics to do with productivity and reliability. Accountants expect stock to be available and running 100% of the time. Which in the real world we know is not possible. So the question becomes what percentage of stock will be out of service at anyone time.

When Hull trains had four sets for 3 diagrams they were achieving some of the best miles per failure of any diesel unit but with realtively low utilisation as a whole. When one was dropped and badly damaged they had to use 3 sets every day their failure rate escalated but their utilisation increased.   Bean counters always go for maximum utilisation which more often as not may appear efficient but never gives the best service in practice.

I remember doing calculations of computer specs and disk drives in particular. The manufactures will give you a maximum number of bytes you can read in a second. However if you ever try to achieve that level the response time increases dramatically.

In most systems if you plot utilisation as x axis and result (adverse) on y you get a gently rising line as utilisation increases until at a tipping point it increase sharply. The tipping point is usually between 60% and 75% of theorectical utilisation, depending on the system. Finding that tipping point is the art. In some cases it's mathmatical but in others more empirical methods have to be used.

Empirically I would suggest FGW are over utilising their stock.