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Delayed
06:05 Penzance to London Paddington
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An additional train service has been planned to operate as shown 09:13 Bristol Temple Meads to Gloucester
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3841  Journey by Journey / London to the West / Re: Unified line speeds between Reading and Exeter on: October 30, 2009, 11:53:06
Possibly it may mean a lowering of line speed in places, to make trains more fuel efficient and to diagram paths consistent a unified speed make this easier than a lot of variables along a route.   There may be some engineering that can be done to increase line speed in places but this has to be balanced against the gain.

Passengers often want a reliable arrival time they really are not interested if they are traveling at 100 mph or 110
3842  Journey by Journey / London to Kennet Valley / Re: Anyone know whats happening around Reading this Sunday. on: October 28, 2009, 22:28:18
From the FGW (First Great Western) website
Quote
Track improvements and maintenance are taking place from 02:00 on 01/11/09 to 02:00 on 02/11/09 between Reading and Westbury.
Whilst work is taking place, buses will replace trains
between Pewsey and Swindon
between Reading and Newbury

On Sunday 1 November 2009 track improvement work will be taking place between Reading and Newbury.Trains between London Paddington and Newbury, Pewsey, Westbury, Taunton, Exeter St Davids, Paignton, Plymouth and Penzance will be retimed and services will also be diverted via an alternative route. Replacement buses will also be in operation between: Pewsey and Swindon Reading and Newbury. Customers travelling on this route are advised to check journey times before travelling.

These sorts of possession's are booked into the system over a year ahead, if all the school holidays, special events, public holidays etc were avoided nothing would ever get done, NR» (Network Rail - home page) are working on processes to avoid possessions but there are still some tasks that need these blockades
3843  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Which station did they choose today? on: October 26, 2009, 19:24:33
Article in the online  Maidenhead Advertiser
Quote
The body found on the railway line between Taplow and Burnham this morning was that of a 32-year-old man from Slough, British Transport Police have announced.

Officers were called to the scene near Lent Rise Road at 7.08am after an alert by a train driver.

The incident is being treated as unexplained and an investigation is under way to determine how the man came to be on the tracks.

Huge disruptions on the railways followed the discovery and the line was handed back to Network Rail at 10am.

Anyone with information is asked to contact British Transport Police on 0800 40 50 40


http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/article-13429-update-body-on-railway-line-was-slough-man-32/
3844  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Map shows Oxford electrification scrapped, but it's a mistake! on: October 21, 2009, 21:43:00
Nothing on the main line though. The only evidence on the GWML (Great Western Main Line) is the empty and fenced off depot at Old Oak Common. 

The project hasn't got to the point where the cost of cancelling it would be too much of an embarrassment (think Glasgow Airport Rail Link for an example of this), though I believe the project team are working as hard as possible to get as many contracts as possible signed and work underway before the General Election. 
I know a few people who are in the NR» (Network Rail - home page) Xrail project team, they are working hard to get contracts in place one key one is with National Grid which will be in the form of a binding max and min demand tariff basically mega expensive to break
3845  All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture - related rail and other transport issues / Re: National Grid's proposals for pylons: Hinkley Point C Connection Project on: October 17, 2009, 22:35:59
I wish national Grid would do some "digging", instead of pylons.  Angry

At 4 times the cost of a pylon route
3846  All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture - related rail and other transport issues / Re: National Grid's proposals for pylons: Hinkley Point C Connection Project on: October 16, 2009, 21:56:40
Don't talk to me about pylons. I've just had a letter from National Grid something along the lines of "We're toying with the idea of building a 45m high 400kV major pylon line around 100m in front of your house. How do you feel about it?"  Angry

 Shocked Shocked Shocked That close the lights in the house will glow without having to switching them on
3847  All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture - related rail and other transport issues / Re: M5 completely closed (Fri 16th Oct 2009) on: October 16, 2009, 18:07:36
So those of you in the West Country that have any fears that "Trains delayed due to damage to overhead lines" you have just proved that "Motorway delays due to damage to overhead lines" is possible to.  Grin

Bit much calling it a pylon it looked very much to me to a telegraph pole, pylons are usually mahusive metal things
3848  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Great Western Main Line electrification - ongoing discussion on: October 12, 2009, 18:50:09
From the Corporate Infrastructure briefing that have been running over the last week or so in NR» (Network Rail - home page) the Board are extremely confidant that the future Government past the next general election will continue with the funding of the GWML (Great Western Main Line) electrification.  The Board have had many meetings with all the major political parties.

But as will things to do with the illustrious UK (United Kingdom) government I am not counting my chickens until they hatch
3849  Journey by Journey / London to Swindon and Bristol / Re: Wierd noises between Parkway and Swindon on: October 11, 2009, 19:02:31
Dare I ask what the 'Pee Wee' warning system for lookouts is all about?  Roll Eyes Shocked Grin
Its quite an old system now.  It consists of at the site look out location a box with a klaxon and a telephone hand set, a cable is run out to the advance lookout who holds a telephone hand set.  Both the site and advance look outs have to hold the telephone hand set as they have a trigger on them which if let go sets the klaxon off the same happens if the cable gets cut.

Typically Pee Wee is used where intermediate look outs is impractical it can also be used at night in certain circumstances.   The disadvantage of Pee Wee is the running out of the cable, some locations had Pee Wee cables laid in the line side troughs but as its not armoured suffers damage
3850  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Slough commuters on: October 11, 2009, 13:25:10
That will probably be the case, and hopefullymay free up some of the trains that have come from Slough and the west to miss out stops at places like Hayes & Southall, hence speeding them up. Just getting rid of those Greenford trains in the peaks will do a lot to remove the suburban capacity issues.
The Hayes stop is worth while as it allows us from the west to change at Hayes to / from the Heathrow Connect although Crossrail will change this.  I believe NR» (Network Rail - home page) are planning to do the bay at West Ealing in CP4 (Control Period 4 - the five year period between 2009 and 2014)  ahead of Crossrail who down to do it
3851  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Slough commuters on: October 10, 2009, 17:56:00
That's why we need 6 tracks Reading to London. Crossrail can take the reliefs; the semi fasts trains (i.e. trains calling at one or two of Slough Maidenhead and Tyford) can take the current fast lines; and two new 140 mph ready express lines can be used for non stop trains.
Electric traction with a more modern signaling system will be cheaper not quite as effective but quicker to achieve
3852  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Slough commuters on: October 10, 2009, 10:59:09
1) If the much discussed West Ealing bay platform gets built and the two paths an hour from/to Greenford that have to be 2-cars between West Ealing and Paddington are freed up, then there will be extra relief line capacity that could be used to run more semi-fast trains. It could also be used to run more stoppers from Slough though where there is arguably more demand.
2) As and when Crossrail is built, I'm not at all sure there'll be a need for a Heathrow Express train four times an hour out of Paddington. That might free up a few main line paths.
Not wishing to perpetuate the straying off topic but - 1) the extra paths are for Heathrowconect to run 4 tph instead of 2 tph, 2) HEX remains as part of the Crossrail plan although HEX have tentatively agreed with NR» (Network Rail - home page) to relocate out of plat 6 & 7 at Padd thereby improving platform usage, HEX do not really need dedicated platforms now that baggage handling is no longer done a Padd.

Best we get back on topic.

In memory to those who perished
3853  Journey by Journey / London to Swindon and Bristol / Re: Wierd noises between Parkway and Swindon on: October 10, 2009, 07:29:12
correct name ...TOWS train operated warning system, worked  automatically by The track circuit system when a train has been detected
Thats one system there is also LOWS Local Operated Warning System, Pee Wee which is a tempoary warning system to aid Look Outs and a number of other systems
3854  Journey by Journey / London to Reading / Re: Twyford Station car parking - merged topic, ongoing discussion on: October 09, 2009, 16:48:58
I agree with Theresa 100%, but she is just complaining to get votes, when SHE know that the Tories would do NOTHING about it!
She is actually a good local MP (Member of Parliament) and tackles many local issues like closures of sub post offices, just a shame she is in the wrong party as far as the railways are concerned
3855  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Great Western Main Line electrification - ongoing discussion on: October 09, 2009, 16:37:24
Look, I am no fan of the Tories, but Labour hardly has a sparkling record on railways - going even further in cuts than Beeching proposed in the 1960s, eg closing Oxford-Cambridge.

I have just finished reading a book on the railways. The author says in it, quite reasonably I think, "John Major had a plan, it may have been a **** plan, but he had one. The following Labour Governments never had a plan".
There was and still is a plan, the plan sold to the Labour Government by the Board of Network Rail on the crash of Railtrack was - phase 1 stop the rot, Phase 2 build a better railway, we are now entering into phase 2, phase 3 is run an affordable and sustainable railway.

Anyone who works or has worked in the rail industry will know of the neglect due to lack of coherent investment over the last 40 years.  There is a real risk no matter who wins the next General Election that funding in large public projects will be cut or reduced, I know which Party will invest the most in the railways and it not the Party who just appointed a General!
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