The Reading to Reading West fare offers great value when you consider the chances of being mugged if you tackle it on foot! 

More likely sat indoors glued to their phones watching YouTube or TikTok videos.

All joking aside though, that does indeed look like the same incident.  So now you all know what an emergency stop looks like...not quite in time on this occasion - though probably the best the driver could have done!

And to think the future is in driverless trains... 

A review of the new Nightjet offering between Hamburg and Vienna:

https://www.cntraveller.com/article/we-travelled-on-europes-new-sleeper-train-heres-what-we-think?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-gb

Rather than the 2% figure which will be difficult to shift much as it's generally not possible to do the school run or pop to the shops on the train, the 8% of total mileage by rail is the interesting one to me (I think it's 8.65% to be exact).

As a percentage it is only just over 1% below the pre-covid peak of 9.92%.  Higher than as recent as 2010.  Way higher than the mid-90s when it was just over 5%, but looking further back to pre-Beeching it was up at 17% back in the 1950s.

Interesting that it is so high against a backdrop of covid recovery and a lack of commuters and business travelers, no doubt bouyed by new infrastructure such as the Elizabeth Line.  Encouraging stuff!

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/482670/tsgb0101.xls

A possession to undertake maintenance work on a series of points in the Paddington throat area.  Possession covers line 1-4 and Platforms 1-9 inclusive at Paddington.  Access to North Pole depot is also affected.

I quite agree, and no personal criticism taken - it’s nice to have the opportunity to help explain sometimes.

To be fair to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) the level of detail in explaining disruption in layman’s terms has become much better over the last year or so.  As a forum our collective knowledge is better than most of the passengers that GWR provides for, and I think we need to remember that when deciding what the best way of explaining a delay is that is sufficient for most people to understand.  That being said, there are examples when I think they have got that balance wrong.

The TM^‡(resolve) yesterday booked on duty to travel on that train so I don’t know how long a taxi might take to St. Erth but it might not have been in time for the train that ended up being cancelled anyway?  It’s also quite possible that nobody realised it might be an issue due to the general levels of disruption and a small team trying to oversee it all from within control.

Local supervisors in days gone by would have been more likely to notice it.

When things go wrong, there are several things that now make it worse: 

• The aforementioned lack of local supervisors.
• The slow erosion of route knowledge that a-driver mentioned.
• And the stupid rostering of staff in the last few years meaning small efficiency gains that result in multiple unnecessary changes of crew enroute.  Looks fine on paper, but in reality makes managing disruption far harder.
  

Depends how far you want to trace back a delay?

The TM^‡(resolve) for that round trip from St. Erth to St. Ives travels on 1A96, the 16:15 from Penzance which was 32 minutes late arriving at St. Erth, so if it had run it would have been with at least a 10 minute delay. 

The 16:15 from Penzance was delayed by late arrival of the inward working from London, which was delayed by the flooding.

Double skinned windows that are designed to shatter into small pieces and with an anti-vandalism laminate are pretty resilient thankfully.  Looks like that one behaved as designed under quite an impact.

I believe they are wanting to introduce the daily Cardiff<>Edinburgh service, refill the gaps in the Stansted service, and, from May 2025, restore the hourly Reading<>Newcastle’s only a few of which run now.

It's currently a PF^▸ (Penalty Fare) (Permissive Freight) line, so that excludes any passenger trains except by special arrangement (such as the case you mention).  There's also a tight radius at the western end which means Class 158s (and 153s, not that there are any of those in the area anymore) are barred at that end.

Just on Westbury’s platform 0, isn’t passive provision already there?  In other words a running line with main aspect signals and all routes available from it?   

It would just only need the existing platform face extending out a metre or two along with any other works required to make it suitable for passenger trains as well as goods ones?

The £125 is a rest day working premium paid on top of a minimum 8 hours pay at their normal rate (or whatever the length of shift is if over 8 hours).  That worked out at a minimum of £421.

Thinking about this a little more...

Do these diverted trains that pass through Melksham usually call additionally at Swindon, Chippenham, Trowbridge and Westbury as well?  Surely they would need to in order to replace the local service through Melksham...much more delay incurred as a result? 

A next stop of Reading or Taunton wouldn't be much use to many Melksham passengers!

There are several reasons, but the key one, which IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly) Mark Hopwood confirmed, is that trains diverted through Melksham are exactly that.  Diverted.  And already facing a lengthy delay as a result.

The likes of Hungerford are on the line of route, so the only delay is for the station stop.

Whether it’s right or wrong, Mark does not want a further 2-3 minute delay on an already very late service that would result from the station call at Melksham.  And of course that also affects the number of diverted trains that can be squeezed through per hour on the lengthy single line section, which is why the local service is axed in the first place.

Yes, I think we’re kind of in agreement…though we’ll have to get you a Broadgage style bingo card. 

It’s all about letting everyone know ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about) are still in dispute occasionally, but until the Tories are ousted there will be no real likelihood of a settlement, and fair play to ASLEF for not ruining the big Easter getaway for the all important leisure market.