4 is Verney Junction on the former Metropolitan Line and, now, East West Rail. (Though I suspect it doesn't look like that right now!)

This is Caroline: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/975025_Caroline

Apparently "As some may know, the saloon is named after Caroline Mayo, a long time employee of the RTC who died of cancer in 2019. There is a photograph of her and explanatory plaque on board." https://revolutiontrains.com/tag/975025/

The new site has broken everyone’s live departure board bookmarks. Not clever.

(I use the TrainSplit app for buying tickets - simple, fast, independent, and finds useful savings.)

I'm delighted to see that electric trains are finally running between Oxford and London, according to this picture in the Oxford Mail. Slightly surprised that they're Merseyrail third-rail units, but maybe this is a way of saving money on the electrification?



https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23976658.gwr-rail-updates-services-oxford-london/

And meanwhile the 0523 seems to have been sitting in Foregate Street platform 1 for 50 minutes and counting, if the live departure boards are to be believed.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on Twitter say the signalling system is up the spout (not exact quote).

Unfortunately not. That’s three days in a row it’s been cancelled, and tomorrow is a strike day.

Passengers were apparently left on the platform at Hanborough on the 0523 yesterday and there was a tannoy announcement regretting the “unsafe” conditions.

Reliability has been truly shocking over the last month.

One little anecdote: on Saturday we were in Oxford with Junior (age 7), looking round the Christmas Market then getting a bite to eat. We checked our phones and our train home was simply showing "Delayed". A quick check on RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) showed it hadn't left Paddington yet.

Given the reliability of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) in general and the Cotswold Line in particular, we weren't going to risk making bedtime an hour late. With the train still at Paddington 15 minutes after its departure time, we cut our losses and sprinted across the road to catch the S3 bus.

As it happened, the train eventually left Paddington a few minutes after that, which meant we got home about the same time - the S3 is really not a fast route. But it's depressing that we now routinely expect the trains to be cancelled.

JourneyCheck showing that the two main commuter trains tomorrow are cancelled:

https://tinyurl.com/atdnkxnz

Seriously unimpressed. Mrs F is currently working out what time she has to drive from Charlbury to get to work (in Oxford) on time. No trains between 0611 and 0805 is not a great situation.

The 0805 is going to be entertaining carnage if two IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train)’ worth of people are trying to fit into an (already fairly busy) 2-carriage Turbo!

4 is Shrewsbury.

1350 and 1523 from Paddington both running about 20 late.

I think today is best described as "Shall we forget that happened?".

The evening halts train left Didcot about 20 minutes late due to awaiting a train manager on an incoming service. That put it right in front of the following IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) (the 16.58 from Paddington).

The IET was allowed to overtake before Oxford, and went first out of Oxford at 1757 (14 late) - I was on that one. The halts train left Oxford at 1810. It then appears to have waited between Oxford and Wolvercot to allow the up IET to come through, and as I write is currently running 74 minutes late according to RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website).

Running the halts train, rather than putting extra stops on the IET, strikes me as an unusual choice but there you go.

To add to the fun, there appears to have been a signalling fault between Wolvercot and Charlbury in the early evening - at least one train was given permission to pass a signal on red, apparently.

I was on it from Oxford. Standing room only to Hanborough and very busy on to Charlbury. Haven't checked but it looks like maybe the Cotswold Line was down one diagram - there were cancellations either side too.

The North Cotswold Line Task Force proposals envisage shortening the single line at each end - basically redoubling Wolvercot to Hanborough, and Evesham to Pershore. (I have my doubts that it'll happen.)

The Voyagers are additional to the Adelantes I think, at least for now. But I’m sure GC^» (Great Central Railway - link to heritage line) will be considering whether to replace the Adelantes entirely.