Three snaps from my weekend trip.

I assume that the running of the 1857 HEx service from Terminal 5 on the Relief Line after Southall, resulting in a 30 minute journey time, and the 40 minute late departure of the 1903 GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) to Plymouth were in some way associated with yesterday's complete chaos. Or was this entirely down to the ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about) spanner in the works?

I wonder if there is a large enough potential passenger count to justify rebuilding the section of railway between Colyton & Seaton Junction as an extension of the Seaton Tramway. Aerial mapping seems to show a largely unobstructed trackbed.

My original 7th December booking DIG > EXD^» (Exeter St Davids - next trains) >PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) has had to be binned - RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) has been updated to indicate no Exmouth branch services, only two trains to PAD and no HEx service either.

I will (hopefully) now take a bus, using a crinklies pass, from home to Exeter city centre - the Stagecoach H will drop me off at EXC - and then 1L56 from EXC (1430) to CLJ (1809), this being diverted via WSB^» (Westbury - next trains) to avoid the engineering closure, followed by 1N95 CLJ (1822) > FEL (1842), and then the 490 TfL^» (Transport for London - about) bus to Heathrow T4 (overnight hotel prior to early Friday flight to Nice + train to Toulon for the European Champions Cup game on Saturday).

Fingers firmly crossed!

A comparison between LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) and Ryanair is nonsensical; every time we have used LNER they have deposited us in the middle of the city or town to which we were travelling rather than 20-30 miles away near a local bus stop! 

The Harland & Wolff 'brand' is apparently now owned by a company called InfraStrata who run a number of small ship building and repair yards in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) (including Appledore in North Devon).

The only late autumn>winter>early spring public transport services are the separate Penzance<>IOS helicopter service (£150 one way) and the IOS Skybus (£130 one way) from Land's End Airport. Given the weather during this part of the year I would have grave doubts that anybody could run a reliable year-round maritime service. InfraStrata have absolutely no history of providing public transport services so I would be very suspicious of their motives in this case. 

I selected the 'Something Else' option. As noted above consumption of food & drink on trains should always exhibit consideration for the passengers, and railway staff - respect subsequent users and the cleaners who have a horrible enough job already.
And no seriously 'pungent' food products; geographically OT but the complete public transport ban on the consumption, and in some instances carrying, of durian in Singapore and Malaysia comes to mind.

I doubt the EU^» (European Union - about) would be interested...the bosses from somewhere like Eton or Cheltenham Ladies Colleges might be a better bet. 

As I am generally a non-believer where coincidences are concerned I have to ask if there is any possibility that the Crewkerne bovine incursion resulted from something that was done (improperly) during the recent engineering blockade.

Except when Great Western Railway is under consideration! I had thought Mr Merriman was a fairly sensible individual but statements such as this may indicate he resides on a different planet to the rest of us.

Edit to fix quoting

This looks like the railway overbridge at the junction of Connection Road & Lower Bristol Road in Twerton.

Just to be clear - because I made no direct reference to a particular group of individuals in my original post - I meant that as a matter of principle the police should remove, by arresting them if polite requests are ineffective, anybody who is engaging in any form of protest that stops or delays intending rail passengers from going about their lawful business.

And I would of course extend this principle to any other similar situation e.g. Obstruction of the highway by Just Stop Oil activists.

I thought that railway stations were legally private property and the 'owner' could thus deny access as they saw fit.

I am more than happy to be corrected on this but if that is the case the BTP^▸ (British Transport Police), when asked to* , should be removing, forcibly if necessary, these protestors especially if they are obstructing normal passenger flow.

*Would this actually be required or is this covered by existing railway byelaws?

 

Looking at the listed memberships I wouldn't mind betting that the RDG^‡(resolve) has more than enough knowledge/competence to do the job in the best interests of all users but are invariably prevented from doing so by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) / Treasury.

A few suggestions:
1) Inform the Treasury bosses that henceforth they WILL concentrate their energy solely on the management of the national finances and that any involvement in policy decisions, save for a statement on whether there is sufficient money in the coffers for each scheme, will be unwelcome and ignored.

2) Get shot of all the consultants and let the RDG^‡(resolve) do their job, rather than just treat them as a whipping boy on whom the blame for the latest DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) cock-up can be placed.

3) Run a 'request for suggestions' on how the rail industry could be changed to improve it's running particularly aimed at the travelling public, but open to anybody. Yes, you would get some completely nutty ideas but I would warrant that there would be plenty of realistic proposals as well e.g. Ticketing simplification, Electrification schemes that don't stop short of their obvious destination.

(I will return to reality shortly.)