There is a perfect site for a new London airport, where for over 40 years the residents put up with noisy planes landing and taking off all times of day and night.  It's at Upper Heyford, adjacent to the existing railway between Banbury and Oxford, close to the alignment of HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)), which could surely be adjusted slightly, and there are no significant areas of population to the east or west. Might not suit a handful of wealthy landowners in north Oxfordshire around Chipping Norton, though...

Possibly connected with the derailment at Reading earlier this morning -- Journeycheck is currently saying that the "1020 Windsor to Slough [and subsequent journeys] will be formed of one coach instead of two. This is due to a train fault."
Does this mean one coach locked out of use , or perhaps they've borrowed a Chiltern bubblecar?

That seems an awful lot of money -- are the fixtures gold plated?  And are the toilets open 24/7, or locked when there are no staff in attendance, as seems to happen a lot in the West Country...

The Daily Telegraph website has a picture  from the 2004 incident at Ufton Nervet, of an  HST^▸ (High Speed Train) with coaches derailed and at all angles. A bit crass, even by their standards.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/9282689/Ufton-Nervet-moped-rider-killed-after-collision-with-train-at-level-crossing.html

Torquay is my favourite place to visit for a few days of r and r, and I have been a regular visitor for a few years now. The station used to regularly have one or two helpful people in the booking office and another person on the platform helping passengers and dispatching trains for most of the day.
This year I have noticed that the number of staff has been cut back, and on occasions the booking clerk has to close the office, leaving a queue of people waiting while he goes to the platform to deal with the ramp for disabled passengers and dispatch the train. There also appears to be only one shift -- there weren't any staff at all after about 1600.
Is Torquay destined to follow Torre and become an unstaffed halt? I do hope not!

PS A good point -- there are clear dot-matrix departure indicators now instead of the hard-to-read TV screens, though still no announcements of departures.

Whenever someone comes up with an idea or suggestion for a new or improved service we seem to be told that nothing can be done because there is no rolling stock available.  But it occurs to me that in Turboland we have lost the Oxford to Bristol journies that operated until quite recently, and this year Chiltern took over the Bicester-Oxford workings, so there ought to be a bit of "give" in the systrem.
I would be interested to see the journeys rostered to be operated by FGWs^▸ (First Great Western) dmu fleet -- primarily the 165 and 166s, but all classes if possible.  Can anyone on here kindly point me toward a source.
There was a listing of HST^▸ (High Speed Train) workings in "Todays Railways UK^▸ (United Kingdom)" earlier this year -- this is the sort of thing I'm looking for.
Thanks.

This morning I received a most enticing offer from FirstGreatWestern@e-deliveryservice.com:


I was a tad surprised as normally the only game in Oxford's ancient cobbled streets is in the vans of the many kebab sellers.

According to the CLA [Country Landowners' Association] website, "The Game Fair comprises the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)'s biggest and best shooting and fishing shows as well as the most comprehensive gundog and falconry exhibitions alongside every other aspect of countryside activities and interests such as ferreting, gamekeeping, Estate Management, Forestry and Woodland, hounds and hunting."

So, can we look forward to archery at the Ashmolean, shooting in St Aldate's, fishing shows at Folly Bridge [next to the punt hire station], ferreting in Frewin Court,  hounds and hunting in Holywell Street and gundogs in Catte Street?  It'll be a great city break indeed!


 

The 0645 Penzance - Paddington started 20 mins late today and appears to be dropping a minute or two on each leg of its journey through Cornwall. FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Live Updates now shows that this train will not call at Bodmin Parkway "due to a train fault".

I have known trains to miss the stop at Totnes when one power car is poorly. Does the same happen at Bodmin Parkway, or is there an alternative reason for this stop being cancelled?

Brentford?

The 2127 Paddington to Worcester didn't sit at Didcot for 7 minutes. I think it ran forward from platform 1 [down main] to Foxhall and then shunted back to the down relief[platform 3].  The 2127 pulled out of Pad just as I arrived panting at the buffer stops after sprinting up from the tube. Luckily only 10 mins to wait until the 2137 Swansea which I travelled on to Didcot. The Oxford connection unusually arrived in platform 3 from the west, and then  reversed and carried on to Oxford and beyond. I deduce that this was the 2127 Pad = Worcester service.
Both the 2127 Pad = Worc and 2137 Pad = Swansea had refreshment service, with customer hosts announcing their wares over the tannoy, though no hot food on the Swansea as the oven had failed.  I haven't travelled on a Sunday evening for a long time, and was quite surprised at the provision of catering facilities. Also was gripped on the 2137 Pad = Swansea between Pad and reading -- very rare to be gripped on an evening train on weekdays, but then they're usually turbos not HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train).

Fancied a day in London today (Sun 23 May 2010). In the FGW^▸ (First Great Western)
new timetable the first train from Oxford to London on a Sunday is at 0838,
arriving at Paddington at 0945. [Shame there's nothing earlier,
but . . .]
Checked the FGW website for engineering works -- nothing showing there
that should affect this journey, so arranged to meet mate in London --
sorted!

This morning, just to be on the safe side, checked again -- on journey
planner this time -- and discovered no 0838 to Paddington. Obviously
there are engineering works, though still not evident on FGW website,
and the situation now is thus:

Depart Oxford  0810 by bus FIRST GREAT WESTERN duration 0.30
Arrive Abingdon High Street  0840

Depart Abingdon High Street  0851 by bus UNKNOWN BUS duration 0.27
Arrive Didcot Parkway  0918

Depart Didcot Parkway  0946 by train FIRST GREAT WESTERN duration 0.58
London Paddington arr 1044

Total journey time 2h 34mins, including 11 minutes wait at Abingdon
and 28 minutes at Didcot, compared to the usual hour or so.

Similar situation an hour later. The first "direct" bus from Oxford to
Didcot is at 1030 and apparently operated by Cross Country.

I'm wondering whether the bus service from Oxford to Abingdon is the
Oxford Bus Co service X3, which happens to leave Oxford rail station
at 0810 and arrive at Abington at 0940 and that from Abingdon to
Didcot is the X2 service, leaving Oxford St Aldates at 0830, picking
up at Abingdon at 0851 and arriving at Didcot at 0918. So there may
not even be a rail replacement bus at all, just 2 everyday local
buses !

Does FGW really expect anyone to put their hand in their pocket and
pay good money for such a pathetic offering? I bet the coach operators
are laughing all the way to the bank !