Ah, well you tripped me up good and proper. Thing is, I think I was fairly negative about Breich station and may even have talked down Pilning, only to realise that there was more to these proposals than met the eye - so I sort of assumed that there must be a case for Badminton of which I was unaware...


Is there a case for that now? Corfield was arguing for it in 1968, when a car park could have been built for 4d and Parkway was still a marshalling yard...

Of all the stations on the list, I'm interested to know what role people see Badminton Station fulfilling... it doesn't seem to be be near anywhere, and I'm starting to wonder if I made a mistake when I voted for it!

I've obviously got the wrong end of the stick: I thought we were playing the Great Western version of 'Mornington Crescent', or Melksham as it is more commonly called. I hadn't anticipated that Pratchett's Variant was in play! So:

Tooting Bec.

Actually the more I think about this, the more it sounds like a complete disaster in the making. Even introducing a hint of doubt into the tenuous and fraught process of opening new stations could effectively kick all local schemes into the long grass forever, whilst allowing megalomaniac vanity projects to continue consuming billions of pounds. What would be the point on forcing a new Ashley Down station to have platform edge doors if the previous and next stations on the line didn't have them?

Safety is important, and suicide is traumatic for everyone touched by it, but this proposal seems almost designed to slow down or stop the already glacial process of expanding the network. Meanwhile, bus lanes that allow buses to drive at full speed a few centimetres from pavements crowded with shoppers are acceptable, and pedestrians can, by right and rightly, walk across major roads. If people can't jump under trains, will they jump under buses instead? How would they stop that?

...which, as I think you know very well, applies in the cinque villes of west Wiltshire.

It's Sunday, Tony! Westbury switchback (or 'circulation') is allowed as long as no other player has declared a void.

Played right into my hands!

Melksham.

Thank you, ladies and gents.

Very nice... I think we all know what comes next..!

Right; enough of this shilly-shallying: PADDINGTON!

Edit: assuming there are no Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption elsewhere...

Is she feeling a bit below Par?

It's true. I tried; I bent my whisk.

...I am right in thinking that I can have an open station on a closed Great Western route, as long as I use my 'Family and Friends Railcard'?

Good grief, did I say Hopton Heath? I must have had a dewy-eyed aberration; of course I meant to say Leominster...

Before the war, my father would have wheeled out his trusty Pensford Surprise at this point... but sadly I can do no better than Hopton Heath!

I'll let that go, assuming you went via Henbury...