Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 09:55 19 Mar 2024
- Potholes leave nations' roads at 'breaking point'
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 tomorrow - WWRUG AGM
23/03/24 - Trains restart - Minehead
02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber

No 'On This Day' events reported for 19th Mar

Train RunningCancelled
08:18 London Paddington to Cardiff Central
08:59 Cheltenham Spa to London Paddington
09:50 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
10:41 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
16:00 Oxford to London Paddington
Short Run
07:25 Worcester Shrub Hill to London Paddington
08:32 London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa
PollsOpen and recent polls
Open to 25/03 16:00 Easter Escape - to where?
Closed 2024-03-16 Should our rail network go cashless
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 19, 2024, 10:01:27 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[185] A daily picture from my recent travels
[65] Where would you recommend for an Easter Escape?
[56] More travels ... more looking at how others do it ...
[54] M25 motorway issue: a most illuminating Twitter thread.
[49] 2024 Delays and Cancellations - North Cotswold Line
[46] Briefing on forthcoming changes - from GWR on 14.3.2024
 
News: A forum for passengers ... with input from rail professionals welcomed too
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 ... 8
  Print  
Author Topic: Planning for restoration of services  (Read 19976 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40648



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #45 on: May 28, 2020, 14:31:33 »

Sitting on a confined space on a bus for an extended period is much more risky than passing someone momentarily in a relatively open supermarket. And you can't control who comes and sits near you either. I would not be comfortable riding on a bus at the moment, whereas am willing to brave the supermarket shop, albeit trying to use delivery services where possible to minimise journeys out.

Agree completely re the government advice, but I guess we should remember that the advice is there to protect us, our friends and families and society at large. So it feels a bit like cutting your nose off to spite your face to ignore the advice, although sadly I think many people will now do that.

Yes - agreed - (And bolded in different words at the end of my last post)

Quote
As for whether the email you got was correct.  At the moment government advice is that public transport is only for essential business, which I would imagine would be possible within Monday to Friday, so I think it was fair ...

I have several examples (essential works in both food distribution and in specialised care) which do not (and cannot) stop at the weekend, where gaping holes in public transport provision below the norm, at the weekend, has caused problems "I cannot do my job".  And (sorry to say) answering Robin, yes, challenges to the people involved (multiple, again) in such a way that they felt intimidated, as to what they were doing travelling around outside normal hours.

To clarify though - my original comments were written before Robin named the bus company he was quoting.  None of my examples are from that bus company (Faresaver), and my examples have been passed through / are in the hands of usual customer service  / support channels.  The assumption of "anything outside Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 is not essential" is false, but seems widely made.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
Robin Summerhill
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 1145


View Profile Email
« Reply #46 on: May 28, 2020, 14:37:54 »

Celestial's reply shows that sometimes even a long post needs further clarification!  Grin

I would agree that long bus journeys may be a different matter - if (and it's a big "if "at the moment) anybody else is on the bus, but mine isn't. We are talking about a circular town bus service that is timed 17 minutes from emd to end. The reason I use it is that the town centre is downhill for me, so I often walk down and only have to lug the shopping to the bus stop on the way back and not up the hill.

Secondly we are all creatures of habit. Over the years during my working life I have done plenty of getting up at daft 'o clock in the morning, and as a now-retired old git I have no need to do it any more. Until the lockdown, bus passes were not available until after 0930 anyway and, whilst that restriction was lifted "for the duration" many people's daily timetables were affected by it, and those timetables have not necessarily changed.

One of the reasons I wrote to Faresaver at all was that during the course of last week I spoke to two separate people in the local park, both regular bus passengers, and both of which complained about the emergency timetable and that the buses were running too early, and they were completely unprompted by me. It therefore became clear that my views on the matter were not unique.

And yes I have access to a car. One driven by somebody else. A somebody else who might not want (and often does not want) to go for her own purposes. So I feel that I am burdening someone else by asking her to do me a favour. And no matter if it is somebody I've spent 17 years with or not - it still makes me feel like a burden on somebody else.

I don't want to be a burden on others for transport. In my circumstances that's what buses and trains are for; to alleviate that burden.

And finally, the wording of that email did remind me a little of the "old days" when the attitude in shops was often that they thought they were doing you a favour by letting them serve you/ take your money. That's why I included the name of the person who sent it... Wink
Logged
TonyK
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 6432


The artist formerly known as Four Track, Now!


View Profile
« Reply #47 on: May 28, 2020, 19:35:36 »

The Scottish version of easing lockdown

People are still being urged to "stay at home as much as possible", with Ms Sturgeon warning that the virus "is still out there".

although people from two different households can meet, they must keep two metres apart
People should stay at home as much as possible
Anyone meeting up with other households should do so in groups of no more than eight people
we should not meet people from more than one other household each day.

you can play golf, tennis, bowls and fishing
sit and sunbathe in parks
travel, preferably by walking or cycling, for recreation nearby where you live, but avoid public transport
strong advice is not to travel more than five miles for recreation and leisure

It's all getting a bit Pythonesque now.
"It's perfectly simple, Mr McTavish, you can play golf with Mr McDougall, so long as you stay at least the length of two golf bats apart, and carry your own kit, unless the caddy is a member of your household, in which case he can have dinner with your wife later, but you can't unless McDougall is meeting with another family, in which case Mrs McDougall can dine with you and your wife, so long as the caddy self-isolates for 14 days, but as the clubhouse is closed and you can't get hammered at the bar and try to outbore everybody else with fairy tales of how you nearly beat Tony Jacklin, there really isn't much point in playing golf in the first place."
Logged

Now, please!
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40648



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #48 on: May 28, 2020, 19:44:37 »

It's all getting a bit Pythonesque now.

"It's perfectly simple, Mr McTavish, you can play golf with Mr McDougall, so long as you stay at least the length of two golf bats apart, and carry your own kit, unless the caddy is a member of your household, in which case he can have dinner with your wife later, but you can't unless McDougall is meeting with another family, in which case Mrs McDougall can dine with you and your wife, so long as the caddy self-isolates for 14 days, but as the clubhouse is closed and you can't get hammered at the bar and try to outbore everybody else with fairy tales of how you nearly beat Tony Jacklin, there really isn't much point in playing golf in the first place."

Love it - Strikes me as akin to playing Mornington Crescent with Cumming's Castling in odd number months.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
TonyK
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 6432


The artist formerly known as Four Track, Now!


View Profile
« Reply #49 on: May 28, 2020, 19:54:43 »


Love it - Strikes me as akin to playing Mornington Crescent with Cumming's Castling in odd number months.

Now there's a thought! I'm taking this thing pretty seriously, as I'm no Dominic Cummings but I know enough to think my odds of survival if I caught this thing would not ber great. Somewhere around the chances of Tiverton Town winning the FA Cup, I suppose. So I am staying home and casting the occasional eye towards the cosmic fish tank for news, and starting the newspaper at page six. My wife has become utterly obsessed with r-numbers, social discrediting and all that, and has even learned metric. That last could be down to me - when she asked how far 2 metres was in traditional units, I suggested it was around a furlong and two chains.
For goodness sake, don't let her find out that we have actually got slightly light-hearted. I know what she would do, even if she had to sew them back on first.
Logged

Now, please!
johnneyw
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 2248


From station to station, back to Bristol city....


View Profile
« Reply #50 on: May 29, 2020, 00:55:22 »

Mornington Crescent, Cummings Lockdown Variant game play?  Okay.  I open with Castle Barnard because I can.
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40648



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #51 on: May 29, 2020, 06:39:34 »

Now there's a thought! I'm taking this thing pretty seriously, as I'm no Dominic Cummings but I know enough to think my odds of survival if I caught this thing would not ber great. Somewhere around the chances of Tiverton Town winning the FA Cup, I suppose. So I am staying home and casting the occasional eye towards the cosmic fish tank for news, and starting the newspaper at page six. My wife has become utterly obsessed with r-numbers, social discrediting and all that, and has even learned metric.

Staying home and treating the whole thing with extreme caution is the only sensible approach - especially for any of us / those who may be at a high risk.  100% backing you on that.

There is - for some of us - a dark humour which helps relieve the intensity and pressure of a nothing-to-do-at-present life style.  Not going to do anything stupid; going to suggest others don't do anything stupid either.

Quote
Can I meet friends and relatives?

From Monday in England, you will be able to meet up to six people from different households outside - either in parks or now also in private gardens - as long as you remain 2m (6ft) apart.

From Friday in Scotland, members of two different households will be allowed to meet up outdoors if you maintain social distancing. Groups cannot be bigger than eight, and people are "strongly recommended" not to meet more than one other household per day.

In Wales, the BBC» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) understands that people from two different households will be able to meet each other outdoors from Monday.

Groups of four to six people who are not in the same household can meet outdoors in Northern Ireland, although outdoor weddings with 10 people present may be allowed from 8 June.

But we were speculating this morning about the five local people (it does not say friends) we would least want to have in our garden and thanking our lucky stars that we don't have too.   We were also wondering if social media in Northern Ireland is going to be overrun with adverts like "Fourth person wanted to join a group of three so we can meet outdoors" ...

Back to the top of the post ... we're going nowhere unless we have to, advising by example and words others to do the same, and where we have to go out (or have people here), distancing, wearing face masks, washing hands ...
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40648



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #52 on: May 29, 2020, 09:05:58 »

Secondly we are all creatures of habit. Over the years during my working life I have done plenty of getting up at daft 'o clock in the morning, and as a now-retired old git I have no need to do it any more. Until the lockdown, bus passes were not available until after 0930 anyway and, whilst that restriction was lifted "for the duration" many people's daily timetables were affected by it, and those timetables have not necessarily changed.

Not sure for other areas but for Devon - https://www.traveldevon.info/bus/national-bus-pass/

Quote
UPDATE: National Bus Pass usage during COVID-19 situation

Cessation of Early Use of National Bus Passes in Devon – The last day you will be able to use your National Bus Pass before 09:30 weekdays will be Friday 5th June 2020. As more and more workers are returning and the need to maintain social distancing on bus services drastically reduces capacity, early morning bus capacity now needs to return to people who are using services to access employment.

Travel with the National Bus Pass will revert to the standard operating times from Saturday 6th June 2020. This is unlimited travel weekends and Bank Holidays and 09:30 weekdays until the end of service.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40648



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #53 on: May 29, 2020, 11:11:07 »

I am not aware of any bus driver refusing to carry anybody, or indeed ask what they were travellig for. Indeed, how would they know the purpose of the journey without asing the potential passenger?

I quoted examples (known to me via directly involved trusted sources) yesterday of people travelling with legitimate reason being made to feel very, very uncomfortable.  Not putting them in the public domain for privacy reasons. But here - from the BBC» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) this morning is an example of a public transport driver refusing to carry someone he believed should not be travelling.

Quote
A golfer says he was verbally abused by a train driver who accused him of ignoring government advice on using public transport.

Glenn Macdonald, from Norfolk, said the driver swore at him when he got on a train with his golf bag after lockdown rules on the sport were relaxed.

The driver said he would not leave until the golfer got off.

Greater Anglia trains apologised for the spat but said government advice was still to avoid public transport.

It said it was investigating the matter.

Mr Macdonald, who does not own a car, and lives in a studio flat in Cromer, was heading to West Runton golf course on 18 May when the alleged abuse occurred.

Very much the exception, I suggest - the press are very good at finding the wrong in a sea of right.  And it typically takes two twits for something to blow up like this.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40648



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #54 on: May 29, 2020, 11:37:06 »

And restoration of parking charges ... from Wiltshire Council

Quote
We are reintroducing parking charges at all car parks, & on residential & on-street parking areas in the county from Mon 1 June. All parking permits & season tickets will also restart & parking wardens will enforce parking contraventions
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
Marlburian
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 688


View Profile
« Reply #55 on: May 29, 2020, 15:34:42 »

... Staying home and treating the whole thing with extreme caution is the only sensible approach - especially for any of us / those who may be at a high risk... 

Out of interest, how completely are you "staying at home"? I haven't seen several elderly neighbours for months, not that any of them ventured out much before Lockdown. I rather wondered then what they did all day. And an acquaintance from the 1960s has suddenly popped up via eMails and says he's  been self-isolating at home because he has diabetes. I wondered if he's ever left home? Surely no harm early in the morning when there's no-one much else around?

I've had no choice but to do my own shopping and feel OK with that but, as you may have gathered from earlier posts, I've ventured further afield for longish walks. I think that the risk to me and others in the fresh air is minimal, especially as I haven't come to within two metres of anyone.

Pre-Covid, I would use the train to give me more range for walks and don't see much risk with this. More often than not in the good old days, there would be only one or two other people in the same compartment. But I accept that to do so at the moment would be unacceptable.

One other thought and it's slightly off-topic: I wonder in what circumstances people are contracting Covid now? We'll all aware of the high proportion of nursing and care home residents, but are there any surveys of where else someone has caught i?. I guess that "track & test" may help here.
Logged
Robin Summerhill
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 1145


View Profile Email
« Reply #56 on: May 29, 2020, 16:11:19 »

As regards walking I have taken the view that it all depends where you go, or indeed can go.

I am fortunate in that the edge of town is less than 5 minutes walk for me with only 3 houses to pass on the way, so I feel fairly safe in going that way. I might only pass 4 or 5 people on a 4 mile walk.

It might be very different if, at the other extreme, one live in a heavily built-up area where a lot more people are likely to be around most of the time.

Of course, there is only one way to ind out if I am right or wrong in taking that approach and I think I would prefer not to find out that I was wrong, because there is only one true way to do it...

As regards the track and trace policy, at the moment I remain to be convimced that it will work properly. News on the trial on the Isle of Wight has certainly not reached my ears recently, and I am concerned about both the centralised nature of the UK (United Kingdom) scheme and its heavy reliance on IT. Experience has shown that central government and new IT systems have rarely made good bedfellows in the past.

Talking of the past, chasing down epedemics/ pandemics is nothing new. Throughput the 20th century, and possibly going back beforehand in some parts of the country, local Medical Officers of Health were doing this all the time with diseases that they had to deal with regularly such as diptheria, cholera, smallpox, TB etc. That they sometimes didn't jnow what to do about it when they had chased it down was due to a shortage of medical knowledge that they had at the time and that has now generally been corrected. So that is a positive.

Running down such local facilities "because we didn't need them any more" can be encapsulated by the old adage: "The lesson we learn from history is that we don't learn lessons from history"
Logged
TaplowGreen
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 7723



View Profile
« Reply #57 on: May 30, 2020, 08:46:44 »

One thing that is going to be absolutely vital to getting people back moving on the trains when the world returns to something like normality is a robust and reliable service - "staycations" are likely to be the order of the day this year, so it's an opportunity for the railways and GWR (Great Western Railway) in particular given its services to the Westcountry.

In this context, what progress has been made in resolving the ridiculous situation which has made long distance summer Sunday services almost non viable over the last few years due to drivers being able to opt out of Sunday working, or do we face another summer of mass weekend cancellations and people choosing to rely on their cars instead?

Hopefully one of the well informed members of the forum can advise.

Logged
IndustryInsider
Data Manager
Hero Member
******
Posts: 10081


View Profile
« Reply #58 on: May 30, 2020, 09:33:51 »

No progress.

However, the quite high percentage of drivers who like to earn extra money by working extra days have seen that opportunity dry up almost completely due to the emergency timetable, so I would expect fewer Sunday’s to be ‘given up’ and more volunteers making themselves available.  We’ll see what effect on availability that has.
Logged

To view my GWML (Great Western Main Line) Electrification cab video 'before and after' video comparison, as well as other videos of the new layout at Reading and 'before and after' comparisons of the Cotswold Line Redoubling scheme, see: http://www.dailymotion.com/user/IndustryInsider/
GBM
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 1454


View Profile Email
« Reply #59 on: May 30, 2020, 09:53:57 »

Being 70+ with a compromised immune system means a house lockdown.  Fortunately have a large garden to walk around.  Meet and greet (at a distance) for the Thursday clap with neighbours.
Furballed until the end of June by the NHS and employer.

Was looking forward to the IoW NHS tracing app coming to the mainland, but feel the mainland 'trace and track' is wide open to scammers, so a massive distrust of that.
At least with an app - it's just another app that reads your mind.  We give our soul to Google/faceache/Microbug, etc, etc, so what's different with the IoW app privacy-wise.
At least with that it's unlikely we'd be rung up by an NHS advisor telling me I'd been in close contact and for the sum of £x to cover admin costs they'll sort my life out I tell them my 5 best email and telephone contact details............. Huh
Logged

Personal opinion only.  Writings not representative of any union, collective, management or employer. (Think that absolves me...........)
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 ... 8
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page