Swindon - facilities, improvements, signalling, events and incidents, including GWR history - merged posts

[whole diary]

[infoman]

I presume the the location is Chaddington Lane looking towards Wooten Bassett?

[grahame]

From Wiltshire Live - 21:39, 20 OCT 2023

But a further update released on social media tonight by Great Western Railway (GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) has said service alterations will need to last until at least Saturday. The update says "We are sorry for the disruption caused by flooding on the railway at Swindon today.

"An amended timetable will remain in place for the rest of the day and until at least midday tomorrow. Tickets for travel today will be valid for journeys tomorrow or on Sunday."

[grahame]

From the Swindon Advertiser

A picture of the roofless platform was shared on social media, with some quick to use it as another sign of the decline of Swindon's facilities.

But Network Rail has now confirmed that the roof was removed as part of ongoing redevelopment work to make the station look better.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “We’re carrying out a full refurbishment of the canopies on Platforms 1 and 3 at Swindon, in keeping with the stone station building’s Grade II listed status.

[snip]

“The work on Platform 1 was completed in May and we are now working on Platform 3, replacing the timber and glass parts of the structure. Platform 3 is being completed in two sections so that shelter for passengers continues to be available outside as well as inside."

“The work is due to be completed in March next year and we’d like to thank passengers for their patience while we carry out this essential maintenance which will last for decades to come.”

[CyclingSid]

Village transformed from 'no-go area to a delight'

Nice to see somebody trying save/improve the condition of the old railway village, a valuable bit of railway and architectural heritage.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c89w018e033o
Another recording project in Wales repeats the underlying question of how and what of our industrial heritage do we preserve or even record?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8498w0pwxjo

[bobm]

Swindon: Platform Lifts

The lifts on platforms 1, 2 and 3 are not working at Swindon.
There is no step free way of leaving these platforms.

Any assist customers on services booked to use those platforms who require step-free access should be placed on a service booked to use platform 4 or provided an alternative.

[Chris from Nailsea]

I have been doing a bit more of my 'merging' of posts here, hopefully in the interests of continuity and ease of future reference.

However: due to the acknowledged limitations of the Coffee Shop forum's software (particularly our search facility), I've had to compromise with some finer detail.

This means that, while I have preserved the original post's heading wherever possible, some of them will have been over-written with the new topic heading.

However, they are all in chronological order, so hopefully this will enable our readers to keep them in context.

Chris from Nailsea (with moral support from bobm from Swindon)