Hmm. 

While I do fully support that 'commitment' to invest substantially in the railway infrastructure in South Wales, it's not all guaranteed.

Rachel Reeves has proposed spending that budget until 2030.  However, Parliaments are limited to five years - so, 5 years on from 4 July 2024, her Government could be out of office by 4 July 2029 (or possibly earlier, depending on developments).

Just saying.   

I always felt a bit uneasy at killing large numbers of beetles, not for some important medical purpose, or even as food, but simply for a decorative colouring agent.

With the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority area already benefitting from a nearly 50% increase in funding to fix potholes this year compared to last year, we are paving the way to the future.

I don't believe that this has only just been classified as an England & wales project at this stage - so why complain only now?

I believe it's a little duller than that. Basically the reinstatement of the 2027 to 2032 Mayoral Authority funding settlement which was announced in Oct 2023 but frozen by Labour when they came into power.

It follows on from the 2022 to 2027 settlement which in the case of WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about), has mainly been bus and road focused, although there's been a fair amount of rail strategic planning with NR^» (Network Rail - home page) including a study into whether Parkway to Temple Meads could be electrified for less than originally budgeted.

I'm not sure if a detailed pipeline for 2027 to 2032 is in the public domain - the main commitments I can find are reopening Portishead (MetroWest 1b) and Henbury (MetroWest 2).

Mass transit development could be something exciting, but realistically it's probably just bits like moving the busses to the north side of Temple Meads, roadworks along the A37 and A4 corridors to make the busses run faster etc.

I suspect that in the case of WECA it's PR^▸ (Public Relations) fluff rather than anything meaningful.

The new Temple Meads canopy continues to be slowly revealed with even some of the scaffolding being dismantled.  I took those pictures this afternoon.

Now that GBR^▸ (Great British Railways) is responsible for the former franchise of SW[TR], is it time for them to be Great British and consider restoring the through services from London via the County Town of Wiltshire - the nearest county town to London without a through train from the capital.

Just reading this from the start.
My first visit to India in 2004 I was met at the airport with a car from our office. Mid way into Chennai I asked the driver whether they drove on the left or the right (it certainly wasn't obvious to me). He said "yes".
I asked him if he knew what the white lines were for. "Just some nonsense the British left in 1947, he said.
Then, nor in all my subsequent visits, did I have the courage nor skill to get behind the wheel of a car.

In my teens when learning, people from Newcastle would head 35 miles up the road to Alnwick for their test.  They got the same licence, but there were no traffic lights or roundabouts to navigate.

My cousin emigrated to the USA in the 80s before taking her first test somewhere in the deep south. It consisted of something like driving a loop around a residential block and then reversing successfully into a side road. She reckoned it was far easier than a British cycling proficiency test…

You'll soon be sitting in the train with teenagers driving, apparently. 

There's a local Bristol Beeb news article about an artist being sought to provide a mural at Ashley Down station to make it "more welcoming".  Personally I think that Ashley Down is okay as it is with other stations probably more in need of the four grand that seems to have been made available for the project.

Here's the link to the article in full.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1e6jq9yxp1o.amp

There's an article in today's Sunday Times "Home" supplement, "Just the ticket or a curse for locals", quoting the promoter as saying they're now targeting high-net-worth individuals and rail industry bodies, promising high returns and economic prosperity". The reporter observes that "the line between Frome, Bruton and Castle Cary could become one of the poshest commuter routes in England". The plan is to buy 50-year-old rolling stock.

I incline towards pessimism about the viability of the proposal. I'm reminded of the bid, what, 20 years ago, by an individual to run a couple of extra trains (using "old" carriages) a day from Pewsey into Paddington and a couple more on return journeys. One cynical observation was that during delays the existing operator might give route preferences to its own trains.

Anyone know why the Full Business case for the Portishead line which was due to be signed off March/April, has been put back to
july 2025... as reported by the Portishead railway group website ?