Well, services were improving to hourly or better and clockface in BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) days, long before "any reasonable route" became "any permitted route" and the Routeing Guide came into existence.

The thread https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/national-routeing-guide-update.99396/ starts in 2014, and the oldest I can find on the forum is from 2007: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/routeing-guide-easements.14305/

While these cover at-the-time changes, I don't know of any record of the cumulative effect of all the changes. I suspect that it would be difficult to research, especially as there are non-Guide changes that affect the choice of permitted routes. For example:

• Timetable changes that add or remove through services
• Some journeys not having an "any permitted" route option (only fares for specified routes)

I wonder if our Devon and Cornwall CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) representative has a view or experience on liaising with the heritage railway operator?

A couple of years ago, I found there was an extremely good value through ticket offering between Cornish stations (+ Plymouth) and the B&WRly. In addition to visiting the railway, I was able to walk up the road from Bodmin General to see the Bodmin Keep army museum. I also noted how the railway's own car park was full, to the point of being chaotic. You might think they'd like to encourage more visitors by rail...

I also learned that the through fare was such excellent value (less than the B&R's own local fare) because the big railway hadn't updated their fares for some time. Between the lines (and a subsequent follow-up) I received the impression that the B&W Rly didn't think it was worth bothering with through fares. (minority of journeys and all that).

The subject of journeys between National Rail and heritage railways was covered fairly recently on another (rail but not specifically heritage) forum. I must say I found the thread depressing, particularly for comments, from people with a rail interest, with a flavour of Who'd want to take their kids by National Rail? They'd be bored even before they got [to the heritage railway] and it costs £££.

It is, of course, a tragedy: but one that unfolded long before the young lady came anywhere near the tube station.

A couple more thoughts:

• What practical TfL^» (Transport for London - about) measures would have prevented this death? Platform doors?-yes but expensive. More staff? - doing what exactly? escorting each intoxicated person onto the train and off at their destination?
• Had the lady chosen to walk in front of a bus instead, would the coroner's report have used similar messaging? (and to whom?)

Free eyesight tests for the elderly (actually over 60's) are now only at two-yearly intervals, unless one of several reasons are met.

Romsey signalbox

Shillingstone Station


Gartell Light Railway (does this count as heritage?)

Anyone seen a copy of RSSB^▸ (Rail Safety and Standards Board) GMGN2696 ? - which presumably is a standard method for measuring "comfort". How does it do that?

2M24 (see above) is running. 

On RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website), it has acquired "VCN" status, so you need to select the "CAN" option to view cancelled services. The reason given is ZW - unknown cause.

Also bearing a VCN status and ZW code on RTT is 2M34, the 20:14 Swindon-Westbury. There's nothing on Journeycheck about this service, and it is currently (at 19:22) shown on TIGER as "on time". Watch this space! 

Incidentally, the 18:37 Westbury-Swindon was delayed at Trowbridge for about 25 minutes (due to a "broken down train"). It lost a further 5 minutes due to missing its slot on the single line through Melksham.

Some interesting background on population predictions and related issues:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/feb/18/europes-population-crisis-see-how-your-country-compares-visualised

No easy answers.

I thought I'd start this thread to record some of the more peculiar statements found online... the sort of thing that raises the question "Is this generated by AI?".

So, from Trainline:

The following I don't have a direct quote for; it was my one-and-only deliberate trial with an online AI system (I forget which one, thankfully). So, from memory:

... and the best bit:

The RAIB^▸ (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) report does not state the speed limit on the main (non-diverging) line, but it does say that the train's speed (45mph) was within the limit, so we can conclude that the non-diverging route's limit was at least 45mph.

The RAIB report also states that the speed restriction sign (see photo above in the thread) should have had a left-hand arrow (to indicate that the 25 applied to the diverging route).

Without the arrow, the 25mph would mean that the restriction applied to both routes, would it not? In which case, I'm surprised that the RAIB report makes no mention of this. How many trains passed the sign at 45+mph (drivers' route knowledge of the speed restriction on the main route ) and how many were surprised by the 25 sign. How many did or didn't report the anomaly?

Two further comments:

I recall seeing early today that the 2011 Weymouth-Bristol was cancelled anyway, due to staff issues. Along with the other services, it's now listed as due to a signalling problem.

While I'm sure that the people on duty today have been doing the best they can within the limits of system and resources, the collapse of the service for half a day due to a track circuit failure seems to reflect the lack of resilience toward which the railway has been heading for many years. One can understand why many of these changes have occurred, but perhaps, if the railway is really to be considered as vital, some thought needs to be given to how to mitigate these vulnerabilities. For this particular event, one could think of:

• Line singling (ca. 1970) - making degraded working more tricky (i.e. pilotman)
• De-staffing and centralisation - longer travel times for competent pilotman

• Privatisation - more separation of roles
• More stringent competency requirements? (is this so, regarding pilotmen?)

(edited to correct formatting)

Am I right in thinking that the first part of the message is automatically generated? - The manual additions are very welcome, but of course they don't always tell the same story as the first paragraph.

As I have hinted on the HoW^▸ (Heart of Wessex line (Weymouth - Yeovil - Frome - Westbury) or Heart of Wales line (Swansea - Llanelli - Llandrindod - Craven Arms - Shrewsbury), depending on context) thread, speaking to the staff on a cancelled train, or the station staff at an unmanned station, could be challenging. 

Severe disruption on Sunday 26th January 2025. I have highlighted some phrases that illustrate the ongoing shortcomings of the messaging, plus one of those little consequences of changes in the railway over the years.


The track circuit failure occurred sometime prior to 14:53. The effect upon services:

• 1332 Swindon-Weymouth terminated at Castle Cary at 14:53
• 1405 Weymouth-Bristol held at Yeovil Pen Mill from 1451 to 1613. Train terminated at Westbury
• 1605 Weymouth-Bristol cancelled throughout. (lack of train at Weymouth)
• 1753 Weymouth-Bristol cancelled between Weymouth and Westbury
• 1748 Bristol-Weymouth cancelled throughout
• 2011 Weymouth-Bristol cancelled throughout
• 2049 Bristol-Weymouth should be running

I'm not particularly optimistic about the Great British Railways revolution, but if it encouraged tickets and marketing to be a truly national thing instead of the current fragmented setup, it would be a good start.

Stupid that the offers from each station were almost entirely limited to the places served by the local TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) (or TOCS).