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All across the Great Western territory / Fare's Fair / Re: Campaign for Better Transport - Campaign for lower fares
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on: February 02, 2025, 16:15:03
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The Standard has picked this up too Cap long-distance train fares to avoid ‘punitive pricing’ – campaigners and indeed from the St Ives ticket machine last week, where my friend was fingerpoken unt buttonpushin  Not only are the fares ridiculous, but pricing options are bonkers, why is there a fare via London that is more than any permitted (its name suggests it's valid any route including London). What is purpose of a more restricted ticket at a premium over an any ticket. Unless I am missing something, someone has gone to the trouble of adding a fare that is pointless, as it is a subset of another fare. Am I being dumb, or is this just crazy.
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Journey by Journey / Portsmouth to Cardiff / Re: Westbury - engineering works from 24th December 2024 for 30 days
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on: January 31, 2025, 16:47:28
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The next phase of Westbury works (track consolidation etc) takes place this weekend. But this time buses are also doing Trowbridge Bath (and trains Salisbury-Warminster
Replacement buses are planned via Westbury between: Bath Spa and Frome Bath Spa and Warminster Chippenham and Frome
In addition, separate buses are also planned for stations between Bath Spa and Bradford-on-Avon.
Trains between London and the south west will stop at Frome instead of Westbury.
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: IEP seats in 2025
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on: January 28, 2025, 22:21:00
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My guess is the maintenance contract (courtesy of DfT» ) with Hitachi allows it, either that or GWRs▸ legal team are not turning up at depot exit with a spirit level and measure, and saying the sag is excessive either side of solid bar. (Do legal they ever turn up unannounced and actually check work meets maintenance contract standards to the millimetre, if not why not, getting away with only doing about 90% of a job defeats purpose of detailed contract spec, if there is a contract it should be enforced 100%, not they did some of it so it's ok)
Of course if the maintenance contract allows such worn things, what else are they allowing to be worn or unacceptable and not fixed (eg brake pads, faulty thermostats etc). And yes I am sure I have walked through an IEP▸ and different carriages are different temperatures)
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: Even I would fly with Ryanair for this !!
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on: January 27, 2025, 13:50:05
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If you were to buy tickets for tomorrow, you could get an Advance Single for two for £196.80 from Looe to Crewe, with reserved seats between Liskeard and Crewe. This can be done simply by using the GWR▸ app, without the need for split tickets, railcards, or unusual routes.
A two-together Railcard costs £30 for the year and would save £60 for that trip. But have to jump through hoops to get it, 2 photos etc, and not exactly available if you need it in few hours from some of the small stations on Looe branch. It's not as if the rail industry automatically discounted the fare by potential saving for an occasional traveller. All they have achieved is (very bad) publicity which suggests rail tickets are normally expensive, thus discouraging anyone (who doesn't normally use rail) from trying a rail journey.
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Journey by Journey / Heart of Wessex / Re: Heart of Wessex - strategic mayoral authority proposed
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on: January 16, 2025, 23:07:48
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BCP (Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole), which previously merged from its namesakes, has voted 43 to 12 (and 4 abstentions) to join the Heart of Wessex devolution group.
It seemed joining the Hampshire, Southampton, Portsmouth, Isle of Wight proposal isn't happening. Historically (before 1974) Bournemouth and Christchurch were in Hampshire.
Dorset + Wilts + Somerset + BCP would comfortably reach Governments approx 1.5m population for devolved area, regardless of if Swindon chooses to join
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Journey by Journey / Portsmouth to Cardiff / Re: Westbury - engineering works from 24th December 2024 for 30 days
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on: January 05, 2025, 10:55:27
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It appears that Cardiff-Portsmouth will not have a disrupted weekend in 2025 until at least March
Westbury closure to Thur 23rd Jan Severn Tunnel closure 25-26 Jan Westbury 1-2 Feb Portsmouth area 8-9 Feb and 15 to Fri 21 Feb Salisbury 22-23 Feb Fareham - Portsmouth 1-2 March Warminster - Bath 8-9 March Salisbury - Southampton 23 March
There might be more dates, but seems a very long disruption period, and indicates weekend leisure usage would appear to be apparently low priority
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Shortage of train crews on Great Western Railway - ongoing discussion
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on: December 19, 2024, 15:54:51
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You clearly haven't read it.
I have. Don't presume to tell me what I have and haven't done. But do please help me out if I've missed something in the business plan about DfT» control of hiring of staff. I've attached the document to aid you. I can also attache previous franchise agreements and service level commitments if you'd like. I've read those from start to finish too. I continue to await PROOF that the DfT are, and have in the past, been dictating to GWR▸ whether they can or can't hire sufficient staff to meet their obligations to provide the timetabled service. These agreements and contracts generally get looked at by highly paid lawyers, only a muppet would agree to a business requirement that requires 50,000 hours annually of train crew (or whatever the figure is) and then agree to a staffing level that only covers about three quarters of the requirement. You shouldn't work on assumption that because staff would work 60 hour weeks 100 years ago, then they will still so in mid 2020s when pay is higher and work-life balance expectation is completely different. Although GWR management don't seem to get this as I have seen the history argument (it used to be ok) used recently.
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