Indeed ... after MANY years of looking for a "solution" for the subway (= shortish tunnel) to Melksham Station, a solution has been found in a legal art all.  Not only the initial job, but now continuing.

I look forward to the time that everything is owned and run by the nation so there won't be (sometimes correct) buck passing.  I just fear that the nation will follow the time lines taken by the DfT which is the nation and things will get done far far far too slowly if at all.

Could it be that some GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) drivers / train manager are fathers too and we have a case of "More fathers than usual being required at home at the same time"

1.  Lessons were learnt a long time ago. 
2.  “7-day railway” discussions have been ongoing for sometime, unfortunately the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)  won’t release any further funding to resolve the issue. They want to continue with the “cheap sticky plaster” fixes which we all know doesn’t work.

The issue isn’t with GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway). GWR run the operation as per the contract outlined by the DfT.  It’s for the DfT to sort.

It might be that in part that's because it's not open as a matter of course. It'll help if it's put on a more functional active travel route too - I'm now thinking of examples of other instances of shortish tunnels in urban areas that don't acquire a bad rap, so it can be done. The retrospective publicity around the 2007 opening very much hands the chalice to the people treating the location in an antisocial fashion  too.

Going off at a tangent, the sight of Heathfield Station's building and entrance on the road above the station site is a bit achy: here's Google Streetview.

https://tinyurl.com/4pr3f7yk

The disused stations site is informative on both the station and the line, and makes mention of its distinctive source of fuel for the station lighting.

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/h/heathfield_sussex/

Mark

From Wikipedia:
In 2019, Wealden District Council stated: "due to constant vandalism and anti-social behaviour, the tunnel is to remain closed indefinitely with no plans to look into it".
So it seems occasional openings such as this will be all that happens, which is a pity. I wonder why this particular location suffers more than similar tunnels elsewhere such as in the Bristol/Bath area.

With thanks to my colleague Timmer for his update posts, I have now further expanded the heading of this whole topic, to draw attention to this very frustrating situation.

Today being Fathers Day, when some families would like to have been able to have a day out in Weymouth, just for example?

CfN. 

1) Judging by the repetition in similar circumstances across the region over a number of years, none.
2) They won't. GWR are staggering towards the end of their franchise, there is little or no motivation for them to make the efforts required.

Quoting from Heart of Wessex ...


On the TransWilts service, don't forget that the first round trip was a rail replacement bus this morning - not really a replacement but a substitution by something different and inferior.

A lot of TransWilts southbound in the morning use it for onward connections which leave Westbury (today) at ...
09:32 and 09:57 (yes, 2 at 25 minutes apart) for Weymouth
09:37 for London
09:54 for Penzance
10:02 for Portsmouth
and these would normally offer connections off the train from Swindon.   Guess what - the bus arrives at Westbury at 10:14 and that breaks all of these connections.   Only 2 other GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) trains are timetabled to leave Westbury before 11:00 and could be described as connection - 10:40 to London (by Real Time Trains tells me it's not expected until 11:10)  and a train at 10:41 which - oh dear - heads up to Swindon which is where the direction the bus came in from in the first place!

Summer Sunday, so.................

Cancellations to services between Liskeard and Looe

Due to a shortage of train crew between Liskeard and Looe the line is closed.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled. Disruption is expected until 15:00 15/06.

Customer Advice
Due to crew shortages, we are unable to run train services today.
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We have very limited road transport in place, taxis will shuttle hourly. Please note, they may not run to the train timetable. Please see station staff.
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We're sorry for the delay to your journey.