https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2025/05/steam-locomotive-34046-braunton-to-pass-through-dawlish-this-saturday.html


[personal opinion piece] So that's about 4 hours behind a diesel, half an hour for a loco change, an hour and a quarter behind a steam engine on the main line, then a final section on a heritage line where you could travel behind a steam engine anyway.

 
Hold it!


Opportunities if the train is running to time, you have ...
1 minute (no chance!) at Westbury
7 minutes at Swindon (*)
9 minutes at Gloucester (*)
17 minutes at Worcester Shrub Hill
* - Train calls at platform away from station building

 
RAIB have published an interim report on this accident. It provides a lot more detail than the initial press statement, but is mostly about the same topics. As an interim report, there is no attempt to draw conclusions.

 

They do where I am now, we can claim to the time printed on our paying in receipt. I only bother if it’s over a certain number of minutes late. It isn’t worth messing around for 1-2 minutes, especially as another day I could have a quick escape and get home a few minutes early. I run a tally in my head and know I roughly break even over a month if I didn’t claim until I hit my figure of lateness.

We can go days without seeing any cash on the main service I drive, then have a shift with loads of cash. Funny old world. Unpredictable.

 
That used to happen in Westbury. Not anymore since the double yellow lines appeared for quite a wide radius away from the station.

 
Nearly 3 years since anything posted on this thread - I understand that we are getting near(er) to having a 4BEL unit running - all be it really the old passenger accommodation of the generation of trains that the 5BEL belonged to with railway equipment from the following generation.  I still look forward to a ride some time.

 

I started this as a poll to get a wide range of views.   Undoubtedly cash is messy to handle and yet where I see businesses and their staff grumbling about it, part of me feel "yes - but services should be about what the service user - the customers - wants and needs, and not about the convenience to the staff".  The other part of me sees those extra delay seconds on buses (especially) where the customer joining does a slower cash-and-change transaction and other customer sit patiently waiting.

Question - did I see that on the Valley lines in South Wales, the corner stores near to some (smaller?) stations will sell you a ticket for cash, but it won't be accepted on the tram/train or with machines at the station?

A parallel - for user group(s) - (MTUG, WWRUG, TWSW, etc) should we accept that some members are not online and correspond with them in print rather than through email?  How about people who want to join and can't because of some personal limitation?  How about people who have chosen not to be online? How about people who are taking a principled stand against everything being done through a computer?

No answer from me, here ... I have voted that cash should be accepted though with some exceptions.  And what are those suggestions?   I would suggest journeys that require formal ID - such as Eurostar, and journeys that are made for purely leisure purposes outside the normal transportation needs.   So heritage railways, coach excursions, the runaway mine train at Alton Towers, mail rail, and Great Britain XVII are exempt from accepting cash. 

 
Easy for you to say. 

 
Isn’t this about whether the Government should compel businesses to accept cash? It’s not the Government that’s killing cash, it’s businesses and their customers.

As GBM points out, handling cash is inconvenient and expensive. The Government may try to protect it, but it may well be a losing battle.

 

Weren't there planning problems at Tiverton Parkway - extra car parks laid when the sea wall was closed, and well used, but they were only temporary and had to be closed once the sea wall was open again.   Or was I dreaming when I heard that one?

 
........for future reference, a warm (26°) sunny Spring day now apparently constitutes "severe weather" for the purposes of the railway.

Customers on platform/concourse utterly incredulous (especially those from genuinely hot countries struggling to get to Heathrow) when the announcement was made.

Kudos to rail staff who were advising people of this dramatic meteorological phenomenon and managed to keep a straight face.

 

Okehampton stn car park (about 70 spaces) is regularly full, with people parking nearby and for free.
But this is good and is what was hoped for and gives further justification for the new Okehampton Parkway, sorry Interchange, station.

 
Resurfacing or a storage compound for other works reducing the number of spaces?  Last time I was there Tiverton Parkway had several large car parks and it's hard to imagine them all full, though Google maps shows one as "Permanently Closed" which may explain things.

 

 
Westbury not surprised as on local groups the car park being full comes up as an issue from time to time despite its major extension a few years back.

But yes, a good thing to have on JourneyCheck if this is a new feature to highlight when station car parks are full.

 
Seasonal - or just something I haven't notice on JourneyCheck before?

 
First warm day of the year so of course the railway melts down........

Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to a speed restriction because of high track temperatures between London Paddington and Reading fewer trains are able to run.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 17:00 30/04.

 
"Hottest day of the year"

 

I guess this one will be disruptive.  I doubt it's happened because of "cold weather" though

 
Cash is important

Whatever your politics, everyone needs to be wary of those who seek to rule.  Maybe you're okay with the present government.  But it needs to be remembered that those we elect, if they were so minded, could introduce digital ID and/or a central bank digital currency.  It would be only a small step from there for a malign government to decide that, for example, you cant travel for more than 15 minutes from your home, or that your carbon allowance has already been used this month and you can't travel at all.

Fanciful?  Conspiracy theorist stuff?  Well, who would have foreseen that, just because Boris Johnson's government (and he one who purported to lean towards individual freedoms) told the nation to stay indoors for months except for "permitted purposes", there was almost universal meek compliance

Cash is important

The government has no right to decide how you should legally spend your legally gained earnings.  Giving up cash yields too much power to authority.

 
That made me laugh, thanks! I fear that what we'll get though is interminable repeats of an explanation that includes phrases like 'Track stones' - Network Rail's curious need to provide an expansion for the word 'Ballast'.

Mark

 
Driving the bus, managing the other traffic on the road, managing the public, dealing with cash transactions, handling a float, balancing the books and putting the takings into the system - and all that with little opportunity for physical exercise. One of society's more taxing jobs, and underappreciated too.

Mark

 

I'm not suggesting it for every delay / change. No explanation needed - IMHO - as to what "train crew" are, and the explanations for why there aren't enough of them is a well played and worn record which would increase that ratio.

 
It's the piers for the useful but closed rail line, part of the shortest route between London and the West Country, and which had at least one bridge of an uncommon design, not sure if the canal crossing's bridge was another, but the piers certainly got beefed up at some stage.

Mark

 
I'm intrigued by the 3rd photo, which reminds me slightly of the intimidating anti-terrorist barriers we sadly see a lot of nowadays, here apparently intended to stop a large warship ramming the lock in the distance.  I'm guessing they are just some old and hard-to-remove bridge supports, though if the bridge was as substantial as the supports look then why is it no longer needed?

 
As a now ex bus driver, most of us hated cash!
Have to pay in the exact amount every night when your shift ends.
A large queue at the paying in machine many times.
On some very popular summer routes, a driver could easily pay in upwards of £500, frequently £750 plus.
Drivers didn't get paid overtime for paying in such amounts.
A few of us claimed!

 
I suspect that other than very small outlets they would probably throw in the towel and shut up shop anyway.  Their stock control systems and tills would rely on that same power supply, few staff members would be able to add up prices in their head or even on paper, and they probably wouldn't have the capacity to store/bank large volumes of cash.  Then there's the lights and heating/cooling not working and so on.