Followed, as sure as night follows day, by

 
21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58
21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

If you think that's cheap, I'm currently in Spain's Basque country. They seem to have some kind of special economic crisis pricing going on. If I'm not mistaken I just did the 12 miles by train from Hendaye in France to San Sebastian for 49c

 
Unless I missed it I didn't see any mention of simplifying tickets which I thought would be one benefit of bringing everything under one roof?

 

IETs will probably run diesel Paddington to Reading.  Possibly a minor issue like a broken dropper wire

 
Interesting - GWR has said that all lines are open, speed limit imposed, expect delays - proper fix tonight

 


.......and almost inevitably.....

Route(s) affected
Elizabeth line between Shenfield and Heathrow Terminal 5, and also between Abbey Wood and Heathrow Terminal 4 / Maidenhead / Reading

Great Western Railway on all routes to / from London Paddington

Heathrow Express between London Paddington and Heathrow Terminal 5

Description
Damage to the overhead electric wires between London Paddington and Southall means some lines are blocked.

Trains between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport / Reading may be cancelled, revised or delayed by up to 20 minutes.

Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

 


........and it's now pushed out to 1800 on National Rail.....

 

Delays & cancellations now until 3pm......or will it be the familiar/dreaded "until the end of the day"?

 

Both now re-instated.

 

In the end it went to Laira, Plymouth, for repairs.   Due to head to Penzance this afternoon.

 

No damage confirmed. A trains pantograph automatically dropped. That could be caused by damage to the overheads but it could also be an issue with the pantograph itself or just a spurious fault.

NR will inspect all 4 lines first as a precaution

 
There was a signal failure yesterday between Reading and Paddington. Journeycheck then reported further delays due to trespassers on the line. Was there an unexpected detraining somewhere?

 
Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to damage to the overhead electric wires between London Paddington and Reading some lines will be blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 13:30 28/05.

 
...and if I search for Bristol Temple Meads - Melksham on the National Rail app it also shows the earlier 1545 option as cancelled as well, although I can't be bothered to check which of the 2 trains on that route aren't running.

 

That would have been the last leg of my commute home. Looks like another £3 on the buses 

 
and
1W11 05:53 London Paddington to Great Malvern was delayed at Shrub Hill. Arrived Worcester Foregate Street +22 and cancelled thereafter.

Indeed so - I'm on it. And the "train in front" was the 05:53.

 

 
Looks like set GW08 43156/43186 was used for the rescue, as 2C00 was cancelled and 2E06 was partially cancelled.

 

Looking at RTT, it was a 3 carriage train from London to Exeter!

 

The fares issue is partly down to the Ashington line only having Single tickets and no returns (Single leg pricing).  The £2.60 is actually Off Peak, the Anytime Single being £3.00 (www.brfares.com) - your point about the fares being cheap still holds but, taking that Didcot - Oxford example, the Off Peak Day Return for that is £8.70, just 10p more than the Off Peak Day Single.

Okehampton was opened in 2021 with fares of £4.00 Single, £8.00 Return (both Anytime, no Off Peak fares) Exeter - Okehampton and that's 30 miles.   Now £4.60 and £9.20 respectively.  In both cases, the railway is being introduced in areas where generations have grown up without it so attractive fares clearly have an important role.  I know the great care that was taken with Okehampton.



     

 

What are they going to do without "Thunderbird" Castles?? 

 
All in the master plan, discussed upthread or here: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/our-routes/western/bristol-rail-regeneration/

 

Yeah ...


... it appears to have arrived on time in Swindon but spent 30 minutes rather than 10 there.  Looks like it will be on time from Salisbury, in spite of Journey Check assuming "once delayed, delayed all the way". Guessing it was some sort of issue the crew on local staff at Swindon were able to sort out.

 
Sleeper loco suffered a fuel leak.   Now been rescued by a Castle Class set and on its way, empty, to Long Rock in Penzance.

 
Argh! First commute in over 2 weeks and the trains... 

When I left the house, it was looking good. But then the 0632 Southampton service I catch from Melksham to Trowbridge got delayed and was showing as 20 mins late, meaning I'd miss the 0646 Trowbridge Bristol. And the next option, the 0705 Cardiff service, was also showing as delayed, with the following Filton Abbey Wood cancelled.

So I'm on the bus to Bath, where I should be able to catch the 0747 Weston service. What's even more annoying is that the 0705 Trowbridge Bristol that was showing as delayed ended up being on time - it just started from Westbury instead of Frome.

Try again tomorrow...

 
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55
27/05/25 23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 was terminated at Exeter St Davids.

It will no longer call at Newton Abbot, Plymouth, Liskeard, Bodmin Parkway, Lostwithiel, Par, St Austell, Truro, Redruth, Camborne, Hayle, St Erth and Penzance.

This is due to a fault on this train.

.....all lines currently blocked at Exeter St Davids as a result.

 
Cancellations to services between Bourne End and Marlow

Due to a fault with the signalling system between Bourne End and Marlow all lines are blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 06:45 28/05.

 
Wednesday May 28

 

That's an easy one.  NO they won't be anywhere near long enough!