... and then Donald Trump barges his way into the arena ... 

0. Diverted XC service passing through Bath due to a points issue between Bridgwater and Taunton on Tuesday.

7. Heading for Kingswear from Bridge Halt (now removed?).
Paignton to Kingswear.
Dartmouth used to have a ticket and luggage office, but no trains of course.
Used to alight from Churston school at Bridge Halt many years ago.

11 Thornford (Bridge Halt), that and Chetnole used the old platform from Cattistock Halt, replacing the timber one originally used.

3.  Truro.

I wonder if the residents of the former station house and it's surrounding land are granting access for Network Rail to carry out the work. If not then there's little NR and BTP can do.

Except try to arrest the landowners for trespassing on their own property again!

It's a long running saga of claim and counter-claim with Network Rail consistently calling BTP out as their "personal security force".

https://youtube.com/@altnabreac

Trains have once again been calling at the request stop after the station was closed for the last 18 months.

One of the country’s remotest train stations that takes passengers to the heart of a world heritage site has reopened.

Altnabreac is located in the Flow Country, a vast expanse of blanket bog and peatlands stretching across Caithness and Sutherland in the north Highlands.

The 'QR code style ticket could be programmed to work, but the magstrip tickets have only 8 bytes of data storage on them & writing used dates isn't possible in that space

Mark, if you require a second in any subsequent duel, I'm free! 

Although this thread seems to be me mainly talking to myself ...

Millions of people are on the move this Easter bank holiday weekend amid warnings there could be disruption due to rail engineering works, an airport strike and heavy traffic.

More than 300 maintenance projects will be carried out by Network Rail - including at London Euston Station - over the long weekend, and Gatwick Airport is warning that planned industrial action could impact a "small number of airlines".

On the roads, the RAC has warned there could be "big [traffic] jams" with nearly 20 million people expected to travel on Good Friday.

Weather could also have an impact with yellow warnings for rain issued for parts of south-west England, south Wales and eastern parts of Northern Ireland.

Kevin Groves, Network Rail's head of media, said the vast majority of the rail network - over 95% - was "actually open for business as usual". But he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there were "some pockets" of major work, most significantly at London Euston Station, which would be closed from Saturday to Monday. During this time, there will be no trains running from the station to Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire.

A reduced timetable will operate during the long weekend, and services on the West Coast Main Line will begin and end at Carlisle from Saturday to Monday, with replacement buses covering northern stations.

Meanwhile, half of London Victoria will be shut, with Southeastern trains diverted to London Bridge or London Cannon Street. Routes around Southampton and Brockenhurst will also be hit by closures.

Mr Groves urged passengers travelling during the Easter period to "plan ahead" and check their journeys. But he said the railway network was going to be "actually quieter" than any other Saturday, Sunday or Monday.

(Article continues)

(Mark's problem was he was trying to be too clever, of course.)

So, for the proverbial 'little old lady, living in Bradford on Avon, who wants to visit her sister whom is still living in East London', how does she do all of that - with perhaps limited access / experience of the internet?

She won't: she will take a bus / coach journey instead.  And probably pay less. 

... preference should be given to use of British made materials and employment of British workers.

Unemployment is likely to worsen, and spending public money within the UK economy helps both directly and indirectly.

Foreign made goods might be unavoidable in some circumstances, but preference should be given to UK suppliers unless there is a significant reason to do otherwise.

The UK is "greener" than many of our competitors, and this advantage is diluted by purchasing supplies from many overseas suppliers.

A British couple were among the four people killed in a cable car crash near Naples, Italian police have said.

The mountain cable car cabin plunged to the ground after one of the cables supporting it snapped on Thursday, local officials said.

The cable car operator said it had passed a safety inspection just two weeks ago - and a criminal investigation has now been opened.

The UK foreign office said it was in touch with local authorities but has not confirmed the identities of the victims.

They are believed to be three passengers and the driver of the cable car, who was named by local officials as 59-year-old Carmine Parlato. The fourth person who died was an Israeli woman, according to a spokesperson for the mayor of Castellammare di Stabia.

A fifth person in the cabin, believed to be another tourist, was "extremely seriously injured" in the crash and airlifted to hospital, officials said. They are now in stable condition, the Alpine Rescue Service told the BBC on Friday morning.

Formal identification of the remaining victims has not yet taken place.

Authorities in Torre Annunziata have opened an investigation into the cause of the crash.

Sixteen people were rescued from a second cabin which was also on the line near the bottom of the valley at the time of the accident. They were winched to safety.

The mayor of Castellammare di Stabia - where the cable car is located - said it was believed a traction cable had snapped. "The emergency brake downstream worked but clearly not the one on the cabin that was about to reach the top of the hill," he told Italian media on Thursday. He added that there had been regular safety checks on the cable car line which runs three kilometres from the town to the top of the mountain.

A spokesperson for the UK's foreign office said: "We are dealing with an incident in Italy and are in contact with the local authorities. Our thoughts are with those affected."

Shortly after the crash, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who was on a trip to Washington, expressed her "sincere condolences" to the families of the victims.

The Mount Faito cable car has been operating since 1952. A similar accident on the line in 1960 left four people dead.