5. Barnstaple?

 

Below-the-fold comments on the social media posts of politicians are often toxic. Stepping away from the exceptionalism that prompts people to think of the railway through Bath as though it's different from any other stretch of line, people seem to have settled into being ok with the fact that electrification of the UK's rail system has been increasingly  badly handled. In England, no rolling programme of electrication, something that lowers costs and builds/maintains skills. In the west country we've ended up saddled with the sub-optimal situation where we have expensive dual-fuel trains and electrification that doesn't extend to Oxford, Bristol or Swansea. We're building an entire new railway whose trains will run on diesel and without so much as putting in foundations for the electrification that it will need. This approach really curtails opportunities for the railway to excel in what it does. Diesel exhaust from railway trains is the smell of a legacy transport system, and it should really be fading fast by now.

How to pay for it? Day to day we already are, in terms of increased overheads, and not of the electrification variety.

Mark

 
Last day of the Bath Christmas market tomorrow. It’s also the first day of the winter timetable with the reduced Bristol to London timetable:

Could have been a problem with capacity except for the line between Castle Cary and Taunton is still closed for engineering work meaning London to WoE services are still being diverted via Bristol.

By having these trains call at Bath Spa, GWR is able to provide a half hourly service throughout the day from and to London.

Some afternoon and evening trains up from the Southwest might be cozy from Bath, but at least those boarding earlier in the journey will get a seat.

 

Im just back from the station ... writeup to follow when thawed and coffee ...

 
Cue complaints from motorists who claim not to have seen/understood the replacement signs.  It does sound like Avon Fire Service's mapping database hasn't been kept up to date, or they'd have approached from a different direction, which may take fractionally longer but wouldn't involve finishing the journey on foot.  Presumably fire brigades and local authorities are meant to liaise on such things, as they surely must do for new roads or buildings. 

 

Don't rub it in !

 
6. Sea Mills.

 

5M15 ECS on it’s way from Westbury to Bristol….
Will a replacement train be sourced?

 
8. Chandler’s Ford
Six miles of line singled in 1972, but crucially with double track sections at either end to allow a train to be held off the mainline whilst awaiting it’s turn to travel along the single line. Retained for freight and diversionary use, but an hourly passenger service reinstated in 2003. Seems to work relatively well as it is at present, so I wouldn’t have thought a high priority for re-doubling, especially with the cost of providing a second platform at Chandler’s Ford.

 

There is a you tube video of it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9rdvwiNeKg

 
3. Newquay, recently redoubled.

 
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25
17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

18:38 Westbury to Swindon due 19:22
18:38 Westbury to Swindon due 19:22 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

19:44 Swindon to Westbury due 20:29
19:44 Swindon to Westbury due 20:29 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 
4: Melksham

Cancellations of local trains prolific due to rerouting of long distance services and low capacity/long single block section. Doubling or long dynamic loops would alleviate this problem.

 

B****r !          missed that !

 
I have my own views on several of the 'Managers', more so in the more recent times than past.
Each to their own!

 
1 Yetminster station.
It still shows evidence of he broad gauge with the distance between the platforms. It was first doubled in 1859 to ease congestion of the steeply inclined section to Holywell Tunnel and Evershot.

 
I did laugh at the ‘you can taste the Cardiff to Portsmouth diesels as they go past’. Oh please!!  That’s nothing compared to the original Valenta engines on an HST or the various other diesel locos that used to pass through Bath such as 37s, 47s and 50s when I was growing up. Happy days 

 

If I recall the events correctly.
The re-signalling works was being carried out in the main by BR S&T teams the small install team BR had was bolstered by overtime by local S&T maintenance techs.  This was not uncommon at the time.

The wiring had been disconnected from a relay style referred to a "jam jars" these relays were a glass jar (later ones plastic) which allows the contacts to be observed, however the terminal studs come out of the insulated "lid".  During the staged works wires had been disconnected and held up to the wiring harness with PVC insulating tape, possibly having been used before (budgets were tight in BR days and I am not joking I was working at the time for BR as electrician on the WR often getting essentials such as insulating tape, hacksaw blade etc has a challenge)

The insulating tape came unwrapped and the wire dropped onto a relay terminal.  The terminal connections had not been cut off or insulated with tape, if it had been taped the tape had fallen off.

There were a number of things that all came together to cause this disaster
The excessive working hours of BR staff tolerated and indeed expected by senior BR managers and engineers in what we now call safety critical rolls. 
No clear identification of out of service equipment / wiring, now a colour scheme is used, (green = to go / remove, blue =  modified, red = new to be installed). 
The use of PVC insulating tape to hold up removed wiring, not insulating disconnected wire terminals and terminations, today clear neoprene tubing is used to insulate out of service wire terminal; were possible redundant wiring should be cut back / removed at the time it is taken out of use.
No "independent" checks of the work carried out before return / entry into service, the S&T now have SMTH (Signalling Maintenance Testing Handbook) and STHB (Signalling Testing Handbook) and the implementation  IRSE Licencing (Institution of Railway Signal Engineers) for all involved in railway signalling design, maintenance, installation and testing

 
The return was even more impressive, although running nearly hour late, saw it pass through Bradford on Avon

61306 Mayflower and 71000 Duke of Gloucester.  Double heading.

Plenty of whistles too (presumably to advice second loco driver when to brake and accelerate etc)

My understanding is Duke had a problem on Wednesday, was rectified at Bristol and they opted to double headed the train to Three Bridges to return the loco.

 
No cannot be, the line was never doubled apart form loops at Cookham Bourne End stations, and a short section North from Maidenhead station to Grenfell rd bridge

 

It isn't.  I confess to not knowing if the Maidenhead to Bourne End and to Marlow line ever was double and / or whether there were loops on it; I did wonder about looking for a picture in my old set ...

As a (re) doubling candidate or scope for alternative capacity provision, this would be an interesting one. As it is, to get trains up to a 30 minute frequency passengers are required to change trains 'half way' along - a solution which I have also seen adopted in Slovakia but at which shudder at the thought if it were brought to the TransWilts.

 
0 - Maidenhead-Marlow?

 

If the trains have batteries for more substantial parts of their journeys, there may be potential to explore the option.  To my mind, though, having London to Bristol expresses equipped with batteries just for four or five miles doesn't feel economicaly sensible.

I quoted the comments on the original post to show just how complex the situation is, and how under informed some of the public are - no fault of their own; bright people just to experts in this complex world of railway provision and operation.  I am struck by the irony of road vehicles being required to be clean through Bath in a way that trains are not, and the comment about the smell from passing Cardiff -> Portsmouth trains. Perhaps those (and the short runs on the same line) are a case for batteries initially, rather than the London trains for which I suggest that full electrification might be the better solution.

 
I was interested in a past year to see which stations had the heaviest footfall per metre of operational platform and recall that Windsor and Eton Central bubbled up to being one of the busiest.  In GWR land, I would imagine that stations such as St Bureaux Ferry Road come towards the quietest; on a couple of uses the infrequent service there competes poorly with a frequent and quite fast bus service along the nearby main road.

 
Could new trains(a cheaper option?) on the London to Bristol route be run batteries between Bathampton and Oldfield Park?

 
Many railway lines that were once two tracks were reduced to a single track in the middle of the last century, and in some cases we may look back and say that the decision to reduce the infrastructure has stood the test of time.  In other cases, the capacity reduction is unfortunate for current times some 60 years later and some re-doubling has taken place.  Can you identify these locations and suggest which might benefit from a second track being relayed?

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Thank you for that much more measured view,  which aligns much more closely with what we saw at the time that First (Bus) pulled out of our area.   Just as the people of parts of Cornwall are concerned at the losses and disconnects that would come with the closure without alternative of certain services, so were we.  That's five years ago now, and hindsight and experience tells me that we're now more appropriately served by a single operator rather than two who were both trying to make a living/profit over routes and flows that could not support both.   Strong lobbying at the time and the services added to fill the gaps were appropriate - how much effect our lobbying had and how much that would have been done anyway, I don't know.

 

Kernow space has had an agenda for quite a while against First bus. Some of his postings are valid, albeit perhaps not gone about in the best way. Some couldn’t be further from fact if he tried.

 
Its long overdue wiring from filton and Chippenham to Bristol TM and Parson street

 
It'd be good to know more about this and what has precipitated it.

Mark