The British planning system requires so much on surrounding land and effects.

Yes building station isn't difficult, but the planning will spill over.

Highways will want a big super safe junction into station, better than most existing turnings on A road because it is new.
The bus company won't support it unless station, and intermediate bus stops are at accessible compliant standards (so any on verges along A road will need redoing)
The cycle lobby won't approve of a relatively narrow unlit fast road being make connection to station so will ask for wide cycle path
Similarly no footpath along road to town from station will be objected to
Then of course if a car park is built, needs to meet standards of today with proportion of disabled spaces, EV charging spaces etc.
Then there will be loss of some countryside, so alternative or replacement would need evaluating.
Talking of evaluating, flood report, EIA (environment impact assessment), Wildlife comments, and if any ground has endangered or protected species, that is going to need a study
etc, etc, ........

Building the station is easy bit, paperwork, and planning is the faff

 
Images now show that it was the trench.

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/local-news/gallery/pictures-show-hole-through-a36-11200843

Echoes of Cricklade: some time after the railway closed, unknown persons explored the minimal clearance between between the railway cutting and the canal tunnel below it. ISTR three feet was quoted.

In this case the exploration was unintentional. Given that the road was until recently a trunk route (and is still an 'A' road) I wonder if the tunnel ever received inspections as load-bearing from the point of view of road traffic.

 

IIRC the accident was caused by incorrect length screws used to secure a replacement window. The replacements were too short and did not engage with the structure but simply with the sealant or mastic.
Resulted from an aviation rule of never reusing fixings, but always fitting new parts.

 
Comparing the single and dual track pics, is the single track positioned somewhere between where the dual tracks lay? Just thinking that it might affect the work required to revert to dual track if that ever became a possibility.

 

Isn't this basically the British planning system in a nutshell? How much time and money is wasted trying to build the case that a project is perfect?

The reality is that the site isn't difficult, the line has the capacity and it builds the business case for expanding Westbury's capacity.

Yes, a Devizes Parkway station is initially going to largely benefit commuters to Newbury, Reading & London, yes, it will likely abstract some traffic from Chippenham and Pewsey, but reducing pressure on rural roads and car parks in no bad thing. As a new built station station, it should be fully accessible, have a decent taxi/bus transfer, it will only be a short journey into Devizes and there's space for a cycleway along at least part of the route.   

Even better, as the previous posters have mentioned, it isn't likely to abstract from Devizes' bus traffic, and of course once it's built and usage patterns emerge, there's plenty of scope for new services e.g. a Newbury to Chippenham or London to Bristol via Westbury.

If it was built today, in 20 years, would anyone think it was £20m badly spent? Absolutely not. 


 

 
After a couple of days of issues, the site does seem more responsive this morning.

 

"On this day" for today has thrown up the opening of Lacock Halt on 16th October 1905.    It could do well to be re-opened in coming years, in conjunction with housing growth planned in the area.

 

Past form has many ideas and plans than have failed along the way, but a number of them have "come around" again and gone on to be implemented, often in a modified way. How else would we keep bread on the table for all those consultants?

I am reminded of selling a house (we've done that a few times). A number of initial enquiries, some looking very good, others which you can see won't go through to fruition as soon as you meet the people.  But then one comes along and all the pieces are joined up and the sale completes for the benefit of all parties.  And that one may well be late in the game and not entirely expected.

 

I'm sure we can all think of examples where an extra station, higher service level or longer trains would make a huge difference to an area's quality of life and increase the economic opportunities for residents.

Whilst Bristol is fortunate to have Brabazon, Henbury, Pill and Portishead stations in the works, a station at Lockleaze could dramatically improve employment prospects in a deprived area where long bus journeys make it hard to fit work around family life.

Similarly, stations in places like Saltford, Chipping Sodbury, Winterbourne, Corsham, Batheaston etc, would probably do far more for reducing road traffic and emissions than low emission zones and anti-car measures. 

And that's just the easy stuff with existing lines.

 
From Devizes and Wilts Advertiser Thursday 19 January 1911

 
Cancellations to services between Liskeard and Looe

Due to a broken down train between Liskeard and Looe the line is closed.
Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled. Disruption is expected until 10:45 16/10.

 
I have to wonder if the new Devizes station will (eventually) go the same way as the A350 Melksham (and Westbury !) bypass.

 
Welcome to the world of GBR.... (early!)

 
As we hit the final day of decimated local train services to prioritise other trains, here's a window onto what's happening - the 3 to 4 O'Clock period this afternoon.   Similar pattern for much of the day.



So that's 4 trains passing within the hour - three freight and one express passenger.  A marvel of timetabling.

I have quoted a few minutes after 4 p.m. too - another non-stop passenger train, and another bus.

During previous similar times, we were told that diverted expresses don't run at the same times as trains that are pulled off.   That does not seem to be totally true this time, with diverted expresses scheduled to pass literally within minutes of the bus calls, and in the same direction. Pity that having spent ££££ making the changes necessary to stop IETs at Melksham, the facility is not being used.

"People will vote with their feet ..." with such a depleted train service calling at the station. Sorry - but Lisa and I should be travelling by train from Melksham this afternoon and we can't and won't be.   We've made other plans and they don't involve the local train, nor the rail replacement bus.  Oops.

Of course, all will be back to normal next week - which is probably why the marketing folks at GWR and NR, who wrote on 2nd October, haven't replied to my enquiries that same afternoon.  I can just imaging an internal discussion thought - "Don't bother to answer - problem will go away".   Yes and no - the immediate travel issues of this week *were* just for 7 days.  The precedent, loss of market, hurt, and apparent contempt for customers remain like a sore that won't be forgotten.  It will not stop us engaging, but it does sour us.

 
Superconductor. Cheap at the price.

 
I love stats and keep an eye on traffic patterns ... looking at server loadings for October so far, in light of some of the issues that have been bubbling away



The yellow bars are the number of request - for ALL domains - handled by the receptionist server.  The blue bars - again for all domains - are the requests handled by the worker server, which includes the number passed on by the receptionist.

 
And passengers for the 15:04 Oxford to Bristol - cancelled - might hope to drop back to the 15:07 to Didcot and change there - except that's cancelled too.  It's POETS day so I would expect the mid afternoon train to be relatively busier than normal and the one two hours later to be quieter.   Looks like POETS day applies to train crew too?

 
103 and 110 have been at Laira a fortnight and no sign of them.

Another site says they have to pass an "a" exam. Have they failed? How long does it take? Is it a priority?

Meanwhile 150s are failing at Okehampton and Looe.

 
Taking a bit of a hammering today, several other short runs too.

15:04 Oxford to Bristol Temple Meads due 16:16 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
17:12 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 18:29 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
19:04 Oxford to Bristol Temple Meads due 20:21 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
19:15 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 20:32 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
21:10 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 22:27 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

Thanks for that, Chris - initial reports were confused and as ever there's a conundrum for news organisations who have to decide between propogating information that may need to be updated as things become clearer and the driver of getting initial reports out fast.  Good that we have folks around who both share the news and can come back to update the headlines so that we reflect the true situation as it becomes clear.

 
From the Wiltshire Times



and


Don't quite believe everything you read in key messages even when the paper prints them.  "People don’t want to drive to Devizes but there is no other way to get people to the town" is somewhat false; Devizes is at the hub of an execellent (for not-a-city) network of but routes, with about hourly departures to Bath, Chippenham, Swindon, The Lavingtons, Salisbury and Trowbridge, and less frequent services to Westbury, Pewsey, Lackham, Marlborough, Bradford-on-Avon and Upavon.   There are two town bus vehicles too, and demand responsive services available to the really awkwardly unclustered villages to the east.   That is not to say that a railway link is NOT needed - it is, but initially traffic flows would look much more like Pewsey, where 56% of 209,000 journeys last year were to or from London rather than like Melksham, where just 10% of 60,000 journeys were to or from London. (Food for thought there - what a direct service does!)

 
I've done my best in trying to keep up with the amendments to the heading of this topic.  At least I think I've got the date right. 

 

There are a number of such confusions in the reports, such as those saying Eurostar trains were stopped for 90 minutes - that was passenger shuttles. The most up to date report I can find is from The Independent, and it quotes a press statement from the prefecture:

That does sound to me like the departing train was moving, and presumably then stopped abruptly and is on the right in the photo below (from la Voix du Nord). The bus was spun round by the impact, and nearly turned onto its side, but not quite. The force of such an impact would explain why everyone on board was injured, even if the bus was not going at all fast. However, the position of the bus still looks wrong, whatever happened.

 
A very sad loss indeed,RIP JJP.

 
Small correction to thread title needed. Not a Eurostar train involved. Was Le Shuttle.