Lifts and anything else will inevitable fail from time to time, or require to be out of service for maintenance work and servicing.    Where that is a single point of failure,  the rule appears to stipulate that it should have been thought through and a Plan B should be in place:

Based on the lack of direction / instruction / information we have seen on this one so far, there has not been a customer friendly "Plan B" in place, or if there has been, NR and GWR have failed to action it.    Of course - if "Plan B" were to be "keep as quiet as you can about it and hope it doesn't make the headlines so we don't have to spend on these passengers who are expensive to look after", it could be that they have implemented it  - their unfriendly Plan B.

There days, Lisa and I are travelling by train a lot and it's very hard for her to use straights.   At Osnabroek and at Beurs we have used the "three lift solution".  Where lines cross each other and there are four lifts linking the platforms, a single lift out of action can be replaced by using three.  Same would work at places like Berlin Hbf.  A lift out of action at Brescia lead to another three lifts being used - rather than rising to the main entrance from the main subway, we went back up to the platform, and along to the secondary subway also fitted with lifts and did a down, across, up there.

We'll be coming back London - Swindon - Melksham next week.  It will be interesting to see what advice if any we are offered at Paddington; Swansea or Cardiff trains will be an issue - we know the solution for Bristol and Cheltenham Spe services.

 

From English Heritage

From The Smithsonian Magazine

 
Similar, posted on my social media.  Questioner asks:

Answer (from me):

 

Not quite sure about the veracity of this statement. I've not been around for 125+ years and can certainly remember clambering over the stones as a youngster.

 
Yes I saw the different ISBN, but wondered whether the content might be pretty similar, or a superset?

 
Thanks, JohnM.

That's a different book - "Wilts & Berks Canal Revisited", by Doug Small: ISBN 978-0-7524-5146-6.

Doug Small wrote several books, as archivist for the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust.

 
At the station today just in time for the level crossing to fail up.
The platform no 2 has two temporary entrances in the car park which is closed and only being used by Chief Rentals. The portacabin never materialised and is expected today.

The platform in use is long enough for a five car train and the expected xcountry was terminated at Newton Abbot because of the level crossing failure.
Paignton station 30 July 2026 Two temporay entrances by Robert, on Flickr

Paignton station 30 July 2026 by Robert, on Flickr

Paignton station 30 July 2026 150 in platform by Robert, on Flickr

 

Indeed - it worked really well for the community and for them.  I love these partnership events.

The Melksham News comes out today ... and from the electronic version, here is the Carnival page banner.  A further worthwhile marketing publicity.

 

This is another area of divided responsibility between the TOC and NR. There is a short NR document called "Lifts and Escalators handbook for Franchised Stations" (dated March 2023). Here are a couple of quotes:

That second bullet point it the only explicit mention of the vital importance of lifts to passengers who can only travel through a station using them. And it is basically passing the buck to the TOCs!

 

Indeed / I can sympathise.    Newquay, Exeter, Bristol airports ... none has a rail connection.   I still fancy the idea - pink flying elephant time - of the Strawberry line re-opening to Wrington and then extending into an underground station at Lulsgate / Bristol Airport.   Four trains an hour - to Cornwall (Falmouth?), to Cardiff via Bristol, to Minehead via Taunton, and to Swindon via Bath Spa.

 
It's the Kennet and Avon whose water supply as built was a bit of a joke and whose summit level was very much a joke, but now has a substantial provision of solar powered electrified back-pumping and what a glorious contrast in terms of technology to the lovely but archaic beam engine installation at Crofton. When dry spells coincide with hours of sunshine, solar energy for lifting water via the canal itself must be about as good a fit as is possible, with not even the need for battery storage to bridge the gaps. Even the loss by evaporation will help with humidity, and loss via leakage will find its way into an aquifer.

Mark

 
At the risk of sounding facetious or cynical. may I suggest that the buses are being cleared out of the way, to allow for Helen and Andy's mass transit system ie trams to be  installed ?

 

Personal view

- "commuter" is misused / it should be (as it has been in the past) to signify a regular and frequent journey between home and place of work, learning, medical attention, personal business or perhaps between two such places.

- "passenger" is reasonable and logical for anyone using a train or bus

- "customer" is a subset of passenger - it excludes those who are not directly or indirectly paying for their travel.  I would include people travelling legitimately on their ENCTS card - indirectly paid and a registered journey that brings an income, but clearly (to me) it does not include fare evaders.

I prefer the term customer - as to me it reminds everyone that these people paying for their travel are the whole reason that the train or bus is running.    "Passenger" gives and aura of inconvenience - "I like running this train because it's quiet" is something I have heard said, but "we have very few customers on this train" gives a feeling of alert.

 
Second hand copies of that available from a few sellers online. Amazon has what might be an updated version of the same book, not sure, for £15 new:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wilts-Berks-Canal-Revisited-Small/dp/0752451464/

 
Living in the far West, unfortunately mostly it's a car.

 

 

So true.
Little provision for bus drivers, and no encouragement from management to do anything about it!
Generally runs of  up to 5 and a half hours before a 'meal break'. 5 and a half hours is the legal maximum, so our duties were timed for between 5 and 5 hours thirty!
Legally, if you were late, you must not drive further.  Try telling your passengers in the middle of nowhere you are stopping for a 15 minute break!
The problem was you arrived at your half way/return point very late (even more so in summer time), and invariably a large queue of passengers waiting for you. So, keep it in, load up passengers and return.
The quality of toilet provision provided varied between a well used portaloo and OK'ish........

 
A "spare" afternoon yesterday - based in Prague - and too hot to walk around the city.  I took the opportunity to travel on some random trains, keep cool, see the countryside, perhaps meet some of the people, and learn about what works and perhaps does not work here.

Praha Masaykovo n. - Poříčany
Poříčany - Nymburk hl.n
Nymburk hl.n - Usti Nad Labem hl.n
Usti Nad Labem hl.n - Praha hl.n

Pictured
- double deck train to Poříčany
- modern "railbus" on to Nymburk
- train to Usti advertises passenger comfort and low cost
- business-aware seating allowing good use of travel time
- smart branding for a GW train

So many lessons - fast, comfortable, electric trains.  A train that pulled out of Poříčany on time - then pulled up along the platform to allow people to connect into it from another train that was just arriving.  Passengers to and from Třebestovice - a small 'halt' just out from Poříčany, yet thriving in spite of its closeness to that main station, perhaps because of a reliable hourly service that really connects.  The use of really good pricing to encourage people to use the trains.  Open stations that are naturaly friendly without barriers, but with ticket checks on all legs. Display screen in trains telling me what the ongoing connections were at intermediate stations.  A train manager who let me know that a train was going to reverse at an intermediate station ... so I not be concerned.  On time arrival back into Prague, and a call in the supermarket actually located in the station, well stocked at sensible prices, and many, many outlets making the station very much a shopping mall for general use too. And walking / easy access back to the hotel with just one very local access road to cross.










 

 

Agreed. ‘Passenger’ is a much better word, covering every type of user. Perhaps it’s its ubiquity that makes journalists look for a different word, but it is a bit like calling every cat a mouser.

 
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:G15387/2026-07-30/detailed#allox_id=0

2N02 0707 Par to Newquay
175007 coupled to 175114

 
It is perhaps encouraging to note that the Secretary of State for Transport, Heidi Alexander, has herself experienced some degree of overcrowding, on GWR trains between Swindon and London Paddington:

 
From the BBC:

 


I think there's a bit of a misunderstanding here.  Staff do use toilets on the train and at stations where available, and if it's their recognised PNB (Physical Needs Break) then they will almost certainly have access to staff toilets of some sort.

I see the article TG linked to as basically ASLEF saying that a lot of companies agreed to the Welfare Facilities Charter which promised action by late this year, but in some cases very little improvement has been made, so they need to buck their ideas up.  More detail here:  https://aslef.org.uk/news/aslef-win-train-drivers-will-finally-have-access-toilets-work

The issue largely applies to freight train drivers who don't have access to a toilet on the train - or perhaps I'm wrong and ChrisB can let me know where to find the train loo on a freight train? - and may work long periods where there is simply no access to a proper toilet.  But there are also some passenger operators that could make improvements.

The Guardian article TG linked to then goes on to rather randomly quote a couple of examples of completely unrelated industrial action on the railways, before rightly drawing attention to the similar issues that bus, coach and lorry drivers face as well.

 
In grahame's excellent collection of books, I found a copy of "Images of England - The Wilts & Berks Canal", compiled by Doug Small.

ISBN 0-7524-1619-7  Published in 1999, 128 pages.

I am reading through it: it's absolutely fascinating.

CfN. 

 

Thanks, Bob.   There are lots of flows that go through those staircases or have to use the lifts if they can't ...

What about people who arrive at Swindon Station by bus / taxi / on a mobility chair and are headed for London?

 
I have now amended (again) the date on our Coffee Shop forum calendar. 

CfN.

 

That should not be necessary. Where there are alternative fares for the same journey with different "via" routeings, a more expensive fare is always valid by any cheaper routes. As the instructions document to the Routeing Guide puts it:

In some cases the tickets make this clear. The most expensive ticket is likely to be marked "valid via any permitted route". This is the case for the GWR-priced ticket from Wokingham to London that is valid via Reading. The cheapest ticket for this journey is marked "valid only via Staines", as it can't be used on any other route.

There is another fare in between those two, via Guildford. This route's short name is "Ascot/Guildford", which is confusing. As I've never bought one I don't know how the tickets are marked. However, the TVM information for the Ascot/Guildford option on the selector page says: "valid only for travel via (changing trains or passing through) Ascot or Guildford". Given the ticket has space for just oner line of routeing text, I imagine that would be "valid only via Ascot or Guildford".

As far as I know it is permitted to travel on a train with a ticket for the right journey by the wrong route. You just have to pay the relevant excess fare if asked to to so. However, the NCoT (and NCoC before that) doesn't really address the point. The bit about excess fares in the 2013 NCoC related to travel not by a permitted route at all, and in the current NCoC even that's not present. What is there mixes up a ticket being valid for your journey with being valid on the service used - so explicitly missing exactly the point in question!

 
That lift has been problematic for a few weeks but in recent days it seems to have suffered a  fault which needs a more permanent repair.

I am aware of one person who arrived at Swindon for a TransWilts service and needed the lift.  They were put on a train from platform 4 (which has both a lift and level access) to Chippenham where they could change onto the following TW train a few minutes later.   Not sure what would have happened if they had arrived closer to the TW departure time.

I understand the favoured option for people heading east is to stay on the train to Reading.   There is level access to platform 1 at Didcot Parkway but it involves going through the gateline and out into the car park to get there.   There is no lift for platform 1.   There is also a more frequent service from Reading back to Swindon - although of course don't catch one to Cheltenham Spa!

I have asked what the prognosis is for the lift at Swindon and am awaiting an answer.

 

The issue with that could be if there's pressure on time. Sods law leans towards the train loo turning out to be the UK's most occupied toilet / is out of order / the type of train is provided with only one loo etc.

Mark