20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:06

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:06 will be started from Swindon.
It will no longer call at Westbury, Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham.
This is due to trespassers on the railway.

Delays to services at Gloucester
Following trespassers on the railway at Gloucester the line has now reopened.
Train services running through this station may be delayed by up to 15 minutes. Disruption is expected until 19:45 31/07.
Customer Advice
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What has happened?
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Trespassers have been reported on the railway in the Gloucester area. Trespassing is when a person is reported to be on or next to the railway track, the land next to the track, or any area near the railway that isnt open to the public. Until it is confirmed that the trespassers are away from the railway we are unable to run trains through the area.

That means that any of the 27x Devizes/Melksham/Bath buses that would have turned off the Bath Road and passed through the village before rejoining the Bath Road in Atworth are now staying on the Bath Road. Similarly in the opposite direction of course.

I was looking at RTT to see which trains sped through Chippenham yesterday evening while I was waiting for my Melksham service, and spotted this:
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:W34637/2026-07-30

Do 14 coach IETs really exist? I didn't notice that it was any longer than usual, but it was motoring.

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 has been delayed at Gloucester and is now 40 minutes late.
This is due to trespassers on the railway.

Even more direct - a new line from Nailsea & Backwell, up Brockley Combe. 

CfN. 

So yes please, more luggage space. I'd suggest that those wretched seats on IETs with no windows be removed to provide them!  

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:


An experience which was memorably shared by her (former) comrade and Leader........however in his case it was later proved that he had been, shall we say, a little "economical with the actualite"? 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/truth-traingate-new-footage-prove-11051982

RAIL firms are set to charge less for non-existent trains, thereby offering better value for services their customers do not receive.

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport hailed a proposed 0.4 per cent cut in the price, saying that if the trend continued then UK rail travel was now a mere 250 years away from being worth the expense.

He said: “This represents an average monthly saving of £1.20, which means you can now buy a newspaper to read while waiting for your veal truck with a sandwich trolley to turn up. Which it won’t.

“To make the fare reduction possible we’ll have to cut back certain luxuries on other trains, like fire extinguishers and brakes. But you’ll get used to hurtling across the country in flaming runaway carriages before you know it.

“We’ll even recoup the cost by jacking up station car parking to £28,000 a second, which will allow Network Rail to confiscate your car as compensation the moment you switch off the engine.”

Commuter Roy Hobbs said: “I spend two hours a day with my nostrils filled with piss going to and from a job that has killed my very soul.

“The prospect of jumping out of a burning train halfway across Blackfriars Bridge while saving 80p a month is the best news I’ve had since my boss was eaten by a shark.”

Fatality fear without Stonehenge road improvements

A retired firefighter said "fatalities will continue" on the A303 at Stonehenge without plans to improve the road.

It has been two years since a two-mile tunnel scheme at the world heritage site was scrapped by the government , despite hopes it would ease congestion by widening the road and removing the view of Stonehenge.

Paul Jaycock, former station officer at Amesbury Fire station said: "I started here in 1981, we were all assured there would be improvements.. we just haven't got anywhere with it."

The Department of Transport said it is "exploring ways of improving the A303".

The £2bn project was scrapped by Labour in July 2024, shortly after they took power.

The project had faced a number of legal challenges from campaigners, but those in favour said it would have eased congestion past Stonehenge and reduced road collisions.

Jaycock said: "We used to attend road accidents and think 'when the tunnel gets here this may come to an end'... now here we are and nothing has happened."

According to Wiltshire Police, between 2015 and 2025 there were 105 road traffic collisions on the A303 near Stonehenge which resulted in injury. Of those, 22 were serious or fatal.

The A303 reduces to a single lane past the famous stone circle and Paul Jaycock said some drivers slow to look, and even take photos.  "I believe Stonehenge and the heritage side of this has taken many lives. It has, I've witnessed it," he said.

National Highways said, on average, 26,000 vehicles use this stretch of the A303 every day, increasing to more than 30,000 in August.

(BBC article continues)

Is it the case that this rail-borne traffic ceased as of yesterday? One for a future 'On this day'...

Mark

***Following yesterdays announcement of a STOP ON ALL STEAM TRAINS at the Bluebell Railway, HDL'S unit 1001 will now move there ASAP and the move scheduled for 19th August is therefore CANCELLED!***

The return of 1001 to Hastings scheduled for 8th September is under review dependant on the weather conditions.

Wrington was on the Wrington Vale Light Railway which left the Strawberry line at Congresbury and went to Blagdon, it closed to passengers in 1931.  Realistically a brand new railway from Yatton or Flax Bourton would be better, and cheaper, than trying to reuse this alignment.

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 ?

Lydney Mayor had to check road misspellings 'were not AI'


Tasha Saunders, mayor of Lydney, said she believes the spelling on Templeway West was originally correct - Image © Submitted

A mayor says she had to make sure misspelt road markings "were not AI" after errors were painted next to electric vehicle bays in two Forest of Dean towns.

Tasha Saunders, mayor of Lydney in Gloucestershire, said she asked a member of staff on their way to work to check whether the "electirc vehicles" marking on Templeway West was genuine on Thursday.

The mishap came days after Ray Donaghue, who represents Cinderford at Gloucestershire County Council, said he was left laughing after noticing "electric vehicels only" markings had popped up on Station Street in his town.

Both errors have now been rectified, which the county council said came at no cost to it as contractors were responsible.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Donaghue, a Reform UK councillor, said he reported the issue on Monday, adding: "It's one of those things and it's made us laugh.  "I've seen a 'Worchester' sign and 'no parkeng' before but I think 'electric vehicels only' is a new one.  It made me think of the 'no regerts' tattoo phenomenon."

Donaghue said the contractors "sparked into action and were out like a flash" on Tuesday morning to repaint the markings.


The misspelling in Cinderford (pictured) differed from the error in Lydney - Image © Submitted

Mark Harris, cabinet member for highways at Gloucestershire County Councillor, thanked Donaghue for making the mistake known.

"As soon as the error was realised, we contacted our contractors who fixed the issue on Tuesday morning."  But, on Thursday morning, Saunders said a resident made her aware of a similar mistake in Lydney, which she believed had not been there before.

"I believe they were done earlier in the week and, from what I can gather, they were originally correct," she said.  "It seems when the Cinderford mistake became apparent and they fixed that one, they must have come out to Lydney and altered the spelling there but actually made it wrong."

Saunders said she contacted the highways team at 08:30 BST, and by 10:00, contractors were working to return the markings to their original state.  "I must say it did make me laugh in the grand scheme of things," she said.  "Some things you just can't write, can you? Literally."

There was.  It was still I thing in summer 1975, I feel sure.  I signalled the down service at Bruton 'box, which was opened to reduce the section for all the extra trains on Saturdays in summer, but, by then, mostly was switched-out

EDIT TO ADD

This service came to an end after the 1979 summer timetable, I've found out with a bit of Grok's help

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.

As I understand it, there is a "Right to Roam" in Scotland, but in England it's much more restricted - perhaps to National Parks.  Would anyone with a bit of knowledge on this be able to fill me in?

The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CROW Act) normally gives a public right of access to land mapped as open country (mountain, moor, heath or down) or registered common land. These areas are ‘open access land’.

The online maps show if the public has a right of access to land. They also have details of any local restrictions or exclusions that limit the public’s rights over them. Some of the mapped areas do not have access rights because they are excepted land.

Much of the coastal margin that’s being created as part of the work to implement the King Charles III England Coast Path (KCIIIECP) is also open access land. Open stretches of the KCIIIECP are shown on the National Trails website

Registered common land is land other than coastal margin which is registered as common under the Commons Registration Act 1965. If land ceases to be registered it will retain open access rights if it qualifies as open country or has been dedicated for access.

You are not required to create new ways for people to reach open access land over neighbouring land.

While the access rights may appear to be very extensive, they are subject to many restrictions. Land over which statutory access rights cannot be exercised includes:

▪ any land to the extent that there are buildings on it, a fixed piece of machinery or anywhere that provides an individual with privacy or shelter, such as a tent or caravan. This covers both residential and non- residential buildings;
▪ gardens around houses, caravans or tents etc., of a sufficient extent to allow a reasonable degree of privacy.

Public access rights also do not apply to:

▪ common gardens that are restricted to residents, even if they are separated from the homes themselves;
▪ schools or land used by schools, such as a playground;
▪ land that has been developed as a sports or playing field, or for a particular recreational purpose; or
▪ land on which crops are growing (in order to protect farming).

Additionally, it is not permissible to use public access rights for certain types of conduct such as to hunt, shoot or fish, or for the purpose of committing an offence such as theft or polluting water (including breaching a court order).