Recent Public Posts - [guest]
| Re: Six-hour train services between London and Stirling running with no toilets In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [378239/32334/51] Posted by broadgage at 09:51, 14th August 2026 |      |
Toilets on trains should be a mature technology and providing reliably working examples should therefore be simple.
I wonder in what way hitachi have over-complicated the design and added extra points of failure ?
| Re: Swindon <-> Westbury service updates and amendments, ongoing discussion - 2026 In "TransWilts line - Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Salisbury" [378237/31359/18] Posted by grahame at 09:14, 14th August 2026 | |
Here a question for someone on GWR operations (I hope):
On the day that you cancel trains
On the day that you run less trains
On the day that you terminate trains short
How, for the love of God, do you have the audacity to peddle the excuse that for to a lack of drivers a service is being cancelled.
On the day that you cancel trains
On the day that you run less trains
On the day that you terminate trains short
How, for the love of God, do you have the audacity to peddle the excuse that for to a lack of drivers a service is being cancelled.
Clearly GWR thinks its passengers are idiots
I came on to the Coffee Shop a few minutes ago to record / summarise yesterday's performance or lack thereof ... but find myself again reporting on new cancellations.
12:17 Westbury to Swindon due 13:01
13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57
13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.
13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57
13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.
The last TW service to run was operated by 158762 according to Real Time Trains.
It arrived at Westbury at 11:46.
If the same source is to be believed, it was then attached to 158767 and worked the continuation of the 11:30 from Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour from Westbury scheduled at 13:03 but left at 13:16.
It is currently, again according to RTT, on its way back from the South Coast and is due to be uncoupled at Bristol Temple Meads at 17:53.
It arrived at Westbury at 11:46.
If the same source is to be believed, it was then attached to 158767 and worked the continuation of the 11:30 from Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour from Westbury scheduled at 13:03 but left at 13:16.
It is currently, again according to RTT, on its way back from the South Coast and is due to be uncoupled at Bristol Temple Meads at 17:53.
Bad - there was no coach. Or a bus. That was despite the National Rail app showing it, and the email from Great Western Railway Alerting Service alerting me to it.
The bus had been scheduled to depart at 18:15. When I sauntered over to the station entrance at about 18:05, the helpful member of Chippenham station staff informed me that buses were only organised to handle planned outages eg. engineering work. He wasn't aware of the one promised by GWR. However they were running taxis; each time a train arrived they rounded up people that looked like they wanted to take the TransWilts line and off they went. As I'd just been happily sitting on the platform, I'd missed this. I'd have to wait for the next train arrival and taxi collection.
The bus had been scheduled to depart at 18:15. When I sauntered over to the station entrance at about 18:05, the helpful member of Chippenham station staff informed me that buses were only organised to handle planned outages eg. engineering work. He wasn't aware of the one promised by GWR. However they were running taxis; each time a train arrived they rounded up people that looked like they wanted to take the TransWilts line and off they went. As I'd just been happily sitting on the platform, I'd missed this. I'd have to wait for the next train arrival and taxi collection.
I don't think that "GWR" condsiders all of its passengers to be idiots. However, there is a lower standard of provision of data than one might wish at times, whatever that's due to. Sometimes the staff operating the system day to day may be taking the easy way out, but very often they are frustrated themselves. And at a management level, there are frustations too and the inability to manage as they could if there weren't other tiers. This is compounded by the systems which seem to be crude, fairweather only, and designed to keep cost down rather than service up and thinking customers undertanding and informed.
I too have been stopped at Chippenham and have missed rail replacement options because I did not seek out staff and they were not running to an announced timetable, to then have to await others to share a following vehicle.
The system is not clever there. The real solution would not be to send off the train that had been running the service to Portsmouth, of course. It's just possible there was a cab fault and it could only be driven from one end, or that it was running out of fuel and had to be put on a diagram that got it back to base. It's also possible that 2 cars on 1F19- the Cardiff to Portsmouth train - with the local trains cancelled too - was a bit of a problem, and so the TransWilts train was commandeered and the service cancelled for the rest of the day. That of course is a scurrilous suggestion bearing in mind that senior GWR managers informed us and our MP in person that this does not happen, so it must be cab fault or fuel level?
| Re: Derailment, Lewes, 13 Aug 2026 In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [378236/32362/51] Posted by GBM at 09:11, 14th August 2026 | |
Superb drone footage taken by Eddie Mitchell on another forum.
| Re: Ryanair - routes, schedules, incidents and issues (merged posts) In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [378235/29076/51] Posted by Mark A at 09:08, 14th August 2026 | |
Armchair pilot here. So the engine sent the flight deck crew a memo saying "I'm sick, I need to go to engine hospital right now please." but after giving it a bit of a rest they put the autopilot back at the controls to continue the flight? Hmm.
Mark
| Re: Six-hour train services between London and Stirling running with no toilets In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [378234/32334/51] Posted by Bob_Blakey at 08:59, 14th August 2026 | |
It does not appear to have been made clear that Lumo have stated categorically that none of their Stirling trains enter service without at least some working WC's and the issue seems to be one of 'mid-journey' failure.
| Re: Ryanair - routes, schedules, incidents and issues (merged posts) In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [378233/29076/51] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 08:36, 14th August 2026 | |
An update, from the BBC:
Engine parts smashed Ryanair window that man's head was sucked out of, report says
Broken engine fragments smashed a cabin window of a Ryanair plane causing a man's head and right shoulder to be sucked into the hole last month, US investigators have said.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) wrote in a preliminary report that this happened after an engine fan blade broke shortly after takeoff on the 10 July flight from Greece to Germany.
Serbian national Ljubisa Karović's head and right shoulder were sucked out of the plane's window, leaving him "seriously injured and in shock". His wife Svetlana Grković Maksimović later told BBC Serbia that she and two other passengers held onto his legs for several minutes.
The NTSB said the flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen "experienced a No. 2 (right) engine fan-blade-out (FBO) failure during climb out. The crew elected to return to SKG [Thessaloniki International Airport] where they made an uneventful landing."
The NTSB was "delegated the investigation in full" by the Greek authorities in the days following the incident. It also detailed a timeline of events given by the flight crew, who said they received a "high vibration" engine alert during the climb.
In response, they reduced the engine power and carried out a series of checks. When the vibrations stopped, the crew continued to climb on autopilot, the report said. But the engine vibrations then increased and the crew heard a loud bang, prompting them to declare an emergency and begin their descent.
Flight attendants reported hearing and feeling the vibrations, and seeing a small amount of smoke before the oxygen masks were deployed.
One flight attendant said they then noticed passengers calling for help after a passenger became "partially lodged in a damaged cabin window", with the entire window missing.
The engine had undergone ultrasonic inspections in May this year with no findings of fault, the report stated.
Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary earlier suggested that the incident may have been caused by "foreign object damage" to an engine.
The aircraft was operated by Ryanair's subsidiary Malta Air.
Broken engine fragments smashed a cabin window of a Ryanair plane causing a man's head and right shoulder to be sucked into the hole last month, US investigators have said.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) wrote in a preliminary report that this happened after an engine fan blade broke shortly after takeoff on the 10 July flight from Greece to Germany.
Serbian national Ljubisa Karović's head and right shoulder were sucked out of the plane's window, leaving him "seriously injured and in shock". His wife Svetlana Grković Maksimović later told BBC Serbia that she and two other passengers held onto his legs for several minutes.
The NTSB said the flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen "experienced a No. 2 (right) engine fan-blade-out (FBO) failure during climb out. The crew elected to return to SKG [Thessaloniki International Airport] where they made an uneventful landing."
The NTSB was "delegated the investigation in full" by the Greek authorities in the days following the incident. It also detailed a timeline of events given by the flight crew, who said they received a "high vibration" engine alert during the climb.
In response, they reduced the engine power and carried out a series of checks. When the vibrations stopped, the crew continued to climb on autopilot, the report said. But the engine vibrations then increased and the crew heard a loud bang, prompting them to declare an emergency and begin their descent.
Flight attendants reported hearing and feeling the vibrations, and seeing a small amount of smoke before the oxygen masks were deployed.
One flight attendant said they then noticed passengers calling for help after a passenger became "partially lodged in a damaged cabin window", with the entire window missing.
The engine had undergone ultrasonic inspections in May this year with no findings of fault, the report stated.
Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary earlier suggested that the incident may have been caused by "foreign object damage" to an engine.
The aircraft was operated by Ryanair's subsidiary Malta Air.
| Re: Impersonation scams In "News, Help and Assistance" [378232/32363/29] Posted by Bob_Blakey at 08:15, 14th August 2026 Already liked by GBM | |
I get several messages of this ilk every day; usually about either my expired McAfee contract - which hasn't existed for at least a decade - or the fact that my BT Cloud service has run out of space, which it certainly has because the system was permanently closed around two years ago.
Other favourites concern a variety of issues with the motor vehicle that I don't have.
I hate to think how many entries my Blocked Sender list now contains!
| Re: Swindon <-> Westbury service updates and amendments, ongoing discussion - 2026 In "TransWilts line - Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Salisbury" [378231/31359/18] Posted by grahame at 07:55, 14th August 2026 Already liked by JohnM, Bob_Blakey, PrestburyRoad, GBM | |
It turns a simple complaint about a late train into a frustrating game of rewrite-the-sentence just to get past a regex filter.
Been there - and does it still not help you by highlighting the problem characters, leaving you to search and find them within your explanation. Get a feeling of "we really don't want your feedback in spite of what we say, so we will make it as hard for you as we can". It is also (I believe) commonly appreciated that if you have to rewrite / revise a letter of complaint multiple times, you will become less angry and will be exhausted into toning it down with each rewrite / revision.
I am reminded ...
The prompt: "Choose a new password."
User: potato
System: "Sorry, password must contain at least 8 letters."
User: boiled potato
System: "Sorry, password must contain at least one number."
User: 1 boiled potato
System: "Sorry, password cannot contain spaces."
User: 50f*ckingboiledpotatoes
System: "Sorry, password already in use"
User: potato
System: "Sorry, password must contain at least 8 letters."
User: boiled potato
System: "Sorry, password must contain at least one number."
User: 1 boiled potato
System: "Sorry, password cannot contain spaces."
User: 50f*ckingboiledpotatoes
System: "Sorry, password already in use"
| Re: Swindon <-> Westbury service updates and amendments, ongoing discussion - 2026 In "TransWilts line - Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Salisbury" [378230/31359/18] Posted by grahame at 07:43, 14th August 2026 | |
Yesterday was another day when the service started OK but fell apart, and so badly that this thread got confusing, and I'm sharing the summary from the official open data feeds, as interpreted by Real Time Trains.
A summary like this does not show the disruption cause to people's lives, the frustrations to them when they are trying to travel on an advertised service, and the effect on the communities that should have been served of the failures to so do time and time again.
| Impersonation scams In "News, Help and Assistance" [378229/32363/29] Posted by grahame at 07:25, 14th August 2026 Already liked by Mark A | |
The Coffee Shop does not park cars, and we do not have Ring-go accounts - so I just laugh off things like this, sent twice to our "official" email address in the middle of the night, said to be from a Polish email address.
The Coffee Shop does not collect personal any payment details (we remain free) so it is highly unlikely anyone will claim to be "us". However, if you are in any doubt about the authenticity of any messages from us or from our servers, please email us via the official address at the bottom of all of our pages, typing in the address and not just clicking on it!
| Re: Swindon <-> Westbury service updates and amendments, ongoing discussion - 2026 In "TransWilts line - Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Salisbury" [378228/31359/18] Posted by TaplowGreen at 07:17, 14th August 2026 | |
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:10
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:10 has been delayed at Swindon and is now 20 minutes late.
This is due to passengers causing a disturbance on a train.
06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47
06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47 is being delayed at Westbury.
This is due to a late running train being in front of this one.
| Re: Swindon <-> Westbury service updates and amendments, ongoing discussion - 2026 In "TransWilts line - Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Salisbury" [378227/31359/18] Posted by TaplowGreen at 07:15, 14th August 2026 Already liked by JohnM, GBM | |
Complaint form submitted. Avoiding "special characters" such as brackets and semicolons 
I've submitted another form about that. Gemini sums it up pretty well:
I've submitted another form about that. Gemini sums it up pretty well:It is thoroughly absurd. Calling basic punctuation like parentheses () and semicolons ; "special characters" is a classic hallmark of outdated web development.
:
Banning characters entirely is a crude shortcut that forces the customer to write like a text bot from 2002.
It turns a simple complaint about a late train into a frustrating game of rewrite-the-sentence just to get past a regex filter.
:
Banning characters entirely is a crude shortcut that forces the customer to write like a text bot from 2002.
It turns a simple complaint about a late train into a frustrating game of rewrite-the-sentence just to get past a regex filter.
Thankyou Alan Partridge!
| Re: Derailment, Lewes, 13 Aug 2026 In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [378226/32362/51] Posted by grahame at 07:01, 14th August 2026 | |
BBC live this morning - sharing a "checkpoint" on where we are
A major incident was declared following a train derailing near Lewes in East Sussex shortly before 16:00 BST yesterday.
Emergency services said about 150 people were on board the train, with two people sustaining serious injuries and a further 18 with less serious injuries. All of the passengers were evacuated from the train.
Photos from the site showed emergency workers around the train on its side in a field next to the tracks, with one passenger saying it "felt like a car crash" and another saying the train derailed from carriage five.
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) deployed a team of inspectors to the site.
Emergency services said about 150 people were on board the train, with two people sustaining serious injuries and a further 18 with less serious injuries. All of the passengers were evacuated from the train.
Photos from the site showed emergency workers around the train on its side in a field next to the tracks, with one passenger saying it "felt like a car crash" and another saying the train derailed from carriage five.
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) deployed a team of inspectors to the site.
and
Southern Railway has issued advice to passengers hoping to travel in the area today.
Trains are unable to run between Lewes and Haywards Heath, so those travelling to or from Cooksbridge, Plumpton, Hastings or Ore have been told their journey is likely to take longer than usual.
Rail replacement buses are running between Haywards Heath and Lewes, calling at Cooksbridge and Plumpton, and those travelling in the area are being told to allow at least an extra 60 minutes of journey time for their trip.
People travelling towards Eastbourne or Hastings today will also need to change trains at Brighton, with extra carriages being added on services between Brighton and Hastings, and Brighton and Seaford.
Tickets will be accepted at no extra cost on Southern services between Brighton and London Victoria, Thameslink services between Brighton and London Bridge, Gatwick Express services between Brighton and London Victoria, on the London Underground between London terminals, and on Southeastern services between Hastings and London terminals.
Rail tickets will also be accepted on Brighton and Hove Buses’ 28, 29, 29B, and 29X routes, which run between Brighton and Eastbourne, and Brighton and Tunbridge Wells in Kent.
Trains are unable to run between Lewes and Haywards Heath, so those travelling to or from Cooksbridge, Plumpton, Hastings or Ore have been told their journey is likely to take longer than usual.
Rail replacement buses are running between Haywards Heath and Lewes, calling at Cooksbridge and Plumpton, and those travelling in the area are being told to allow at least an extra 60 minutes of journey time for their trip.
People travelling towards Eastbourne or Hastings today will also need to change trains at Brighton, with extra carriages being added on services between Brighton and Hastings, and Brighton and Seaford.
Tickets will be accepted at no extra cost on Southern services between Brighton and London Victoria, Thameslink services between Brighton and London Bridge, Gatwick Express services between Brighton and London Victoria, on the London Underground between London terminals, and on Southeastern services between Hastings and London terminals.
Rail tickets will also be accepted on Brighton and Hove Buses’ 28, 29, 29B, and 29X routes, which run between Brighton and Eastbourne, and Brighton and Tunbridge Wells in Kent.
| Re: Swindon <-> Westbury service updates and amendments, ongoing discussion - 2026 In "TransWilts line - Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Salisbury" [378225/31359/18] Posted by JohnM at 06:56, 14th August 2026 | |
Complaint form submitted. Avoiding "special characters" such as brackets and semicolons
I've submitted another form about that. Gemini sums it up pretty well:It is thoroughly absurd. Calling basic punctuation like parentheses () and semicolons ; "special characters" is a classic hallmark of outdated web development.
:
Banning characters entirely is a crude shortcut that forces the customer to write like a text bot from 2002.
It turns a simple complaint about a late train into a frustrating game of rewrite-the-sentence just to get past a regex filter.
:
Banning characters entirely is a crude shortcut that forces the customer to write like a text bot from 2002.
It turns a simple complaint about a late train into a frustrating game of rewrite-the-sentence just to get past a regex filter.
| Re: Derailment, Lewes, 13 Aug 2026 In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [378224/32362/51] Posted by grahame at 06:29, 14th August 2026 Already liked by Mark A | |
Given the heatwave conditions, there'll be a lot of people on other trains need looking after too.
Mark
Mark
I only looked a few hours later, but it may well have been geographically fortunate that the accident (which we are assuming it was) happened on the Haywards Heath to Lewes cutoff. There do not appear on the ("do not use for safety critical decisions") public sites to be any other trains stuck on the line. With the exception of Plumpton and Cooksbridge stations / passengers, all journeys remain possible by rail and "ticket acceptance ..."s which should be automatic were in place by 17:30.
| Re: Derailment, Lewes, 13 Aug 2026 In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [378223/32362/51] Posted by grahame at 06:13, 14th August 2026 | |
Video taken at the scene by passengers, strongly suggests that buckled track was to blame.
source is BBC news.
source is BBC news.
Indeed, but we yet we don't know whether that part of the scene shown was cause or effect. We should really await the RAIB. I'm sure, bearing in mind the current hot weather, they will issue an urgent safety alert if appropriate.
| Re: Weymouth line cancellations In "Heart of Wessex" [378222/32074/19] Posted by Trowres at 23:25, 13th August 2026 Already liked by Mark A | |
You may use your ticket, at no extra cost, on South Western Railway service between Weymouth and Southampton Central, where you can change for services towards Westbury and Bristol Temple Meads. This may extend your journey time by approximately 1 hour 30 minutes.
Had you been at Weymouth, waiting for the 17:28 to Bristol, you would have had the fortune to catch the 17:15 to Waterloo, which actually departed at 17:35. This is what would have then happened:
Arrive at Southampton at 19:17 (20 late).
Find you have missed the connecting Cardiff train due to depart at 19:11. Actually, you haven't missed it as it's been cancelled.
You find that the next Cardiff train, the 20:11, has also been cancelled.
There's a 19:37 to Salisbury, so you catch that. It departs 5 late.
Arrival at Salisbury is at 20:22 (7 late).
There was actually a Salisbury-Bristol train running (most were cancelled today as part of service-thinning)...
It left on time at 20:11, so you have missed it. Bad luck!
Next train should be the 20:42 Cardiff... but it's cancelled.
Also cancelled is th 21:42 Cardiff train...
So you catch the 22:11 Salisbury-Bristol train, due into Temple Meads at 23:32. (Instead of 20:12 when the Wey-Bristol was due)
Train services running to and from these stations have been suspended. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
I would take "suspended" as meaning complete cessation of trains.
But the 20:14 departure from Weymouth ran, arriving Bristol at 22:45.
Mind, it was a 2-coach class 165, so would have been rather cosy if everyone waited for it.
The final train, the 21:28 Weymouth-Westbury was also cancelled.
| Re: Derailment, Lewes, 13 Aug 2026 In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [378221/32362/51] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 22:20, 13th August 2026 | |
| Re: Six-hour train services between London and Stirling running with no toilets In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [378220/32334/51] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 21:45, 13th August 2026 | |
Thanks for posting, broadgage.
| Re: Six-hour train services between London and Stirling running with no toilets In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [378219/32334/51] Posted by broadgage at 21:23, 13th August 2026 | |
I thought that MOST forum members agreed with the official line that IETs are so much better than the HSTs that they replaced, that no one wants a buffet, and even short formations are not really a problem because covid has reduced passenger numbers.
And that only a few members shared my views.
| Re: Derailment, Lewes, 13 Aug 2026 In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [378218/32362/51] Posted by broadgage at 21:15, 13th August 2026 | |
Video taken at the scene by passengers, strongly suggests that buckled track was to blame.
source is BBC news.
| Re: Hot weather - changes for 13th August 2026 In "Across the West" [378217/32358/26] Posted by lbraine at 20:57, 13th August 2026 Already liked by NickB | |
I apologise. Nothing to do with Drivers.
After a 90 minutes wait for anything local down the Thames Valley the Reading announcer says: ‘this is due to more trains that normal needing maintainence due to the hot weather’
I can only presume it must before hotter west of Reading and hence the limited number of trains running need to be protected, and hence the curtailing of trains from London at Reading.
Clearly GWR thinks its passengers are idiots
| Re: Hot weather - changes for 13th August 2026 In "Across the West" [378216/32358/26] Posted by lbraine at 20:43, 13th August 2026 Already liked by NickB | |
Here a question for someone on GWR operations (I hope):
On the day that you cancel trains
On the day that you run less trains
On the day that you terminate trains short
How, for the love of God, do you have the audacity to peddle the excuse that for to a lack of drivers a service is being cancelled.
(And before someone jumps on me and give the tired old ‘wrong driver in wrong place’ excuse I am particularly vexed about local services from Reading where the damn trains are stabled. And yes there are loads of them in the train yard sidings at the moment)
| Re: Weymouth line cancellations In "Heart of Wessex" [378215/32074/19] Posted by John D at 19:43, 13th August 2026 | |
Cancellations due to air conditioning faults
Due to severe weather between Weymouth and Westbury:
Impact:
Train services running to and from these stations have been suspended. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
Customer Advice:
-
We are sorry for the disruption to your journey today.
-
What has happened?
-
A number of trains that would run between Weymouth and Westbury have developed air conditioning faults owing to the extreme heat.
-
What are your options?
-
You may use your ticket, at no extra cost, on South Western Railway service between Weymouth and Southampton Central, where you can change for services towards Westbury and Bristol Temple Meads. This may extend your journey time by approximately 1 hour 30 minutes.
Impact:
Train services running to and from these stations have been suspended. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
Customer Advice:
-
We are sorry for the disruption to your journey today.
-
What has happened?
-
A number of trains that would run between Weymouth and Westbury have developed air conditioning faults owing to the extreme heat.
-
What are your options?
-
You may use your ticket, at no extra cost, on South Western Railway service between Weymouth and Southampton Central, where you can change for services towards Westbury and Bristol Temple Meads. This may extend your journey time by approximately 1 hour 30 minutes.
https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates/live-network-updates
| Re: Cardiff -Portsmouth Engineering work 2026 In "Portsmouth to Cardiff" [378214/31446/20] Posted by John D at 19:38, 13th August 2026 | |
Details of more closures now available affecting Cardiff - Portsmouth
Sat 13 - Sun 14 Sept suspended Southampton- Portsmouth
Sat 3 - Sun 4 Oct suspended Fareham - Portsmouth
Sat 10 Oct suspended Warminster - Romsey
Sun 11 Oct suspended Warminster - Southampton
Sat 17 Oct suspended Salisbury - Southampton
Sun 18 Oct suspended Warminster - Southampton
Sat 24 - Sun 25 Oct diverted Romsey - Fareham via Eastleigh
Mon 26 - Wed 28 Oct suspended Bath Spa - Bristol
So clearly weekends in the Autumn are going to be, take car instead.
| Re: Swindon <-> Westbury service updates and amendments, ongoing discussion - 2026 In "TransWilts line - Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Salisbury" [378213/31359/18] Posted by JohnM at 19:19, 13th August 2026 Already liked by GBM | |
...and the bus replacement will hopefully be an air-conned coach, and take quite a bit less time than the ventilation-only x34 to get to its destination.
Well... good news and bad news...Bad - there was no coach. Or a bus. That was despite the National Rail app showing it, and the email from Great Western Railway Alerting Service alerting me to it.
The bus had been scheduled to depart at 18:15. When I sauntered over to the station entrance at about 18:05, the helpful member of Chippenham station staff informed me that buses were only organised to handle planned outages eg. engineering work. He wasn't aware of the one promised by GWR. However they were running taxis; each time a train arrived they rounded up people that looked like they wanted to take the TransWilts line and off they went. As I'd just been happily sitting on the platform, I'd missed this. I'd have to wait for the next train arrival and taxi collection.
Good - but fortunately at that point another taxi turned up looking for passengers. So me and one other person (headed for Westbury) were whisked away in a very nice/cool Merc E-class. (And he kindly dropped me at the bottom of Westlands Lane - about the same distance from home as Melksham station but saved about 5 mins journey time and saved him having to detour off the A350.)
So it wasn't too bad in the end - could have been a lot worse.
But I will be complaining to GWR:
- It's ridiculous to say a replacement bus will be running when it won't.
- Why wasn't there any communication between GWR and Chippenham station about the bus?
- It would have been helpful if there had been an announcement at the station about the taxi arrangements.
| Re: Derailment, Lewes, 13 Aug 2026 In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [378212/32362/51] Posted by Mark A at 19:02, 13th August 2026 Already liked by broadgage | |
Given the heatwave conditions, there'll be a lot of people on other trains need looking after too.
Mark
| Re: Derailment, Lewes, 13 Aug 2026 In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [378211/32362/51] Posted by JayMac at 18:21, 13th August 2026 | |
It is the three rear vehicles that have toppled. Unclear at this point if any of the front 5 also derailed.
| Re: Swindon <-> Westbury service updates and amendments, ongoing discussion - 2026 In "TransWilts line - Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Salisbury" [378210/31359/18] Posted by JohnM at 18:02, 13th August 2026 | |
...and the bus replacement will hopefully be an air-conned coach, and take quite a bit less time than the ventilation-only x34 to get to its destination.
