It's become a formality: Andy Burnham is Prime Minister in all but name, and within a week.

From the BBC:

 

Spoiler alert: it was the bridge at Limpley Stoke.

Mark

https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/26275694.live-a36-closed-gwr-trains-cancelled-crash/

 
... or you could have used the Park & Ride on the edge of Wroughton ...... oh wait ...

 

I used to live in the GWH "catchment" area - when it was being built I can clearly remember reading that the car parking at the new (green field !!) site would deliberately be inadequate "to encourage people to use public transport". The so-called planners clearly believed that all future patients of the GWH lived within walking distance of a frequent direct bus to the hospital !!
I also remember reading, when it opened, that staff were going in early and eating their "breakfast" in their cars, just to get a parking space.

I lived on the A4 between Calne and Marlborough, I can't remember what buses we had, if any - one per day.........per haps. There was only one feasible way to get to GWH - drive !!!
 
Oh .................and these same people also forgot that the RAF was closing its hospital at Wroughton and that all the NHS patients using that excellent hospital would soon be dumped on the GWH. (A considerable portion of the kids in my village school were born at Wroughton)

 

The change of the underlying web site / engine a few months ago has certainly removed a number of facilities that were useful, or made them harder to find.    A move from a useful site to one that's functional for straightforward use.

 

There seemed no problem yesterday.   Quite the opposite at Coate Water; everyone seemed to be driving there car park packed with cars in all places they should be and some they should not have been, and a field below the dam taken over as extra parking.   There was hardly anyone on walk up from the public road, and as I walked on to the Old Town there were lots of cars, but a bicycle lane with no bicycles and a footpath on which I was the only pedestrian (but plenty of people parked their cars)

 

I recently read that if the Bristol Oxford service became hourly, then the section from Swindon to Didcot would be full. 

 
The other thing to factor in is finding a parking space at the hospital.  I’ve know it take people 20-30 mins driving round looking for a space - even on a Sunday. 

 
I have had this in the past. I've ended up just going through the procedure to buy one ticket twice.

My gripe with the site is that it insists I should register as a customer with them before proceeding to buy. I complained to GWR and was told that they were aware of this and looking into it. I am afraid I just resent having to register with any vendor for casual purchases, and it's worse when it is what seems to be effectively a monopoly supplier. Even Amazon (that I have reservations about using having regard to their adverse effect on other retail businesses) seem to have no problem allowing you to "sign in as a guest". 

 
That's probably what held up the 15:00 Bristol Paddington service I was on - it stopped shortly after Box tunnel, before Thingley junction. At the time the 15:26 Swindon Westbury was showing as Delayed on the National Rail app for all stops, but then it changed to departed on time, and the train manager I was chatting with thought that was why we'd stopped - to let it through. But perhaps it was the diverted train. By the time we got to Chippenham they were announcing the 15:26 had been cancelled; all very odd.

Anyway rather than wait another 2 hours for the next Melksham train I caught the X34 bus - got home about 45 mins later than planned but not too bad considering.

 
Not travellng a lot by train at the moment and I've forgotten how the GWR tickets site works. It lets me select two adults but not apply two railcards. It knows when I add more railcards than people and grumbles, but add two and confirm and the 'Railcards' field displays that one has been applied. What am I missing please, anyone?

Mark

 


Passengers from Bristol - through train to Melksham,  Looks like it left Temple Meads at 14:26, reached Melksham perhaps an hour later. Sadly, it probably wasn't advertised as such ... so not usable as a through service for passengers.

 

I agree that many part sound a lot simpler than they are.

With an hourly service on one of the legs, and perhaps a more frequent service on the connecting leg, it becomes less of a problem.   With the train gaps being two and a half hours in one direction, and two and a quarter in the other direction, and with a fixed appointment (of "interview" importance) at the end, it was / is not clever.

As service reliability improves (remember, that's big thing that the magic wand of nationalisation is set to bring), the connection problem is not entirely eliminated but it should be a degree or two less. 

Certainly network co-ordination should help. After my appointment and my walk via Coate Water to Old Town, I picked up the bus from there to Devizes which runs every hour on a Sunday and I got home even before the next train would have left Swindon.     I couldn't help but notice that 2 buses an hour were leaving the stop in Swindon for or via Wroughton at 4 and 59 minutes after the hour.  Sound OK - until you note that the gap between them is 5 minutes or 55 (I grant they take different routes), that the real time display was out of action, and the times for the Devizes bus were on a poster in which the minutes after the hour were hidden by the frame!

 
Journeycheck says nothing about services via Melksham, but the Real Time Trains site declares for the 14:18 WSB -> SWI


And the departure board offers

 
The 15:14 Swindon Westbury hasn't departed yet, still shown as Delayed.

 

There's no sign on OS maps that the old course of the Mersey was ever filled in or converted to "land" or being built on. (So I wonder who owns it?) As late as a 1:10,000 map published in 1971 the label "Rixon and Warburton Bridge (toll)" is still appearing next to "Toll Gate" and Warburton", with "Warburton High Level Bridge" next to the new one.

The old river was just walled off from the canal and left to dry up.

 


It could be a boat on the canal - Avoncliff or Dundas aqueducts, or a canoe beneath the bridge over the River Avon.  But somehow I would vote for Limpley Stoke rather than any of those three, even though it is not confirmed to be a road vehicle.

 
Erm ... I've put it in my post above. 

 

13th July. Apparently something's just hit a bridge between Bath Spa and Westbury, disruption expected until 17:45. It can't be the B3108 bridge at Limpley Stoke though... or can it...

Mark

 

Do you have the URL please?

 

More background and legal stuff:

https://lymm.uk/warburton-toll-bridge-Acts-overview

Mark

 
Sorry that happened. S'teeth, that was a chapter. Well, two chapters in fact...

Mark

 
The previous toll notice, as well as stating the amount, gave the name of the bridge and its web site and shouldn't be too much to ask that the replacement does the same otherwise some people are going to end up forking out for the Runcorn bridge by mistake.

Unless you already know the local history, it might be best to stop reading this now and not scroll down, that is, unless you're interested in history, law, or curious survivals.


....


...


..


.

The current bridge has a predecessor - a toll bridge, again of iron or steel, that carried the road across the river Mersey.

In the process of building the Manchester Ship Canal, the course of the river was filled in and its water taken via the new canal with a new bridge, the current one, augmenting the old. I've used the word 'Augmenting' as the old bridge appears not to have been removed and can still be seen on Google Streetview as it still 'Carries'** the road to the toll bridge - and even the toll house has survived.

Mark

** Perhaps it's the case that where it was beneath the road, its structure has been removed: it must be not straightforward to bury a steel structure and expect it to remain load-bearing... though there's then the puzzle of the downstream parapet railings, in plain view alongside the current road.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/nJJRAsomaMvHy7e69

 

The road markings are supplement to signs.   They are used because some lanes approaching junctions go towards charging zone and others don't.

Signs have one of 4 letters, A, B, C, D
A is buses, coaches, taxis, private hire
B is buses, coaches, taxis, private hire, HGVs
C is buses, coaches, taxis, private hire, HGVs, vans, minibus
D is buses, coaches, taxis, private hire, HGVs, vans, minibus, cars (and optionally motorcycles)

There is an anomaly as London Congestion charge preceded the standard signs so have C on red background (but really should be D for standardisation)

 
Waaay off Melksham line topic, but.

Our daughter came down from Norfolk last week for a weeks stay with us.
Train to Stansted Airport, then flight to Newquay.
Train terminated at Ely as wires down further down the line.
So many passengers, only taxi's (bus replacement not available).
After 2 hours, a shared taxi to the airport (she left in plenty of time).
Flight arrived at Newquay only for their fire alarm to go off.
Had to wait in the car park for the all clear before those passengers were allowed back in to collect their bags.
The car park operator gained many more £££'s from waiting passengers.

Return flight was 2 hours late departure.
Trains delayed at Stansted with a lineside fire.
Home 4 hours late.

 
Is a white C on a red circle a standard road symbol for a toll/charge? I've only ever seen it in relation to the Congestion Charge in London.

 

Sounds simple.  Many moons ago I seem to remember that a few of our bus runs were timed for a five minute train connection wait.  From memory, traffic and passenger delays meant we rarely arrived on time.  Usually arrived well after our departure time, regardless of whether the train had come (or gone).
So we would arrive late (frequently very late), pick up whoever was there, and go.

If you are going to task a bus to wait for a train, it would have to be a dedicated driver and vehicle, and would wait until the train arrived, regardless of the bus schedule that was to follow that timetable.

Too many variables unfortunately.

 
I had an ultrasound appointment at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon at 11:45 yesterday (12th July 2026).  I understand that the operator does 30 ultrasounds per day so it wasn't a long appointment.  So how did I do that by public transport?  Is public transport adequate for such journeys?  What could be done to improve it?

I left home at 07:55.  I walked in again at 15:35.  Elapsed time 460 minutes. The appointment started on time and was over in 15 minutes.  That's 3.25% of the time I was away from home.

I caught the 08:32 train from Melksham to Swindon, arriving there at 08:58.  The bus from Fleming Way to the hospital runs 2 times an hour on Sundays, and the next train at 10:57, into Swindon at 11:26, would have left me around 20 to 30 minutes late for my appointment. 

I could have left home as late as 08:10 to - just - catch that train but left myself a few minutes slack.  I could have caught a bus straight after the appointment and connected with the 13:32 train, 13:56 at Melksham Station, and that would have been 14:20 home, and online reporting tells me that train was on time. That would have been 370 minutes with a mere 15 minutes appointment - still just 4% of the time I was away from home.  But I chose - and it has muddied the waters of this log and report - to take advantge of being out and about and do other things when the opportunity of time and place offered.

The question I started with - "is public transport adequate" - clearly is answered with a "yes".  It got me there, it got me home.  But if I asked the question "was it the most efficient" in terms of my time, no, the round trip driven by private car, plus parking, safety margin, etc, would have been 10:30 from home and back by 13:00, 150 minutes, appointment 10% of the time away from home.   Still not wonderful time use.   If the train ran every hour, with an 09:32 or an 09:57 in to Swindon, that would be a fair solution - still twice as long away from home as driving myself door to door, but a massive improvement and I suspect many other people would use it - especially as they may not feel like being committed to driving after a medical procedure.

Another example of where a reliable, hourly-or-better train service from Melksham and buses that connect with the trains at both ends should result in a major modal shift for people on this (quite low volume) flow and on many other flows that share the same transport along the way.

[Spoiler - the scan gave me a medical more or less "clear". Unlike the scan in March which lead to a phone call "come into hospital NOW" which fixed something before it was life changing.  So happy with the results; not as I was a year or five ago, but able to walk 10kms during the day, so not entirely incapacitated though I slept afterwards!]

 
I'm intrigued by the lack of detail on that toll warning sign. "Pay online..." but no web address or even the name of the bridge to search for, requiring a bit of detective work if the driver isn't familiar with the location.  The list of charges is unclear; why single out motorcycles but not cycles or pedestrians (or horse riders?) who also don't pay?  There are also various exemptions but as you actively have to apply for those rather than just not pay I suppose it makes sense not to list them on a summary.

Someone really needs to update the website, which was clearly geared to the charge being a new thing but now has irrelevant detail about the exact start date and time (but no mention of the year) which will become confusing when the same date - albeit a different day of the week - comes round again.

 

Yep - noticed it yesterday.  Happy with that; it shows a care for and acknowledgment of the station by Wiltshire Council.   I'm stopping one short of saying "delighted" - the request for the refresh came from MTUG via the Town Council and LHFIG (local highway and Infrastructure group) and requested coloured infill between the white lines to make the route even clearer between parked cars, as you can see at other stations.