From National Rail.....

Description
A safety inspection of the track between West Ealing and Southall means that trains have to run at a reduced speed on some lines. As a result, trains running between Acton Main Line and Heathrow Terminal 4 / Maidenhead may be cancelled, or revised.

Disruption is expected until 21:00.

Customer advice:
Passengers requiring Heathrow from the eastern route between Shenfield and Stratford are advised to change at Whitechapel for a Heathrow Terminal 4 service.

Passengers can travel for free between Heathrow Terminals. Change at Heathrow Terminals 2/3 for Heathrow Terminal 5.

Ticket acceptance:

You can use your ticket at no extra cost on the following alternative train and underground services:

London Underground services via any reasonable route

Great Western Railway services between London Paddington and Reading

 
I read that GWR advises that it does carry surfboards to Newquay. Don't anyone suggest to the Swiss they stop transporting skis.... in pairs...and ski poles!

 

Do I sense that's a bit tongue-in-cheek given they're probably the one unit that would have been even less reliable than the 175s as they'd be forced to run on diesel 100% of the time?!

 
We are nine months away from full Mid Cornwall Metro working, allegedly, without reliable rolling stock the new service will not gain the usage it is intended to encourage. I suspect in the mire of GBR that the MCM start will be postponed. There also has to be a possibility that through Falmouth - Newquay services will be indefinately.

 
Clear up to take at least 10 days

 
It was properly raining in Keynsham as we passed through at about 7:40 this morning, and I had my brolly up for the walk from Temple Meads to the office 10 mins later. A very pleasant change

 
GWR have already used 142003 for a jolly to Portishead in May. A project that GWR isn't paying for. Maybe they could use it at Newquay.

Seriously the 769/9s are still out there and might have been already in service if Alliance Rail had been given permission.

 

The taxpayer.  But at least it might reduce those pesky 'Delay Repay' payouts the taxpayer forks out for.

 
Yes. But.
Oozzz gonna pay for them?

 

Jesting apart (and, yes, I laughed) I'm noting that Hastings Diesels have 2 out of 2 units in operation at present, including one on the Sheffield Park to East Grinstead line which is standing in for the local operator of that line who's unable to run his normal motive power at the moment. And I also noted a couple of years ago that a heritage train was used on the Oxenholme branch.

Are there any way-out ideas that could help GWR - "More trains than normal requiring repair at the same time" is becoming a sick joke.  "Normal" IS that lots of trains require repair; perhaps "More trains than we expected requiring repair at the same time" would be more accurate and one wonders if there's the odd TC set, Hastings Diesel or Inter7City units available for hire for a few ... weeks?  Months?

 
Those are the ones which haven't been 'converted' by being driven under a railway bridge. 

 
From BBC weather:


That's quite a drop in temperature: my digital clock shows that my study is now at 26.7^c, with all the windows open.

CfN. 

 

Open toppers in 2024.

 
No problem, GBM: here is probably the best Coffee Shop forum board to post about journeys starting (or proposed to start) in the UK.

CfN. 

 
This topic has been moved to The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom.

https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=32375.0

No problem: that's probably the best board on which to post anything about journeys starting in the UK.

CfN. 

 
Don't panic, Captain Wainwaring!  GBR will sort out all such issues.     

 

Richard Trevithick would have sorted that one out.     

 
That buses picture is also in the Daily Mail's write-up of the event - they've got a nice set of 8. But that's one of their subscribers-only stories, and they don't do gifting (I only read it for entertainment, not news, honest ).

 
Oops - apologies. It's strange - I searched for 'imber' using the DT's search, and that's the closest/latest that comes up. Can't see one on the (digital) front page, which is where I'd expect to see it mentioned.

 
From the BBC
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjrvx4yye81o

Virgin's plans to run rail services between London and Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam have moved closer after it was granted track access by the UK regulator.

The company has been given approval to run up to 20 daily return services through the Channel Tunnel by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), with the agreement running from 1 October 2030 to 31 December 2040.
..................snip...............

Apologies to mods.
Please move to a more appropriate thread somewhere please!

 
Good sentiment and phrasing of the final sentence of their message. 'We know many people rely on this railway every day...'


Mark

 


Thank you - may be today's Telegraph but the article is dated 20th August 2025?  Having read it, much of the story (and the other stuff around that's churning out) is the same as it was last year.  The article reports 28 old Routemaster buses out of 40 buses in total on the service and I'll be interested to learn the 2026 equivalent stats.

 
Somewhat ironically, whilst yesterday's decimation of Cornish branches was down to a shortage of crew,  the halving of today's Par-Newquay service is down to a "general shortage of trains in Cornwall".......perhaps at some point someone within GWR will arrange the correct numbers of both?

 
Cancellations to services between Par and Newquay

Due to a fault on this train between Par and Newquay fewer train
s are able to run on the line.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice
A general shortage of trains in Cornwall has resulted in a reduced service on the Par to Newquay line today.

As a result the service is running roughly every two hours, as opposed to the planned hourly operation.

On the hours where there is no train service, a limited taxi service is running, which GWR customers can use at no extra cost. These will depart Par at the time the train would have done.

We apologise for the inconvenience today.

 
I've 'gifted' the article - only valid for 30 days I think:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/6f3aedcfccbf548c

 
That is a famous viewpoint of the annual event, but the first time I have seen an open top bus.

 
Today's Telegraph.

 
175003 is doing 2C05 and 006 the training run and that seems to be it.

2 Paignton trains and 1 Barnstaple (busy train) short-formed and 3 150s released doing 175 diagrams.

 
It's a pity a few more of his trains aren't on the line.