Well, it’ll no longer be First Group’s problem (from 13th December) - the GWR brand will carry on for a little while at least, and it’ll be the pretty much the same group of people trying to address the problem.

Most importantly, the average passenger won’t know/care about the changes in December anyway.

...................and of course by 11 December it will no longer be GWR's problem, as they will no longer exist.

09:01 Severn Beach to Bristol Temple Meads due 09:45
09:01 Severn Beach to Bristol Temple Meads due 09:45 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.

10:14 Plymouth to Penzance due 12:12
10:14 Plymouth to Penzance due 12:12 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

10:45 Truro to Falmouth Docks due 11:09
10:45 Truro to Falmouth Docks due 11:09 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

10:24 Okehampton to Exeter Central due 11:08
10:24 Okehampton to Exeter Central due 11:08 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

The Swindon and Cricklade Railway Trustees are thrilled to announce Steam is returning to the Railway in October.

The Railway will soon be welcoming the arrival of the ‘Lady Lisa’.  Lady Lisa is a rare vertical-boiler “coffee pot” steam locomotive that has been operating on the Lavender Line in East Sussex.  Built and manufactured in 1920 by Cockerill in Seraing, Belgium, as a shunting engine with a wheel arrangement of 0-4-0 VBT (Works No 2950).     
                                                               
Originally named Yvonne before being renamed Lady Lisa, the locomotive was withdrawn from service at Brussels Gas Works in 1967 and was stored until 1987.  She moved to the Lavender Line in 2013 and returned to steam following extensive restoration.

With the arrival of Lady Lisa the railway is looking for any members who wish to be re-certified as steam crew and be rostered to operate her.  Training for those who wish to be involved with the Loco can also be arranged.  We will be offering Driver Experiences and Footplate Experiences to our customers.

Dates when the loco will be in action will be published on our website soon. 

Incidentally, the floating footpath to Temple Quay apparently cost £10m. I believe that was paid for by the University as a planning condition.   

Apparently so, and I believe part of £94m allocated for the three new entrances (South, East and I presume the renovations and public realm around the Midland Shed on the north side).

Yes, it's a bonkers amount of money but take a look at the photo at https://www.bristoltemplequarter.com/news/eastern-entrance-reaches-construction-milestone-with-building-shell-complete/ - there's more to it than you think, don't forget that it all had to be done around a live railway just metres away from passengers and the underpass.

Incidentally, the floating footpath to Temple Quay apparently cost £10m. I believe that was paid for by the University as a planning condition.   

18:37 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21
20:12 Swindon to Westbury due 20:56
21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58
22:31 Swindon to Westbury due 23:12

22:31 Swindon to Westbury due 23:12 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

10:14 Plymouth to Penzance due 12:12
13:14 Penzance to Plymouth due 15:10

08/09/26 13:14 Penzance to Plymouth due 15:10 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

From the BBC


Agreed that it's probably the least bad choice in the short term.   But it feel like (another?) case of over-optimism that has gone wrong, with the old trains withdrawn before the "new" ones are working properly.  And/or a case of taking on an increased service before properly prepared for it - it wasn't so many years ago that the Cornish Main Line had hour gaps anyway.

The word "hope" is used twice.   Nice stuff is hope.  I hope it happens 

Campaigners say the cancellation of five weekday services between Penzance in Cornwall and Plymouth or Exeter in Devon has been "the least bad choice" for operator GWR to get on top of reliability problems with its newer Class 175 fleet locally.

Roger Blake, national director at campaigning group Railfuture, said temporary cancellations from Monday were "an unfortunate step back in order to then, we hope, take a couple of steps forward".

The trains, previously been used by Transport for Wales, were in storage for two years before GWR started using them in May.

Timetable changes were scheduled to run until 11 December, but GWR said it hoped to bring the trains back before that if possible.

The estimate was 2m people p/a - so 20% of station users-ish

MP releases update on Rawtenstall – Manchester commuter rail link

Andy MacNae MP has released an update on his campaign to provide a commuter rail link from Rawtenstall to Manchester.

His vision would see commuter trains utilise the East Lancashire Railway, which runs heritage trains between Rawtenstall and Heywood via Ramsbottom and Bury Bolton Street.

The MP says that whilst the scheme was left out of the Transport Implementation Plan, he has been assured that this rail link will be in the final version of the plan.

This opens the way to develop a proper feasibility case for the line, and means that he can begin having meetings about the line and the case.

We don’t want this connection, it will get in the way of other events and disrupt the place,, anyway B.R deemed it redundant so it’s their loss,,, hands off….

Similarly to what others have said, Severn Valley Railway have launched a service from Bewdley to Kidderminster, where passengers switch from SVR to WMR main station. East Lancs could do same, leave the heritage railway as it is and utilise their rolling stock

There are enough other preserved lines in the North West, the conversion of the ELR to a proper commuter line wouldn’t be a great loss, and the benefits for the local communities along the line would be worthwhile. The current bus routes are tediously slow, especially the X41 bus

A solution will have to be found that the ELR Heritage Line and a Commuter Line complement each other and the ELR does not lose out. New houses are being built all the time in Rawtenstall and Bacup. If this will reduce traffic on the roads towards Manchester surely it must be a good thing.

This surely cannot happen. How many commuters would travel? Perhaps if someone underwrote the costs a peak time diesel service could be tried by ELR , this would prove if there is the need without the cost of implementing full time services. I think the bigger issue here is that the Lancashire sections have not benefited like towns like Bury and Ramsbottom. Friends who live in area told me Ramsbottom for example was dead until the ELR arrived, now there and Bury are easily the best tow towns within Manchester.

I hear the new entrance etc cost £23 million,  surely that can't be true? Does anyone know the actual figure?

Railforums reporting that someone threw a disposable BBQ into the Kensal Green Feeder Station from the Grand Union canal towpath.

I too saw the untouched fizz but got a snazzy bag for my trouble!

Plans for major overhaul of councils halted

Plans for a major shake-up of local government are on hold, after the government launched a review in light of new legal advice.

Proposals to merge smaller councils to form larger authorities in Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk have been withdrawn.  Meanwhile, plans for 14 other areas will also be reviewed and paused.

Reorganisation in Surrey, where councillors for two new unitary authorities were elected in May, will not be affected by the review.

The government confirmed local elections in May 2027 would go ahead on existing council boundaries.

Confirming the review in Parliament, Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner told MPs that "in light of legal advice, I want to satisfy myself firstly that the right process is in place, that it is robust, and of course complies with the law".  She added: "And secondly, I want to fully test whether our proposals for local government reorganisation meet the priorities of a new administration and a new prime minister and any additional considerations."

Rayner acknowledged the announcement was "disappointing" but insisted the government was "determined more than ever to devolve power closer to the people we represent" - a key priority of new PM Andy Burnham.

The plans originated under Sir Keir Starmer's government, when Rayner was also local government secretary, before she was replaced by Steve Reed.

The government was already facing legal challenges over proposals to reorganise councils in Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

In June, Reform-led councils in Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk launched judicial reviews against the plans, while the Conservative-led administration in Hampshire did the same.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: "Reform UK not only argued that this government's plans for local government reorganisation were an unmitigated disaster, but we once again put our money where our mouth is."  He added: "Thanks to our judicial reviews in affected Reform-led councils, the government has backed down on their plans yet again."

Conservative shadow local government minister David Simmonds said it was a "humiliation" for the government.  He said: "Ministers are only backing off because they have been found out in the face of relentless Conservative opposition to their gerrymandering."

Liberal Democrat local government spokeswoman Zöe Franklin said: "This is an embarrassing and chaotic climbdown, which has resulted in already cash-strapped councils wasting huge sums on plans the government told them were legally watertight."

Sean Matthews, from the County Councils Network, welcomed the move, adding: "Many of our members will be relieved that the decisions they viewed as damaging to local services and financially unsustainable have been withdrawn or are being reviewed."

A spokesperson for the Local Government Association, which represents councils, said that while local authorities hold different views on the reorganisation plans "there is no excuse for the government's mishandling of this process".

The spokesperson added that Rayner's announcement "will have caused significant uncertainty, after councils have invested scarce public money and countless hours" in the reorganisation programme.

Local government in England is currently covered by a complicated patchwork of arrangements.

In some places, responsibility for local services is shared between county councils, which manage areas including social care and education; and district councils, which cover smaller areas and are responsible for services such as bin collections.

Some areas, particularly larger towns and some cities, have "unitary" authorities responsible for both - while the regions surrounding big cities are increasingly covered by regional mayors and multi-council "combined" authorities, with greater powers in areas such as transport policy, planning and housing.

In late 2024, as local government secretary, Rayner announced plans to move towards unitary councils across all of England, with council boundaries redrawn and smaller district councils abolished.

The government argued the proposals would make the system simpler and produce savings by making the delivery of services more efficient, while also handing new powers from Westminster to regions across the country.

However, critics said the plans would not save money, while diverting resources from front-line services and leaving councils more remote from their communities.

Under Sir Keir, the government had been pushing ahead with the proposals.

In July – just days before Burnham became prime minister – Rayner's successor as secretary of state, Reed, had announced plans for new councils in 14 areas.



The 14 areas where local government reorganisation is being paused while a review is carried out are:
Derby and Derbyshire
Devon, Plymouth and Torbay
East Sussex and Brighton
Gloucestershire
Hertfordshire
Kent and Medway
Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool
Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland
Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire
Oxfordshire and West Berkshire
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent
Warwickshire
Worcestershire

The government said decisions had not yet been taken on Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and West Sussex, with these areas being considered alongside the wider review.

Detraining full and standing services to play timetable catch-up is straight out of the GWR playbook.

This from the chair of TransWilts, Paddy Bradley.

As Chair of Transwilts I would like to thank you for mentioning our project.   Although it is covered in the link you provided, to be clear this was organised by TransWilts in conjunction with GWR.
 
To respond to the points you raised
o   We wanted a through train without the need to change at Bristol Temple Meads.  There is one train after the morning peak suitable for a day trip which provides that and there is not a viable connection from Melksham into it.
o   We wanted to be able to book reserved seats to keep the group together, this is not possible from Melksham or many of the connections from it.
o   We wanted a staffed station to assist with boarding.
o   To reach Weston-super-Mare at a similar time from Melksham it would have involved a change at Trowbridge (no lifts) or Westbury and again at Bristol and the same on the return.
o   As to reaching the station.  Few, if any, of the people who came on the trip live within walking distance of Melksham station, so once in a car it made sense to come to Chippenham.
o   There were no issues at Chippenham station.  Those who felt they could use the stairs went with one TW member and those who preferred the lift went with another and met on the platform.
 
It is worth noting we did take other members of the café on a rail experience day earlier in the year.   This was from Melksham and saw them travel to both Westbury and Swindon by train while playing bingo and learning about train travel and platform safety on the way.