From Devizes and Wilts Advertiser Thursday 19 January 1911

 
Cancellations to services between Liskeard and Looe

Due to a broken down train between Liskeard and Looe the line is closed.
Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled. Disruption is expected until 10:45 16/10.

 
I have to wonder if the new Devizes station will (eventually) go the same way as the A350 Melksham (and Westbury !) bypass.

 
Welcome to the world of GBR.... (early!)

 
As we hit the final day of decimated local train services to prioritise other trains, here's a window onto what's happening - the 3 to 4 O'Clock period this afternoon.   Similar pattern for much of the day.



So that's 4 trains passing within the hour - three freight and one express passenger.  A marvel of timetabling.

I have quoted a few minutes after 4 p.m. too - another non-stop passenger train, and another bus.

During previous similar times, we were told that diverted expresses don't run at the same times as trains that are pulled off.   That does not seem to be totally true this time, with diverted expresses scheduled to pass literally within minutes of the bus calls, and in the same direction. Pity that having spent ££££ making the changes necessary to stop IETs at Melksham, the facility is not being used.

"People will vote with their feet ..." with such a depleted train service calling at the station. Sorry - but Lisa and I should be travelling by train from Melksham this afternoon and we can't and won't be.   We've made other plans and they don't involve the local train, nor the rail replacement bus.  Oops.

Of course, all will be back to normal next week - which is probably why the marketing folks at GWR and NR, who wrote on 2nd October, haven't replied to my enquiries that same afternoon.  I can just imaging an internal discussion thought - "Don't bother to answer - problem will go away".   Yes and no - the immediate travel issues of this week *were* just for 7 days.  The precedent, loss of market, hurt, and apparent contempt for customers remain like a sore that won't be forgotten.  It will not stop us engaging, but it does sour us.

 
Superconductor. Cheap at the price.

 
I love stats and keep an eye on traffic patterns ... looking at server loadings for October so far, in light of some of the issues that have been bubbling away



The yellow bars are the number of request - for ALL domains - handled by the receptionist server.  The blue bars - again for all domains - are the requests handled by the worker server, which includes the number passed on by the receptionist.

 
And passengers for the 15:04 Oxford to Bristol - cancelled - might hope to drop back to the 15:07 to Didcot and change there - except that's cancelled too.  It's POETS day so I would expect the mid afternoon train to be relatively busier than normal and the one two hours later to be quieter.   Looks like POETS day applies to train crew too?

 
103 and 110 have been at Laira a fortnight and no sign of them.

Another site says they have to pass an "a" exam. Have they failed? How long does it take? Is it a priority?

Meanwhile 150s are failing at Okehampton and Looe.

 
Taking a bit of a hammering today, several other short runs too.

15:04 Oxford to Bristol Temple Meads due 16:16 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
17:12 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 18:29 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
19:04 Oxford to Bristol Temple Meads due 20:21 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
19:15 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 20:32 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
21:10 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 22:27 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

Thanks for that, Chris - initial reports were confused and as ever there's a conundrum for news organisations who have to decide between propogating information that may need to be updated as things become clearer and the driver of getting initial reports out fast.  Good that we have folks around who both share the news and can come back to update the headlines so that we reflect the true situation as it becomes clear.

 
From the Wiltshire Times



and


Don't quite believe everything you read in key messages even when the paper prints them.  "People don’t want to drive to Devizes but there is no other way to get people to the town" is somewhat false; Devizes is at the hub of an execellent (for not-a-city) network of but routes, with about hourly departures to Bath, Chippenham, Swindon, The Lavingtons, Salisbury and Trowbridge, and less frequent services to Westbury, Pewsey, Lackham, Marlborough, Bradford-on-Avon and Upavon.   There are two town bus vehicles too, and demand responsive services available to the really awkwardly unclustered villages to the east.   That is not to say that a railway link is NOT needed - it is, but initially traffic flows would look much more like Pewsey, where 56% of 209,000 journeys last year were to or from London rather than like Melksham, where just 10% of 60,000 journeys were to or from London. (Food for thought there - what a direct service does!)

 
I've done my best in trying to keep up with the amendments to the heading of this topic.  At least I think I've got the date right. 

 

There are a number of such confusions in the reports, such as those saying Eurostar trains were stopped for 90 minutes - that was passenger shuttles. The most up to date report I can find is from The Independent, and it quotes a press statement from the prefecture:

That does sound to me like the departing train was moving, and presumably then stopped abruptly and is on the right in the photo below (from la Voix du Nord). The bus was spun round by the impact, and nearly turned onto its side, but not quite. The force of such an impact would explain why everyone on board was injured, even if the bus was not going at all fast. However, the position of the bus still looks wrong, whatever happened.

 
A very sad loss indeed,RIP JJP.

 
Small correction to thread title needed. Not a Eurostar train involved. Was Le Shuttle.

 

From my waking up, somewhere in a parallel universe:

"The Melksham Into Bath is an odd little line which can be done completely during a brief interval ... "

 
No problem, broadgage. 

I find it increasingly frustrating in my quest to find links to any 'news website' which isn't now hidden behind a firewall, subscription-only or membership sign up.

All I want to do is widen their readership.

CfN.

 

I have cheated (because I can - I'm an admin  ) and amended the heading of this particular topic to make it more neutral, while still reflecting its point.

CfN. 

 

Yes, the link that I posted was to Breaking news" but goes to whatever is the CURRENT breaking news story. I tested it immediately after posting, and it worked then.

 
With thanks for your alert, broadgage, I think the link you actually meant to post is at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c6zxz4dyvdq4t

CfN. 

 
News report
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cqy7lxd104xet

 
Reported as 19 injured, 2 critical.
Note that these are very early reports, and that later reports may be more accurate, or more detailed.

 

I've just found, in a UK online supplier, a surface-mount "zero ohm resistor" priced at 0.2p + VAT. The minimum order quantity is 10, which would set you back 2p. Handling and postage charges (and the inability to pay with coins) ruin the idea.

 


The MIB is an odd little line which can be done completely during a brief interval at Meiringen on the Luzern - Interlaken line. I seem to recall when I did it that the car was really drafty yet from whence the draft came was difficult to identify.

 
Fuel and loose foodstuff inflation would be hit if values under 5p were abolished.

 
My personal view is that we may as well do away with the current copper (cupro-nickel) coins.  We'll just deal in multiples of 5p.  That's the least you'll get, these days - even in a charity shop. 

 
The minimum stamp for a second class letter is 91p.

 

I am not aware of anything costing less than 5p, but there is still a use for smaller coins. What about cheaper food stuffs that sell for say 15p. In the absence of smaller coins, the minmum price increase would be to 20 pence, an increase of over 30%.

 
There is a large variety of platform lengths in South West and really, not sorting out historic deficiencies, and adding some modular sections seems a bit penny pinching.

Really platforms on the main and secondary lines (I am not including branch lines which only see short trains) ought to be minimum of 145 metres.

145m allows pairs of 3car units when busy (or triple 2car units), although I hope future stock doesn't have 2car units.  It is also long enough for 5car IET or cross country voyager.

Having lived in Kingston upon Thames 1998-2020, and commuted into London, more than familiar with the Waterloo 10car scheme where a kit of modular platform extensions was used to extend most platforms from 165-190m to about 205m.  There were standard bits for cuttings, embankments, filling in former loading docks etc.  At Kingston even built an extension over a road and beyond other side of road bridge.

If all these modular standard parts can be used on dozens of South West London stations, why can't they be used for Bristol suburban and South West England.   Platform extensions when line is closed are relatively cheap compared to building lifts

It would also fix the operationally difficult (and therefore more costly) problem of forming mixed fleets of 2car + 3car trains, and problems like XC voyagers can't call at Ivybridge as they don't have selective door control