I wonder if the decision is primarily driven by Virgin Trains' wish to concentrate on the establishment of their much punted cross channel service. They were awarded access rights, by the ORR, to the Temple Mills facility last October and it seems to have all gone quiet since then. There are however a few news pieces saying the service will commence in 2029/30.

 

Close.  I would prefer a railcard to become a loyalty card.  The devil, though, would be in the detail.   At present, different railcards have differing terms and conditions.  Can you use them in the peak?  Or before 09:30? Is there a minimum fare payable?  Do you have to take a child with you? Can they be applied to paper tickets?

 

Community Shield Final in Cardiff today (Arsenal v Man City), so suspect other services are being stripped back to provide as much capacity as possible.

As for the decimation of the Cornish branches (on a summer Sunday, utterly hopeless), one can only hope that the missing crews are BBQ-ing responsibly given the "tinder box" weather conditions.

 
Since it seemingly won't be very long before there is a Railcard to cover every sector of society why not speed up and/or simplify the process by scrapping all of them and implement an across-the-board fare reduction?

Discuss (from a safe distance obviously). 

 
And 40 formation changes ... including ...

14:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 16:02
15:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 17:05
16:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 18:02

All reductions - 10 to 9, 9 to 5 and 9 to 5.   10 to 9 is really no different ... 9 to 5 is serious.  And why were GWR running some middle of the day Cardiff to Portsmouth services with just 2 carriages yesterday.  Rhetorical question perhaps, but some of the trains at Warminster (I  watched rather than used) looked distinctly unpleasant ... and I wonder how those headed towards South Wales might have coped (or not) and they probably picked up more that they dropped off at places like Trowbridge and Bradford-on-Avon before getting some relief at Bath Spa

 
Happy Sunday - 68 full cancellations and a dozen short runs - almost all of them due to crew shortage.   GWR run - perhaps - 1200 services on a typical Sunday (?) - so I make it about 1 train in 15 (between 6 and 7%) not running properly.  Was it always like this, just that the stats are at hand these days to tell us?    Lots of service gone including multiple successive ones to places like Looe, with St Ives and Newquay and Falmouth all getting a dishonourable mention.   But then it's a Sunday, during school holidays, so the trains would have been quiet with no school traffic and no commuters, right  ?

 

I would ... suggest ... that Didcot to Swindon is something of an extreme case - perhaps not an extreme edge case, but certainly on the 95th or higher percentile.   Any time, any route (including HS1) Tonbridge to London is £90.50, NOT HS1 is £40.70. Swindon to Salisbury is an interesting case - the most flexible ticket ("Not via London") costs £174.20 anytime return and that used to be the ticket you required on the 06:15 direct train from Swindon.   However, GWR saw the logic in changing the "via Bath Spa" fare into a "via Trowbridge" fare and at current rates that's £50.70 - still above "northern rates" but a huge improvement, and thank you to GWR for helping to bring in this change.

Hebden Bridge to Manchester is a pretty standard sort of rate, I suggest, away from the South East / Home Counties. Try £11.90 Forres to Inverness, or Plymouth to Totnes at £12.60 / anytime day returns.   Brighton to Bognor Regis is £22.20 ...

Where you find astonishing inequalities is in the differenetial between anytime and restricted time fares, and between tickets from where you start to where you end versus multiple tickets bought in sections via intermediate stations.  I would suggest that there's a tendency for the anytime fares ("peak fares") to be proportionatly fare higher than "off peak" on London routes. 

Basically, the whole system has grown into an illogical morass based on local and regional issues - both in keeping fares low in the first place ( for the very people, perhaps, who are now requesting a railcard for the North ) and in increasing fares for a premium service such as Didcot to Swindon.

 

Finn - holding up the traffic, again. 

 

I saw that!  Well, I managed to get a glimpse of it, out of the droplight in a rammed unit between Warminster and Westbury (air conditioning failure). 

CfN. 

 
Always happy to try and ensure some balance, CfN!

 
The first time is always an eye-opener, CfN!

Glad you enjoyed the day. I was one of those numerous bus enthusiast photographers myself a couple years ago. Accompanied by my best friend.

EDIT: I never did get round to putting together a YouTube compilation from all my video and photos taken in 2024. Still have tjem all saved. One day maybe...

 

Hmm. I'm not sure it's a case of 'the wrong type of crew' - more a shortage of the right type of crew - those who have the necessary training and therefore ability to carry out that duty, on a diverted service.

Sorry for being a pedant - but at least it bumped this topic.  I can do that, because I'm an admin (with my greatest respects to grahame). 

CfN. 

 

No need to hold back there, II. 

CfN. 

 
Today was my first experience of an Imber Bus day.  I met up with grahame, and we toured (some of) the 23A route in company.

My impressions are all favourable.  I was frankly rather startled to see just how many people were queuing up to 'get a bus to Imber' at Warminster Station.  I was also amazed at how huge the military firing range on Salisbury Plain is: I'd looked at it on an Ordnance Survey map, and noted that it is quite extensive - but travelling through it, in real life, it's vast!  Lots of rusting hulks of old tanks, visible from the roadway, but with cheery warning signs saying 'These are targets - Do not try to play on them'.

Interestingly, on almost every corner and junction, there were bus enthusiast photographers (and I do not use that term in any way derogatively) who had apparently negotiated their way to such vantage points.

My thanks to grahame, for acting as my local guide during my exploration: it was a grand day out.

CfN. 

 
From across a wide, wide area, they gathered with their cameras and binoculars, hoping to get a glance and perhaps even a rare LondonBus away from its natural habitat

 
A "Thumping" good day out  !!

The Hastings DMU returns to Warminster, from Westbury, to load up for the return trip to Tonbridge.

 
Cabview Holland has released another video today. This time of a duty between Groningen and Zwolle a journey featuring both a lethal polished floor at Groningen station and a plague of STORKS nesting in the catenary cable OHE structures. They're brazen creatures not disposed to shift even with a 120kph mulit car NS Sprinter picking up power beneath their nests.

Enjoy....

https://youtu.be/mPtrF0EF0Es?si=9YilELDtsyZbrv6X

 
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05 is being delayed at Westbury.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.

 
Cancellations to services between Westbury and Reading

Due to a safety inspection of the track between Westbury and Reading the line towards Reading is blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 19:00 15/08.

 

Though let's not forget that they generally received a panning for their Cross Country operation and ordered the fleet of 4/5 car Voyagers that has hamstrung the franchise ever since.  They were responsible for the fiasco that was 'Operation Princess' where punctuality dropped to little more than 50%, and were involved in plans for a Paddington to Birmingham via Swindon service that eventually came to nought.

 

I think that demonstrates the difference of an organisation like Virgin where customer service was embedded culturally throughout all aspects of its business.

 

Is that an edge case or a common scenario?

 
Ouch, sounds painful!..

 

Can't really answer today - offline at the moment in Tilshead ... (oops ... I seem to be here!)

 

Cue member grahame on Melksham fares.......

 
Hm. It is, but I'm a bit sceptical about claims like this:


An anytime day return from Didcot Parkway to Swindon, about 25 miles, is £65.20. An anytime day return from Hebden Bridge to Manchester, about 25 miles, is £15.60. Neither qualify for Network Card discounts. Not all "full fares" are the same.

 
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/burnham-rail-fares-commuters-adam-dance-b3033468.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawTtCNxwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMUFiZkpXSVlaNVVUcndWVE9zcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEec9CyIOW_F6MCBceAC8Njym5EiWNec4B2edzDkXF2BvCp9w93EzoQlVYdcus_aem_f6UImbDWggcLSLKJjSNC8Q

Interesting idea.

 

The gist of my original comment was 'nicked' from the Green Signals Podcast article of Thursday 13th August. So Lumo told messrs Harris and/or Bowker a blatant lie? In the same article it was also said that the WC systems were not part of the refurbishment programme (see above).

 

Possibly somewhat unfair in view of this:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/13209387/pilot-sucked-ba-cockpit-window/ 

 

Reminds me of tales of the "Sunny South Express" trains 100 years ago bringing holiday makers from the Midlands to the South Coast

From Sankey Scenics