Tuesday December 3

A good day until

1W27 13:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern : cancelled after Worcester Shrub Hill "due to a problem with train monitoring systems (PT)" [RTT].
1P38 16:32 Great Malvern to London Paddington : started from Shrub Hill.

And 1P38 is now ahead of

 

At least somebody has put their hands up.

All of this hoo-ha vindicates my view that being a politician is not a very good idea, and should be left to someone else to deal with. Yes, it all sounds very nice from the outside, with cheap beer, a decent salary, expenses-paid trips to exotic locations with your voluptuous diary secretary, and a pension at the top of the generosity scale, but you are detested not only by all the people who didn't vote for you, but by half of your own colleagues in parliament as well. You can forget all those laws your government made about protecting your privacy or rehabilitation of offenders, they don't apply to you. You're fair game with no closed season. It isn't just the big crimes that will get you splashed across the front pages - one small fart in a lift, and the CCTV will be top of the 10 o'clock news.

No, my advice to anyone sane is to forget about being a MP. Stick to something where you are universally adored, like presenting TV cookery competitions.

 
I think an "HS2 light" as far as Crewe will probably head any railway-building ambitions but have faith that Portishead will go ahead. I'm hoping that Tavistock, too, won't be shelved.   

 

Yes - correct.

 
40th Anniversary yesterday of this gem from ITV

 
Dare I suggest that Portishead has now moved to the top of the Dft list...I await with bated breath....

 
or even Stephen Joseph?

 
All correct so far - a couple were more specific. I have edited in the answers so far and added those more specific notes.

 
The poll got me thinking about my non travel expenses on a day out so I had a quick review of all the day trips I've had in this calendar year and come up with a very rough figure of just over half the spending being on transport..... mostly rail.  The increase in the rail fare element of my transport costs in the coming year should be partially offset by the bus pass that I've now been the owner of since last week.

 

Being perplexed (and provoked) by the provision of touchscreens for people driving vehicles and then their marketing as infotainment,  the manufacturers seem to have headed, uninterrupted by legislation and unimpeded by reality, straight down the cost cutting path.

Different tasks, yes: I'm curious to know more about their deployment in train driving cabs and also aircraft and if there are constraints/recommendations about their use there.

Was it Nevill Hill where a contributing factor was that the driver of an IEP was required to input data using a touchscreen, with for good measure, a non-querty keyboard? Yes it was.
 
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/report-132020-collision-and-derailment-at-neville-hill

Mark

 

Indeed - so which is typical if they are in equal amounts

 

Yet good interior design contributes to all five of those qualities. Safe. Reliable. Value for money. Comfortable. Clean.

Mark

 

Was this a new platform? Any others built the same way?

 
SUVs are sometimes highlighted as a particular problem. The higher front end tends to more severe effects when in collision with walkers or cyclists.

 
Definitely more than half, but in my case it is usually for a cycling trip with food and drink carried from home.

 

Guilty as charged

 
5. All stations with a platform 0.

(Not all of the stations with a platform 0 - there four more, at least.)

 
1. These are 4-4-0T locos of the Cavan and Leitrim Railway, built by Robert Stevenson and Co

 

 

My understanding is that those are the new(er) trolley buses parked up while rewiring is being done; Tallinn is somewhere I would love to return to.

 
2 are stations closed in 1966?

 
The number of passenger journeys between April 1 2023 and 31 March 2024 increased by 16% on the previous year to 1.38 billion, according to Office of Rail and Road statistics.

If the average fare paid for each journey was £7.50 and the typical extra paid on each journey are similar (guessing all over the place here), that's a spend of £10 billion pounds on each of rail fares and ancillaries from travel by train.

From Statistica

I'm not sure what (if any) conclusions I'm starting to draw here ...

 

No, it isn't.  Both of the remaining gentlemen are names that I (and many members here) are and will be familiar with, but where the cause is / was so much more than the person, and it strikes me from a quick read that Colin was along similar lines - though before I became quite the activist I am these days.

 
10.  Canal tunnels.  I know that Sapperton has a famous railway tunnel which is still in use - I travelled through it last week - and it also has a famous canal tunnel which is blocked by roof falls but which still has elegant portals - I've seen them.  Mr Google shows that the other three locations also have canal
tunnels.

 
1. Queen Victoria, Lady Edith, Violet and Katheen (Cavan and Leitrim locos survived until the end)
2. Melksham, Adlestrop, Horwich, Marchwood (Closed 1966)
3. Wimbledon, Hoo Junction, Battersea Pier, Folkestone East
4. Middleton, Alton, Hill, Gateway
5. Cardiff, Haymarket, Doncaster, Redhill (Platform 0)
6. 311, 376, 379, 385
7. Beard, Taylor, Drew, Upton
8. Bath, Fishguard, Moretonhampstead, Paddington, St Ives
9. 1610, 1615, 1617, 1618, 1629, 1639
10. Norwood, Sapperton, Greywell, Drakeholes (Closed Canal tunnels)

 

 

.....famously described himself as a "cab for hire" and was banned from Parliament, as was Geoff Hoon.........what is it about Labour Transport Secretaries that sees so many of them leaving under a cloud?

 
Delays to services at Slough

Due to a safety inspection of the track at Slough trains have to run at reduced speed on some lines.

Train services running through this station may be delayed. Disruption is expected until 07:00 03/12.

Customer Advice
Due to a track defect, trains will have to run at a reduced speed while passing through Slough. Network Rail are on site monitoring the situation.

 
I was looking at 4D and thinking he does look familiar, when it struck me - it's Colin Rosenstiel, isn't it?

 
Must be Frostie time !