Wellllll ... our bid for "Information at the Station" in Melksham was written and submitted within the timescale given, and we wait to hear the outcome.  My understanding is that applicants would be notified late March / early April 2026 of the outcome, and here we are in mid April 2026.

The fund is for new projects to be completed by 31st March (2027), and they must not be committed until the funding has been granted.   With some (sorry) frustration, we await the outcome.   My understanding is that there are once again far more (good) applications for funding than can be granted, so it's not just been a question of submitting a good, well thought out and justified project but rather of submitting a project that the judging panel evaluates as being better than others.

So we sit, somewhat, in limbo. We have continued negotiations with the potential landlord to ensure we have the building available.  We have submitted local match funding requests and started other funding source paths. We have as volunteers continued research both into how it will work, and the issues that need to be addressed both operationally and for the business to work for the intended customers. Yesterday evening, we held an informal discussion around the dining table here - MTUG officers and Melksham Without reps ... taking stock of where we are.   We have an idea of critical paths, GANTT chart, resource calls and when resources are needed, cash flows, etc. which are far forward from what we had at the start of January, and we have officially informed the CCIF team of a couple of elements which have addressed and mitigated to the extend of elimination what we admitted were our major risks in January.

We have NOT yet got together serious manning lists for the "Information at the Station" though.  There is too much risk of building up enthusiasm just for it to seep away in the intervening months.  And we have not committed past a "point of no return" as by doing so we would be taking an unnecessary risk, and contravening the terms of the application process that tell us we must wait.  As well as the GWR decision being awaited, we await a match funding decision from Melksham Town Council who postponed all grant applications in the town from March to June. 

The CCIF application process naturally brings uncertainty between submission and outcome time, and we have been proceeding in a way with identified probably and possible income sources with optimism factors applied in such a way that we can probably "go" even with drop outs.  With the two biggest fund providers taking longer than they suggested, it may well be that an autumn rather than a summer launch is appropriate, but that's no great problem and in fact has some advantages.

What IS proven - time and time again - is in talking with people at and around Melksham - often at the station itself - is the real need for public transport information and a friendly face to help people naviaged that information - in Melksham.

 
From the BBC:

 

9 minutes late from Salisbury,  up to 12 minutes late along the way with a longer stop than normal at Swindon. Pathing, perhaps?

 

 

 
I have no personal recent experience of Oxford Street to enable me to offer my own suggestions, but Sir Sadiq Khan's scheme may resolve that apparent issue. From The Standard:

 
Listening to friends at lunch today, they were telling of a recent visit to London and how quiet Oxford Street was - not the usual hustle and bustle [of tourists].  Is this something others have noticed?  I could guess / speculate as to what / how / why but before I do, is this a pattern others have seen too?

 
From the BBC:

 
Also, on the weekday 11:08 up to Paddington from Newquay: "Pullman dining from Plymouth".

Mark

 
In the last few days the spur has been taken out of use due to an infrastructure fault.   Likely to be closed for a few months.

 
The BBC have now amended their article, with an explanation:

 

Confirmed as cable theft.

 
The weekday ones are new.

Last year there was one train to and from London Paddington on a Saturday with a through train from Exeter St Davids and a service to Bristol Temple Meads.

On Sundays there was one through service from London and two return trips - one formed from the stock of a service from Plymouth.

 
8 becomes 17 in May as the enhanced Newquay service begins.

Departures from Newquay for Par are currently at 07:19, 09:24, 11:24, 13:24, 15:24, 17:24, 19:24 and 21:12.

From the timetable change they become:  07:19, 08:22, 09:20, 10:28, 11:30, 12:17, 13:25, 14:27, 15:36, 16:18, 17:27, 18:22, 19:20, 20:28 and 21:12.  In addition there's two summer trains on weekdays to London at 11:08 and 14:52...correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they only run (or not run as the case often was) at weekends last year?

 
From County Press

 

Now pushed out to 1100

"The problem affects 2 of the four lines between London Paddington and Reading, so we are having to reduce the train service through the area to avoid congestion. Local stopping services between London Paddington and Newbury will only run between Reading and Newbury. Most longer distance intercity services will continue to run between London Paddington and Reading, but may be subject to delay.
We are working with Network Rail to be able to return to running our normal timetable as soon as possible".
-

 
It was reopened in 1981 as a diversionary route when there was engineering work on the Weymouth line. Subsequently, it has seen increased use for container trains from Southampton Docks.

As such I would hope that it could form a second electrified route to the docks and, at the same time to Salisbury. Ideally at 750vDC as this would need less civils work.

I believe that the new Integrated Rail Plan for Wessex should develop a future rail plan which is costed and reviewed regularly.

 
The Heart or Wales line never was "Great Western" - it was a limb of the London and North Western Railway built into Great Western territory to tap the potential of South Wales, much of it double tracked and built to main line standards.  How it survived the "Beeching Axe" by passing through six marginal constituncies has become a piece of folklaw, and over the years it was thinned down to the thinnest minimum passenger railway.

There have been some small steps back from that perlilous survival over the years - the loop and second platorm at Knighton has been restored (and was in use when Lisa and I passed through in February for us to pass a track maintenanance train), and the loop at Llandrindon was moved from outside the station to the station itself and trains routinely pass there (indeed they swap crews and pause a while to do so).

The signal box, moved (I think) when the loop was moved, is subject to a dispute between the Town Council and Network Rail over ownership and maintenance

From 2020:
https://www.countytimes.co.uk/news/18516278.signal-box-battle-llandrindod-council/

Recent ... but my social media feed (irritatingly) moved on before I grabbed the URL or a quotation, the community use has closed and the buidling fallen into disrepair with no-one looking after it ...

 

There is - rarely - anything new, Chris  ... I would in past times have said "good for them - good for their education", but these days I temper that slightly with an environmental concern / veneer.   Taking a light hearted and pleasurable (for them - I dislike airports) event, I have much more serious throughs as to all the fossil fuel burned by all these planes flying around. One side of me celebrates the reconsideration of so much air travel that's being bought on by the war in the Gulf and there's a lot positive in my mind for a refactoring of fossil fuel flight to a lesser level.   And don't get me thinking about the environmental, economic and especially human cost of the war itself. 

 
I ... think ... I'm happy to have brought you a puzzle that mystified and intrigued for a while.   The Laverstock Curve has intrigued me, illogically for many years and I have had an eye open for an opportunity to travel along it.    It was the (I think) my final stretch of line in national network passenger service in Wiltshire.

The curve has a strange history.  Opened early with the arrival of the railway from London, it was closed and after many years as a siding from one end lifted completely, only to be restored in quite recent times.  As well as occasional diverted Cross Country services, some steam specials use it, and it's on one of the freight routes used from Southampton Docks to the Midlands and north.  To my knowledge, neither SWR nor GWR use the Laverstock Curve, nor do I know or any plausible campaigns calling for a regular passenger service.

 
......and it continues into today......

Cancellations to services between Twyford and Slough

Due to a fault with the signalling system between Twyford and Slough fewer trains are able to run on some lines.

Train services running through these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 06:45 09/04.

 
Are you sure its not the Medusa of Zennor?. Those eyes...they follow you everywhere.....

 
Yup, flummoxed by the sight of the diverging double track, unelectrified, discounted the Laverstock curve 'cos how could Graham be traversing that, and hopelessly distracted by the fantasy that perhaps he'd time travelled and it was somewhere strange on a WW2-era Midland and South Western.

Mark

 
Really nothing new - there were a large group of us that did this all over Europe 40 years ago when Thompson's ran day trips - Berlin the day before the night the wall fell anyone? I have a lump of wall somewhere.

 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce84zd68242o

 
From the BBC:

 
And even more misery, must be because the weather got a bit warm today.

Due to a fault with the signalling system between Oxford and Didcot Parkway all lines will be blocked.
Impact:
Train services running through these stations will be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 20:00 08/04.
Customer Advice:
-
What has happened?
-
Some axle counters, part of the signalling system, have stopped working in the Oxford area. Axle counters tell the signalling system if a section of track has a train on it. If an axle counter stops working, trains need to stop at the affected signal so that the Driver can speak to the Signaller to confirm if the track ahead is clear.
-
What are we doing about it?
-
All lines are blocked for 30 minutes to allow Network Rail to access the site to resolve the issue.

 
I think the most shameful thing here is where the compensation went. Multiple billions in today's money. Yes, I understand that's a moral position and not one of economics and politics. Making lots of rich folk bankrupt is not good for society as a whole. Bubbles and market crashes have shown that. But surely some compensatory funding by way of an Assistance Act alongside the Abolition Act at least. That not being done is what's shameful. The compensation given to slave owners amounted to 40% of the UK's annual budget. FORTY! And not a penny to the previously enslaved.


Edited to add:

This isn't just 200 year old history. Subsequent UK governments (ie taxpayers) were still paying interest, until 2015, on the loan the government at the time took out for the Abolition Act.

 

Thanks for pointing that out, eightonedee: I'm apparently losing track of time, in my retirement.  CfN.