Second of the day..................

Cancellations to services between Reading and London Paddington

Due to a fault with the signalling system at West Ealing fewer trains are able to run on some lines. Disruption is expected until 18:15 09/06.

Train services between Reading and London Paddington may be cancelled or delayed.

Customer Advice

Due to a fault with the signal system in the West Ealing area, we are amending our train service between Reading and London Paddington this afternoon.

 

I suppose it could have been - there weren't any weeds growing on the rails .....

 

Indeed - and you did NOT come across at all in that way.  I just commented on the clinical element in my treatment as being so positive to contrast it with the organisational issues.

 
From National Rail - causing a lot of cancellations

Between Abbey Wood and Heathrow Terminal 4 / Maidenhead / Reading, between Gidea Park and Heathrow Terminal 4, between London Paddington and Heathrow Terminal 4 / Heathrow Terminal 5 / Reading, and also between Shenfield and Heathrow Terminal 5

Description

An earlier fault with the signalling system at London Paddington is causing disruption to Elizabeth line services through London Paddington. Trains running through this station may still be cancelled or revised whilst service recovers.

Disruption is expected until 08:00.

 
Home to Copenhagen, 8th to 18th May, met up with cousin Jennifer and her husband Steve in Amsterdam and we travelled onwards together.  Home to Austria and northern Italy, 25th May to 10th June, with Lisa who can step in and out of trains and manage a few stairs, but has a mobility device to help with distances most of us can walk.

My ticket app tells me I have travelled on 80 trains (3 on UK legs and 77 in mainland Europe) and visited 50 places since I activated my Interrail pass a month ago. In that time, one train in mainland Europe has been cancelled when I turned up for it (Hengelo to Osnabrouek) but there was another an hour later and the day was just pushed back, one train has been delayed to the extent that a planned connection was missed, and one train turned into a bus along the way.  One train was diverted while we were on it, bypassing Antwerp Central to Antwerp Berchem,and I had to get another train a couple of miles back, and a train into Hamburg was diverted (and planned on the app) into Altona, so I had to connect on the S-Bahn. here have been some none-consequential delays - the worst being a 16:59 arrival just yesterday 23 minutes late at 17:22. 

One (UK) train was declared as cancelled - the 14:34 on 25th May from Melksham and I caught the bus to Chippenham, though my logging tells me that it ran, 40 minutes late.  The 15:56 from Chippenham into Paddington left 10 minutes late and  got there at there at 17:50 (rather that at 17:05), and the train from Liverpool Street, due Harwich at 21:00, left 5 minutes late and got there 25 minutes late. No consequences as I wasn't on the ferry until the next morning - Lisa travelling with me and we stopped at the Premier Inn.

Two train managers have challenge my ticket, one asking me to move to 2nd class even though I hold a 1st class pass. And one telling me that I had not "toggled" my ticket on to make it a valid journey because he misread my app.  At two stations, we found the lift from the platform to the main concourse out of order - in one case there was another way around (a combination of three lifts, not intuitive) and in the other we changed plans, got an alternative train to another station in the same city.

Hotel receptionists when they see us roll up tend to panic; we don't book "upper floors accessible by lifts only" accommodation - just need a flat access or lift; a couple of steps is OK.  Two occasions on this trip, the hotel receptionist has known "better than us" and and has made a needless room change - in one case with a long and complex show of frustration.  I always indicate on booking that we cannot manage lots of stairs but that does not always reach the check-in dest. Good receptionists ask / check.

On busy trains (everywhere) there is a survival of the fittest mentality, but at the same time people when they note tend to be extremely helpful. THANK YOU.  One sad exception yesterday - Lisa got a green labelled (unreserved seat) in the ICE from Germany to the Netherlands, seated airline stile on the aisle beside a lady in a reserved seat.  But turned out it was not her preservation, and another lady came along and requested her booked seat.  Lisa got up, moved clear to let the wrongly seated woman out, then the rightful owner took her seat - and the woman turfed out grabbed the seat Lisa had been in. "My seat" I think she muttered.   Nothing around marked as priority seats and on one hand we want to be treated like everyone else - but yet I do question this woman's action.  We found Lisa the last reserved seat that hadn't been taken; I stood from Dusseldorf to Utrecht but - must admit - the app did say "reservations recommended" and we had made a call as the train came in to get on - we had a fallback option taking an hour longer via Venlo.

We are on the night ferry tonight - a leisurely day planned in Utrecht and Rotterdam ... and an opportunity for me to look at the stats and write up before a late breakfast.

 

Was it an MPV (Multi Purpose Vehicle) being multi purposed as a weed killer train rather than a RHTT?

 
Even without the help of an unseasonal gale, trees do a thing called 'June leaf-fall' though I don't know how much of an issue it is on the railway. Certain other members of this forum will be far more familiar with it.

Mark

 
I think what I did was cross the road outside Moor Street to the north side of the underpass that's above the tunnels to New Street - St Martin's Passage - which involves steps (but ramps provided and avoids the path that accompanies the bus route beneath the structures, of which I am not fond, in the same way that I was not fond, long ago in a world that didn't do Sunday trains, of the trip in to Birmingham on the bus, on my own, to see the film 'Alien' when it first came out. Bus trip in: fine. Film: scary. Bus trip home again: scary 'cos of the muti-player drunk fight that broke out at Halesowen between the people on the bus and the people boarding from the queue there).

Mark

 

Must be.......an RHTT went through Bournemouth this morning when I was there.

 
I wasn't meaning to critical of the clinical service, which is generally excellent.

The problem is mainly an administrative one. Also possibly compounded in the case of Reading with a wide range of options in Thames Valley, that you possibly don't have further west. I would guess the Banbury option is because the Oxford University Hospitals used to have one of the shortest waiting times for scans, presumably achieved by running services 12 hours a day 7 days a week at all their scanner sites. When we emailed them to say it wasn't really possible we were rang back within half an hour. After a discussion they said they would cancel the appointment (which stops the clock) and refer the request back to the consultant.

 
The plague of disruption due to engineering work continues on the line

Southampton to Portsmouth Sunday 5 July

(crazily spaced intervals few weeks apart so just as rail traffic builds up again and gets back to normal, there is another multi-day interruption discouraging usage)

Bath Spa to Bristol will be closed Monday 26 to Wednesday 28 October

Fareham to Portsmouth closed Monday 26 to Friday 30 October

Note strange inconsistency in the October work, one part of route is closed 3 days, other part 5 days.    And what's with mixture of weekend and weekday in Portsmouth area.   All rather feels gone out of their way to be passenger unfriendly

 

Advice to that effect was given on the thread in question ... including a note that the service runs about hourly, so if you miss one, just catch the next.  I decided not to add comment that Birmingham might be worth a look ;-)

 

Oh indeed. I'm always minded that what I see on wider travels may not reveal the trials and tribulations that come to the surface on social media and industry feeds in the UK.  And I am also very conscious that as a traveller out of the norm in Swizerland (as yesterday was) or today in Germany, I may well see some of the quiter trains.

My own statistical feed confirms the huge improvement last week compared to the week before on the TransWilts - sadly, the indusrty feed that I've captured and used for https://www.wellho.info/sh4.php shows a worse cancellation rate because the 20:22 "M" service flags cancelled and a "Z" extra service has been added; makes no difference to the public, and I am not going to risk a coding change from the ICE train I am on at the moment!   I would agree with quoting the running rate as being more positive; I would, though, argue that the rate should take account of trains declared as cancelled and later re-instated, especially those that are declared cancelled for quite a while anr re-instated late in the day. I haven't a clue how to take them into account in a reasonable, robust, automatic way though!

Where my comparison makes a difference, though, is in the service frequency that the Swiss train can run at, it seems, reasonably reliable, on a single track railway with long distance expresses sharing.   Through Melksham we have somewhere around 2 paths per hour, and Maiden Newton perhaps offers similar.  The departure board at Rheinfall shows 5 stopping paths, and in addition there were Zurich to Stuttgart expresses passing, and that is where the difference is massive.  If the infrastructure allowed it, and a single platform might still manage it, we would be looking at a 30 minute "Bath and Wiltshire Metro" service and in addition paths each way each hour for something else.  But it would be a fool's spec at the moment to try to schedule that without .... dynamic loops, crisp signals, trains that accelerate sharply, and perhaps flyovers / graded junctions where the London - Bristol and Cardiff - Portmouth main lines are joined.

 
If you mean under the underpass (exit New Street towards Bullring, cross road to Boots, turn left & follow the underpass to Moor Street, turn left again across Moor Street Queensway to Moor Street station) - then yes - the council needs to brighten the area up such that the homeless find somewhere quieter/darker or better found a home.

During opening hours, pass through the Bullring itself - enter at Boots, exit at Moor Street, dropping down a floor in the process. Takes longer, but nicer. Still doable in 25 mins that way though.

 

Last time I did it I walked under the shopping centre through a very depressing scene of dozens of homeless people, a few of whom were clearly under the influence of zombie drugs making it look a little bit like Philadelphia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XHoBsNgKm8

Is that the official route?

 

Whilst you've been away, the TransWilts has been largely behaving itself well, so perhaps a German visitor to England may have formed a similar opinion?

Four cancellations on trains stopping at Melksham (and one delay of 50 minutes) on the 4th June, but otherwise everything ran last week to give a 96.6% reliability score, and with the previous four days to that also seeing no cancellations, that equates to 97.8% of trains running over the last 11 days.

Rather better than the Deutsche Bahn's cancellation rate on regional trains of 5%.  From an article last year:  https://www.thelocal.de/20250213/train-passengers-in-germany-see-rising-number-of-deutsche-bahn-cancellations

Note how I've deliberately listed the percentage of trains running as a 'reliability' score, because that looks better that saying 3.4% of trains were 'cancelled', and that I've only gone back 11 days because the previous three days during the heatwave and Bank Holiday weekend saw multiple cancellations.  I've also only listed trains calling at Melksham, with no mention of whether they started/terminated early and would be defined as a 'part cancellation' and in some cases might have affected passenger journeys just as much as a full cancellation would have.

Statistics, eh?  Gotta love 'em! 

 
Apologies if covered elsewhere.

Plymouth MP Luke Pollard touting a "Plymouth Metro" starting with half-hourly services between Ivybridge and Bere Alston, new stations at Plympton and Laira, followed ultimately by Tavistock reopening.

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/london-overground-style-plymouth-metro-10999026

Not my neck of the woods, but I suspect that it needs a bit more than just rolling stock, at the very least a turnback siding at Ivybridge.

That said, it's a "playbook" that worked fairly well in Bristol - upping the Gloucester service to half-hourly made the rail service from places like Yate much more usable, bolstering the business case for new stations like Charfield and reopening the Portishead line.   

 
From Bedwyn trains via Rail User Express (May edition) who are happy to be quoted with source acknowledged

 
Despite which, and despite knowing the way, last time I walked it, I managed to take a rather roundabout way between the two, a route that I recall involved, for good measure, steps. I don't suppose the monorail from Merry Hill shopping centre, long dismantled, is in storage somewhere...

Mark

 
Have you noticed scottish-borders-rail-style* dynamic loops that allow trains to pass without stopping, by the way?

Mark

* Dynamic loops aside, I believe the borders railway isn't blessed with a surfeit of 'ordinary' passing places and also the junction with the East Coast Main Line is poor quality until it's sorted.

 

Yes it is - if you know where you are going, it is doable in 10mins, but allow 15 at least if you don't. The signage - look up - is actually quite good now. And no reservations on any train from Moor Street to Stratford. (in case anyone reads this & doesn't know)

 

I am getting very used to public transport to hospital challenges ... Try 08:30 at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon from home in Melksham (phone chat got me 09:10 - home at 06:50, walk to station, 07:21 train to Swindon, walk to Fleming Way, bus to GW Hospital - arrival in good time.   RUH in Bath isn't bad - 2 buses with a change at Bath bus station - still 90 minutes, and not possible until November because of roadworks; it will involve a walk across the city centre of Bath.  In contrast, I have a catheter change when I get home later this week - one of the very few things (it seems) that can still be done at Melksham Hospital - five minute walk and (fun) this very personal thing likely to be done by someone I might know in the community!

I must add - though - that the treatment I have had from the NHS since they identified a significant issue that urgently needed attention in late March has been exemplary.

 
As an ex-NHS employee I regret to say this doesn't only happen in Cumbria.

Recent examples in this household; an offer of a scan in Banbury at 10:00 on Sunday morning, virtually undoable from Reading by public transport, 09:00 appointment in Bracknell would be nicer if they allowed for the older persons bus pass.

The irony is that we live opposite the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.

 

I spent yesterday on local trains with a lot of single track sections on the border lands between Switzerland and Germany, and some of the lines include single track bits with some very long distance services.  I'm sure it can go belly up, but in my experiences on these lines that's not happened, and I asked myself what's different to the UK?

* There are frequent passing loops
* Passing loops and trains are modern unlike places like Yeovil and Maiden Newton
* Trains are electric and designed for local work - you fall over with the accelleration and accurate braking
* Schedules are generous enough to include time for "awkward" passenger stops and recovery
* Wide doors, mostly level access. generous corridors make for quick local access
* There's a "stop" button just like on buses for you to use if you want to get off at a halt
* Good notice of upcoming stations make sure than even new passengers are ready

From Rheinfall station yesterday:

As I arrived at the station, the 16:01 to Zurich was calling



The departure board then offered



A Zurich to Stuttgart express passed through



And all within quarter on an hour, my train arrived

 
Churn station

I have been reading "The Icknield Way" by Edward Thomas, not very sensible for somebody who failed GCE English Literature twice. It was originally published in 1913.

Walking between Streatly and Sparsholt he mentions Churn station

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churn_railway_station

Between Upton and Blewbury and Compton on the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway. Built as a temporary station for a Nation Rifle Association (NRA) competition. I get the impression the NRA had left it's previous base at Wimbledon and Churn was an interim competition site before they moved to Bisley. The range is visible on large scale maps from the National Library of Scotland (NLS).

https://maps.nls.uk/view/97773386#zoom=4.0&lat=5462&lon=3449&layers=BT

This was apparently still used in the early 1970's. Decommissioned 1976.

From 1889 army tented summer camps were held in the area. The area is within the area of the army manoeuvre maps, the top of the downs marked "Gallops".  The camp was used during the First World War, mainly by yeomanry regiments.
There are Gallops marked on the current 1:25, 000 OS map.
The Great War Forum https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/86830-churn-camp-oxfordshireberkshire/ carries quite a lot of detail.

Churn remained an active military training area in both World Wars https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/e0d60dfc25674811a12cd0cd8b3962e3

Churn station closed in 1962. Freight ceased in 1966, what freight?

Eighty odd years was not bad for a temporary station.

 

Yep - I agree with him.  There are pockets of good ... and huge numbers of tourists will always make for the "Honey Pots" of York,  and Stratford-on-Avon.  I am involved in a number of tourist groups on social media - most of them for people already with a rail bias - but questions like "is 25 minutes enough to change from New Street to Moor Street long enough, and how do I reserve a seat from Moor Street" - example posted yesterday - indicate some of the issues.  You can guess, I suspect, the total day's journey that was posted ... those honey pots.

This is not a UK / unique problem, though; hard to quantify the data but you see some of the same across Europe.   

 
From the BBC:

 
“The other thing is the lack of options to travel around the UK, because of things like rail networks which are fragmented, the lack of [rail] passes – the lack of a kind of curation of tourists is a big issue.”

“We end up with tourism concentrated in places like London and Edinburgh, but the rest of the economy doesn’t get the benefit of it."

My first thought was the likes of the Britrail pass, but that doesn't help so much with one-off trips, does it? Also, the intending traveller will be railcard-less, so, exposed to the full howling madness of the UK's rail pricing and for good measure will be unfamiliar with the system.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/07/ba-ceo-sean-doyle-aviation-taxes-rail-costs-stunting-uk-growth

Also, fun fact, Britrail's page on the Southwest pass, like their other regional pages, if you're familiar with the Cornish Main Line, you might recognise the structure, but not because it's on the Cornish Main Line (which does allegedly have nine miles of viaducts in total, but that ain't one of them...)

https://www.britrail.com/britrail-passes/britrail-south-west-pass/

Mark

 
Our planned trip from Melksham to Split has not turned out quite as we had pencilled in.  Austria attracted us and  rather that one two-day stop there, we had three two-day stops.  Loving the alpine stuff which gives wonderful views from the trains (if just glimples that don't photograph well) and we tracked on to Alpine northern Italy, then yesterday across Switzerland and to our final two day stop in Singen; Lisa resting up and I'm seeing some local rail.

I have - NOT been posting daily snaps here at the risk of boring members and biting in to holiday time, but I am taking huge numbers of pictures which will allow me to write up experiences not by location but rather by other subject - "what can we learn about pedestrianisation and town planning", "how do ticket sales and checking work", "what do people travel with and how do the trains cope" ... and a hundred other topics.

I am anticipating long autumn hours at "Information at the Station" while the project beds in, and while we fine tune the Faq to know exactly what IS "F" - frequent - to ensure than all that information is at hand and volunteers can be accurate and are comfortable giving it out - if not easily selectable on the big touch screen panel that will be there.

Pictures?   Little point in me putting many up today; they might look something like a brag ("look where I have been") and as a quiz far too obscure.

 
This topic has been moved to Across the West and merged with other posts relating to trees on the railway there.

https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=31219.0