tl:dr - Graham will have a lovely time, I'm sure and has already had a smoother start than did I to this location.

This was the destination for a shortish break trip (quite some time ago) publicised via a newspaper marketing tie-in - and stated (somewhat correctly) as a rail-based holiday in France - the group size was about 34 people. Correct in that the heavy lifting was done by train - Eurostar from Waterloo - across Paris to Gare du Lyon and then south to Clermont Ferrand in... I can't recall if they were then marketed as 'Service Teoz' - it might have been before that time. The trip was peppered with memorable hiccups, the first of which was that the tour company rather than take everyone on the Paris metro had organised a coach for the transfer - which turned up an hour late owing to some BST confusion or other on behalf of the travel company. Consequently the party had just a few minutes to put themselves onto the long distance train at the Gare de Lyon. The coach driver achieved this by taking the coach on a route between the station and dropping everyone off 'Traffic-side' from where we made our way to an entrance from road level. Within about a minute of the coach stopping, up turned the gendarmerie on motorcycles and were not at all pleased with everyone concerned.

Anyway, a gallop up to the platform and there was the train - these are electric loco and what feels like around 16 carriages. Quickly boarding, the tour guide even more quickly found that the block of reserved seats for us were occupied by a school party, off on a stay away, but their travel plans hadn't gone as far as reserving seats themselves - they'd been delighted to find a bunch of reserved seats all together though and refused to relinquish them.

(The mix of people on this tour was... challenging to manage and this cross-Paris leg set things up for the rest of the week.)

From Clermont Ferrand, the next (short) leg was a coach - the hotel for the week was in a town called Chatel Guyon - which has lost its rail link, though its sizeable station survives as a facility for various activities.

On arrival at the hotel, it transpired that it had been under heavy refurbishment, which hadn't completed on time and it appeared to have been reopened in haste. Allocation of the rooms turned into a lottery for the party - we were fortunate in that ours was complete. Others were not so lucky. Alarmingly the external fire escape was in use storing building materials...

There was a silver lining to this. The hotel management announced that for the week's stay, at evening meals, house wine would be provided on the house. Given the tensions in the party, this could have been disastrous, but as it turned out, the impact was mostly positive. Mostly.

Chatel Guyon itself holds a curious place in French history, and for multiple reasons. A medicinal spa and destination for recuperation and hydrotherapy, I think it had recently lost a tranche of funding from the french health service. It was still possible, though, to see fragile people delicately walking in the general direction of La Valée de Sans Souci clasping a small glass bottle in a wicker case, a receptacle for the town's medicinal water. (For some reason I've not fathomed the area's a hotbed of vulcanism that has only recently somewhat subsided and there are still hot springs to be found, not to mention the topography).

Now, the week's activities: provided was a series of day tours to various spectacular towns, villages and churches. By coach - which left some of the party who'd hoped for some rail interest slightly miffed. Especially as the hundreds of miles between Paris and Clermont are pretty flat, the ohie electric train maintaining an impressively fast and steady speed for hours on end to eat up the distance. At Clermont the railway hits the hills, and from then on things are full of railway interest, and some of said railway is still in use. Not, however, the line across the Fades viaduct, the scale of which has to be seen to be believed.

The week's excursions did give the occasional glimpse of something railway though - and on one memorably wet and cold day there was a collective sigh from everyone as we glimpsed one of those single carriage shuttlecock shaped railcars in use on more minor French lines, swinging around a curve about 100 metres away. Then, a visit (by coach) to the town of Mont Dore, which has a charming and hairy funicular (closed at the time, now back in use) and a rail terminus, (open at the time, now out of use). Also the view from the chapel Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe in Le Puy-en-Velay - a distant view of a viaduct on the edge of town with a somewhat archaic works train happening to cross it.

It was some years later, looking on Google satellite imagery, that I found at that location the Ligne du Puy à Langogne, much of which is a voie verte (and france has no qualms about re-using railway tunnels for these, it has to be said). It was some years later still that I noticed on satellite imagery *another* out of use trackbed branching off this first one on the edge of the town - the part-built line - La Transcévenole - sections of which seem to be emerging as a voie verte as well and whose story is *most* improbable - one of its tunnels (Le Roux) has been reused for a road.

Anyway, back to the long-ago holiday which concluded as it had begun and by the time the entire party was aboard the Eurostar back to Waterloo, I have a vague memory of a grand emotional bust up that resulted in the group, for the general benefit of one of the party, splitting into two caring factions, each taking themselves off to a separate carriage. It has to be said that this particular tour wouldn't have been one that the tour guide would have looked back on with fondness....

Mark

[Edit as I'd fantasised about Le Roux tunnel's altitude. Still wouldn't want to take a vehicle through the thing, mind...]

 

    How would YOU solve CrossCountry ?

I'd renationalise it.



Oh ... hold on a minute.

 
With my apologies that it has taken rather longer than I expected, stuving, I have now made at least a start on splitting off posts relating specifically to this new topic heading and merging them here.  The original post headings have been retained, wherever possible.

There are still some relevant posts in the 'France' topic in particular, and on the 'Wider Picture Overseas' board generally, which I will continue to identify, move and merge with these here.

Thanks again for your constructive suggestion.  Regards, CfN. 

 

The 26 hours has been charmed by the reliability - two short delays, one at Lewes as we waited for a late running connecting train from London, and one outside Westbury waiting for a platform.  Both were explained by train crew, and neither created the slightest worry in my mind; both simple reduced the wait time for the next connection.

 

I was on that verge too ... let's just say that sometime a true word is written in jest.

 
So, Graham has found a train or trains to Clermont-Ferrand that did not
1. expire in the heat and leave everyone stranded for several hours in an uncooled train, or
2. get cancelled in advance by SNCF in an attempt to avoid (2).
A new batch of cancellations was announced for this weekend because this heatwave is forecast as even hotter than last month's.

 

Sorry, I'm verging on being less than impartial here, and I shouldn't, as an administrator.

CfN.

 
The developments, and discussion of them here on the Coffee Shop forum, continue - so I have merged a couple of topics into this one definitive reference.

 
1.  I remember my pruning back some of that foliage, where it was approaching the pavement, a couple of weeks ago. Now, if only I could recall where I was at the time ... 

2.  Isn't Taunton, obviously - even to me. 

CfN. 

 
Thanks for your update post here, chipbury. 

My understanding is that railway staff can merely lean on their truck - provided they are wearing hi-viz while doing so.

 
Home (16.6.2026, 15:00) to my hotel room opposite the station in Clermont Ferrand in 26 hours. Lots of pictures, lots of stories already but forgive me banking those for the book I'll be writing. The ferry docks at 05:00 (french time) which is 04:00 UK time, so not a long night's sleep though the chairs are comfy enough.  I need a few minutes break before I head out to look around and see what impression I get in about an hour.

I tell people that travelling by train / bus / ferry is easy. And apart from the odd little challenges, it is. But I should probably not recommend quite such an intensive trip to newcomers.  I travelled by train except where noted:
to Melksham Station (walk)
to Westbury
to Fareham
to Brighton
to Lewes
to Newhaven Town
to ferry check in (walk)
to ferry (bus)
to Dieppe (ferry)
to customs hall (bus)
to Dieppe Gare (bus)
to Rouen Rive Droite
to Paris St Lazare
to Gare de Lyon (metro)
to Gare d'Austerlitz (walk)
to Bourges
to St Germain de Fosse
to Clermont Ferrand

 
Yes it was the Limpley Stoke bridge again!  I cycled past at midday and there were 3 Network Rail people leaning on their truck.

 

Thank you for your constructive suggestions, GBM and JohnM.

I have expanded the heading of this topic, in the interests of clarity and ease of future reference, as ever.

However, I have found in the past that there are problems with trying to define one board specific to Bath.  That's simply because Bath Spa is included on so many routes - London to Bristol, London to the West, Portsmouth to Cardiff, and so on.

In this case, I think posting in 'Bristol and Bath (WECA, now WEMCA)' is as nearly accurate as we can get.

CfN. 

 
...as is the 11:09 Gloucester - Weymouth, although currently showing as 'delayed' for Melksham (12:43, Chippenham 12:34 'information unavailable').

 
Ah: checking Google maps there's a road closure 'till 4 pm at Hawkeridge Road south of Trowbridge, so I thought it would be that rail overbridge.

Driving the road beneath Limpley Stoke a couple of days ago was an opportunity to check that, desplte the series of bridge strikes there - and Network Rail / Wiltshire County Council both being aware of issues with signage and vegetation overgrowth, nothing has been done to address either - and indeed, after the turn off the A36, the sole warning of the low bridge ahead, mounted low on a pole containing another road sign - the undergrowth has practically covered that one.

Mark

 
I can see the 10:23 Portsmouth - Cardiff service is now diverted via Melksham (12:28).

 

 

Birds have always been an issue with overhead line electrification.   The first generation (Mk1) used on the WCML and GE had places that allowed birds to build nest, the dropping caused corrosion also the blighters shorted the system.

Large birds such as swans and geese will occasionally fly into the OLE insulators etc, they are also know to fly into pantographs even on moving trains which causes a short usually with a big bang, a dead bird and lots of singed feathers. 

 
Cancellations to services between Liskeard and Looe

Due to a fault on this train between Liskeard and Looe the line is closed.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled. Disruption is expected until 12:00 17/06.
Customer Advice
-
What has happened?
-
More trains than usual are needing repairs at the same time. We have an insufficient number of trains to guarantee a reliable service. This means that we have no train to run this service.
-
What are we doing about it?
-
We are working to repair this train and get it back into service as quickly as possible. We have done nothing to solve this underlying problem, which recurs frequently.
-
What are your options?
We are really really sorry, honestly [not] for the disruption to your journey today, these are the current options available to you but don't bother reading the copy-and-paste text which follows as it's unlikely to be relevant to the situation we've put you in. :
-
Option 1: If there are other rail companies or local public transport operators who may be able to help you make your journey, we will provide details here.
-
Option 2: We have requested local bus ticket acceptance and replacement road transport, once these are in place further details will be provided.
-
Option 3: If your train is cancelled, you may travel on either of the two services before, or two services after, your original train. If these are peak services or less flexible, you can still travel with your original ticket, at no extra cost.
-
Option 4: Consider postponing your journey until our service returns to normal.

 
Please do - I just thought that the folder location would cover it, but I guess that's not always visible depending on the context. Bristol and Bath perhaps, or a separate topic for Bath-specific stuff?

 
Today is a disaster for GWR in Devon and Cornwall.
150 taken from Paignton- Exmouth double unit; maybe for Looe?
0625 out of Barnstaple a 2 car 158 then cancelled as the 0935.
The 175 training train from Exeter-Paignton cancelled maybe to use elsewhere.

GWR has never had the interests of passengers in Devon and Cornwall unless someone else is paying for it. I'd include SWR as they are/were under they same umbrella.

 
The poverty of the phrasing in the information that the industry has evolved in these comms is quite something, but I can't quite come up with an analogy that fits the root cause.

 
Perhaps start this topic heading off with "Bristol"?

 
Bristol seems to be having several train incidents this morning.
07:03 Bristol Temple Meads to Taunton due 08:09
07:10 Bristol Temple Meads to Gloucester due 08:01
07:14 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 08:32
07:40 Bristol Temple Meads to Westbury due 08:29

 

Exactly as member Mark A said on April 18th! 

 
https://somersetleveller.co.uk/news/tools-and-equipment-stolen-from-clevedon-miniature-railway-site/

 
Now running, about 12 mins late.

 
...and the 5:58 Westbury to Cardiff is 'delayed'.

 
The 4:50 Fratton to Bristol Temple Meads "is running late because of engineering works not being finished on time". So the 6:46 Trowbridge departure is currently showing as 7:04.