It is particularly the end of an era as it is the last west European long wave service to close. The nearest I can find still operating are in Poland, Romania, and north Africa. The last age of the era started in 1988, when the relay transmitters at Burghhead and Westerglen opened. At the same time all the national allocated frequencies shifted (mostly by 2 kHz) and the wavelengths became unround numbers (so not 1500 M, but still 1.5 km). 

I remember that as Westerglen was close enough I could see it while diving to work. At the time I was listening to France Inter from Allouis (164/162 kHz), which was swamped by local competition until I worked out how to exclude it. Allouis's transmitter power got up to 2 Mz by then, but the electricity bills for what was essentially a cloud heater became too much and it was turned down, and then off in 2016 (there is now a time signal).

In the pre-internet age it was the most reliable way to listen to other European countries' radios, without the complexity of receiving on short wave (which was not domestic services in any case).

 
In case someone lands on this thread and is looking for the consultation, here's a link.

Mark

https://www.southwesterntimetable.com/

 
The South Western Railway timetable consultation - from the web site.

'As we develop our plans, we’ll seek views and feedback on our proposals from stakeholders, customers and the wider community, including running a full public consultation in Autumn 2026.'

The impending change in management of GWR to join SWR in the 'Nationalised' stable rather sounds as though it's not the sort of consultation for which the conclusions are already set in stone.

It would be good to have people managing the nationalised rail service realise that the provision, initially of a service of three trains a day between Bristol and Waterloo is very achievable - and that the service that ceased in 2021 was an efficient use of train paths, was popular and which had the potential for further growth.

It would be a big win = for rail services in Wiltshire in particular - if this was represented in the data collected by the consultation.

If the nationalised railway is looking for stellar examples of relative minor changes that much improve the network connectivity of their services, this one is a contender.

Mark

https://www.southwesterntimetable.com/

 

Newquay short run AGAIN!

 

But, sadly, this sort of thing has become an accepted norm in many ways, hasn't it?   Just as - here I Germany for example - it's generally accepted that long distance trains are frequently late - I'm not even going to bother to tell you that we set off from Bregenz about 5 minutes late and we're now 25 down as we head for Munich.

 
I see that you passed through a town by the name of 'Hard' too which seems fitting.

Mark

 
It did get a mention on the previous night's 6 o'clock news but it's disappointing that they didn't mark it at least in a quiet way at the time. I was away from home without access to a LW radio so didn't tune in, but I'm glad I hadn't made a special effort given the lack of any real farewell.

 
And a follow up about my departure from Milan ... posted to "Interrailing for the Older Crowd"

 
11:03 London Paddington to Newquay due 15:51

11:03 London Paddington to Newquay due 15:51 will be terminated at Plymouth.

It will no longer call at Liskeard, Bodmin Parkway, Par and Newquay.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.


Cornish branches generally getting clobbered too due to crew shortage.

 

So yesterday was "a near normal service, with some minor changes" 

 
The end of 1500m Long Wave feels like the end of an era.  Many happy and some not-so-happy times shared with Radio 4, including the start and end of broadcast times.

 
I planned to check in to my hotel at 17:30 yesterday, but got here at around 19:45 - two hours late and the longest delay on my trip.  The hotel wasn't going anywhere, and was staffed for check in until 21:30 and is a larger one, so I really wasn't too bothered about that - but what an interesting experience of things going wrong and that they do go wrong "even in Switzerland". 

Milan - Cadenazzo - Goeschenen - Andermatt - look around and lunch.  Andermatt - Goeschenen - Arth-Goldau - St Gallen - and then the Bregenz train that got as far as St Margrethen where we pulled in for our scheduled stop at around 16:45, and there we stopped and stayed.

At 17:00 we were told that there was a problem with the line ahead and it was closed.  Please sit tight and we'll know more in half an hour.  "Please remain on the train - we have the AC on and it's hot outside".  At 17:30 a further message from our train manager told us that he was still awaiting news but would keep us informed (as best he could). At 18:00 we were asked to leave the train and wait on the platform because the train had to turn around and go back whence it came filling in for one that couldn't come the other way.  And, lambs that passenger are, we all did as we were told. And - yes, it was hot.  So hot, indeed, that the failure of the line ahead was at-a-guess going to be weather related.

So - operationally, the train turned around and headed back towards Basel or wherever it was going and a sea of perhaps 100 to 150 passengers was left sweating and with luggage on the platform.  The onward journey - though just 15 scheduled minutes to Bregenz, then another 15 minutes to Lindau is no ordinary one.  It runs - or, rather, was supposed to run from Switzerland into Austria (Bregenz) then on to Lindau (Germany) with the train continuing to Munich. And as with many international borders, local public transport across them is thin - VERY thin. Look at the network maps displayed at St Margrethen and you'll see it's at the very edge of wonderful provision, with just a solitary line pointing to the train (the line had failed, remember) into Bregenz.

Now - the local language is German and I can pick up the gist of it.  And while we were still on the train, the train manager was giving us a summary in English too over the good tannoy. But on the platform, it was hard to hear what was being said and I don't know how much if any of that was relevant or indeed in my language anyway.   This will be forming a public post - so at this point I should let new readers know I am completely deaf in one ear; I miss things even in English if I'm not listening for them and don't have any directional clues as to where sounds are coming from / if they are directed towards me. Other sounds around especially interfere - I'm fine in a quiet place and the casual person conversing with me does not even know my issue, nor do they need to. It does have the advantage of letting me buy a disabled rail card in the UK which gives me more (stuff like companion discount) than my previous senior card, but I digress.

There's over 100 people and their luggage sweating on the "Island" platform at St Margrethen. At first, one hassled train manager who knows no more than we do and is ordered back east into Switzerland by control and has nothing to add in passenger terms about what's being done for this astonishingly complacent crowd, even though it has become increasingly clear to me and some others that we can't just drop back to following trains - the next one over the border is show as cancelled, the IT screen tell us the next is still scheduled but as someone helps me they tell me that it will probably be cancelled too.

St Margrethren is a network hub.  Other trains run, and some are making plans to go elsewhere. I ask a driver of a bus in the attached bus station about services to Bregenz and he confirms there are none, looking at me as if I'm asking a stupid question and that I should know German to be allowed here without a minder.  Speaking with fellow passengers, many of whom have English as a second language, they tell me of rumours that buses are being arranged to take us.  But they stress these are just rumours and even in German nothing confirmed - no estimated time, no-one talking capacity or anything like that.

My hotel booking is not cancellable / changeable. I need to get to Bregenz. I have a "management decision" to make as to whether to try to contact them to let them know I'm delayed, but there seems little point in so doing as they'll still be there and my immediate concern is onward travel - "Race Across the World" stuff too, as my mobile phone, on which I have an unlimited contract, IS limited to "fair usage" and I have been warned that I'm over 80% of my month's allowance gone, so it's in Airplane mode most of the time.  So - no call to hotel.

People are phoning for taxis.  All sorts of calls / numbers from what I can understand, and they're all (what a surprise) fully booked and frustrating.  And a taxi or three is only going to make a small dent into the crowd, and at what cost.

I spot - and so do a couple of other folks - a taxi dropping people off with a logo / phone number that suggests he's from Austria.  Over the border.  A handful of us approach him - does he have a return ride and a couple of minutes later I find myself wedged in the back seat middle between a mother in perhaps her 50s and a old-enough-to-have-his-own-family son who are off from their home in Switzerland for a hiking holiday in Austria.  With her brother / his uncle so it sound like a family thing. The front seat taken by a quiet gentleman so I can't share his story. 

The journey's quicker - much quicker - than the time we have been waiting to make it.  On the meter and I'm thinking "how is that going to rack up" and "yikes, I have no Swiss Franks cash".  Mother and son planning their onward train into Austria, and are slightly concerned as to whether they'll make the next one, or have a one or two hour wait. So, hey, Bregenz main station rather than Bregenz Hafren suits me; local stuff can be sorted.

And so it is, wish my new temporary friends a good holiday as they dash off.  Taxi - bless him - was on the meter and it was just 10 Euros per person and gave me the opportunity to split my emergency 50 Euro note; everything else being on plastic this trip.

Bregenz main station to Bregenz Hafren in just 2 minutes by train - and I opted to walk along the main road.  Another taxi passed by, and one of the very recognisable people who had been in the crowd in Switzerland gave me a cheery wave.  Nothing like adversity to bring people together.  A lovely look on the front as I found my hotel (actual just up in the town) and checked in with a concerned Sonja who had been trying to reach me when I had not turned up at the time I had given as my e.t.a.  I apologised, explained my concerns at grabbing that taxi over letting the hotel know my new e.t.a, and have been show around and introduce to this hotel where I spend two nights.

Yes, I did look at plan B "Abandon Bregenz and stay somewhere else".  Plan C - take trains to Konstanz then round the lake towards Singen and Lindau and back to Bregenz.  Plan D - walk (10 to 15kms - not in this heat, thank you). Real "Race across the world" stuff!

---

Learning lessons?   The importance of customer service / having someone look after and keep the passengers informed, or able to act as a hub / knowledgable contact point when things go wrong.  The good nature of people. And i the end, here we are, just another day and the memories of the journey from Italy to Austria yesterday will be much more in the lovely places I saw and photographs from the trains than the little hassle at the end of the day - with limited picture because I was too concerned with the logistics!

 
At 01:00 this morning, 27th June 2026, Radio 4 transmissions on 198kHz (long wave) ceased.

There was no special ceremony; just the usual end of day: "Sailing by" introducing the shipping forecast; the National Anthem; the time signal.

A few seconds silence, then a repeating closure information loop.

I decided to wallow in a bit of nostalgia (like a final train service day) and listened to this on a GEC transistor radio that is around 65 years old, like this one: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/general_el_bc502bc_50.html

This same radio has been in the family since I was a tiny tot. It was with me at university and relayed the results of the 1979 election that brought Margaret Thatcher to power.

In the days of e-waste mountains, it is a testament to how long electronic equipment can last.

 
GWR website has following information under the banner headline


Then goes onto say

Isn't that a bit having your cake and eating it, planning changes, then claiming near normal.   Anyone else think this is close to unreasonable

https://www.gwr.com/weather

 
To emphasise something, that full-and-standing photo is from the depths of February 2008 and on a Sunday, but I could have taken a similar one today.

Mark

 

Courtesy of the full-and-standing 10:36 from Bath Spa to Portsmouth, I made it to Bradford on Avon for this photoshoot. On arriving, there'd been a bit of a kerfuffle as an acacia tree by the down platform ramped entrance had just shed a branch, blocking the ramp. John, being a station volunteer there, was already carting the arisings away but the thick end was still attached to the tree - the station booking staff person was organising this.

Various trains called, for the most part full or full and standing as mine had been. This allowed me to reflect on a previous visit - also with a bike - in February 2008 - a Sunday, 18 years back, not remotely peak season... and that winter train pulling in full and standing with no chance of getting me on it, let alone a bike.

Once he was off the vegetation clearance task, it was most useful listening to John's very sound take on the potential Bristol - Waterloo trains, as the arrival of an open access bid has turned this into a bit of a 'Situation'. Not sure if this take has been fully written up on the forum. I'm sure it will be finding its way on to the WWRUG web site.

Bradford on Avon's mayor arrived and was apprised of 'The situation' and then MP Brian Mathew made it across to the station from a Saturday morning surgery - and was able to receive his helping of 'The situation' in written form as John had copies of a press release with him.

Fittingly we met within sight of the departure indicator, showing that the oft-cancelled Salisbury service was just that - cancelled.

After that, we set off on our various ways. I'd half intended to return on the train but seeing I had a bike with me and the station's other platform's ramp was still in the possession of an acacia tree, and most of the trains sighted that morning had been very full and standing, the towpath and the tunnels won out.

Mark

 
My 80+ year old mum sent me an email earlier describing her journey home to Nottingham from holiday in Torquay yesterday:

 
My travellers tale of yesterday dodging the cancellations for a BRI to FRO journey was as follows:

Arrived at Bristol Airport from Copenhagen at 16.45 (1.5 hrs late - the plane had originally been delayed by 1 hr in Edinburgh earlier in the day by bad weather - lightning?). Luggage delivered only after 0.5 hr.

Caught A1 bus at 17.44 arriving c18.15. So missed the 18.04 WEY, trying for the 18.22 PMH which departed as I reached Plat 7. (This was the only viable connection for the PAD-FRO train at WSB which was indeed running and approx. to time!) Many of the WSB/SAL locals were cancelled during the day. I could see or forsee later FRO options also being cancelled, so the only realistic choice was to catch the 18.30 PAD to BTH and then the D2 bus at 19.10. This all worked although the PAD train was held outside BTH for 10 minutes which got concerning!

So as Graham often says local knowledge is wonderful and can avoid many scrapes. Had I not used the bus option the 20.50 BRI-WEY was the next available service which ran. Then home at c 2200.

So I did in fact get home only about 2 hours later than I originally expected.

I noted that most of the WEY services were protected during the day but omission of certain (nearly all) WSB local services means that FRO and no doubt other locations suffer as a result. Balancing the options for Control must be QUITE HARD.     

 
Went to Exeter from Paignton on 1012 xcountry and difficult to get a seat because of reservations along the route as four lads and their cans of beer found out.  The blinds were all drawn down as the guard didn't know if the air conditioning could cope.

On my way back a Barnstaple train was cancelled so a two hour gap. My Paignton train was 2 car  150 and was packed from Central, but a lot alighted here. The guard left a packet of bottled water in the vestibule at Dawlish Warren where we waited for a passing train as she could not get through the train until Torre to check tickets and she gave some water away to those that wanted it at Torquay. Not much had been taken on route.

A lot of trains cancelled or short formed but still giving away water.

 

Probably because there is still an Amber 'Extreme Heat' warning in place over the Thames Valley.  The current temperature in Hampstead, London is +32c and climbing (according to a weather station I monitor) and it's over +30c in most of the Thames Valley area.

Network Rail will have accurate ground temperature predictions and readings which will determine when and where the KRS is implemented.  I would imagine ground temperature is a more important metric in that decision than the air temperature...either way, it's still blinking hot, above normal summer temperatures, and in line with temperatures where the KRS has been routinely implemented in recent years.

Further reading is here:  https://railweatheracademy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/HotWeatherManagement_TheApproach_v1.0-1.pdf

By the way, you won't find me defending the pretty appalling (and very predictable) service offered up this week - just trying to explain why certain operational decisions have been made.

 

Although there has been a drop in temperature it is still high still mid to high 20's C, track for example may still be at risk of buckling 

 
Certainly you would think the number of short notice cancellations should be reduced.  However I suspect there is a backlog of units stopped in depots with faults which developed over the last few days and still require fixing. 

 
Ah, the Woking, Basingstoke, Andover calls on the previous service made a valued contribution to its attractiveness for passengers. Not so much the Whitchurch, Grateley ones though.

Mark

 

That's my gripe too, we are now within normal summer temperature range, not severe or red anymore, so weather related excuses are wrong now.  Should be using other excuses (or getting act together and returning to normal).

Similarly it is now 12 hours since the red area expired, so why are they still not using certain points during normal summer temperatures in Thames valley.  When there use was suspended should have been a plan to restore within hours of red weather ending.  Explanations to the public (and to many staff) of why things haven't been returned to normal seem to be abysmal.

Cancellations now up to 146, part route 76, so both going up, not down as weather improves, something is badly wrong.  Are they having a meltdown 

 

Indeed - I get that it's still going to be hot in the London/Thames Valley area today but a large proportion of today's cancellations are citing "severe weather" in areas where there are no "severe weather" issues, crew shortage and "More trains than usual needing repairs at the same time"

 
I realise thread header is 24-26 June, and today is 27 June

But GWR are continuing the cancellations on all routes banner on their website this morning

The front page of this site is showing
122 cancellations
67 part route
17 reformed

Not great as few days ago message was defer your journey to Friday onwards, so should be expecting both normal Saturday passengers AND some of the deferred passengers.   So if anything should be boosting services, not cancelling them.

 

Ibis are universally awful in my experience, the nadir for me was staying in the one outside Euston (now mercifully demolished I believe), checked into my room and found blood on the shower curtain, staff member attended and told me not to worry because it was dry.

Left  immediately (without taking the soap), checked into nearest Radisson (for which after much correspondence Ibis picked up the bill)  and never went back.

 
Thanks for your posts here, JayMac and TaplowGreen. 

Lest there be any of our readers who are unfamiliar with the context, here is a YouTube link to a three minute clip from the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show of 1971.

CfN. 

 
Fair enough on the soap front but we take are own soap and toilet rolls with us.

Who recalls that sand paper called izel?

Just ask your great grand parents.

Regarding the kettles,wish they were all stainless steel as opposed to plastic,you can taste the plastic when you make a hot drink.
Stainless steel is easier to recycle than plastic.

 
From the BBC: