Hmm. There are different answers for different scenarios.

If your train is late, you have to wait for it unfortunately.

If it is cancelled, you can travel on the service afterwards, and indeed, if you are aware early enough, the train before.

If you are on multiple connections, If any train is late, you have to still travel on it & catch the next available service(s) of later connections. If you suffer a cancellation, the above applies to that journey & later connections can be made as you arrive for them.

 
In the scenario that someone's travelling on an off-peak ticket and their intended train is cancelled/runs late resulting in the next train available is a peak time departure, do terms and conditions allow them to travel on the peak time service?

This might also involve a cross-London journey, where their inbound train is late/cancelled and they find themselves at a London terminal after the evening peak is under way.

Mark

 

... but then grahame woke up. 

 
With thanks to TaplowGreen and GBM for posting, I've merged both topics here, for clarity.

CfN. 

 

Indeed: see https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=31667.0

 
Some landowners do allow public access to their private land and paths, often closing the latter for one day a year to prevent claims that  continuous access might lead to legal claims that they become fully public.

From the Savernake Estate website: "Though it is private property, the Forest's owners permit extensive public access. However, visitors are asked to note that there are NO vehicular rights of way, nor any public footpaths, anywhere in the Forest. To maintain its private status (especially to prevent the creation of vehicular rights of way) Savernake Forest's roads have to be shut on one day a year - usually the first working day of each year - in a joint operation by the Savernake Estate and their tenants the Forestry Commission. On that one day every road into the Forest is physically barriered and all cars are turned away ... Pedestrians may walk where they like, though they are asked to respect the few signs protecting the various groups of private houses scattered through the Forest."

(OK, this relates to vehicular access, but the same principal is applied elsewhere to pedestrian use.)

 

And no sooner had I posted that than ...

Revenue Protection in action.  The train manager(ess) had requested a young couple to alight with her at Zwickau and they stood dutifully behind her as the train pulled in.  But as the doors opened they dashed off along the train. The train manageress indicated their movement to three revenue protection colleagues waiting on the platform, and they scuttled along the the next door.  When I got off, the manageress and her colleagues were in discussion on the platform with the young people, and after the train had left I saw them waling across the main station concourse with the thee revenue folks around them rather like one sees a cluster of nay ships around a convoy in films.  I have no idea what rule(s) these young people had broken, nor whether or not they were known regular transgressors, but it did provide a reminder that even a country with open stations - free from barriers - has teeth to catch up with those whom they suspect are not following the rules.

 

Timely example this morning!

 
Note to Mods.

TG and I posted at similar times.
My post is at https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=32303.0

 
Cancellations to services between Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot
Due to the emergency services dealing with an incident between Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot the line is blocked.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 10:00 01/08.

Thoughts with all involved.

Not sure if it's
1J74 0641 Plymouth to London Paddington at Exeter St Thomas
or
2F08 0710 Paignton to Exmouth at Starcross

 
https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/local-news/person-hit-train-between-exeter-11088285?utm_source=linkCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

Between Exeter and Newton Abbott, a number of services to/from Devon and Cornwall being cancelled or starting/finishing short.

 

Indeed - and I am struck in so much of my continental travel as to just what a variety of things people have with them and how space is provided for the most part for ... so much. Luggage, push chairs and buggies, bicycles, mobility aids, and even the single carriage local trains we travelled on yesterday - 2 bicycles, two pushchairs - one with a baby and one an enormous double unit, one mobility device, luggage in the form of big hard-shelled cased and packs - and we all made room for each other and there was space for us to adjust and be pleasant about it as we pootled along the main line between major stations, stopping at intermediate villages as and when someone had pressed the "request stop" button or was wanting to join.     The trains were modern, had fully accessible loos and level boarding, and were pleasantly busy.   Running for the most part every hour, on single track lines they had the odd pause while we waited for another - or a freight - coming the other way.  Many of the old stations though are decrepit / falling apart, and so I can't give you a totally rosy story.   The train manager checks and sells tickets and it would be a challenge, I suspect, to travel without paying here!

I can just imagine ... a little bay platform at Chippenham, people connecting into it from the London express, and calling at Lacock, Melksham, Staverton, Trowbridge, White Horse and Westbury ... overtaken there by the international express from South Wales to the Solent, and carrying on Frome, Witham, Bruton, Castle Cary - further connections - Queen's Camel, Yeovil Pen Mill, connection with another similar train headed for Exeter, then Thornford, Yetminster, Chetnole, Eversholt, Cattistock, Maiden Newton, Grimstone, Dorchester, Upwey and Weymouth.

 


Oh if those 196s  are anything like our class 197s sports mode is good but they drink diesel and ad blue

 
I have made a little tweak to the subject line - it’s Taff’s Well, not Taff Wells

 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8ez2dx032o?at_ptr_name=facebook_page&at_link_origin=BBC_BedsHertsBucks&at_campaign_type=owned&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_format=link&at_medium=social&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_link_id=E87F5A26-8CEC-11F1-919F-B27202F0E840&at_link_type=web_link&fbclid=IwdGRleATZ9p9wZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR7MadO-slTsiSMd0Cxfn_2lVuoRv_NrcYCFKQyW3xKxfkBGi3U6Mi9iRqq0rQ_aem_GalezK-ZDRhegjAlEEF-cg

 
There seems to have been an issue in recent days with coach allocations.

The GWR app has variously shown 18 and 14 coach formations which have then translated to other systems.

 
Travelling from London to Axminster with cycles on... I think it was... what were they called, those... £5?... awaydays for Network Southeast season ticket holders... we could have done with this viaduct and indeed the entire branch, either as a railway or a shared-use path, the route to Lyme being hilly. We made it to Lyme though, and thankfully made it back for the return train too.

Anyway for the viaduct, a weekend of open days, more here.

Mark

https://fortheloveofarailway.co.uk/viaduct

 
NR's blurb isn't very well worded (and who do they expect will see it?). One bullet point just seems to ban anything over 1 metre but elsewhere it says "You may bring a large item (more than 1 metre in any dimension), but only if you are able to carry it without assistance" with no actual size limit. Even the latest Conditions of Travel (ooh, just out, dated 30th July 2026) only have maximum dimensions - smaller than many suitcases - for a few specific items which seems unfair on musicians and furniture restorers in particular.  I've also got a surfboard which is only 80cm long and takes up next to no space but is specifically banned because someone at RDG thinks all surfboards are like the ones on Baywatch!

TfL incidentally do have a 2 metre general limit in their Conditions of Carriage which seems sensible, particularly for true tube stock.

 

Another yellow card to TG for encouraging the learned member for Minehead. 

 
Also, 'other mines are available'.

Look at an aerial photo of the present day quarry and locate at about ten o'clock relative to the deep excavation, the 'Island' of greenery atop unexcavated ground and connected by vegetation to the quarry lip. That's 'Garth Shaft' or 'Little Garth' "Worked since medieval times. Reopened and extensively modified for ammunition storage 1939-1945" The current quarriers not keen to approach it it seems.

Mark

https://buddlepit.co.uk/mine-explorer/Database/MineDetails.html?id=uaX1J5QJ6Kxt9PL6m3dw0g==

 
The Garth Iron Mine at Pentyrch certainly looking as though it could have been a contributor to this. This photo from Flickr show large underground spaces, and there's a useful description in the accompanying text.

Mark

https://www.flickr.com/photos/thereggy/404621391

 

The maximum length of an IET is 12 vehicle, a fundamental limit set in the requirement whatever the unit lengths might have been.

As I understand it, this is roughly how the allocation feature in RTT works. RTT gets train formation data from TOCs by agreement, not via any "official" NR data feed. The TOCs must get the information off their own train planning systems. If a train contains two units then two allocation data items are sent. If an extra unit is coupled to lengthen a train already notified then a second allocation item is sent.

If one unit replaces another there ought to be an allocation deletion item as well as a new allocation item. But if the deletion item is missing, RTT has no way of knowing this is not two units being coupled. No doubt a check against the coupled length limits could be added, but it hasn't been (yet).

 
It was opened today prior to first services tomorrow. Plenty of photos on GWR X account

 
I hope GWR have a successful launch of Okehampton Interchange tomorrow and also without service disruptions in the coming weeks and months so it beds in before winter. I also hope that there's not too much of an impact on Okehampton itself putting the cafe at risk etc.

 



Err ... is this what they are talking about?


Surely not  ...
* This is disruption well after 19:45
* Westbury to Swindon is not "in the Gloucester area"
* The problem is reported to be causing delays, not short runnings /part cancellations.

 



All buses on services 271/2/3 will be running Shaw Hill and Folly Lane - that's a diversion for all buses on routes 271 and 273.  Bus route 272 normally runs Shaw Hill and Folly lane anyway, except for the first Monday to Friday service from Bath which diverges from the norm when it can, and goes through Whitley at around 08:15.

 

Platform 5 at Paddington, from where it started, won't accommodate more than 10 carriages? 

 

 
Report in Wales Online here:

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/devastating-scenes-welsh-village-people-34379389

Thankfully not impacting on today's rail network as the line there is on the other side of the River Taff.

A blast in the quarry there was followed by the unexpected appearance beyond its perimeter of a volume of water, mud and debris, flowing rapidly and impacting around 15 houses among other things. I'm wondering if the source was the long out of use ironstone mine adit shown on the map below. The village itself is built on made ground on the site of what was the Pentyrch iron works so there are opportunities for other sources for this mischief - for starters, the natural watercourse that drains the valley above is culverted beneath the entire site.

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.5&lat=51.53903&lon=-3.27392&layers=257&b=LIDAR_DTM_1m&o=100

The road below the site of the level and leading downhill to the affected settlement has this structure looming above it, over the last few years its had a bit of vegetation removed from it. (Google Streetview)

https://maps.app.goo.gl/g12tX2eovmDkCZce7

This event as it was looks to have been very much on a scale that posed a risk to life - I'm surprised it's not higher profile in the news. Given slightly different geography, this would have resulted in collapsed buildings full of mine debris, something that has terrible resonances in the South Wales valleys.

Mark

** the quarry is singular in that its excavation has severed a substantial tunnel on a disused railway line - the Barry Railway's route tunnelled through the hill, before crossing the valley on a (mostly demolished) viaduct and the quarry has removed a section of the tunnel.

 
I was looking at RTT to see which trains sped through Chippenham yesterday evening while I was waiting for my Melksham service, and spotted this:
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:W34637/2026-07-30

Do 14 coach IETs really exist? I didn't notice that it was any longer than usual, but it was motoring.