For road diesel


So a £2.00 litre that's 86p duty and VAT, and 114p for the fuel.  Up from (example0 £1.50 per litre, from which just 72p to HMG

What is the situation with train diesel?

 
Petrol very high too.

Will 'drive' motorists to using the railways and the predictable cost of fares:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6n4k987k981o

Double edged sword of course as cost of running diesel trains will also be higher!

 
From Cat Smith MP on Social Media ... for a Fylde / Blackpool area constituency


I am delighted that the it will be run in the interests of passengers, and not the new (public) shareholders; as I read it, she's telling us that the Department for Transport is to be taking the lead and not The Treasury. Do I have that right?

Good to see the word "advanced" in her comment on fractured advance fares though still making what I would suggest is a very big deal out of quite a small but sensible completion of formalisation of something that's really been there.

 


20,000 miles of track and 7,000 stations -> 10,000 miles of track and 2,600 stations in 20 years last time. Same thing in proportion this time would reduce us to 5,000 miles of track and 1,000 stations, which I feel is unduly alarmist and might look like one of the Serpell report options - https://www.passenger.chat/mirror/DoT_Serpell001.pdf - but I note that promises are of service reliabiility, and reduced financial "losses" and not of maintaining service speed, frequency or size of network.

Where services have survived the 1948 era, they are typically more frequent and cleaner (and much better patronised). Undoubteldy (or rather in my undoubted opinion) some that were lost were reasonable losses at the time.  I am loathe to venture too many examples, but look at Halwill to Torrington, Bridgwater to Edginton Junction and Tiverton Junction to Culmstock and from afar I can understand the decision.  I am relieved that community kickback meant that lines such as Inverness to Wick, Thurso and Kyle of Lochalsh, Liskeard to Looe, St Erth to St Ives and Exeter to Exmouth.

Views / metrics HAVE changed and I agree there is no wartime backlog, nor would I anticipate another jolt of the proportion of the coming private car.  But it's not impossible to foresee a political party in power or in coalition with what I would consider extreme views, and without any experience of running anything and looking to cut "social costs" and public transport is very much a social expense on the bottom line.  You may save millions closing sixth forms in rural parts of your county, but if you do, you should really put part of the saving into getting the bright kids to the bigger hubs.

 

This is all true. Torbay lost 5000 high paid jobs almost overnight. My parents-in-law bungalow sold for £90,000 in 2001 and £180,000 in 2006; then the property crash of 2008 it went down and did not recover to that price until 2014. The population of Torbay did not increase at all between 2001 and 2011. It has gone up since with thousands of new houses on greenfield sites, but the cheap hotels and B&Bs became a prey for outside councils to house their homeless and buy properties on the new estates.

That's why in the thread I started below regarding about a new 4* hotel is so important as the council expect it to release more brownfield sites and not put so much pressure on greenfield sites because the government says they are not providing enough housing land.

 
Thanks for these explanations.

 
Here is the actual Government announcement mentioning amendments to Manchester timetables.

Amendments sounds more like PR spin for cuts, presumably if it was expansion they would have said so


https://www.gov.uk/government/news/transport-secretary-to-nationalise-avanti-west-coast-services-at-first-opportunity

 
I was bought up in Torquay and went to school in Paignton in  the 1960s and remember them as vibrant places.  Between 1999 and 2005 I visited Torquay once a month and my initial impression was how both had deteriorated,  especially their shopping  centres. Many fine houses in Torquay had become multi-occupancy, with half-a-dozen sets of bins permanently outside them.

Torbay livened up in the holiday season, which provided jobs, but in the winter ...

In 1961 we moved to Sidmouth which, perhaps, was a bit  too much of a retirement area for a teenager,  especially in the winter.  Recently the Daily Express acclaimed it for its large number of independent shops.

(In 1970  I moved from Sidmouth to Basingstoke. with four months in digs at the Great Western Hotel, next to the station. The town was then developing to accommodate "London overspill ...)

 


Another candidate for AI assistance?

 
.......so we've heard it all before then?

(perhaps not the war damage this time though!)

 

Saturday, 19th September 2026 at 08:53:25 - headed for the 09:09 to s Westbury


Indeed - I would be an advocate of some [more] pedestrianisation in Melksham.  Avon Place is tiny but a pedestrian precinct of sorts.   Now you could take the back of the Cooper Tires site, widening or a new road crossing the river just to the north of the Adventure Centre and joining the Calne Road at the top of the KGV park to pull a great deal of the through traffic, and traffic from the east of Melksham housing headed for Chippenham and Bath out of the Town Centre.

 
That 4th picture, looking down Melksham Bank Street - I'm curious when that was taken as I don't think I've ever seen it with so little traffic, in daylight anyway. As you know if you spin round 180 you're looking towards the Costa and the actual High Street, and it tends to be a bit busier around there in my limited (especially compared to yours) experience.

I lived in Chippenham for a few years and having a pedestrianized high street during most of the day made it magnitudes nicer as a place to shop/loiter. Difficult to know how they could do the same with Melksham, but they might have thought that about Chippenham before they did it.

 
This is from the Guardian in May (scroll down the page) - expected nationalisation to be in early 2027, so this announcement is really for the Labour Conference. Another sound bite reiterated.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/may/18/avanti-west-coast-to-cut-one-in-seven-trains-on-its-busiest-intercity-routes

 
Paignton, I saw on Saturday WH Smith or now TG Jones is closing down. I think the one in Torquay has gone. October Today's Railways had a small section on the closures and the difficulty of buying magazines.  Where can you by a newspaper in central Paignton? Only Tesco Express, and a shop near the level crossing. Paignton station had a very good bookstall/newsagent but that closed over twenty years ago.

There are no banks in Torquay although a hub in Fleet Street is shortly to open. There is a hub in Brixham. Paignton still has all but one (NatWest) of it's banks.

Torbay council have a policy, because they expect 50% of retail to disappear to concentrate the shops in specific areas and the rest to ultimately become residential. This is really noticeable in Torquay where shops are closing in the upper parts of Union Street to the lower part and Fleet Street nearer the sea with plans for residential development or conversion to residential of the vacated shops.

It's an irony that in Paignton most of the shops, cafes, in the Torbay Road, Hyde Road, and Palace Avenue are converted houses.

Ps
Torquay and Paignton are the 3rd and 4th largest towns in Devon, although official government figures reverse this by including a number of areas such as Cockington, Torbay Hospital, Torre into Paignton figures. It must distort all sorts of government figures. If you add in Brixham the total is 140,000 people the second biggest area and population in Devon although Exeter will soon overtake population wise.

 
Our Town Council have a very full agenda tonight https://www.melksham-tc.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2026-09-28-Full-Council-Agenda-Pack-Public.pdf
 - ranging from


and


to


and


... a total of 139 pages which, once again, confirms that I made the right call for me personally to become something of a specialist volunteer in 2024.  And on tonight's agenda, I particularly picked out the local plan consultation on transport (text follows).   This is in some ways very much far future stuff - what will happen if and when the plan is adopted from 2029 to 2040.   It's very much indirect stuff - with inputs here being filtered multiple times (you ask MTC, who ask WC, who ask their officers, who ask the plan inspector, and the result guides but does not commit the government of the day, whatever flavour that might be.  HOWEVER, some of the ideas and suggestions may be taken up and stick, and having them as written and supported policy is helpful later down the line as we push things forward.

---

Transport and connectivity

Transport must be planned with growth. Evidence and policy should cover the A350, A365, A3102, key junctions, affected rural routes, the proposed Melksham Eastern Bypass, buses, rail, walking and cycling, freight, HGV parking and driver facilities, routes to schools, access to employment and cross-boundary travel. The Local Plan should align directly with LTP4, LCWIPs, the Bus Service Improvement Plan, Melksham and east Melksham bus strategies, rail strategies, freight work and school travel plans.  Schemes required to support growth should translate into site requirements and section 106, CIL or other funding.

Active travel should be treated as core transport infrastructure rather than optional mitigation. Development should deliver safe, direct, continuous and accessible walking and cycling networks, including segregated cycle lanes where appropriate, protected junctions and crossings, secure cycle parking, links to schools, employment areas, the town centre, healthcare, community facilities, bus stops and Melksham railway station, and connections between adjoining developments and existing routes. Routes should be designed for year-round use, with clear maintenance and delivery responsibilities, and completed early enough to offer a realistic alternative to car travel from first occupation.

Future public transport demand and carbon reduction

The Local Plan should forecast public transport demand over the full Plan period, taking account of housing and employment growth, population ageing, changing work patterns, school and college travel, healthcare journeys, town-centre access, visitor demand and cross-boundary commuting. Forecasting should identify current and future passenger volumes by corridor and time of day, including peak, evening, Sunday and off-peak demand, and test how different growth locations would affect bus and rail patronage, interchange and network capacity.

Public transport should be planned as an integrated network rather than as isolated routes. Strategic growth should support frequent, reliable and accessible services connecting homes with employment areas, schools, colleges, healthcare, the town centre, Melksham railway station and neighbouring settlements. Requirements should include bus priority where justified, suitable stops and shelters, accessible boarding, real-time passenger information, safe walking and cycling connections, secure cycle parking, interchange facilities, service frequency, operating hours, long-term revenue support and mechanisms to respond as demand changes.

Investment in buses, rail and active travel can reduce the carbon footprint of growth by replacing private-car journeys, lowering congestion and transport emissions, improving local air quality and reducing the need for additional road capacity and parking. The carbon benefits should be quantified through transparent baseline data and mode- share scenarios, including estimated reductions in vehicle kilometres, fuel and energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions. Assessment should consider whole-journey emissions and avoid assuming that a site is low carbon merely because a service is nearby; the service must be sufficiently frequent, reliable, affordable, accessible and connected to achieve a genuine and lasting shift in travel behaviour.  Development should support a measurable increase in public transport, walking and cycling from first occupation. Travel plans, developer contributions and infrastructure triggers should include passenger and mode-share targets, monitoring arrangements and corrective measures where services or carbon savings are not being achieved.  Electrification and other lower-emission vehicle technologies should be supported, but should complement—not replace—reduced car dependency and effective public transport provision.

Public transport infrastructure should include modern passenger information, including real-time information at stops and shelters serving significant development. The Council supports the principle of improved rail and public transport connectivity through the Bath & Wiltshire Metro concept, without endorsing every technical detail.  Opportunities for better Melksham rail provision and regeneration at locations such as the former Cooper Tires site and Upside Yard should be safeguarded.

Freight requires specific consideration around Bowerhill and the A365, particularly alongside Melksham Oak, housing and employment growth and the Eastern Bypass.  Suitable HGV parking and driver-welfare facilities at Bowerhill Industrial Estate should be planned alongside further employment land.

---

I hope they don't spend too long on the coffee machine question ... and give full thought to endorsing much of the good above.   Had I been writing it, I might have extended the "available from first occupation" to include not only active travel routes, but also bus stops and services.    The proposed mechanisms and standards may offer some hope that our town does not become gridlocked; as Melksham is on the trunk (and only north-south route through Wiltshire, it's important to get similar policies in place in places like Trowbridge to avoid us being overrun by inefficient / unshared transport passing through to and from there and beyond.

 
Nationalisation last time round (1948) and what happened over the following 20 years

YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQKsMT16PFA

From that video - what was envisaged and promised.

What will happen this time round in the next 20 years?

 
From the BBC, in depth


Some town centres seem to have and be succeeding, and others indeed are no longer attracting people to visit businesses there, which are closing their shopfronts.  Is there rhyme or reason to which "High Street" might succeed and which might not?

Looking locally, I see both Devizes and Bath vibrant when I visit them, but I don't get the same feeling from Melksham.  Having said which, we have quite a number of store fronts which are for products for immediate access / use within the hour.  People hereabouts grumble about "yet another barber" and "not ANOTHER takeaway" and yet - with a handful of specific locations - they tend to last longer.   One severe issue tends to be car parking for pickups, and changing regulations seem to  effect them significantly. 

How are High Streets close to you faring?  How do you account for this?

 
This thread comes up every year "on this day" ... and reminds me of how sad I am that there are no scheduled passenger ferry services on the North Sea north of Newcastle to Amsterdam.  Also reminds me what a long way around it is from Hoek of Holland or "Amsterdam" to previously available ports at Esbjerg, Hirtshals, Gothenburg, Oslo, Bergen and Stavangar.

Previous research has suggested that there are regular freight ferries from places like Imminhgam to Scandinavia and perhaps beyond (to Poland and the Baltic states?) but a lack of passenger handling facilities [for a small traffic?] both at borders and on board means people who don't have loads of time have no option but to fly.    Reading elsewhere recently, the proposed Rosyth to The Netherlands service has been stillborn because of issues that would be created at Rosyth.   I can't help wondering if  a Newcastle to Hirtshals and then Kristiansand or Oslo service might work, with a single ship every 2 or 3 days. Making use of existing port facilities rather than anywhere new, though passport / visa / customs stuff might need to be added at the Scandinavian end.    I am NOT suggesting Rosyth / Dundee / Aberdeen for the service - politically that might be very welcome, but it would mean new port facilities.

 
From The BBC


No great surprise there - it's only been a question of "when?".

 

I am a self-confessed innate Luddite (machine wrecker).  The other item I found difficult to deal with, whenever I stayed at grahame's hotel, many years ago, was the orange juicing machine.  The principle is that you cut a fresh orange in half and place it into the machine - which then mechanically spins around, extracting the fresh juice.  My problem (probably through not reading / listening to the instructions) was that I apparently didn't close the lid properly.  The result was that the machine got me, every time - fresh orange juice, into my eyes / down my shirt front.

I became convinced that that machine is possessed: it is still there, dormant, but I do keep a wary eye on it, whenever I visit, lest it remembers me and has another go.

CfN. 

 
More, from the BBC:

 

Memorable meetings that bring out personality are wonderful.

I remember going for an interview on the top (2nd or 3rd floor?) of an office in Basingstoke.  Went in, had the interview and ... got stuck in the lift on the layout.




Got the job - "we saw how you reacted in a crisis" ...

 
An update, from the BBC:


My highlighting.  Whatever were Network Rail thinking of, delivering that? 

CfN. 

 

Hmm. 

That rather reminds me of at least two occasions, many years ago now, on which I (inadvertently, honest!) flooded the coffee machine at grahame's hotel, in breaks during meetings there.  I was just trying to 'top up' my preferred cappuccino into my existing mug, rather than using a fresh one for the measured dispense.

However, it all worked out rather well in the end: despite my mistakes, I am now an admin on this forum. Sorry about that.     

CfN. 

 

Hmmm - since the drop in passenger numbers? Show me the evidence.

 

Hear Hear!

 

One of the interesting "first impression" things and interviewer gets is to whether the interviewee has read (and followed) directions in the invite for interview.  I never did it, but I can quite imagine asking in the call for interview for someone to arrive with a drink for [him/her] and for the interviewer (mine is a long Americano without milk or sugar, medium strength).   A key marker at interview is whether any directions / suggestions have been noted and followed.

 
There's no need: Donald Trump is apparently dealing with it personally.  From the BBC:


CfN.

 
I wouldn't expect a generalist journalist to do a particularly good job of this, but the Guardian piece is bylined (inter alia) by its transport correspondent, who ought to know better.

Oxford's bus speeds, after a long period of decline, are finally on the up again - at statistically significant levels - thanks to the city's congestion charge (which becomes "traffic filters" tomorrow). The charge only applies to cars.

 
My personal view, again. 

In a previous employment (financial services, office based), I did a bit of recruitment interviewing of applicants.  If any of them had turned up with a takeaway coffee, I would have been startled, thinking "they're not taking this seriously".

Mind you, that was many years ago, when my employer at that time insisted that we all (males) wore suits to work, in the back office - even though none of us ever actually met a customer.

(NatWest, if you really want to know. )

CfN.