Perhaps a case of, 'the usual train needing repair'? 

 
I can only assume that infoman was referring to this incident, reported on Sky News:


Candidates for a Darwin Award. CfN.

 

Looks like it's a 10-car to me.

 

I agree - the alert was really written as a warning to self no to go too far in my thoughts.

 
Currently I am struck by the "leading" that occurs on the GWR ticket site (and perhaps others). The up front pricing for a journey often leads one to the Advance Single fares. Now whilst this "might" be a bargain for a single journey it is rarely the case for return journeys.

Purchase of 2 Advance Singles is generally more expensive than buying a normal Off-Peak or Super Off Peak return, which also offer flexibility.

So is this "leading" a marketing tool, perhaps still emanating from TOC-specific tickets, or some other revenue generating trick. How many people get misled by this into buying 2 Advances?

 
Free 'gifted' version, valid for a month I think:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/4dd3dccf66bb1b88

 
Oi! Hands off the Welsh 158s! They (together with the 21x class 197e units) make up around half of the DMUs able to operate on the Cambrian lines, and I dread to think what the overcrowding is going to be like at Welshpool when the Tour de France visits next July unless the 158s are kept to allow 6-car formations. Even this year, I understand the planned 4-car workings on the Cambrian Coast in summer were mostly short-formed due to "more trains that normal require repair at the same time", and that's before TfW have Bristol services to cover.

 

I wasn't aware of anyone jumping to any conclusions, it has been confirmed that this was the train involved in the incident and the statement from the BTP is;

"We were called at around 6.30am today (11 November) to reports of a casualty on the tracks at Hanwell railway station.

Officers responded with paramedics, however sadly a person was pronounced dead at the scene. The incident is not being treated as suspicious, and a file will be prepared for the coroner".

 

We should not jump to any conclusions and await - presumably an inquest and investigation. I don't know the "last time" answer. I do know that people have put themselves (and at times their children and grandchildren) at risk when out to see a steam train in the GW area in times since the 1960s and very recently too when they became a novelty spectacle.

 
Vessels sinking (or being raised, or even being) can be very psychologically significant for some reason. Sending props.

 
Lisa recalls a journey from Le Havre to New York on SS United States at the age of 13 (1968) as part of a family relocation - her dad had finished his work in Germany. Tales of being encouraged to try all the foods, and being taken on board to see a film that these days would be "X" rated.  I read her the article and she's tinged with a sadness at the sinking.

 
Ah yes I remember it Chris.

 

Seen the question asked elsewhere in relation to yesterday's unfortunate events - when was the last time someone was killed by a steam train on the GWML?

 
Pro tip: next time, ask the U.S. navy to provide lighting for the event.

 

⁽¹⁾ More than just a fear - employment and education not happening and not being taken up because of cancellations.  We have examples raised with GWR, who give us marketing responses.

⁽²⁾ It's about much more than weather, though, isn't it?   How convenient for the minister that the questioning MP noted weather as one of the causes, as it allowed him to answer just one element, and not address crew shortages, working train shortages, signalling problems, point and OHLE problems, and person hit by train, which are the majority of reasons over all behind cancellations and delays over all.

⁽³⁾ The primary duty of the railway - the reason it's there at all - is to convey people and goods. Yes, safety is a necessary corollary, but it is not the prime reason for rail being there.

 
Always good journalism to shoehorn in a reference to the Titanic…

 

Noting that the 17:30 Paddington - Bristol - Taunton service is just 5 carriages this evening.  That's likely to be very "matey".

 
Sky news at 07:30am on Thursday morning showing persons hanging onto trains while the train are traveling at Speed.

Frightening.

 

Looks like most of them re-instated.  Trains repaired 

(Another) example of GWR crying "wolf" then backtracking.  But they are in a very difficult position having to make binary choices during the night as the need for extra (?) repairs manifest as to whether they flag up a train as cancelled or not. It's a balance, good arguments to alert people (flag cancelled) or hang on in the hope the enginneers can fix it, but then risk last minute disruption and perhaps too late to lay on rail replacement buses.

 
All cancelled "more trains than usual needing repair"

06:16 Bourne End to Maidenhead due 06:27
06:31 Maidenhead to Bourne End due 06:42
06:36 Marlow to Bourne End due 06:43
06:46 Bourne End to Marlow due 06:53
06:46 Bourne End to Maidenhead due 06:57
07:01 Maidenhead to Bourne End due 07:12
07:06 Marlow to Bourne End due 07:13
07:16 Bourne End to Marlow due 07:23
07:16 Bourne End to Maidenhead due 07:27
07:36 Marlow to Bourne End due 07:43
07:46 Bourne End to Marlow due 07:53
08:06 Marlow to Bourne End due 08:13
08:16 Bourne End to Marlow due 08:23
08:38 Marlow to Bourne End due 08:45
08:48 Bourne End to Marlow due 08:55
08:58 Marlow to Maidenhead due 09:21
09:32 Maidenhead to Marlow due 09:55
10:00 Marlow to Maidenhead due 10:23

 

Indeed I doubt that the DfT will sanction it, but are we/they missing three things if we/they say "no"?

1. What proportion of tickets sold into regional and local journeys are returns compared to singles?   I don't have more than an educated guess (anyone know better?) but I would estimate that for every 90 return sold, there are just 10 singles.  The majority of journeys are of an out and back nature and most of those within a day.  Even on longer distances, most journeys are return trips though spread out over longer periods.  Further, this vast majority of people would buy both outbound and return legs via the same route and so the total financial "take" will add up to the same.   The headline fare of "just £3" in your example will be sold, yes, but they will be sold two at a time. So selling two singles rather than a return will not result in a substantive loss of income.

2. (a) Why do return tickets, and at good prices compared to two singles, exist in the first place?   Firstly, because of cost-of-sales; if the vast majority of tickets sold are returns sold at ticket offices, is slashed.  Look at my TRO to BBZ example - it is quicker for someone to ask for and purchase a "return to Bristol Brabazon please" at the Trowbridge ticket office or TVM than to make two purchases / two tickets, and that means more staff needed if you go to a singles-only system.   Except - that approaching 90% of tickets are sold online these days, so that argument goes away;  the ticket office is very much more the help desk for the majority of people these days and not the queue of people all purchasing returns that would double in length if only singles were sold.  Online, I can (and do) click on one column for outbound, the next column for inbound, and it does not involve extra staff time or complexity

2. (b) It has been explained to me that return ticket give the revenue team twice the opportunity to catch potential fare dodgers - if it costs £14.50 for a return (TRO to BBZ) but £12.60 for a single, then if I get away with an illegal journey outbound (fictional situation personally) I still end up paying £12.60 - 87% - anyway if I have to buy just the ticket to get me home.   But with closed stations, very much more thorough and quicker on board checking for the most part, that revenue protection issue is much reduced.

3. (a) Offering single tickets at excellent prices where there are alternative public transport services will help encourage integrated transport and journeys to be made by different modes where it works.  Taking examples like Saltash into Plymouth, Melksham to Trowbridge, and you could find many more, there is a real price barrier at present to making outbound journeys by bus and return via train, or vice versa.

3. (b) For people working overnight - a small proportion of passengers - the move to singles would remove the unfair pricing for these shift workers and allow outbound and return travel at an unpenalised fare.

The current fare system is overcomplex for many people, with unnecessary decisions needed on (for example) fares from Melksham into London on when you are coming back.  We are already penalised by (a) the lack of a day return product, (b) the lack of availability of Network card discounts - why from Axminster and Yeovil, but not from Melksham of Trowbridge and (c) the often lack of availability of a return service within an hour when you finish your business in London.   Offering purely single fares at a level that maintained rail income would be a step in the right direction of encouraging rail use, and would reduce the publicity own goals of reported very high single fare prices.

Is there scope for the "Network South East" card to be extended into being a "Network England" card?   Or even a "Network GB", "Network UK" or "Network British Isles" of "Network Europe" card ....

 
I was rather hoping it would include Donald Trump, but no such luck, apparently. 

From the BBC:

 
I'm starting this new topic here, not so much as I'm particularly a fan of anything to do with Weston-super-Mare, but because it is an historic feature of national significance - like Birnbeck Pier.

From the BBC:

 
Thanks for posting, Western Pathfinder. 

No, actually: it wasn't Isambird Kingdom Brownowl' I was transporting, on that particular occasion.  He is safe in an annex at grahame's - I know, because I met him there, last time I was in Melksham.

It was another of grahame's rather cumbersome pieces of equipment - also from that publicity event on the Reading Transfer Deck, in 2019.  That was one of the two foldable tables we used at that particular event - despite being ''foldable', they are built like portable air raid shelters - even broadgage would approve!

Folded down, it has the appearance of a surf board - but it is very much heavier! 

CfN. 

 

True, but when you have an Off-Peak Day Return from Newton Abbot to Exeter with a Railcard at just £5.95, I think it highly unlikely that the Single would be re-priced to just £3.00. 

Or an Off-Peak Single from Exeter St David's to Penzance (a distance similar to Exeter to Paddington!) with a Railcard re-priced to just £10.00.

I'd like to think it would happen, but I doubt DfT would sanction it.

 
New trains=shorter.
Flexible train length=shorter.

 

Owls well that ends well ?…

 
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/11/10/workers-fear-losing-jobs-over-train-delays-warn-mps/

In case the pay wall gets you....

Workers fear losing their jobs because rail services are regularly late, MPs have warned.

A spate of line closures and cancellations during the summer heatwaves made it impossible for thousands of commuters to arrive at the office on time.

MPs at a Westminster Hall debate said workers were increasingly fearful of the lack of reliable train connections and urged the Government to spend more on rail infrastructure to improve punctuality.

Charlotte Cane, the Liberal Democrat MP for Ely and East Cambridgeshire, said: “One [constituent] in particular has written to say that because their train has been so unreliable for getting to their job in London that their employer is now putting them under pressure.

“They are becoming an unreliable member of staff and their employer doesn’t know when they are going to turn up to work.

“They are also having to make up the time at the end of the day, which means they are getting home very late. It makes it a complete nightmare for them.”

Desperate to protect their jobs, some workers were now considering moving house to be closer to stations with more reliable services, MPs said.

Others are considering giving up well-paid positions in London and other major cities for less lucrative roles closer to home.

Among the worst-hit lines this summer was the route between King’s Cross and King’s Lynn via Cambridge and Ely, the later of which lies in Ms Cane’s constituency.

It suffered three months of disruption, including 900 cancellations after normally damp peat beneath the tracks dried out, leading the ground to become uneven.

James Wild, the Conservative MP for North West Norfolk, which includes King’s Lynn, said people from the town who worked in Cambridge and London had found the disruption intolerable.

He told The Telegraph: “I’ve had quite a number of constituents who have said they’re thinking of moving jobs. They’ve been in tears and incredibly stressed.

“One lady said her husband, who commutes and is self-employed, had been driven to depression and was having
suicidal thoughts because he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to provide for his family. It’s pushing people to breaking point.”

Mr Wild said some commuters had opted to drive to Peterborough on the East Coast Main Line, or Norwich, which has trains to Liverpool Street – both an hour away by road – to be sure of getting to work.

He said there were concerns that with the line suffering heat-related disruption for the past two summers, people would stop viewing King’s Lynn as a viable commuter town, which could have a knock-on effect on house prices.

Mr Wild questioned Andy Burnham about the matter in September, when the Prime Minister said he would “convene a rail summit soon”.

Richard Foord, the Liberal Democrat MP for Honiton and Sidmouth, said commuters to cities beyond London had also been affected.

He said restrictions imposed between London Waterloo and the West Country had in one case led a dental hygienist to cancel her 9am appointments “indefinitely”.

Simon Lightwood, the minister for local transport, said he could not rule out further weather-related disruption.

He added that while speed restrictions and closures might be frustrating, the railway’s primary duty was to keep passengers safe.

 

That would have been the one I saw stationary just past Hanwell this morning. Very sad for all concerned.

 
I have taken a pragmatic view (and I can, because I'm an admin ) and I've now merged several previous topics on the Coffee Shop forum here.

They all refer specifically to the conveyance of poppies by train from across the West to Paddington, for inclusion in the Remembrance ceremonies there, and associated commemorations.

I'm sure we here on this forum would like to show our respect to those who served, suffered and indeed many died.

An update, from the BBC:


There are several other BBC articles relating to this theme - too numerous for me to list them all here.  Please do look at your local area news items, if you have an interest.

CfN.