Ironic with Chiltern Railways having been one of the big success stories of privatisation!

 

Indeed. It feels like the perennial issue problem of the GWR franchise going back 20+ years has been stock availability, which has been almost entirely down to the DfT.

 

I missed ... most ... of the briefing the other week. Our schedule in Spain had gone dramatically wrong / missed connection into the second and last train to our booked hotel.  Good to hear that.

 
Probably wise from GWR given the rolling stock issues.

I cannot remember all the changes planned but one headline is the restoration of a half hourly Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington for part of Sundays.   

 

Unless that chart omits a substantial source of road funding, those numbers seem hard to justify considering how much more passenger and freight traffic uses the road network than the rail network. If the chart is accurate, I'd be shocked if rail doesn't face a significant budget cut.

 
Speaking of budgets, in the Department for Transport annual report and accounts 2025 to 2026, figure 1.1 surprised me, it's a doozy.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dft-annual-report-and-accounts-2025-to-2026/department-for-transport-annual-report-and-accounts-2025-to-2026-html-version#financial-overview-from-the-director-general-for-the-corporate-delivery-group

 
From https://www.passenger.chat/r32716.html


From Chilrtem Railways

 

...and budget.

 
With promotions, is knocking the competition the best approach? Probably not.

However, I'm fine with GWR's one time strapline to the effect 'We intend to empty the M4' ...

 

Which reminds me of a much heralded, at the time,  innovation to help tackle such issues in the form of a high tech detector train that was supposed it be able to identify and record the location such objects, at speed, even if obscured by vegetation.  Not heard or seen much more about it since, or indeed any evidence of clearer line sides.

 
Some units are more reliable and have done a lot more passenger diagrams. Oddly the reliability extends to trains that came straight to Lara, and the one that went to Exeter, as well as those that went through Wolverton.

116 is due out tomorrow. Currently listed as out of service.

 
National Express Advert


Hmmm ...


Personal preference is train. 5 hours less travel, the freedom to move around and to choose from multiple return times.  Leaving home at 06:30 and back at 22:45 is a very long day.  Buses and coaches DO have their place, but as a day trip to the centre of London this is not the mode I would choose.

 

Not a term I have come across either, but a thumping great circular thing on the top of a few spindly columns, with the real reason for it being there in the first place - the water supply point - being at the base and "supported" by the thing above.

 

Alternatively identify as a cat and then make use of your neighbour's front garden. 

 
Good to see.  I'm a little puzzled by the "parachute-style" term though unless it just means it's circular (the best shape structurally so no great surprise) rather than square or oblong?  Presumably Network Rail have made other arrangements at its originally-intended new location.

 
Even when the 'integrated' railway arrives in GWR land I would contend that the infrastructure outfit formerly known as Network Rail will, unless somebody in overall control forces them to improve, carry on with what looks remarkably like a lackadaisical approach to keeping the rail network in good condition.

In support of this statement I cite the enormous amount of 'scrap' rail, and other items such as old sleepers, left lying along the lineside, and the potentially destructive vegetation growing out of numerous bridges & viaducts. There are also plenty of instances where sidings are obviously OOU, and some cases where the track has been lifted or is completely overgrown, but signalling is still present and sometimes still powered up (e.g. the old cement terminal siding at the north end of EXC).

It all shows a lack of care and pride.

 
Cancellations to services at Exeter St Davids
Following urgent repairs to the track earlier today at Exeter St Davids all lines will be reopened shortly.
Train services running through this station may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 10:00 15/11.

1A77 0830 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington left Exeter at 0931.
1A78 0827 Plymouth to London Paddington running 12 late approaching Starcross.

 

Perhaps the definition of "in service" in this context would be useful - do they have to be serviceable to be considered "in service", or simply located at a GWR location, regardless of whether they are in working order?

 
A recent comment prompted by the current pair of impactful IT failures to the effect that a company may lose experienced staff and then with a resilient system working well, the decision's taken to metaphorically 'Strips out the redundant wiring' - and the system continues to work well, which provides false reassurance to the decision makers. The system itself, however, is now fragile / in a spiral of decline / running on borrowed time, and sooner or later that is exposed either in a catastrophic way or by a general decline as the loss of capability is exposed. The phrase 'Minimum viable product'... the emphasis can land on 'Minimum' when it should be on 'Viable' - and 'Viable' for many provisions, must include the ability to adapt, to shrink to nothing, but also to grow, because without those qualities, the product is a zombie.

 
Is it a fluke of history that Kent and Sussex has so many settlements that have retained alternative routes? For that part of the coast, for the future, there's the option of Brighton Main Line 2 - which hasn't (yet) been taken up - and for the duration of this work, is it that hourly(?) through trains are going to be provided via Horsham?

 

Statement of the obvious - that's pretty poor utilisation - 3 or 4 out of 26 trains, at a time when (please correct me if I am wrong) we might have expected somewhere around three quarters of them to be in service for passenger carrying every day.

 
Not the first time - what DO you do for major works on a mainline which has limited alternatives?  At least in this case, through passengers can travel via Horsham - I question "and Littlehampton" which is a terminus at the end of a branch - not sure how much time it would add to the London to Brighton through trains to go in and out of there?   Having said which, Brighton only has 2 and a bit platforms accessible from the west, so perhaps the diverted trains will also take up the paths of other trains on that line and also provide the Littlehampton service?

The south - old Southern Region and indeed old "Network South East" is well set with alternative routes.  Until 1899, there was the "London Chatham and Dover" and the "South Eastern Railway" serving Maidstone, Canterbury and Dover and many other places through different lines.   Bexhill and Hastings had services from the SECR and LBSCR. The London and South Western Railway and the London, Brighton and South Coast both had routes to take to to Portsmouth and through running tool you to Southampton too. And with the LSWR and GWR could take you to Weymouth. All of those lines still exist, though not necessarily with regular through services.

Away from the South (East), there are still two lines / routes available to Exeter, but beyond there a strategic gap now exists onwards to Plymouth which relies on the single route along the seawall at Dawish and over the hills at Dainton, Rattery and Hemerdon, all of which have been a challenge, and really it was a strategic blunder, though perhaps a finacially sensible decision, to close and rip up the alternative in 1968.

 

The train database lists 14 trains in service out of 18 at GWR. Just three diagrams of late; might be four tomorrow.

 
I was in the TSSA for 34 years from 1967 on the underground. We didn't strike had three sponsored MPs. The booking office salaries always reflected the post office and banks salaries. I went into the pension superannuation scheme at 17 whereas station staff, guards, drivers not until they were 24 expecting to do 40 years service by retirement age.

In those days they were not militant.

 
No; if you count eighteen 175s operating three diagrams, reduced services, no increase in capacity anywhere on GWR, and Paignton station main entrance not opened four months after fire "ravaged" the footbridge. The staff and signaller still use the building.

 


And how much food does HMG have stored for use by the civilian population these days ? None I suspect.

 
Mark Hopwood's GWR team have done a good job there, then. 

 
This topic was something of a challenge for me: I had to start a new topic here and add a definition on our Coffee Shop forum's 'abbreviations & acronyms' page for NLR.  I can only apologize that I hadn't even heard of the Northampton & Lamport Railway before now - but I post here now, for your information and enjoyment. 

From the BBC:


Please do read the full BBC article, for more details, if you are interested.

CfN.

 
New timetables are out. Cannot see any difference at Paignton.

 

With thanks for your post, TaplowGreen, I would like to expand upon / clarify a couple of those points from me, in that previous post:

I certainly did not intend to be 'condescending' in my post.  However, I have seen comments, elsewhere, to the effect that some are looking, rather gleefully, for the nationalisation of Great Western Railway as being 'an overnight solution' for their particular issues. I am with Mark Hopwood on that one: it just isn't that simple, nor is it going to happen.

My hope for 'a more integrated railway system' (preferably within my remaining lifetime) remains. It will not happen overnight. 

CfN.