Those who have met me in person ...

19:53 London Paddington to Hereford due 22:57 will be terminated at Reading.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:25/06/2025 17:39

When I was in hospital, one of the nurses stated that I looked "cute" this I found shocking, I haver been called cute in my life.
Those who have met me in person, will confirm that "cute" is not a term that comes to mind.
Fat, stout, full sized, tall, old, past it, top heavy; might come to mind but not "cute"

Elizabeth Romijn, a yoga teacher from the Netherlands, told PA news agency at St Pancras that the situation was "very chaotic" and people were having to sit on the ground because there were not enough chairs.  The 75-year-old was planning to travel home to Brussels after visiting friends in Surrey. 

Eurostar passengers face severe delays after cable theft



Eurostar passengers are facing a second day of severe delays after two people died on the railway track in France and then cables were stolen.

The high-speed rail operators says repairs are complete and the railway line is open again, but delays will last until the end of the day.

Eurostar said passengers should postpone their journey, after the disruption saw services cancelled and delayed in both directions on lines connecting London with Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.

Eurostar said there was already knock-on disruption on Wednesday after two people died in separate incidents on the LGV Nord line on Tuesday, but services were further impacted after cable was stolen on the same line.



The theft near Lille, which French media said was of around 600 metres of copper cables, caused trains to be rerouted, leading to extended journey times. Further cancellations are not expected on Wednesday now that the railway line is repaired.

Eurostar said that so far, five trains between London and Paris have been cancelled. It added that impacted passengers can change their travel plans for free or request a full refund.

"We're very sorry for the impact this is having on our customers," Eurostar said in a statement. "Our teams are working closely with the French authorities and infrastructure teams to manage the situation and restore services safely."

The operator earlier said one track had reopened, allowing some trains to run in both directions until full repairs were completed.  Water is being handed out to passengers onboard delayed trains, and stations are also very busy.  Hundreds of people are queuing at London's St Pancras International railway station trying to access the service centre to rebook onto other trains.

Elizabeth Romijn, a yoga teacher from the Netherlands, told PA news agency at St Pancras that the situation was "very chaotic" and people were having to sit on the ground because there were not enough chairs.  The 75-year-old was planning to travel home to Brussels after visiting friends in Surrey.  "My plan is to just wait. Maybe I should go and be more proactive and go to ask one of the staff but nobody seems to know anything," she said, adding that "it's quite horrible long queues."

The railway line in France was closed for much of the afternoon and evening on Tuesday after the two fatalities between Lille and Paris.  Services were cancelled on routes to and from Paris while trains between London, Brussels and Amsterdam ran with delays.  Eurostar said disruption continued into Wednesday as trains and crew were displaced.

Also yesterday - a young lady who was quite pretty (am I allowed to say that?) ...

14:18 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01
15:15 Swindon to Westbury due 15:59
17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:19

17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:19 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

... as previous years there wasn’t enough on the basics of running a railway: performance, capacity, navigation (in all senses), timetables and fares. It was clear from the Q&A that those were the topics people wanted addressed. The material about advertising and community is well known to us, and I could’ve done without the greenwash ...

Rogue bears' honey supply replenished by donations

A pair of bears who escaped and raided their keepers' food store in Devon are in the honey once more thanks to generous community donations.

European brown bears Mish and Lucy sparked a "code red" on Tuesday, in an escape that conservation charity Wildwood Trust said was caused by an unlocked gate. The dynamic duo consumed "a week's worth of honey", the trust said, as well as jam and other supplies - prompting a "sugar rush" and leaving a depleted larder in their wake.

Mark Habben, director of zoological operations at Wildwood Trust, near Exeter, said: "I think everyone's picked up on the fact bears really do love honey - we've had donations including a 15kg (33lb) tub."

Mr Habben added: "We've also had donations to purchase more honey.  It's just been been really lovely support from the local community.  I couldn't have more gratitude for how people have responded to this and rallied around and offered support and also come in to see Mish and Lucy.  People have picked up the cheeky element of bears, I think, and that they're a lovely, peaceful animal."

Mr Habben said they had also been inundated by visitors since the incident captured imaginations across the country and beyond.



It was at about 15:00 BST on Monday that the young bears "breached" the enclosure and made their way to a staff area. As the duo "feasted and played around", a park evacuation and lockdown took place, while staff trained in firearms and the police were deployed to the site. After about 55 minutes, Lucy made her way back to the enclosure, while Mish was lured back with a bell and some food.

Mr Habben said the sugar from the honey hit the bears shortly afterwards.  "They gorged on honey and then they somehow needed to burn all of the energy off that that honey had created. They charged around for a good few hours, climbing up the trees, which was really fun to see, and jumping in the pond."

He said they then "crashed out" in a deep sleep "for hours" - just as an influx of visitors arrived to see the now-famous bears.  "I think it was all of the running around from the sugar rush coupled with all of that sensory enrichment from being somewhere they shouldn't. They are like toddlers."

Mr Habben said a safety review was now under way to ensure the unlocked gate "never happens again".  "We've been transparent that a mistake was made but at the end of it is a really positive ending and the engagement has been great."

I imagine whoever maintains the railways in the UK could learn from the places you've visited Graham and significantly reduce their maintenance bills by getting rid of all that namby pamby safety fencing we have around our tracks

Plan "A" yesterday was to attend the Community Rail Conference via Zoom. Plan "B" if that failed was to do something else. And "B" it was when my Zoom connection proved so limited due, I believe, to traffic level restrictions at my (Slovak) end.  So "Plan B" it was - a trip up to Skalite where once again plans changed (too hot to climb the hill to the crosses) and I ended up on Plan "C". So here are some pictures from Makov - a village at the end of a line, which is itself another line that's another branch. 

A lovely afternoon riding trains that remind me of the pacers that saved so many lines in the UK - in the generation of Community Rail that was concerned with getting bums on seats and saving lines - as recalled yesterday morning by Heather Cullimore of the Severnside Community Rail Partnership before my connection to the conference started limiting me.

I'm not captioning individual pictures - a reader has challenged me to say that I should.  Some I will and do comment on / explain but for most all a caption would do is re-iterate what I write in the main text; often it's just a "that's nice" picture to bring the place to life and I've not a clue who built it, when it was last used, or why it's so special - this is a sampling trip and I am sampling more.  If anyone is interested in something in an individual picture, please ask and I will answer - but expect that the answer will often be "I don't know".  If you are fascinated, you could add the place to your travel plans or research.