?? - I suspect you are reading or I am quoting somewhat out of context.

My contacts (and there are several in Wiltshire and Somerset who were there) did find the day very useful and gave no indication of the whole being a waste of their time.  Indeed they said the networking was most useful.

The criticism was more a disappointment at GWR's failure to adequately address the issues of service reliability. I wasn't there so I have no view - but reliability does need to be urgently addressed on the ground, and in writing "urgently" and "on the ground" you have a conundrum for the conference organisers.   Nothing urgent that's effective on the ground has been done for years, and what good would a longer section at the conference giving explanations (excuses?) and making (over?)optimistic promise actually do?

 

A follow up because these are important things for passengers.   It seems that the making of connections even at times of some disruption, and schedules that are gentle enough to get back on track, are the norm and not the exception.

Regular readers will have seen my Visit to Makov article which happened to be made the day of my (!) failed connection to the GWR conference ... but this is about getting there.

The junction with the main line is at Cadac from where the train leaves up the branch every hour. Clockface. And the platform (if you can honour it with that description) is off to one side, across the yard, very much a reminder of Liskeard.   We set off around 10 minutes late - the 4 carriage train already had a comfortable load of people on board, more joined during the delay, and we were finally dispatched by a red-hatted staff member waving a baton at us.   Connection maintained.

Our pacer bucked and bucketed up the valley, calling and wayside stops and crossing roads and paths with limited and varying protecion, and a few horn toots.  People hearabouts seem to know that they should not get in the way of the trains, and the mentality of everyone needing protection against Darwin Award tendencies is absent.

We pulled into Turzokva - on the way to Makov -  7 or 8 minutes late.  Turzokva looks to be quite a substantial town, and the service beyond there does not merit 4 carriages - so we piled out of the 4 car, some of us into a 2 car that was on the same track just ahead of us and others headed for their town business / homes.  And our 2 car set off perhaps 3 or 4 minutes late but with the connection maintained.  Again, a pacer and a series of stations now up to the top of the valley - I think I saw a sign that said "588 metres" but I could have been wrong, or that could have been the distance to some attraction I missed.

We headed back down, starting on time.  The upper valley 2 car set and the lower valley 4 car set both have 20 to 25 minute "runs" so timetables recover the odd delay of a few minutes here and there, and the arrangement with the train change at the intermediate station allows an hourly service all the way, without the need for point changes, passing loops operating, or excess capacity carrying too much fresh air in the upper valley.

The lower valley train arrived late into Turzokva on its upward run (but I noted that the upper valley train was held once again) and we set off back down a few minutes late.  Arriving perhaps 8 minutes late into Cadca, the connecting train to Zilina and beyond was already waiting, connection maintained.  Rather than rush up the platform to the subway, we all used the barrow crossing to get to that posh electric train taking us into the city, under the accepting eyes of the dispatch staff ... and so we set off, delay reduced and passengers happy.

On the approach to Zilina, part of the rebuild is a viaduct and there's just a single operational track over that at the moment.  We had a couple of minutes to wait while a train came the other way, so were perhaps 10 down into Zilina - not that it seemed to matter to anyone.  Passengers for Vrutky and beyond were accommodated for sure - it was the same train (!) and I can't tell you about long distance stuff to Kosice and Bratislava except to say that a 5 to 10 minute late departure for those is often flagged up, and I suspect connection are held.

 
Sad News,

a delay of five years?

wondering what railway technology will have been developed in that time 

 
From ITV.com

 
From the BBC:


My highlighting. CfN.

 

I have: broadgage is great. 

 
Glad to see that "water was being handed out to passengers on delayed trains"........at least they didn't have to rely on a Deliveroo driver with a deadly aim! (Or should that be Delivereau?) 

 
I doubt that the general public are ready for this yet.

Child killed by human operated cab=="what a terrible accident" Legal action against human drivers is normally muted, even if life has been lost. I suspect that judges, magistrates, and jurors tend to sympathise with the driver "There, but for the grace of god, went I."
Children and adults killed on the roads are accepted as part of modern life. Any attempt to reduce the death toll is branded as a new "war on drivers"

Child killed by automatic cab== "my child was murdered by the large corporation who built and/or operated the vehicle." ban these automatic child killers now.

Even if automated cabs are demonstrated to be safer than human operated vehicles, the objections would remain.

 
Wednesday June 25


Stock running ECS to Hereford.

 
The last round trip has now, just, been reinstated. 

 

"Cuddly" might work

 
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"

 
Yes.

Our daughter does make herself look very pretty - that's fair enough.

There's no way you could make me look pretty (even with AI) in a photo.

CfN. 

 

And there you have it - the Eurostar system works fine when there are no incidents, but as soon as they get an incident there isn't enough extra in the system to cope with it and it becomes more unpleasant than it need to.

I suspect we could draw a parallel with GWR here who have enough drivers and train managers provide they are all fit, well and make themselves available and there and no extra calls on resources such as needed to work around engineering.  Problem is that such days are few and far between.

 
But isn't there a difference between a person in the normal course of their duty who happens to be easy on the eye, and a young lady who's taking measures to look pretty ...  I ask in jest in the lighter side, but I have one close female friend who's "reverse engineered" - gone out of her way NOT to be pleasing on the eye in order to discourage unwanted attention.

 
And here, in much more useful detail than the original post, is the news item from the BBC:


Simple. You just have to make another effort to post a link and quote your source.

Chris from Nailsea.

 
The swans are real but the Avocet is the Avocet Line between Exeter and Exmouth......and it looked like the swans had won for a while.  A number of them had wandered onto the track at Topsham this morning causing some disruption.
It looks like things have now returned to normal.
Here's the link to Devon Live who scooped the drama!

Devon trains were stopped after swans wandered onto tracks - Devon Live https://share.google/ac4xEGFuo5YyzhSmM

 

No. 

You told me off for suggesting that the train manager on one of my recent journeys to Melksham was 'pretty'.  She had done a full ticket check onboard, including her return down the aisle to my seat, just to check that she'd got it right (my ticket from Nailsea & Backwell had involved two changes, at Bath Spa and Trowbridge).

I maintain that she was very pretty.

CfN. 

 
It was reinstated at 15:35.   However now the 21:16 from Westbury and the 22:31 from Swindon have both been cancelled.

 
Looks ok at the moment - can I assume it's been reinstated?
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/live-trains/departures/chippenham/melksham/

 
They also need a revised track access agreement from Network rail for the 769s.

How's the crowdfunder getting on?

 
Another space for someone else then who does want to attend - there's plenty out there wanting to network

 


One of my contacts at the Community Rail conference yesterday reports

 
Thank you for providing us with that link to the source news story, matth1j.

 
An update, from the BBC:


 

 
Intrigued (and somewhat horrified) by MarkA's post, I went to National Rail's website to check what other prices might be available. This is what I found-

I could book a train leaving Bath at 8-22 tomorrow, direct taking 2hrs 12mins, returning at either 17-28 with 2 changes and 2hrs 8mins or no changes and 2hrs 24mins for just £23-40.

If I took a train 22 minutes later from Bath (ie 8-44), taking 3hrs 31mins with 2 changes, but having a choice of approximately hourly services for the return (including he same two alternatives at 17-28, and one with one change taking 3hrs 16 minutes) for £139-50!

That almost six times more expensive! How an earth can this be justified?

I drafted this before seeing WSW Frome's intervening post. Yes, the 139-50 fare is via Reading. I might be quite fond of my birthplace, but I'm not sure I'd recommend a special detour taking over an hour to see its station if I wanted to go from Bath to Weymouth at an additional cost of £115-20! 

 
There are indeed some absurb fares in the system for Bristol to Weymouth. The wilder ones seem to permit travel via Reading and/or London, including some eye-watering First Class versions.

I doubt these versions are a hot seller.

 

There are certain things I see where I could ask "could we do this in the UK / why don't we?" and they would be very difficult to find answers to.  There are also things that go the other way - I could wonder why they don't do things in [name a country I have visited] that they do in the UK.

 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gedxe7wnro