4. CM

 
Objective - to attend a meeting in Trowbridge at 5 p.m. yesterday, lasting just over 2 hours.  Google tells me it's 6.8 miles from my home in Melksham to the venue, and will take me 15 minutes.  Except, I'm not driving if I can help it.  Trowbridge has a population of 46,000 and Melksham 29,000.

How did that work by public transport

Outbound

I left home at 16:00 and walked into the Town Centre (5 minutes) for the 16:18 bus to Trowbridge.  This is from one of two bus stops in Melksham that has a real time departure display and it indicated that was expected in 25 minutes (so a bit late).  As it's after 09:00 in Wiltshire, I was able to use my senior bus pass; noted that very few passengers were using such cards.  Due at the stop at Trowbridge at 16:48, actually pulled up there at 17:00, walked into meeting 5 minutes late. Not a problem being slightly delayed for this particular meeting - if that had been a concern I would have travelled just over half an hour earlier.

The meeting was attended by people from various West Wiltshire towns and finished at 19:15.  "What train did you catch to get here" asked H.  "I didn't - I came by bus".  Oh "When is your next bus back" asked H. "It would be tomorrow morning - I'm going home by train".

Inbound

But the next train after 19:15 wasn't due for almost an hour, and I took myself to the Rose and Crown ... a pint of apple and blackcurrant cider, an exchange of banter with the barmaid, and a warm seat within site of the train departure display they have there while I worked on my laptop.

20:12 to Cheltenham Spa showing on time as I left at 20:00 to walk across to the station.  At 20:05, train showing "On Time".

Needed a ticket. Ticket office closed. Warning signs up about this being a penalty fare station.  The lowest cost single - £3.30 on a disabled rail card - required 17 button presses (OK - screen touches) with prior knowledge of where to find that fare, and choices like anytime v off peak, even though I know that the last peak train had left 12 hours ago.

Person on platform looks to use loos but finds them locked.

At around 20:07, train moves from "On Time" (20:12) to 20:13 and then each minute passing slips a minute later until it shows 20:17.  ((a few minutes is no worry to me)).  Then it switched to say "Delayed".

Tannoy announcement "We are sorry that the 20:12 to Cheltenham Spa via Melksham is delayed.  Your next fastest train will be the 21:22 from Platform 1". Oops

Another passenger looks panicked. I ask her if she's waiting for the Cheltenham Spa train and she confirms that she is, and I re-assure her that the 20:12 (and it's now after that) will probably be along ... probably held up at Westbury awaiting the connection from London.

Screen changes from "Delayed" to 20:17 ... and at around 20:17 it pulls in.  Passengers on and off.  Train manager walks up outside train to nudge door - perhaps it had not fully closed, and we're off.   No ticket check, no sight of train manager who stayed in rear cab.  No problem, except the whole experience felt very lonely.

Arrived into Melksham.  Four people waiting on platform, four more got off. I had not walked through the 3 carriage train to do a count, but past form suggests that this is the quietest train of the day, and that for each passenger using Melksham station there are two through passengers, suggestion [24/8] on our standard measurement.

No barrier checks at Melksham. One car in the short term pickup at Melksham, everyone else on foot.  Six minibuses, a van and a car in the station car park, none of which showed signs of having arrived for this train and none of which left at that point.  Real Time Trains shows a 2 minute stop at Melksham with the train leaving 7 minutes late at 20:29.

Walk home, arrived 20:50.  The worried passenger from Trowbridge had alighted at Melksham and was walking out a couple of miles to her village.

---

Why document this?   Because it shows some of the challenges of using public transport - some of which really should not be challenges.   I know that the bus is a good way to get to Trowbridge for an evening meeting but I need to take the train back.  I know the fare base and where the best value is hidden.  I know to go to the loo before I leave the Rose and Crown. I know that this train is often delayed as it waits for the connection from London (and, yes, it is right to do so) and that can lead to some off-putting announcements.  And I know that I'll be walking through the industrial area in Melksham watching for vehicles as I follow the path painted across the forecourt / turning point at the station.

Apart from the delay and much longer journey, the bus works well during operating hours, and was quite busy - kinda wonder where you’re going when you pass the Red Admiral, go all around a roundabout and the back past it ... and where you the turn right towards Hilperton when the road signs say left for Trowbridge. This is the cost of a local bus servicing all the communities along the way, picking up and dropping off people here and there who together make for a viable opertion.

 
4 Logging railway in Alaska
Date early, 1920s or 30s perhaps

 

"Horror" story of security company locking the station before the late running last train had arrived.


I ... highlight ... the quality of care from the train crew.  Northern should be proud of them, having said which I find 90% of the time that railway professionals do take that extra care of customers in extraordinary circumstances.  Heartening.

 
2 D804 Avenger

 
Thursday December 4

 
Pretty poor.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/25670532.northern-apologises-passengers-locked-hartlepool-station/

 

 
The map's drawn a strange glyph over Cornwall. Perhaps it's a portent of some significant event.

Mark

 
3. Sir Robert Reid

 
Here are sequences of four - what would come fifth?

1.
'Most bashed' rail bridge hit three times in a week - Ely, Cambridgeshire
Helen Whatley and Wera Hobhouse - transport spokesmen for Cons and Lib Dems
Red Funnel ferries, Isle of Wight - merged posts, ongoing developments
The final batch of trains from York works - two different futures

2.
Sir Brian Robertson
Vanguard
Formidable
Albion

3.
Sir Stanley Raymond
Sir Henry Johnson
Sir Richard Marsh
Sir Peter Parker

4.
PN
RG
DY
SN

5.
Covingham and Nythe
Eldene and Linden
Great Western Hospital and Badbury Park
Middle Witchel or Great Western Hospital

6.
Cannon Street - Blackfriars or Holborn Viaduct via Metropolitan Junc
Charing Cross - Hastings via Orpington and Battle
Cannon Street - Hastings via Orpington and Battle
Charing Cross - Gravesend or Maidstone West via Sidcup

7.
George Borrow
The Tamar Kingfisher
King Edmund
The Coastal Connection

 

Well, the Great Western did name several of its engines after halls situated in Norfolk...

 

I suspect that the £25m might refer to an earlier scheme limited to Ely North Junction, while the £500m scheme includes a lot more that was added to the scope when somebody found that  North Junction on its own wasn't sufficient to meet the objectives. There seems to  be a lot of level crossing work required, a new bridge and even new sections of road (if I scanned the text correctly).

I'm not sure when the Ely North Junction scheme was first proposed, but its implementation was postponed by the Hendy Review (November 2015) to sometime in 2019-2024 "to allow co-ordination with safety-critical level crossing works nearby".

New Civil Engineer provides some history on the scheme after that postponement:-


HOW MUCH? 
In the long and dreary way of planning infrastructure, an SOBC is an early stage, in which a problem is identified, possible solutions suggested and a rough idea obtained of how the costs and benefits weigh-up. It isn't meant to be super accurate, just good enough to see if its worth developing a scheme in more detail. "Cheap and cheerful" methods of estimating demand (for example) are allowed.

To give some idea of context, local authorities and other groups promoting Restoring Your Railway schemes typically had to make do with funding around £75,000. That could get you sufficient professional consultancy time to provide an SOBC to the required standard.

The wider scheme is a lot more complex than a single new station, but even so, how on earth did it cost over 120 times more to produce an SOBC?

I'm not sure if £13.1m for the next stage (OBC) represents better value-for-money. The detailed reports (SOBC and OBC) don't seem to be online. However an FoI request (not by me!) has provided a remarkably short document claiming to be the OBC (any of you remember being told off by teachers for failing to show your working leading up to an answer?). It's available at:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/eace_ely_area_capacity_enhanceme/response/3035382/attach/html/5/FOI202500537%20EACE%20OBC%20Executive%20Summaries.pdf.html

WHERE RAIL SCHEMES GO TO DIE?
The New Civil Engineer continues the story:

A little more detail can be gleaned from a letter of 12th September 2022 from several MPs and others to government ministers of that time. I will quote only the relevant parts:

This would be the RNEP that was introduced to replace the fixed 5-year enhancement plans of NR, and for which there was supposed to be an annual update plan, which has never appeared.

Of course, most of that history covered the previous, Conservative, government. Nice to see in the BBC article of 2nd December 2025 that the DfT said:


So, schemes can be delayed for years and things cost too much, before even the oft-blamed bats and council planners get a look-in.

----------
In case anyone wishes to follow up, the links are:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgr9rg5r42o
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-51659351
https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/dft-says-ely-junction-upgrade-to-be-considered-for-future-pipeline-as-local-mps-continue-push-31-07-2025/
https://www.elystandard.co.uk/news/20707553.threat-cancel-indefinitely-pause-450m-ely-rail-upgrade/
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/23833666.government-confirms-ely-junction-rail-revamp-go-ahead/
https://www.elyeastcambsconservatives.org.uk/news/lucy-frazer-presses-action-ely-north-junction
https://www.flua.org.uk/fenman_pdf/The%20Fenman%202016%20No%201.pdf
https://www.georgefreeman.co.uk/sites/georgefreeman.co.uk/files/2022-09/final-signed-letter-re-ely-and-haughley-junctions-ee-appg.pdf
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/eace_ely_area_capacity_enhanceme/response/3035382/attach/html/5/FOI202500537%20EACE%20OBC%20Executive%20Summaries.pdf.html

 
Yes the growing size of cars is a concern INHO. I consider that road tax should be based on dimensions or weight.
A substantial increase in fuel duty would also help.

 

I'm not sure that the newer Mini's should be described as mini!

 
I'm still using them on my morning commute. The evening return is either a 450 (horrible train - Cramped 3x2 seating)  or the new 701. What's good about the old 455s is that the seat width is slightly wider than the 701 and much wider than the 450. No toilets in the 455, 4 in an 8 carriage 450 and 2 in a 10 carriage 701. In Summer 2026 I will welcome the AC on the newer trains.

 
8 is Sudbury & Harrow Road.  Date-wise, clues are that it's after the houses in the background had their leak-prone flat roofs replaced by pitched ones, but before the rotten wooden platforms were replaced by a central island where the through lines used to be, and I've also spotted the lamp-posts are not yet NSE red.  Some time late 1970s or early 80s, when I passed through on a daily basis?  Is the number of people waiting on the Down platform an indication of a rare event such as a steam special, or one of those bargain NSE "Network Days"?  Most of the low usage was and still is to/from Marylebone though I was an occasional exception back then making convoluted journeys between Acton and Denham.  That would also explain the presence of the photographer on what looks to be a fairly bleak day.

 
1 Crianlarich Lower station date 1980s

 
Correct so far

2 - Masbury - Masbury, WSW Frome
3 - Melrose - Oxonhutch, mid '70s
5 - St Lawrence, Ramsgate
6 - Denton - Chris from Nailsea - quite recent
9 - Melksham - stuving
10 - Hunstanton - Andy E, circa 1967

Guesses for 1 and 4 are incorrect ... sorry

 
There's a more technical article about it here from Born to Engineer:

It says there that "the consortium plans to use a single tunnel boring machine for both tunnel bores, turning it around and reusing it", and there is more about that later on. I suspect that the final choice of reset method (that one, or take its head off and reverse out) will be for the makers to offer in their tender.

 
I gather that the second one has also sold out!

 
This article, from the BBC, shows parts of the S&DJR as they are today. Masbury station is about halfway down

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78m3vv9d1zo

 
From the BBC:

 

Whoever would do such a thing ?? 

 
From the BBC:

 
It was a regular haunt of my parents when I was a child.  I remember fishing from the end of the pub garden with a makeshift rod.   Never caught anything, but did impale my finger on the hook several times!  Also remember the juke box in the conservatory.  It always seemed to be playing "Tie a Yellow Ribbon".

 

I'm glad to see they are still going strong.

Some 50 years ago, when I was a teenager, our family enjoyed several annual holidays in hired wooden cabin cruisers on the River Thames (based around Bourne End, where my grandparents lived) and we enjoyed several meals in the Beetle and Wedge.

CfN. 

 
From the BBC:

 

Ahem.

I never guess at pictures of Taunton, because I know that they are not ... until I'm usually proved wrong.