Recent Public Posts - [guest]
| Re: Walking between stations - AQ20 In "The Lighter Side" [369819/31296/30] Posted by grahame at 10:02, 20th December 2025 |      |
4: I will take a punt on this one being between Lymington Pier and Ryde Pier Head
It isn't (neither of those two stations and geographically distant) ... though I look at the profile and it fits rather nicely.
| Re: Walking between stations - AQ20 In "The Lighter Side" [369818/31296/30] Posted by Western Pathfinder at 09:58, 20th December 2025 Already liked by grahame | |
That will save you the cost of the ferry!..
| Re: Walking between stations - AQ20 In "The Lighter Side" [369817/31296/30] Posted by Oxonhutch at 09:53, 20th December 2025 Already liked by Western Pathfinder | |
4: I will take a punt on this one being between Lymington Pier and Ryde Pier Head
| Re: OOO - Odd One Out - which, and why? AQ18/25 In "The Lighter Side" [369816/31281/30] Posted by grahame at 09:52, 20th December 2025 | |
Odd one out - which and why? And, yes, there are probably multiple answers in each case.
And my goodness I think they all probably had multiple answers. Here are the ones I had as I set the quiz1. Westbury - no operational platform 0
Also identified by rogerw
Westbury
Cardiff Central
Doncaster
Haymarket
2. Corrour - only one with a through train from London
Corrour
Trowbridge
Kildonan
Dorchester West
3. Sheffield - only unbarriered station
Also Liverpool Lime Street - only one not XC served - eightonedee
Bristol Temple Meads
Sheffield
Cheltenham Spa
Liverpool Lime Street
4. Barry - only one that's not a "Bridge"
Also identified by brooklea
Also Acton is the only name which is not a standalone station name - Prestbury Road
Barry
Catford
Burscough
Acton
5. Dilton Marsh - only one with a better than token service
Also identified by Oxonhutch
Brigg
Dilton Marsh
Snaith
Clifton
6. Melksham - only one without a Harrington Hump
Melksham
Arram
Pontardulais
Northwich
7. Sandplace - only one without a through service from Westbury
Also STJ is only one not a request stop - TonyN
Chetnole
Sandplace
Severn Tunnel Junction
Thornford
8. Woburn Sands - only one not tabled for closing under East-West rail plans
Also identified by ellendune
Woburn Sands
Bow Brickhill
Millbrook
Fenny Stratford
9. Sheephill - not a rail work / depot
Also identified by Merthyr Imp
Dairycoates
Cowlairs
Sheephill
Lovers Walk
10. Blackburn - all the others have five platforms
Also Shipley - only one which had two stations in the town at one time
Blackburn
Lincoln
Bedford
Shipley
| Re: When will Birmingham's new railway stations open? In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [369815/30899/51] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 09:22, 20th December 2025 | |
An update, from the BBC:
Work finishes on five new railway stations
Construction work has finished on five new railway stations in the West Midlands.
Kings Heath, Moseley and Pineapple Road stations on the Camp Hill line in Birmingham, along with stations at Willenhall and Darlaston in Walsall, are due to open in early 2026.
They were originally scheduled to have been finished and in operation in 2024, but were hit with delays and soaring costs.
Once opened, it will mean the return of passengers to the Camp Hill line for the first time since the early 1940s and the end of a 60-year wait for services at Willenhall and Darlaston.
Richard Parker, mayor of the West Midlands, recently handed control of the stations over to West Midlands Railway after the work was completed. He said the services would improve connectivity and take congestion off the roads. "They will help bring increased footfall to the places around it and they will help drive economic growth," he added.
The new Pineapple Road station, pictured during construction, will open next year
The Labour mayor said driver training, testing and signalling work would take place over the next few weeks to ensure the stations were ready for passengers in the new year.
The stations have been delivered in partnership with the Department for Transport, West Midlands Railway, Network Rail, Birmingham City Council and Walsall Council.
Denise Wetton, Network Rail's central route director, said: "These five new stations are great additions to the West Midlands rail network, better connecting people and communities to new journeys and opportunities."
Construction work has finished on five new railway stations in the West Midlands.
Kings Heath, Moseley and Pineapple Road stations on the Camp Hill line in Birmingham, along with stations at Willenhall and Darlaston in Walsall, are due to open in early 2026.
They were originally scheduled to have been finished and in operation in 2024, but were hit with delays and soaring costs.
Once opened, it will mean the return of passengers to the Camp Hill line for the first time since the early 1940s and the end of a 60-year wait for services at Willenhall and Darlaston.
Richard Parker, mayor of the West Midlands, recently handed control of the stations over to West Midlands Railway after the work was completed. He said the services would improve connectivity and take congestion off the roads. "They will help bring increased footfall to the places around it and they will help drive economic growth," he added.
The new Pineapple Road station, pictured during construction, will open next year
The Labour mayor said driver training, testing and signalling work would take place over the next few weeks to ensure the stations were ready for passengers in the new year.
The stations have been delivered in partnership with the Department for Transport, West Midlands Railway, Network Rail, Birmingham City Council and Walsall Council.
Denise Wetton, Network Rail's central route director, said: "These five new stations are great additions to the West Midlands rail network, better connecting people and communities to new journeys and opportunities."
| Re: Caledonian MacBrayne ferries in Scotland In "Buses and other ways to travel" [369813/30034/5] Posted by TaplowGreen at 08:52, 20th December 2025 | |
Complete and ongoing fiasco from Day 1 of the procurement process.
| Re: Derailment of Glasgow to London train near Shap in Cumbria - 3 November 2025 In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [369811/31028/51] Posted by Electric train at 07:22, 20th December 2025 | |
What the RAIB say is that the system was fully operational and reporting sensor movement to the monitoring centre of the company that built and ran it. Network Rail had not signed it off as operational, meaning that alarm reports were not being sent on to their control centre. And no, I don't understand that either. Among the many things we don't know is whether the company would have picked up movement reports and forwarded them to NR - academic since there were no such reports.
The most likely system I can find mention of online (and which is used by NR in other places) has tilt sensors on poles, reporting to a local concentrator box, which sends reports on to the company HQ. If the poles are about 1m tall, that would fit with the highest movement threshold of 90 cm. However, reporting greater movements would depend on the ability to transmit while lying flat, at risk of being at least wet and muddy if not (as observed here) buried. I'd need more detail about the radios and antennas to say any more about why what looks like a serious omission took place.
A tilt sensor measures sideways offset from the base of the pole, which might itself move, so the relationship of that offset to the earth slippage is not at all straightforward. Initially, the sensor movement is a lot bigger than the movement of the ground at any depth. Note that the words do talk about monitoring the positions of the sensors, not of the ground, suggesting either tilt or distance from another transponder is being measured.
Battery lifetime requirements constrain how often reports can be sent, and I guess the concentrator/relay box has to be solar powered since any mobile phone (even GPRS, still used for this kind of thing) has to cover a longer distance and is much more power-hungry. The collective report sent on obviously could include an item for each sensor, and I'd expect that in every report - after all, it's only a bit or two each. But, again, how the operators would or should have reacted to two sensors going AWOL is unknown.
The most likely system I can find mention of online (and which is used by NR in other places) has tilt sensors on poles, reporting to a local concentrator box, which sends reports on to the company HQ. If the poles are about 1m tall, that would fit with the highest movement threshold of 90 cm. However, reporting greater movements would depend on the ability to transmit while lying flat, at risk of being at least wet and muddy if not (as observed here) buried. I'd need more detail about the radios and antennas to say any more about why what looks like a serious omission took place.
A tilt sensor measures sideways offset from the base of the pole, which might itself move, so the relationship of that offset to the earth slippage is not at all straightforward. Initially, the sensor movement is a lot bigger than the movement of the ground at any depth. Note that the words do talk about monitoring the positions of the sensors, not of the ground, suggesting either tilt or distance from another transponder is being measured.
Battery lifetime requirements constrain how often reports can be sent, and I guess the concentrator/relay box has to be solar powered since any mobile phone (even GPRS, still used for this kind of thing) has to cover a longer distance and is much more power-hungry. The collective report sent on obviously could include an item for each sensor, and I'd expect that in every report - after all, it's only a bit or two each. But, again, how the operators would or should have reacted to two sensors going AWOL is unknown.
Network Rail hand over process is torturous, getting something from commissioned ie the installer has checked and tested a system if functioning correctly to the point where the Route / Region Geotech Asset Manager has the "keys" is, in my view from experience" far to wrapped up in project management governance, also the crazy process in the way contractors are paid and a Project Manager can declared a project delivered as a KPI is the commissioning and not entry into service / hand over.
There are hundreds of these monitoring systems across the network and are alerting the Route / Region Geotech Asset Managers to problems and deal with them
| Re: Bristol Rail Campaign (FoSBR) AGM In "Diary - what's happening when?" [369810/31295/34] Posted by grahame at 06:21, 20th December 2025 | |
Could the AGM not be held during day light hours like GWR and Travel watch South West do?
I get a feeling of "deja vu" with this topic - think we have been there before. However, times move on. You're correct in saying that TWSW is daytime, and the recent Railfuture meeting in Yatton was too. Those were choices made to help people attend, and on open invite. Did we see you at either meeting though?
I am a Bristol Rail Campaign member and may come along on 11th March - and I will be posting up other March meeting dates today. Typically evenings for local campaign groups so that people don't have to take a day off work / college to attend, and daytime for meetings with a larger area catchment where some people need to travel a considerable distance to attend.
| Re: Bristol Rail Campaign (FoSBR) AGM In "Diary - what's happening when?" [369809/31295/34] Posted by infoman at 05:42, 20th December 2025 | |
Could the AGM not be held during day light hours like GWR and Travel watch South West do?
| Re: Problems with IET trains from April 2021 In "Across the West" [369808/24934/26] Posted by broadgage at 04:53, 20th December 2025 | |
Are FGW still maintaining that the IETs are much more reliable than the HSTs ?
| Re: Caledonian MacBrayne ferries in Scotland In "Buses and other ways to travel" [369807/30034/5] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 04:47, 20th December 2025 | |
Another update, from the BBC:
CalMac ferry Glen Rosa delayed again by up to six months
MV Glen Rosa, seen here leaving dry dock in Greenock, will have to return for a longer docking to fix corrosion problems
The delivery date for MV Glen Rosa - the second of two dual-fuel ferries being built for CalMac - has been pushed back by up to another six months.
The state-owned Ferguson shipyard said corrosion had been discovered during recent inspections and the ship will require an extra period in dry dock next year.
In a letter to MSPs, it said that would have a knock-on effect on commissioning the ferry, and it was now aiming to deliver it in the final three months of next year.
In a separate update, ferries body CMAL confirmed that MV Isle of Islay, the first of four CalMac ferries being built in Turkey, faces another short delay and will not be handed over this year.
MV Glen Rosa and its sister vessel MV Glen Sannox were meant to enter service in 2018 but the build has been plagued by design challenges and disputes over costs which saw the firm fall back into administration and nationalised.
The second of the hybrid propulsion ships has been moored at the quayside of the Port Glasgow shipyard for fitting out work since its slipway launch in April last year.
At the time of the launch it was hoped it would be handed over this autumn as it was in a far more complete state than Glen Sannox, famously sent down the slipway seven years earlier with painted-on windows and plywood funnels.
(BBC article continues)
MV Glen Rosa, seen here leaving dry dock in Greenock, will have to return for a longer docking to fix corrosion problems
The delivery date for MV Glen Rosa - the second of two dual-fuel ferries being built for CalMac - has been pushed back by up to another six months.
The state-owned Ferguson shipyard said corrosion had been discovered during recent inspections and the ship will require an extra period in dry dock next year.
In a letter to MSPs, it said that would have a knock-on effect on commissioning the ferry, and it was now aiming to deliver it in the final three months of next year.
In a separate update, ferries body CMAL confirmed that MV Isle of Islay, the first of four CalMac ferries being built in Turkey, faces another short delay and will not be handed over this year.
MV Glen Rosa and its sister vessel MV Glen Sannox were meant to enter service in 2018 but the build has been plagued by design challenges and disputes over costs which saw the firm fall back into administration and nationalised.
The second of the hybrid propulsion ships has been moored at the quayside of the Port Glasgow shipyard for fitting out work since its slipway launch in April last year.
At the time of the launch it was hoped it would be handed over this autumn as it was in a far more complete state than Glen Sannox, famously sent down the slipway seven years earlier with painted-on windows and plywood funnels.
(BBC article continues)
| Contactless - not always the cheapest In "Fare's Fair" [369806/31297/4] Posted by grahame at 04:32, 20th December 2025 | |
https://www.railfuture.org.uk/display4218 - Railfuture press release
Offering the option for contactless payment for rail travel is a good thing – convenient and simple. But it currently comes with a number of stings in the tail, so if a traveller wants to pay the lowest price for their travel, contactless payment often doesn’t deliver the best price
"Never have a simple system if you can have a complicated one"?? ... finding the lowest cost fare for your journey looks like it's going to be a topic that keeps on running ...
| Walking between stations - AQ20 In "The Lighter Side" [369805/31296/30] Posted by grahame at 03:57, 20th December 2025 | |
I often walk between stations, and these days Google will often give directions for a suggested route (not always the one I take) including a gradient profile. I classify this as a "difficult" quiz - wonder if anyone can identify these walks from their profiles; all are UK and two of them are within GWRland
1
2
3
4
5
| Re: King Charles pours 'perfect pint' at new Guinness brewery in London - Dec 2025 In "Introductions and chat" [369804/31289/1] Posted by grahame at 03:42, 20th December 2025 | |
Chat, surely? Is there a transport element in this story? Hardly 'The West' either?
This has lead to an interesting discussion within the moderator team. "Chat" is fine - perhaps "And Also" is even better, as that's a members-only board. Items posted there don't dilute our transport focus for the search engines, and allow us to let our hair down a bit more between friends. I have certainly been tempted to post, from time to time, amusing non-transport topics that aren't specific to the region or anything else, but as webmaster I have been aware of the ultimate standard I must / should set and have refrained. After this discussion, you may find the occasional post such as "Charlotte Church does not wear deodorant" in "And Also".
| Re: Temple Meads station approach road In "Bristol (WECA) Commuters" [369803/31280/21] Posted by Red Squirrel at 23:11, 19th December 2025 | |
| Re: Derailment of Glasgow to London train near Shap in Cumbria - 3 November 2025 In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [369802/31028/51] Posted by stuving at 22:56, 19th December 2025 | |
What the RAIB say is that the system was fully operational and reporting sensor movement to the monitoring centre of the company that built and ran it. Network Rail had not signed it off as operational, meaning that alarm reports were not being sent on to their control centre. And no, I don't understand that either. Among the many things we don't know is whether the company would have picked up movement reports and forwarded them to NR - academic since there were no such reports.
The most likely system I can find mention of online (and which is used by NR in other places) has tilt sensors on poles, reporting to a local concentrator box, which sends reports on to the company HQ. If the poles are about 1m tall, that would fit with the highest movement threshold of 90 cm. However, reporting greater movements would depend on the ability to transmit while lying flat, at risk of being at least wet and muddy if not (as observed here) buried. I'd need more detail about the radios and antennas to say any more about why what looks like a serious omission took place.
A tilt sensor measures sideways offset from the base of the pole, which might itself move, so the relationship of that offset to the earth slippage is not at all straightforward. Initially, the sensor movement is a lot bigger than the movement of the ground at any depth. Note that the words do talk about monitoring the positions of the sensors, not of the ground, suggesting either tilt or distance from another transponder is being measured.
Battery lifetime requirements constrain how often reports can be sent, and I guess the concentrator/relay box has to be solar powered since any mobile phone (even GPRS, still used for this kind of thing) has to cover a longer distance and is much more power-hungry. The collective report sent on obviously could include an item for each sensor, and I'd expect that in every report - after all, it's only a bit or two each. But, again, how the operators would or should have reacted to two sensors going AWOL is unknown.
| Bristol Rail Campaign (FoSBR) AGM In "Diary - what's happening when?" [369801/31295/34] Posted by Red Squirrel at 22:54, 19th December 2025 Already liked by Chris from Nailsea | |
Bristol Rail Campaign (FoSBR) will be holding their AGM on Weds 11th March 2026
This year's AGM will be held at Watershed, 1 Canons Road Bristol BS1 5TX (https://www.watershed.co.uk/)
Doors open 19.00 for 19.30 start.
Speakers and further details will be announced in due course.
Non-members welcome.
| Re: Derailment of Glasgow to London train near Shap in Cumbria - 3 November 2025 In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [369799/31028/51] Posted by ChrisB at 20:28, 19th December 2025 Already liked by Andy E | |
I am also unsure if the sensors were set up to broadcast an 'All Right' signal on a regular basis that would be the foundation of a fail-safe system.
Yep, me too. AIUI, it was set up to transmit on movement - but a very slow creep wasn't enough to activate it, and the major movement happened so quick to bury transmitters before they could react. If they had been commissioned.
| Re: 19th Advent Quiz - Old Pictures - where are they? In "The Lighter Side" [369798/31292/30] Posted by Oxonhutch at 20:22, 19th December 2025 | |
| Re: Cornish delays In "Shorter journeys in Plymouth and Cornwall" [369797/28556/25] Posted by Oxonhutch at 20:15, 19th December 2025 | |
For those of us who don't have otters in our garden, have you a more general comparison?
I think he is referring to a fish's wallet.
| Re: Derailment of Glasgow to London train near Shap in Cumbria - 3 November 2025 In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [369796/31028/51] Posted by Oxonhutch at 20:14, 19th December 2025 | |
To be fair, if it was commissioned, I am unsure if the system would have noticed the cessation of expected signal and raised an alarm. They discovered the hiding of the alarm signal as they uncovered the sensors during clean-up.
I am also unsure if the sensors were set up to broadcast an 'All Right' signal on a regular basis that would be the foundation of a fail-safe system.
| Re: Derailment of Glasgow to London train near Shap in Cumbria - 3 November 2025 In "The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom" [369795/31028/51] Posted by grahame at 19:49, 19th December 2025 | |
Because apparently it hadn't been commissioned & wasn't able to file reports....
....and then the land slid so as to cover the transmitters so they couldn't transmit if they had been commissioned....
So expect line closures to check every so often going forward until better technology can be developed
....and then the land slid so as to cover the transmitters so they couldn't transmit if they had been commissioned....
So expect line closures to check every so often going forward until better technology can be developed
Strikes me that they may not have been fail safe - a system which is constantly monitoring and sound the alarm if it doesn't respond to a ping. But amazing is the system doesn't work like that it - "schoolboy error" if it doesn't.
| Re: Cornish delays In "Shorter journeys in Plymouth and Cornwall" [369794/28556/25] Posted by grahame at 19:41, 19th December 2025 | |
It has been wetter than an otter's pocket here over the last week.
For those of us who don't have otters in our garden, have you a more general comparison?
| Re: Cornish delays In "Shorter journeys in Plymouth and Cornwall" [369792/28556/25] Posted by Kernow Otter at 19:29, 19th December 2025 Already liked by grahame, Chris from Nailsea | |
It has been wetter than an otter's pocket here over the last week.
| Re: Swindon <-> Westbury service updates and amendments, ongoing discussion - 2025 In "TransWilts line" [369791/29726/18] Posted by grahame at 19:19, 19th December 2025 | |
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:06
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:06 will be terminated at Gloucester.
It will no longer call at Cheltenham Spa.
This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident.
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:06 will be terminated at Gloucester.
It will no longer call at Cheltenham Spa.
This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident.
| Re: What is happening at Dilton Marsh? Key service reduction! In "Portsmouth to Cardiff" [369790/31284/20] Posted by grahame at 18:31, 19th December 2025 | |
I will follow up here to let members know the answers.
Received this afternoon ... will follow up with further follow up(s). So far, so good
I did see some previous correspondents reference to the new timetable for Dilton Marsh. [redcated] may be a bit closer to it. I’ll have a look and get back to you by Monday.
