Recent Public Posts - [guest]
| Re: Swindon <-> Westbury service updates and amendments, ongoing discussion - 2026 In "TransWilts line - Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Salisbury" [376810/31359/18] Posted by JohnM at 19:50, 8th July 2026 |      |
This is odd - on the 18:00 Chippenham Melksham train and we've just stopped a mile or 2 before Melksham (single track).
Going again now; no announcement...
Train manager told me it was a line side fire Going again now; no announcement...
| Re: Cornish mainline and branch line delays - ongoing discussion In "Shorter journeys in Plymouth and Cornwall" [376809/28556/25] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 19:40, 8th July 2026 | |
Did it stop at Camborne?
| Re: Cornish mainline and branch line delays - ongoing discussion In "Shorter journeys in Plymouth and Cornwall" [376808/28556/25] Posted by FarWestJohn at 19:35, 8th July 2026 | |
Big gap in trains from PNZ this afternoon. 1515 and 1552 cancelled and next train 1615 had to make extra stops.
| Re: Australia - various railway issues, merged topics and posts In "The Wider Picture Overseas" [376807/5264/52] Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 19:29, 8th July 2026 | |
From the BBC:
Trains and emergency calls affected after major outage at Australia's largest telecoms company
A major outage at Australia's largest telecommunications company has led to cancelled train services, left thousands of customers without mobile coverage, and sparked an investigation into emergency calls that were not connected.
Telstra's chief financial officer Michael Ackland apologised for the issue which began at 04:30 local time on Wednesday and affected "some mobile calls and data services".
Services were fully restored about 12 hours later, he said. A software defect related to time-keeping servers at data centres in Sydney and Melbourne was to blame - not a cyber attack, Ackland added.
Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the outage was "deeply concerning".
Telstra described the outage as "intermittent" but acknowledged the impact had been "national".
Ackland said the telecoms company had conducted welfare checks on customers who had called emergency services during the outage, with six requiring immediate help. Back-up systems, which divert emergency calls through other mobile carriers, largely worked as they should, he added.
Asked if the country could still rely on its largest mobile network, Ackland said: "Australia can absolutely have faith in its biggest telco... we take these outages very very seriously. Our investment in resilience and cyber security and redundancy in our network is significant but it is a big and complex network and from time to time, issues do occur."
Communications Minister Anika Wells said the country's telco regulator, the Australian Communication and Media Authority, will investigate the outage.
In Victoria, all regional train services were cancelled due to the outage while some regional services in New South Wales were also disrupted. National freight services were also affected.
(BBC article continues)
A major outage at Australia's largest telecommunications company has led to cancelled train services, left thousands of customers without mobile coverage, and sparked an investigation into emergency calls that were not connected.
Telstra's chief financial officer Michael Ackland apologised for the issue which began at 04:30 local time on Wednesday and affected "some mobile calls and data services".
Services were fully restored about 12 hours later, he said. A software defect related to time-keeping servers at data centres in Sydney and Melbourne was to blame - not a cyber attack, Ackland added.
Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the outage was "deeply concerning".
Telstra described the outage as "intermittent" but acknowledged the impact had been "national".
Ackland said the telecoms company had conducted welfare checks on customers who had called emergency services during the outage, with six requiring immediate help. Back-up systems, which divert emergency calls through other mobile carriers, largely worked as they should, he added.
Asked if the country could still rely on its largest mobile network, Ackland said: "Australia can absolutely have faith in its biggest telco... we take these outages very very seriously. Our investment in resilience and cyber security and redundancy in our network is significant but it is a big and complex network and from time to time, issues do occur."
Communications Minister Anika Wells said the country's telco regulator, the Australian Communication and Media Authority, will investigate the outage.
In Victoria, all regional train services were cancelled due to the outage while some regional services in New South Wales were also disrupted. National freight services were also affected.
(BBC article continues)
| Re: Cornish mainline and branch line delays - ongoing discussion In "Shorter journeys in Plymouth and Cornwall" [376806/28556/25] Posted by TaplowGreen at 19:02, 8th July 2026 | |
14:52 Newquay to London Paddington due 20:23
14:52 Newquay to London Paddington due 20:23 was terminated at Exeter St Davids.
It will no longer call at Tiverton Parkway, Taunton, Castle Cary, Westbury, Pewsey, Newbury, Reading and London Paddington.
This is due to a fire next to the track.
| Re: They say lightning never strikes twice ... In "London to the West" [376805/32210/12] Posted by grahame at 18:37, 8th July 2026 Already liked by Mark A | |
And a picture of Lightning
| They say lightning never strikes twice ... In "London to the West" [376804/32210/12] Posted by grahame at 18:28, 8th July 2026 | |
From JourneyCheck
Delays to services between Hungerford and Newbury
Cancellations to services between Par and Newquay
Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading
Cancellations to services between Newbury and Bedwyn
Cancellations to services between Taunton and Castle Cary
Cancellations to services between Par and Newquay
Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading
Cancellations to services between Newbury and Bedwyn
Cancellations to services between Taunton and Castle Cary
It seems to have struck five times on the same line!
| Re: Swindon <-> Westbury service updates and amendments, ongoing discussion - 2026 In "TransWilts line - Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Salisbury" [376803/31359/18] Posted by grahame at 18:21, 8th July 2026 | |
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.
| Re: Melksham Transport User Group - meetings for 2026 In "TransWilts line - Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Salisbury" [376802/31306/18] Posted by grahame at 18:19, 8th July 2026 | |
Ladies and Gentlemen,
You are all very welcome tomorrow evening (18:30, 9th July 2026) to a someehat informal meeting / update from the Melksham Transport User Group.
Key agenda items - Melksham Carnival (easy event and not much preps)
- Summer promotions. Note in my Weymouth report we need to be careful not to oversell and create crowd headaches
- Start to pick up Information at the Station - I will be heavy in that though the autumn
- GWR nationalisation, more for info; report on GWR conference from last week
We are at something of a lull in many activities - avoiding any "campaign fatigue" but yet ready for a very busy autumn and winter. Personally, this has been an opportune window for me to travel - a pleasure, but also an opportunity learn, compare and contrast to be more knoweldgable as we more forward.
If you're not easily able to make it tomorrow - don't worry - no major decisions. But please do let me know if you're able to walk or ride with us (we have a Faresaver bus) in the Melksham Carnival early evening of 18th. Always fun!
Graham (Chair of the group)
P.S. Dates for the rest of the year, as per our web site:
Full meets - 9th Jul, 8th Oct 2026
Committee - 11th Jun, 10th Sep, 12th Nov 2026
Events - 18th Jul 2026, 5th Dec 2026
Newsletters - April, Aug, Nov 2026
P.P.S - this is open to the public - please share, come along even if you haven’t a personal /bcc invite.
48 Spa Road, Melksham, SN12 7NY
graham@sn12.net
07974 925928 or 01225 708225
My emailling policy: https://grahamellis.uk/email
You are all very welcome tomorrow evening (18:30, 9th July 2026) to a someehat informal meeting / update from the Melksham Transport User Group.
Key agenda items - Melksham Carnival (easy event and not much preps)
- Summer promotions. Note in my Weymouth report we need to be careful not to oversell and create crowd headaches
- Start to pick up Information at the Station - I will be heavy in that though the autumn
- GWR nationalisation, more for info; report on GWR conference from last week
We are at something of a lull in many activities - avoiding any "campaign fatigue" but yet ready for a very busy autumn and winter. Personally, this has been an opportune window for me to travel - a pleasure, but also an opportunity learn, compare and contrast to be more knoweldgable as we more forward.
If you're not easily able to make it tomorrow - don't worry - no major decisions. But please do let me know if you're able to walk or ride with us (we have a Faresaver bus) in the Melksham Carnival early evening of 18th. Always fun!
Graham (Chair of the group)
P.S. Dates for the rest of the year, as per our web site:
Full meets - 9th Jul, 8th Oct 2026
Committee - 11th Jun, 10th Sep, 12th Nov 2026
Events - 18th Jul 2026, 5th Dec 2026
Newsletters - April, Aug, Nov 2026
P.P.S - this is open to the public - please share, come along even if you haven’t a personal /bcc invite.
48 Spa Road, Melksham, SN12 7NY
graham@sn12.net
07974 925928 or 01225 708225
My emailling policy: https://grahamellis.uk/email
| Re: Swindon <-> Westbury service updates and amendments, ongoing discussion - 2026 In "TransWilts line - Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Salisbury" [376801/31359/18] Posted by JohnM at 18:09, 8th July 2026 | |
This is odd - on the 18:00 Chippenham Melksham train and we've just stopped a mile or 2 before Melksham (single track).
Going again now; no announcement...
| Re: North Cotswold line delays and cancellations - 2026 In "London to the Cotswolds" [376800/31371/14] Posted by Witham Bobby at 16:51, 8th July 2026 | |
Various issues today due to the weather and other issues, but a big hole in afternoon London bound services:
resulting in a three hour gap between services.
resulting in a three hour gap between services.
Back to the 1970s. Except that everyone knew back then how many trains would run in a day
If the advertised service level can't operate, does that say there are too many services in the schedule for the available resources? Or that the resources are available, but they're not working very reliably?
I think most people would prefer their timetables to be far more reliable, even if there were fewer trains planned to run
| Re: North Cotswold line delays and cancellations - 2026 In "London to the Cotswolds" [376799/31371/14] Posted by charles_uk at 16:42, 8th July 2026 | |
Various issues today due to the weather and other issues, but a big hole in afternoon London bound services:
15:18 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington due 17:25 will be started from Oxford.
It will no longer call at Worcester Foregate Street, Worcester Shrub Hill, Worcestershire Parkway Hl, Evesham, Moreton-In-Marsh, Kingham, Charlbury and Hanborough.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.
15:18 Hereford to London Paddington due 18:29 has been cancelled.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.
It will no longer call at Worcester Foregate Street, Worcester Shrub Hill, Worcestershire Parkway Hl, Evesham, Moreton-In-Marsh, Kingham, Charlbury and Hanborough.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.
15:18 Hereford to London Paddington due 18:29 has been cancelled.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.
resulting in a three hour gap between services.
| Re: Devon Metro (railway network around Exeter) - merged posts, ongoing discussion In "Shorter journeys in Devon - Central, North and South" [376798/1070/24] Posted by REVUpminster at 16:41, 8th July 2026 | |
Bad day for Barnstaple. 158958 (3 car) 150238 (2 car and on the 720hrs) and 158767 (2car) operating.
One short form on Paignton-Exmouth.
Is this because only 2 175s are operating. 002 on Newquay and 112 on the mainline.
| Re: SWR timetable consultation - a suggestion In "Portsmouth to Cardiff" [376797/32168/20] Posted by grahame at 14:55, 8th July 2026 Already liked by Mark A | |
I have been asked to describe this suggestion on BBC Radio Wiltshire just after 08:00 tomorrow, 9.7.2026
| Re: Disruption to train services between Reading and London - ongoing discussion In "London to Reading" [376796/26735/7] Posted by Electric train at 13:31, 8th July 2026 Already liked by Mark A | |
But we aren't talking *average* temperatures...a couple of hours at below zero or above 30 degrees will damage unstressed rail.
As I said, the spread in *actual* temperatures is our almost unique problem. Ideally, we'd stress every spring & autumn.
As I said, the spread in *actual* temperatures is our almost unique problem. Ideally, we'd stress every spring & autumn.
I'm sorry but that simply isn't true - Italy for example has a wider spread in temperatures over the year as do a number of other European countries, it's nowhere near unique or "almost" unique to the UK, and certainly not Southern and Western England.
Perhaps we should look at good practice elsewhere.
This heat is not freak weather, it's been building for years, but we seem to have done very little to make the railway more resilient to it.
Network Rail I know are working on the impacts of climate change, I was involved in some of the working groups before I retired. It is not as simple as the track engineers changing their standards, higher ballast shoulders for instance can burry other infrastructure (drainage, S&T and E&P cables) increasing the stressing of the rails could mean replacing the type of sleepers; track has a 30 plus in service life it is prohibitively expensive to just change things. And sure stressing the rails for a higher ambient could cause problems in the winter
| Re: Disruption to train services between Reading and London - ongoing discussion In "London to Reading" [376795/26735/7] Posted by TaplowGreen at 12:22, 8th July 2026 | |
But we aren't talking *average* temperatures...a couple of hours at below zero or above 30 degrees will damage unstressed rail.
As I said, the spread in *actual* temperatures is our almost unique problem. Ideally, we'd stress every spring & autumn.
As I said, the spread in *actual* temperatures is our almost unique problem. Ideally, we'd stress every spring & autumn.
I'm sorry but that simply isn't true - Italy for example has a wider spread in temperatures over the year as do a number of other European countries, it's nowhere near unique or "almost" unique to the UK, and certainly not Southern and Western England.
Perhaps we should look at good practice elsewhere.
This heat is not freak weather, it's been building for years, but we seem to have done very little to make the railway more resilient to it.
Looks like Italy has its own problems!
https://help.raileurope.com/article/41616-italy-delays-disruptions#current
Lots of BBQ's there by the looks of it.
Strikes? In Italy? Surely not!
| Re: Disruption to train services between Reading and London - ongoing discussion In "London to Reading" [376794/26735/7] Posted by IndustryInsider at 11:59, 8th July 2026 | |
No it's not "freak", agreed. But not happening often enough (yet) to actually make changes to maintenance schedules. I suspect that may come under GBR.
And you would hope that NR will be replacing crossing with equipment with higher temperature tolerances to mitigate against future issues. As we discussed, Dolphin Junction at the eastern end is up for replacement very soon. I can't remember when it was last replaced, but you're typically looking at a 20-25 year life expectancy and the top ten warmest summers ever have all occurred since the turn of the millennium.
| Re: Disruption to train services between Reading and London - ongoing discussion In "London to Reading" [376793/26735/7] Posted by ChrisB at 11:45, 8th July 2026 | |
I'm sorry but that simply isn't true - Italy for example has a wider spread in temperatures over the year as do a number of other European countries, it's nowhere near unique or "almost" unique to the UK, and certainly not Southern and Western England.
data please - I think you'll find Italy (north) does experience colder weather than the south (quelle surprise), and they likely stress different areas to different temperatures.
Most of GWR problems are in the Thames valley....plenty of serious frost pockets there that don't get above freezing on some winter days.
Perhaps we should look at good practice elsewhere.
This heat is not freak weather, it's been building for years, but we seem to have done very little to make the railway more resilient to it.
This heat is not freak weather, it's been building for years, but we seem to have done very little to make the railway more resilient to it.
No it's not "freak", agreed. But not happening often enough (yet) to actually make changes to maintenance schedules. I suspect that may come under GBR.
| Re: Disruption to train services between Reading and London - ongoing discussion In "London to Reading" [376792/26735/7] Posted by IndustryInsider at 11:24, 8th July 2026 | |
But we aren't talking *average* temperatures...a couple of hours at below zero or above 30 degrees will damage unstressed rail.
As I said, the spread in *actual* temperatures is our almost unique problem. Ideally, we'd stress every spring & autumn.
As I said, the spread in *actual* temperatures is our almost unique problem. Ideally, we'd stress every spring & autumn.
I'm sorry but that simply isn't true - Italy for example has a wider spread in temperatures over the year as do a number of other European countries, it's nowhere near unique or "almost" unique to the UK, and certainly not Southern and Western England.
Perhaps we should look at good practice elsewhere.
This heat is not freak weather, it's been building for years, but we seem to have done very little to make the railway more resilient to it.
Looks like Italy has its own problems!
https://help.raileurope.com/article/41616-italy-delays-disruptions#current
Lots of BBQ's there by the looks of it.
| Re: Disruption to train services between Reading and London - ongoing discussion In "London to Reading" [376791/26735/7] Posted by TaplowGreen at 11:15, 8th July 2026 Already liked by broadgage | |
But we aren't talking *average* temperatures...a couple of hours at below zero or above 30 degrees will damage unstressed rail.
As I said, the spread in *actual* temperatures is our almost unique problem. Ideally, we'd stress every spring & autumn.
As I said, the spread in *actual* temperatures is our almost unique problem. Ideally, we'd stress every spring & autumn.
I'm sorry but that simply isn't true - Italy for example has a wider spread in temperatures over the year as do a number of other European countries, it's nowhere near unique or "almost" unique to the UK, and certainly not Southern and Western England.
Perhaps we should look at good practice elsewhere.
This heat is not freak weather, it's been building for years, but we seem to have done very little to make the railway more resilient to it.
| Re: Disruption to train services between Reading and London - ongoing discussion In "London to Reading" [376790/26735/7] Posted by IndustryInsider at 11:04, 8th July 2026 | |
More disruption, due to expected heat.
Due to forecasted severe weather between London Paddington and Reading fewer trains are able to run.
Impact: Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until the end of the day on 09/07/26.
Customer Advice:
We are sorry for the disruption to your journey.
What has happened?
The high temperatures that are forecast for today can lead to an increase in points failures.
Points are the moving pieces of metal that enable trains to change tracks.
Impact: Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until the end of the day on 09/07/26.
Customer Advice:
We are sorry for the disruption to your journey.
What has happened?
The high temperatures that are forecast for today can lead to an increase in points failures.
Points are the moving pieces of metal that enable trains to change tracks.
But Met office do not even think warm/hot weather even justifies a yellow warning, there are no warnings, no severe weather is forecast
https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/warnings-and-advice/uk-warnings#?date=2026-07-08
So why do team that update the headline disruption banner on GWR website think there will be severe weather when Met Office doesn't (or have they simply cut and paste wrong excuse)
There is however a Health heat warning (which doesn't affect points) risk factor 12, (medium risk, 60-89% probability of affecting those with poor health)
https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/weather-health-alerts/heat
Has someone misinterpreted a health warning as severe weather ?
Something doesn't add up here
I'm not sure what doesn't add up? Ambient temperatures are above 30 degrees and track temperatures will also be high enough that Network Rail have imposed the KRS again. The KRS means that one of the two OXF<>PAD services per hour is cancelled and the PAD<>DID services stay on the main lines between London and Reading and don't serve SLO/MAI/TWY.
We're hardly talking massive changes and cancellations here.
This is to avoid the risk of severe disruption if the points at Dolphin Junction, and to a lesser extent at Stockley Bridge Junction, fail.
However, I would support a change in the wording to replace the phrase 'extreme weather' with 'high temperatures' which is the phrase used later in the explanation.
Expect this to happen whenever the temperature is over 30 degrees, so the remainder of this week. My weather app is saying +33 in London today, +34 tomorrow and +31 Friday...and possibly into next week as well, though currently that is maxing out at +29.
| Re: Disruption to train services between Reading and London - ongoing discussion In "London to Reading" [376789/26735/7] Posted by ChrisB at 10:50, 8th July 2026 | |
But we aren't talking *average* temperatures...a couple of hours at below zero or above 30 degrees will damage unstressed rail.
As I said, the spread in *actual* temperatures is our almost unique problem. Ideally, we'd stress every spring & autumn.
| Re: Disruption to train services between Reading and London - ongoing discussion In "London to Reading" [376788/26735/7] Posted by TaplowGreen at 10:23, 8th July 2026 | |
Because they have also to be handle below zero temperatures (more often until this year than 30-plus degrees.....
Few places in Europe get the spread of temperatures that we are now seeing....
Few places in Europe get the spread of temperatures that we are now seeing....
The average winter temperature in the Thames Valley over the last 10 years has sat between 4-7 degrees, with a warming trend, and the summers have also been getting progressively warmer over the same period.
There have only been around 15 days in the last decade across most of the Thames Valley where the temperature has failed to rise above 0 degrees all day.
The narrative, as well as the infrastructure, needs to be a great deal more resilient in order to stand up to challenges.
| Re: Disruption to train services between Reading and London - ongoing discussion In "London to Reading" [376787/26735/7] Posted by ChrisB at 09:22, 8th July 2026 | |
Because they have also to be handle below zero temperatures (more often until this year than 30-plus degrees.....
Few places in Europe get the spread of temperatures that we are now seeing....
| Re: Disruption to train services between Reading and London - ongoing discussion In "London to Reading" [376786/26735/7] Posted by John D at 09:18, 8th July 2026 | |
Because the Met Office don't put out rail heat warnings.
30 degrees full sun will mean 50-plus on the rails....but that doesn't affect the weather, so to speak
30 degrees full sun will mean 50-plus on the rails....but that doesn't affect the weather, so to speak
But that happens multiple days most years, not exceptional once a decade stuff, so why do they install points that are only good for 93-97% of days in our climate. We are at about 10th day already this year, and not workable about 20 days out of 365 really isn't the correct spec.
| Re: Jude Bellingham station to keep name until Monday In "The Lighter Side" [376785/32209/30] Posted by grahame at 09:12, 8th July 2026 | |
Will the train tickets be issued from/to Bellingham station or Jude Bellingham station?
An educated guess would be that the temporary changes will not extend to national databases such as ticketing. The GWR website is offering me tickets to plain ole Bellingham.
| Re: Disruption to train services between Reading and London - ongoing discussion In "London to Reading" [376784/26735/7] Posted by ChrisB at 08:52, 8th July 2026 | |
Because the Met Office don't put out rail heat warnings.
30 degrees full sun will mean 50-plus on the rails....but that doesn't affect the weather, so to speak
| Re: Disruption to train services between Reading and London - ongoing discussion In "London to Reading" [376783/26735/7] Posted by John D at 08:29, 8th July 2026 | |
More disruption, due to expected heat.
Due to forecasted severe weather between London Paddington and Reading fewer trains are able to run.
Impact: Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until the end of the day on 09/07/26.
Customer Advice:
We are sorry for the disruption to your journey.
What has happened?
The high temperatures that are forecast for today can lead to an increase in points failures.
Points are the moving pieces of metal that enable trains to change tracks.
Impact: Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until the end of the day on 09/07/26.
Customer Advice:
We are sorry for the disruption to your journey.
What has happened?
The high temperatures that are forecast for today can lead to an increase in points failures.
Points are the moving pieces of metal that enable trains to change tracks.
But Met office do not even think warm/hot weather even justifies a yellow warning, there are no warnings, no severe weather is forecast
https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/warnings-and-advice/uk-warnings#?date=2026-07-08
So why do team that update the headline disruption banner on GWR website think there will be severe weather when Met Office doesn't (or have they simply cut and paste wrong excuse)
There is however a Health heat warning (which doesn't affect points) risk factor 12, (medium risk, 60-89% probability of affecting those with poor health)
https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/weather-health-alerts/heat
Has someone misinterpreted a health warning as severe weather ?
Something doesn't add up here
| Re: Jude Bellingham station to keep name until Monday In "The Lighter Side" [376782/32209/30] Posted by infoman at 02:35, 8th July 2026 | |
Will the train tickets be issued from/to Bellingham station or Jude Bellingham station?
