From BBC Weather:

 
From the BBC:

 
From the Metro:

 
A new plaque marks a pioneering filling station on the A4 Bath Road near Aldermaston Wharf that was established by the Automobile Association in 1919.

Archive footage

I suspect that there has been a re-think about the precise location, as the parish council website has a modern sketch map showing it a couple of hundred yards to the west. There were, and are, two bridges over the railway at Aldermaston Wharf, and perhaps the wrong one was taken as a positioning landmark.

Coming from Reading, the sign is in the first layby after the A4/A340roundabout. Best reached on two or four wheels: this morning I approached it on foot on the wrong side of the busy road. There is no pavement on the other side.

There is no trace at all of the original structure which, I think, was removed in the late 1920s.

 
Many years ago I was talking with the IT manager of an ice cream factory about resilience.  He said they had no IT power backup; the site had 2 completely separated HV supplies and the electricity company knew that if there was a power outage then within an hour the city centre would be flooded with melted ice cream.

 

They did that after they felt the breath of the ORR on their necks in 2024.  So much so that things improved enough that the enforcement action was lifted in June of this year:

https://www.orr.gov.uk/search-news/fewer-delays-and-cancellations-wales-western-following-regulator-intervention

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/NR-WW-Performance-Improvement-Report.pdf

I don't know if the figures have nosedived since - it will be interesting to see.

 

Who knows? 

I did find myself having sympathy with this lot ...


... in that chasing overdue payments is not something that most people enjoy, and I can imagine some of the paperwork types saying "this is not what I signed up for - it's a change of job and one I am not comfortable with".  I can identify with that - and I can also see that changing roles may be appropriate from a company organisation viewpoint.  As the day to day stuff becomes quicker and more automated, it is natural for the non-routine stuff such as "oy - where's our money" to be a bigger element of what the organisation has to do, and is perhaps a natural area  for them to move staff who may otherwise be surplus to requirements. 

 

Rail Union finds reason to strike over pay etc.......no "radical change" with the onset of GBR there either then? 

 
Totally off-topic: from the days before Soller gained its road tunnel, and a rainy night. Sitting eating in a cafe beside the tram stop in Puerto de Soller, Majorca, a rumbling as a thunderstorm made the rounds of the mountains. A not-particularly-dramatic lightning strike but every light went out and stayed out, save for... well, the cafe staff were not in the least downhearted, and we continued our meal, eating by the light of the silvery tram.

 

Agree, I have previously suggested a solution.

https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?action=post;quote=245879;topic=20334.0;num_replies=4;sesc=19ce76e4aab52d95bf0f3cd4b280c63d

 
Stations that are in darkness can be a problem in more ways than one. Unless emergency lighting can be arranged, there is a risk trains wont be able to call.

 
Anyone have an idea of how many are in service now?

I know at least two are as both rolled in to Penzance last night within 10 minutes of each other

 
More info about rota power cuts.
A very small number of consumers are exempt from rota power cuts, in order to be exempt the consumer must be judged to be of NATIONAL  importance AND have a dedicated high voltage grid supply. Such consumers are on the V list, for  VITAL importance or on the F list for food production and storage facilities of NATIONAL  importance.
Examples of consumers protected from rota power cuts, are railway traction current supplies (but not stations) some MOD facilities, Some ports and dockyards, and the electrical supply industry itself.
There can be question of any exemption for any consumers supplied at low or medium voltage.

Being on the F or V list does give any immunity random power cuts cuts resulting form bad weather.

 
From the TSSA website

 

But there's another graph going round which shows the same sort of drop in performance on the privatised TOC's, to me, that's more indicative of the state of the infrastructure then anything.

 

Now ... it may be biased by a careful choice of starting date and making no reference to other factors, but I found this diagram from  The Time via "Down the line" rather interesting to consider.

 
I started this thread far, far away - the far north of Scotland - and from there, whatever the fares, the railway takes a long and winding road across the vast peat bogs covering the moorlands of Caithness to avoid the great scars sliced into the coastal cliffs  along the North Sea coast.     After following the coast from Helmsdale through Brora and to Golspie, it then cuts inland again via Lairg to cross the Kyles of Sutherland upriver of the estuary at Invershin/Culrain, before making another great detour around the head of the Black Isle via Dingwall, to arrive into Inverness - although it's the "Far North Line" from the West.

There have - always - been roads with difficult gradients from Wick to Helmsdale, going down and up the magnificent valley slopes from the high moorland to nearly sea level, crossing the valley, and back up the other side.  Modern railway engineering would, no doubt, allow for high viaducts to be built, and modern traction would allow far fiercer gradients, but it has not been done. 

Across the Kyles of Sutherland at the Dornoch Firth, a long causeway now provides a road access to the south from Brora and north thereof, cutting the road distance from Golspie to the south by many miles and many, many minutes.  No engineering reason it could not have included a railway line, but it didn't.

The again, across the two great sea slashes into the coast that form the "Black Isle" - really a peninsular, high quality / speed roads have been built which get you from Invergordon to Inverness in a fraction of the time - and with a fraction of the fuel burn - that the road around the end (and that's the way the railway still goes) would take.  In days gone by, the Kessock Ferry would take you part of this road route.  No need these days - it's bridged - but for road only.

Looking at Google for Journey planning this morning, I am offered around 3 hours by bus / coach and 4 hours and 15 minutes by train from Wick to Inverness.   Even if the cost were equal, most people would elect for the bus?    Of course, it's not that simple - the train and bus also both serve Thurso though in opposite directions, and there the timings are broadly equal at 3 hours and 45 minutes.  And, I would suggest, cost becomes a far more headline consideration.  And looking further south, intermediate places served by one but not the other mode help justify both, as does the comfort, tourist nature, and ability to connect south within the same station for the train.



A picture found online - shared "members only" here as it's not mine - was a stark reminded of road v rail, USA style



[MO]

 

No, I don’t think it’s the air con.  They both went through the depot train wash and the water poured in.

 
Of course they’ll be no radical change!  The DfT have always been in control, nationalisation just cuts out the middle man and gives the DfT accountants more control so expect a gradual decline in all areas with no one publicly answerable to it.

 

Exactly this.

No-one is expecting to wake up on 14 December to a magically transformed railway and it's actually a little condescending to suggest that.

What we need to see is the plan - for long term stability and reliability rather than just tapes and bits of string - the failures in LTV, well documented here, are often daily now - what difference is GBR going to make to this? How? Over what timescale? With what resources?

"A more integrated railway system" in and of itself, is not going to change that and it's the sort of empty phrase that manages to promise much without providing any detail as to how the change and outcomes necessary are going to be achieved.

The irony of "GWR managing director Mark Hopwood said staff had been working hard behind the scenes to ensure passengers do not notice too much change" will take some beating! 

 

And therein, certainly as far as the GWML - particularly the PAD<>NBY section - is concerned, lies the problem; unless and until Network Rail do their job properly and engage in a bit of root cause fault finding rather than, it seems to me, quick fix and forget about it until the next time service performance will not improve.

As to the rolling stock, specifically the IETs, Hitachi don't appear to have exactly covered themselves in glory with these machines. However I do wonder if any 'mean time/distance between failure' data comparison has been carried out across all TOCs that use IETs to possibly identify any variations in failures and their causes. 

 
A couple of points from me, if I may?

The positioning of that trio on the platform at Chippenham for a photo shot was irresponsible. Trains arrive at that platform from the West - behind them.  The narrowing of the platform due to the substantial scaffolding structure accentuates the issue.  When I've been at Chippenham station (and I have, several times recently), the platform staff (and the public address announcements) repeatedly tell people to stay behind the yellow line.  It's there for a reason - safety.

There is a far more suitable photographic site outside the station - there's a wide pedestrian approach, with the historic architecture in the background to validate it as a railway station.  They should note that for next time.

CfN.

 

May I thank you both for your forthright and very polite posts here.

As I started this particular topic, I'll add my own observations to it.

I think Mark Hopwood has done an excellent job here, in explaining why the 'change of ownership' of the railways isn't going to 'wave a magic wand' (see grahame's post elsewhere! ) and solve all of these problems overnight.

The ongoing issues of the lack of reliability of rolling stock and infrastructure, such as signalling, points and overhead line problems, for example, aren't going to be magically resolved on 13 December 2026.

What I do find encouraging is that, after that date, it will no longer be a case of TOC v TOC, or TOCs v Network Rail: it should help to develop a more integrated railway system.  That will benefit everyone on the railways - passengers and staff.

Sorry: my cage was rattled, again.

CfN.

 
I have also merged a couple of topics here, as they both relate specifically to railways in Australia.

For clarity, continuity and ease of future reference to our readers.

CfN.

 
I have, by the way, added an explanation of 'Darwin Award' to our Coffee Shop forum's 'abbreviations & acronyms page' - lest any of our readers might be puzzled as to the term.

CfN.

 
There are no Microsoft servers or products in use in the Coffee Shop, so we haven't any problems like other have today

 
From the BBC:

 

Thanks to the broken rail at Exeter St David's, the Sleeper spent  an hour or so at Exeter Central, then was sent up to Taunton (presumably because of lack of space at St David's) and stabled there for a short while before reversing and continuing its journey down to Penzance some 5 hours down.

 
From the BBC:

 

Real time trains shows it due in Penzance at 07:55 but actually there at 12:45 - that's 290 minutes late.  At it's worst it was 5 hours down - arrive Plymouth at 10:38 as opposed to timetable of 05:38.  Almost as bad as out Leipzig to Frankfurt and then Aachen journey in August, but at least the GWR run looks like it was the train and not standing on an overcrowded bus for the last 90 minutes.