IIRC, WECA's 10 year rail plan proposed to upgrade Narroways Jcn with double track up to the eastern portal of Montpelier Tunnel, though I don't recall having seen it in recent years. 

Your decfinition of a loop difers from mine. A loop goes back on itself....?

Your move, grahame. 

Originally built as a terminus where all trains called on their way into London via London Bridge then after reversal went on to Charing Cross.  The chord from Borough Market Junction was added later - certainly as far as passenger trains were concerned

The problem with AWS is where a train is running on "Yellows".  There have been a number of accidents recorded over the years where a train Driver subconsciously cancelled the AWS warning where a signal is at "Danger" because they had been running on "Yellows".   This is a human trait we all suffer from.

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be terminated at Westbury.
It will no longer call at Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

17:04 Didcot Parkway to Evesham due 18:23 was terminated at Oxford.
It will no longer call at Hanborough, Combe, Finstock, Charlbury, Ascott-Under-Wychwood, Shipton, Kingham, Moreton-In-Marsh and Evesham.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

18:51 Evesham to Oxford due 19:50 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

What impact might stopping these trains at Stapleton Rd have on the ambition for 4tph from Brabazon? Those relief lines are going to be busy, and single lead junctions at Narroways and the Hallen line won’t help…

Although there is quite a lot of research to show that shopkeepers habitually overestimate the number of customers who come by car:


(from https://ggwash.org/view/96602/survey-most-shopkeepers-shoppers-overestimate-car-use, which has lots of interesting links)

To be honest I think 90% of the High Street problem is online shopping. We buy stuff from Amazon and eBay and the like, not Debenhams or BHS or Woolworths. Town centres are just too big for modern shopping habits. The only options are to major on the visitor destination/experience angle - as JohnM says, "having a pedestrianized high street during most of the day made it magnitudes nicer as a place to shop/loiter" - or to shrink the town centre. Much better to turn town centre buildings over to residential use, where the residents might spend time and money in the town centre, than to build acres of new suburbia where the residents will just drive to Tesco.

Dear Graham,


 
We wanted to make you aware of upcoming track renewal work which will affect all train services operating via Pewsey from Saturday 10 to Friday 16 October.

 
During this period, replacement road transport is planned between Swindon and Pewsey. Trains between London Paddington and Plymouth or Penzance will be diverted via Swindon, extending journey times by at least 15 minutes. Most of these services will also be diverted via Bristol Temple Meads, adding a further 30 minutes to journey times, although some services will instead run via Melksham.

 
There will be no direct trains between London Paddington and Paignton or Frome. Train services will continue to operate between Reading and Newbury or Bedwyn, however please note that no replacement transport is planned between Bedwyn, Pewsey and Westbury.

 
Trains between Swindon and Westbury will operate to an amended timetable over the weekend, with a very limited train service operating on weekdays. From Monday to Friday, the only local stopping trains via Melksham will be the 07:52 Westbury to Swindon and the 17:36 Swindon to Westbury. At all other times, replacement road transport is planned between Westbury and Chippenham, with other train services continuing to operate between Chippenham and Swindon.

 
Customers should check their journeys before travelling and allow additional time where replacement road transport or diverted services are required. For more information and to view a map of the proposed works please visit: gwr.com/check.

 
We would be grateful if you were able to cascade this to your networks and, if you have any questions, please do get in touch.

 
Best wishes,

 
Olivia & Heledd

Olivia Willett | Deputy Head of Public Affairs | Great Western Railway
E: olivia.willett@GWR.com

Heledd Iolo | Senior Public Affairs Manager | Network Rail

E: heledd.iolo@networkrail.co.uk

Dear Olivia and Heledd,

Thank you for your email which, as per request, I will share with members of the Melksham Transport User Group, of which I am chair, amd I’m going to share with the West Wiltshire Rail User Group committee next week.

Have I read it right?  People who normally catch the 10:00 from Melksham to Swindon, getting there ar 10:27, and return on the 18:44 into Mellsham at 19:10 won’t be able to get to Swindon until 11:09, and on return won’r get to Melksham until 20:38 - that’s 42 minutes delay in the morning and 88 minutes in the morning - on a journey that normally takes just 25 minutes between Swindon and our town - nt a small place, but with a potation of around 25,000.

You (thank you) equipped the IET trains to call at Melksham a year or to back for the very purpose of providing a service when you made diversions like this. Having gone to that expense why on earth aren’t using it?  The trains have to slow down to go round the curve through the station here anyway!

My own Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/graham.ellis.melksham/posts/pfbid02gULtaV3sqNjaN6FTKa79ufPdw3Ad9HFLWobJiraLJ2txi7ktKNJMDjHHJLEnoUEQl
Expresses my view.  Please get back to me “by return” so I can include any comments from you on the group’s feed which has a far wider reach.

Thanks

Graham

Graham Ellis
48 Spa Road, Melksham, SN12 7NY
graham@sn12.net
07974 925928 or 01225 708225
My emailling policy: https://grahamellis.uk/email

Many years ago, walking in to work in an office in central Bristol, on the pavement, I was startled by the imperious ringing of a bicycle bell behind me.  Instinctively, I stepped to my right - causing the impatient cyclist to also swerve even further to the right.  He thus took a purler, over the handlebars, head first into a pile of empty cardboard boxes outside a shop.  I merely continued my saunter into work, while quietly sniggering to myself. 

Following from ET's comments ...

What impact might stopping these trains at Stapleton Rd have on the ambition for 4tph from Brabazon? Those relief lines are going to be busy, and single lead junctions at Narroways and the Hallen line won’t help…

One of the most frustrating causes of delay I see are the numerous people who don't get their pass/card/change out until they are actually on the bus in front of the driver.

Bristol to Oxford remains every 2 hours

Will the life boat house on the island be used, as before?
So doing has advantage of quick and easy launching at any state of the tide.
What are the present arrangements for the RNLI.

As many of you know, I am a bus driver.

99% of us don’t want to be late. We want our dinner, or to go home on time too.

95% of delays I suffer are caused by third parties. Third party collisions, roadworks, bad parking, bad driving by third parties, on rural routes I often think my bus is invisible as I’m passing through narrow stretches and cars just keep driving at me instead of waiting for me to complete passage of narrow sections. Pensioners having a gossip to me or fellow passengers, must finish their conversation before disembarking then start a new one with me before getting off. The joys of rural work, everyone knows everyone, and passengers are on first name terms with most of the drivers and vice versa.

A tamper that was involved in overnight engineering has damaged a large section of track.

The B1 bombers from Fairford pass noisily over Frome (at quite low altitude) several times a day. I have read somewhere that they are generally headed SW on exercise over the ocean. However, even when operational in the Middle East the route was way out in the Atlantic, Strait of Gibraltar and Central Mediterranean. Thereafter who knows? No doubt this route is supported by air tankers.

According to a database maintained by the Rail Safety and Standards Board
(RSSB), there have been no previous recorded instances of trains passing
signal WH154 when it was displaying a red aspect since records began in 1985.
However, it is likely that the signal is very rarely encountered in this state. RSSB
analysis indicates that before the accident, no train encountered a red aspect at
signal WH154 in 2026.