How long ago was this "preposterous" idea put forward as being the gospel truth by GWR with regards to the Cardiff - Portsmouth route ? ....................so don't hold your breath for the "local trains".

 

Although the siding is not easily accessible from the Melksham line

 
I have fond memories of the Tramway fro  my childhood days. A day trip to Weymouth always had to include watching the boat train pass along the streets. In those days it was hauled by tank engines with the locks changed just north of the main station with the addition of a banker up the bank to Bincombe box

 

Guessing on what's wrong with the train - but there IS a siding still at Thingley Junction.

 

 

Just knock the faulty vehicle out of the train and drop it onto the North Loop to await attention from C&W.  Nothing booked to run over that today.  Oh.  Wait.

I know, I know.  If only

 

NO WAY would I [:swear:] do so.  I would look to divert footfall from the current staircases and lifts at Bath Spa, and from the busier middle of the platform to the quieter ends.

 

So glad you didn't stray to the dark side and include a list of footfall-suppression techniques. Particularly evil would be to shape the passenger profile, minimising the numbers who would consider rail to travel with children, pushchairs, luggage, or those that for one reason or other, slow crowd movements down.

Mark

 

Thank you for that, Richard.

 

Without inside information, we can only guess.  JourneyCheck was telling us about problems until the end of the day, and I speculate that a skate might be needed to get something with wheel problems out of the way.   With lack of bypass loops and sidings, perhaps they are waiting for the more important lines between Chippenham and Swindon, and between Trowbridge and Westbury to become clear after service? 

 
I've checked the situation with GWR's timetable planners and they tell me there is no reduction in the Coombe Jn service and it is simply a coding error which has led to some of the calls not appearing on journey planners or the pocket timetable pdf.

It's being put right and the correct information will appear soon.

 

According to Traksy, 6A16 is still somewhere between Bradford Junctions and Melksham, at 1040

 
2E77 0510 Oxford to Worcester Shrub Hill
Didn't run this morning.  According to RTT:
2E80 0827 Oxford to Didcot Parkway
Didn't run between Worcester Shrub Hill and Oxford

 
In the 1950s did BR really propose replacing Bath Spa with a new station on the site of Westmoreland Road goods station? Also, closing the Midland line between Green Park and the outskirts of the city along with the S&D from Midford, replaced with a spur from the GWR line to the Midland west of the city, and a junction close to the Bath Spa station site serving a new-build double  track line from there beneath Claverton Down to Monkton Combe, rejoining the S&D south of Midford?

Mark

 


Too late to do anything about it today, but a proper integrated transport system should offer an alternative when you look up your train and try to book.  Rather that cancelled and a note that the next train is 151 minutes later, if the 09:52 id cancelled what not suggest that people catch the 09:55 bus from the top of the Trowbridge station approach - 10:29 in Melksham Town Centre and about 10:33 at the top of the Melksham Station Approach?   The fact that the bus goes past Melksham Station Approach and does not actually stop there is another issue ...

 

Looks like it ...

 
Has 6A16 (Whatley Quarry to Oxford) sat down?

 

No suggested alternative ... late notice cancellation.  There may be operational reasons but it's the very late changes without an (it could be automatic) passenger-focused advise line are highly damaging to customer morale.

 

Agreed there is a quick win there to cut the crowds at the top of the stairs as trains arrived from the east.  But a look at the passenger and public transport flows is needed to come up with the best combination of solutions all around - and that includes flows beyond station property, and flow of trains.  "6" would be good - and would do nothing for the overcrowding on the stairs to the London bound platform or at the top of those stairs.

 
And there was me looking at a remote Alaskan airfield IATA code KWK, Rb (Rubidium being the 37th element in the periodic table) and with memories of the D3 bus that ran from outside our home into Bath operated by First in the pre-covid era.  Lake District makes is much more logical.

 
6 is your best bet....

 

Ten preposterous ideas ...

1. Extend Bristol bound platform over bridge
2. Access ramps rise over river from south bank
3. Three track section to the west becomes main lines on outside with turnback track in centre.
4. Access lifts / escalator in Prezzo Restaurant
5. Re-instate bay plaform at London end / side
6. Make better use of level access already there to car park at London end on London arrival side
7. Make all local trains 5 carriages long and stop them at the end of the platfom where people come on new local entries
8. Could there be a travellator up from the booking hall to the front of the London platform (old bay space)?
9. Could trains run on time to reduce passenger dwell time on platform?
10. Escalator / lifts in bus station to overhead walkway to platform (and across Dorchester Street?)

 


The platforms at Bath Spa can get very busy indeed and the numbers of people coming in and out of the city "can only grow".

A question from my mailbox asks how the congestion we already see might be eased.  I have a whole load of way out ideas and thoughts and I am starting with an a satellite picture showing the position of the station and places around it, which I can follow up with - keeping my initial post clean as a post to raise the issue.

 
Correct on both counts, PhilWakely. Both walks were roughly the same length, but Skiddaw, at somewhere over 900m, was an interesting challenge for someone not as young as he once was!

 
On 2nd May 1999 - the very last (special) train over the Weymouth Quay branch / Weymouth Harbour Railway and a good write-up summary on WikiPedia.  With an element of sadness, I am posting this memorial "On this day" thread in Railway History as I don't think it's practical for it to come back in any form

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weymouth_Harbour_Tramway

There are double plus plenty of threads on the forum on this - I am just rushing around to place a starter on this and a couple of other threads this morning.   Unquestionably no longer a Town Councillor, I still / now have a huge amount of stuff to do and catch up on that I have been remiss in doing over the past 4 years ....

 
RB.37 is a cryptic reference to Derwent Water.

"The Rolls-Royce RB.37 Derwent is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine, the second Rolls-Royce jet engine to enter production."

D3 refers to Skiddaw.

D3 'Skiddaw' was the first Class 44 Peak that I copped many moons ago on a trip to Nottingham.

 
Yes - KWK is Keswick Bus Station, and you can now get through tickets from Avanti West Coast. The bus runs every half hour from Penrith Station forecourt, and worked very well for us.

Now as it happens, we walked past the old railway station on our way to D3…

 
Darn!

It's Keswick, isn't it?

But I'm still struggling.