Once again I see it’s time to play whack-a-mole with the old chestnut about ‘Bath NIMBYs’ blocking GWML electrification. They didn’t. Bath Preservation Trust very rightly insisted that the OHLE was done in a way that didn’t disfigure their city, but they had agreed a scheme with Network Rail when the project was canned. GWML electrification wasn’t blocked by Bath NIMBY’s; Greyling did that.

 
Modern Railways covers the Scottish rolling electrification programme in the June edition.
https://www.modernrailways.com/article/scotlands-rolling-programme-cuts-electrification-costs-26
Sections of the article are copied below

 
All safety critical photo calls made into or out of a signal box are recorded. 

 

How much would it cost & how long would it take?

 

Given the wide availability of call recording technology and safety critical nature of the locations and the calls for which they are used, if those phones aren't suitably equipped for call recording I would find it absolutely breathtaking.

 

https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/25214998.burnham-station-bridge-lorry-crash-roof-ripped-off/

Would seem to have been a bit of sandwich 

 

I don't think user phones at UWCs are, in general - but maybe that has changed. In any case, analysing any recordings would still take more time and precaution than would allow a quick initial conclusion. 

 

Should it have been and the process was not completed for some reason? I would have thought the recording of such a potentially safety critical interaction should be mandatory.

 
Nothing for Devon & Cornwall - Quelle surprise!

How about this for an idea? Since our government has decided that it can spend £15Bn, of our money, on transport projects why not complete the section of GWML Electrification between Chippenham (ish) and Bristol. A better service for passengers, Ed Miliband would be very pleased with the reduction in diesel emissions, and the NIMBY's in Bath aren't going to vote for you anyway so you can just tell them, politely, to go away.

 

Perhaps I was too pessimistic?

Within that 2027 to 2032 window, we should have in the bag Portishead and Henbury reopening, five new stations and a reworked Temple Meads.

I'm not certain around the timelines but the rail/metrobus/cycling infrastructure around Brabazon looks pretty good on paper (though obviously a more frequent rail service would be better) and should be fairly transformational for the Cribbs to UWE "arc".

Support for small, incremental rail projects seem plausible - e.g. Narroways to Montpelier tunnel redoubling, Saltford, Ashton Gate, St Anne’s Park and Lockleaze station reopenings and perhaps even Filton Bank electrification. 

 
No. Whether a telephone conversation (which was not recorded) provided "permission" is not the kind of simple fact that can be determined at the outset of an investigation. It is likely to be contentious, and a different interpretation of what went on by the two parties has caused such accidents in the past. In other words, you are looking for evidence of confusion and find that the evidence itself is confused - so you avoid jumping to conclusions.

 
Playing devil's advocate - it doesn't say that he got permission to cross though - don't you think that they'd have added those few words?

 
An Ukrainian friend long resident in the UK recently returned home for ten days to meet her brother (a paramilitary firefighter) and a friend. She flew from Stansted to Rzeszow in Eastern Poland  and took a bus to Przemysl on the border with Ukraine and then an overnight train  to Kyiv, some 300 miles away, in a four-berth sleeper compartment that was not very comfortable. This enabled her to “sleep in” when the train arrived at 0215, rather than de-training and being on her own with luggage at that time of the morning.

Life in the capital city seemed almost normal, though sirens sounded a number of times and she spotted a couple of missiles.

On the return train journey, there was an oppressive checking of passports by aggressive officials. She was travelling on her British passport, which an official looked at with a sneer, asking “What’s this?”  It may not have helped that she primarily speaks Russian – as do around 12-15% of Ukrainians, with another 20-30% using both Russian and Ukrainian. Historically, Russian was more widely spoken, but the war has led to a shift towards Ukrainian.

The officials took away all the passengers’ passports but returned them before the train crossed into Poland.

Though she's been to Ukraine at least once since the invasion, to "rescue" her mother, without problems with her phone she had trouble getting it to work this time, not only when contacting people back in England, but when trying to communicate with the taxi driver who'd called to collect her from her hotel. She had to buy a new SIM card with a new number.

 
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55

23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 will be terminated at Bodmin Parkway.
It will no longer call at Lostwithiel, Par, St Austell, Truro, Redruth, Camborne, Hayle, St Erth and Penzance.
This is due to a fault on this train.

 

From the RAIB

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/collision-between-a-train-and-an-agricultural-trailer-at-nordan-farm-user-worked-level-crossing?fbclid=IwY2xjawKuC9NleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFBYmZKV0lZWjVVVHJ3VlRPAR5P9niXBe2dPwGakmuwkMHMcQeJD6UFY-ubeAmicBM7V5ZAVdD9ap4q3jU04Q_aem_FbaGDzgW3wnNb6Yb-QGECw

Before leaping to conclusions/convictions, no doubt readers will note "The evidence available to RAIB shows that the driver of the tractor involved in this accident telephoned the signaller before using the crossing".

 
On my Interrail trip last year, it was really only German long distance services I had any problem with (and even then, as described above, it was nothing disastrous).  I took a few German local services and they were all fine.

Switzerland - as excellent as you'd expect.  Holland and Belgium all fine.  The Italian Frecciarossa trains were brilliant - fast, frequent and just lovely trains.  A vast change from my first experience of FS in the early 80s!

 
There's a really good model railway shop in the centre of Aachen too - close to the Town Hall.

 
The Coventry VLR trail is set to expand with £12m allocated by the DfT to to extend the track from Coventry Station to Coventry University.
12 million quid might seem quite a modest amount but that's what VLR is all about.

More in the link below:

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-very-light-rail-expanded-31778868

 
Part One- the outward journey.

Grahame is not the only forum member to be sampling rail travel across the Channel in recent days. My wife and I spent a few days in Germany, based in Aachen, over the weekend, celebrating her birthday by visiting two cathedrals covered in a recent WEA course she has attended (Aachen and Trier) and the surrounding general area.
We’ve used Eurostar as our preferred way of getting to much of France and the Benelux countries for some years, so decided to add Germany to the list of counties visited by this means. Aachen is only just in Germany, both the Netherlands and Belgium being almost within walking distance of the city. I booked tickets through SNCB, the Belgian national railway company, travelling via Brussels each way. I hope this account might be of interest and assistance to forum members who might be contemplating visiting this part of the world.

As it happens, our outwards journey was the first with any problems after 10 clear on-time journeys on Eurostar. Having checked in, and arrived in the crowded departures area at St Pancras, the displays changed to show that our 13-00 departure was now expected to depart at 14-30. We were booked on an onwards DB ICE due to depart 20 minutes after our due arrival time. To their credit, Eurostar immediately announced that anyone with onward journeys from Lille or Brussels should attend their information desk to get help with alternative arrangements. In our case, we were given a handwritten note confirming that the Eurostar train was delayed by up to two hours franked with an official rubber stamp, and told to present it in Brussels and we would likely be issued a replacement ticket on a later train at no cost. We might not even need this – the certificate itself may work. They could not help with times, but recommended checking on-line, and it was easy to confirm that there was a DB ICE every two hours.

On the train, a member of crew went through the train asked who was affected by missing booked connections, and we were advised to go to the ticket and information at Brussels Midi. This we did, and a very helpful person with excellent English glanced at our certificate, and told us that we needed nothing more, and should just get on the next (18-25) ICE and show the certificate on any ticket inspection.

This was my first mainline German train trip, albeit mostly across Belgium, and we were treated to one of their mark 3 ICE high-speed trains. Very satisfactory, clean and comfortable it was too. The ticket inspector simply asked if we were one of the passengers affected by the Eurostar delay, and accepted our “yes” without actually inspecting either our ticket or certificate! Despite all the negative publicity about DB in recent times, it ran to time (as did GWR from Goring to Paddington on the way to London).

Tip for anyone thinking of travelling to Aachen from St Pancras – the Eurostar fare on the ex-Thalys service using old 1990s TGV-type trains is £81, on the DB ICE it is £31-36, a little less for us as we were “seniors”. Both take the same high-speed track, but the DB service takes all of between 3 and 6 minutes longer, and both run about once every two hours.

Aachen station looks like a post-war reconstruction, a pleasant enough building, and sits on an attractive square south of the old city centre. Unfortunately, it is also a magnet for all the alcoholics and down-and-outs of the city, and this is reflected also in a conspicuous police and security presence. The city itself has an attractive centre around the cathedral, old townhall and an interesting museum at the Charlemagne Centre, this being Charlemagne city. It gives the history of the city from pre-Roman times to the post-war period. The city, as a transport hub and an early target in the “liberation” of Germany in 1944 was very heavily bombed. Much of the rest of the city is typical post-war reconstruction ex-West Germany, albeit a little shabbier than many other similar cities. It is not so good as a base if you want to see Trier as well and use public transport. We “cheated” and hired a car, which also gave us an opportunity to see some of the attractive hilly country of the Ardennes, Haute Fagnes and Eifel National Parks and Moselle valley around the area where Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg meet. Aachen does however have good rail and bus links with Cologne, Maastricht, Eupen and Liege if you fancy an international sightseeing break.

Next time-the way home....
 

 
Burnham Station, according to the Bucks Free Press.

 

I believe it was Burnham.

 

Oooh look, a chance to bash the London government and get my name in the paper, along with my "angry" photo.

 

I'm hoping for more than that, although with past years in mind. The devil will be in the dtail, and there isn't much at this stage.

 
Does anyone know which bridge was struck?

 
Cancellations to services between Slough and Reading

Due to a road vehicle colliding with a bridge earlier on this train's journey between Slough and Reading trains have to run at reduced speed on some lines.
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed.

 Disruption is expected until 14:00 04/06.

 
I believe it's a little duller than that. Basically the reinstatement of the 2027 to 2032 Mayoral Authority funding settlement which was announced in Oct 2023 but frozen by Labour when they came into power.

It follows on from the 2022 to 2027 settlement which in the case of WECA, has mainly been bus and road focused, although there's been a fair amount of rail strategic planning with NR including a study into whether Parkway to Temple Meads could be electrified for less than originally budgeted.

I'm not sure if a detailed pipeline for 2027 to 2032 is in the public domain - the main commitments I can find are reopening Portishead (MetroWest 1b) and Henbury (MetroWest 2).

Mass transit development could be something exciting, but realistically it's probably just bits like moving the busses to the north side of Temple Meads, roadworks along the A37 and A4 corridors to make the busses run faster etc.

I suspect that in the case of WECA it's PR fluff rather than anything meaningful.





 

 
Government announcement with the amounts and main projects by region

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/biggest-ever-investment-in-city-region-local-transport-as-chancellor-vows-the-renewal-of-britain

For West of England £800m
£150m to improve rail infrastructure across the region, including funding to support WECA’s ambitions for increased frequency of services between Brabazon and the city centre. £200m for Mass transit development between Bristol, Bath, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.

Doesn't say what the other £450m is for.
WECA haven't uploaded anything about it, so at moment what else is funded is a mystery.

 

You may be selected...

 

Indeed ... and I also have rate clarification from Bryony

 
If you might report a precis back here, it would be helpful - ticketing on day 1 & Mark Hopwood on Day 2 the most interesting - along with Bryony's 'Women in Transport'....