All across Europe, railways were built from perhaps 18xx to 1926, perhaps to an excess for what's justified for 2026. You could, perhaps, say that the Beeching report and subsequent closures did us a long term favour.   I've seen in Italy and France, and in the Balkans, lines on the maps of a couple of years ago that are no longer running, and this week in another country there are heavily engineered lines with few trains that has me wondering about these economics, and a rail replacement bus that often keeps time with the train timetable.   Sadly, the closure pendulum can swing too far as we see in Ireland.

 
From the BBC:

 
Very cyclable distance. Terrible infrastructure on which to cycle. Plans afoot and here's a consultation.

https://letstalk.oxfordshire.gov.uk/h-to-t-active-travel-route

 
Namely, proposals for the hq and the routes converted to cycle paths.

https://www.tovima.com/society/grave-setback-for-peloponnese-railway-revival/

 


I will tell you more about it later.  Just making a coffee ...

 

Now done. 

 
This topic has been moved to 'Buses and other ways to travel' and merged with an existing topic there.

https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=6748.msg381109#msg381109

 
At Portsmouth the deal is a bus onto the ship and this of course requires a wait for all passengers to complete the security check. Then there is a scrum for the lifts which was not too bad last summer for one bus load.

At Ouistreham, foot passengers walk off via a gangway/airbridge to ground level but then get taken on a bus for the quite short walk to the terminal building. I guess they do this to ensure that no passenger decides to go AWOL or otherwise get in the way of operations.

 
20/10/2026

Cancellations for anyone wanting to travel on these services west of Moreton in Marsh

 
Update 20 October 2026

Ely : Nil   

Wolverton : 8 : 175005 by road.  175102/105/106/107/108/109. 175104 by road,

Laira : 16: 175002/007/009, 175114 ex Ely; 175001/003/006/011, 175101/103/110/111/112/113/115/116 ex Wolverton

Exeter : 1 : 175004 ex Wolverton at Laira  at the moment.

Long Rock : 1 : 175010 ex Ely

175008 scrapped part at Wolverton, part at Derby

 

Not really for the Thames Valley infrastructure thread but it appears that there were casualties.

Some very tricky questions for that bus driver to answer.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6qxnzzgv8e7o

Admins please do feel free to move elsewhere if felt appropriate.

 
There was a much nastier one near Newport this morning involving a school bus and removal of said bus's roof.

No casualties fortunately, so I don't know if it was empty at the time.

 

A lovely recollection!  Thank you

It's a line I wish I'd visited, too.  Could have done it on a Priv, very cheaply too.  When I was at Witham, my shift-mate Colin at Clink Road Jcn had moved there from Torside Crossing on the Woodhead Route.  His dad had come to Cranmore to look after the site for David Shepherd, and they lived in the station house.   We went to Dinting and back from Manchester on those old electric units , and visited the 'box there - a great fascination for this dyed-in-the-wool Western and semaphores man

 
One from yesterday:

 

A lovely recollection!  Thank you

It's a line I wish I'd visited, too.  Could have done it on a Priv, very cheaply too.  When I was at Witham, my shift-mate Colin at Clink Road Jcn had moved there from Torside Crossing on the Woodhead Route.  His dad had come to Cranmore to look after the site for David Shepherd, and they lived in the station house.   We went to Dinting and back from Manchester on those old electric units , and visited the 'box there - a great fascination for this dyed-in-the-wool Western and semaphores man

 

National Rail now saying disruption until 1245.

 
Well, if it's the road-under-rail bridge by Langley Station, that's four more or less discrete steel spans and a pair of collision beams, so, ouch.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ajCkxGLtjvGFMCxF9

 
..........and for a bit of variety this morning!

Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to a road vehicle colliding with a bridge between London Paddington and Reading trains have to run at reduced speed on all lines.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 08:15 20/10.

Customer Advice
-
What has happened?
-
Weve been informed that a vehicle has struck a bridge in the Langley area, between London Paddington - Reading. The bridge will have to be examined to make sure its safe and any debris cleared.

 
Route(s) affected
Trains between Abbey Wood and London Paddington / Heathrow Terminal 4 / Heathrow Terminal 5 / Reading, and also between Shenfield and London Paddington / Heathrow Terminal 4

Description
A fault with the signalling system between London Paddington and Ealing Broadway means all lines are disrupted. As a result, trains will be cancelled, delayed by up to 20 minutes or revised.

Disruption is expected until 07:00.

 

It would also be my choice, but perhaps I'm disqualified as I visited the line several times between 1978 and its closure in 1981. Part of the aura surrounding the line was that the locomotives, and chances to travel over the routes, were elusive. My first journey through Woodhead tunnel was on an excursion, but most of my journeys were on the Sundays-only St Pancras-Manchester Piccadilly, which I was able to board at Derby. This enthusiast's delight of a train would be hauled by a class 45 locomotive. Sometimes it ran the normal route to Sheffield Midland; sometimes it would go via Barrow Hill.

Leaving Sheffield Midland, it would join the GC line at Nunnery Junction and trundle down that line in an easterly direction for some distance. The train would come to a stand (was it by Orgreave Colliery? - certainly not at a station). Sometimes the loco would run round; sometimes a new loco would be on the other end.

So far, the anticipation. Now the train rolled through the ghostly remains of Sheffield Victoria before heading through urban and then increasingly green surroundings. Thurgoland Tunnel... then Barnsley Junction where the line from Wath trailed in and the vista opened up to a surprisingly wide set of tracks; at least five under huge electrification portals, plus sidings.

Huddersfield Junction, with the line to Huddersfield curving off sharply to the right over an impressive viaduct. The sad remains of the Manchester platforms at Penistone, with the electric control room on the right.

Penistone Goods signal box, then the scene opening wide with typical scenery of fields and stone walls.

Woodhead Tunnel; then a graceful snake along curves down the Longdendale Valley; beautiful apart from the National Grid intrusion.

More excitement at Dinting, with its triangular junction, a (now gone) preservation centre and a high vista from the viaduct.

Guide Bridge... crashing over the junctions. I reflect that this Sunday train was probably the fastest one over said junctions at the time.

... and arrival at Piccadilly. Time for a jaunt to Buxton (which still had a loco depot at that time); or perhaps somewhere towards Chester or Liverpool? - on one Sunday, I recorded ten instances of diversion or traction substitution - and no replacement buses.

Of course, on Sundays there was no freight on the Woodhead line (and nothing Saturday afternoons, either), which meant that seeing the elusive class 76s at work was difficult. Most I saw stationary at Guide Bridge or Rotherwood Exchange Sidings (on the Sheffield-Retford line); these were the two locations accessible by passenger train.

I never had the opportunity to travel on the Wath-Silkstone Junction section.

I was up there, at Penistone, Hadfield and Dinting, on the last day of operation in 1981. It's hard to describe how I felt. In those pre-internet days, I just waited, expectantly, for a train to turn up. Several did. There was no special send-off. I had to leave late afternoon as I had a long journey home. Few enthusiasts stayed for the very last train, which was in the early hours of the following day (a Saturday).

With the electric trains gone, the section between Sheffield and Penistone was still used for a couple of years by the DMU service to Huddersfield. It provided a melancholy experience as the electrification stayed in place for some time before being progressively undone. The DMU service itself was under threat. Eventually it was re-routed between Sheffield and Penistone to travel via Barnsley and Silkstone Junction.

The memory of Woodhead haunts me to this day.

 

Apparently the first 197 passenger workings  by 197s on Cambrian are tomorrow 20 October

I would guess they need to phase in a few 197s before TfW start releasing 158s, and they need the ECTS signalling modules removed before they can run in multiple with GWR 158s

Now the race is on between TfW hand-me-downs, 175s with their 2 year head start, or 158s.   Which fleet will be fastest for majority to enter service

 

Similar event when we were on the (new) Queen Elizabeth some years back (somewhere in the Channel) - excellent breakfast time entertainment !

 
Plymouth used a footway, similar to an air bridge last time I travelled through Plymouth Brittany Ferries.