07:45 Westbury to Swindon due 08:34

07:45 Westbury to Swindon due 08:34 will be cancelled.

This is due to a fault on this train.

08:44 Swindon to Westbury due 09:25

08:44 Swindon to Westbury due 09:25 will be cancelled.

This is due to a fault on this train.

Thousands of plants along Nottingham's waterways are being ripped out by the root.

Volunteers have spent more than 1,000 hours during the summer getting rid of Himalayan balsam - often seen in swathes with pretty pink flowers. But the invasive species, originating from the harsh mountain conditions of the Himalayas, is thriving here in the UK at the risk of local ecosystems.

Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has been running a project to protect wildlife and get rid of the invasive plants.

Himalayan balsam is a wild flowering plant that can grow up to two metres tall and grows large pink, bonnet-shaped flowers. Although they originate from the Himalayas, they are commonly seen in the UK, particularly along riverbanks.

Miriam Lawley, from Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, is helping to deliver the 'Thriving in a Wilder Trent Project'. She explained that the plant was first introduced to the UK almost 200 years ago. "It was brought over first by the Victorians," she said. "Because it was such an attractive plant, they wanted to introduce it to their gardens."

Its place of origin means the "well-evolved and adapted" species can survive pretty much "anywhere", according to expert Ms Lawley. "Once it was brought over by the Victorians it kind of hit the jackpot because living is much easier here where the soil is quite fertile," she added.

In the UK, the plant is typically found along waterways because rivers and streams help to spread its seed. Because of that, the plant is prevalent on sites along the River Trent, including Attenborough Nature Reserve.

The plant usually starts to appear in May - or April, following a warm winter - and is found throughout the summer until August.

The species has an "explosive seed pod mechanism" which helps it scatter its seeds. Each individual plant can produce up to 800 seeds and and once ripe, the seed pods split open, spreading them as far as about seven metres.

"It very rapidly becomes a big problem in the UK when you have that many seeds spreading over such a large area," Ms Lawley said.

It was that mechanism that helped the plant spread beyond Victorian gardens and into natural areas. While Himalayan balsam might look pretty once flowered, it comes with a threat to local biodiversity, Ms Lawley said. By taking over large areas of natural land, the plant "out-competes" a lot of native plants that insects rely on.

Ms Lawley said: "One of the things that a lot of people think about Himalayan balsam is that it's really good for bees because we often see a lot of them flying around. Many of them are attracted to this really sweet smell but a lot of them can't actually get into the deep flowers to get the pollen because they've not evolved alongside this kind of flower. So we actually find that there's a lot of insect declines where Himalayan balsam is really prevalent, as well as the decline in native plants."

(BBC article continues)

A volunteer group said it wants to re-establish a historic off-road public route leading in and out of Hereford.

The Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Trust (H&GCT) said restoring the link from Aylestone Park to the transport hub at the railway station, which is currently being built, would be a good fit with the city's transport plans.

The quarter-mile long tunnel is now largely filled with soil and industrial waste.

A Herefordshire Council spokesperson said it could "make a positive contribution to sustainable transport links across the city", adding the authority would continue to assist the trust in developing the plans.

"We would do the actual work ourselves," said Tony Higgins, H&GCT's membership secretary. "We have a hatful of people who want to get down there and make a start."



Where the route passes through industrial and retail estates, the trust would need to negotiate with the owners. "We would only need a small strip," added Mr Higgins.

The group also wants to restore the canal itself between the Aylestone Park section and the eastern end of the tunnel. "A walkway would be a win in the meantime," said Mr Higgins. "As a canal trust, we have to believe."

Talks held in Melksham to advance £30m train service plan

Wiltshire's railway system to be transformed in £50m scheme

This is ridiculous GWR cant even run a reliable service now let alone adding more trains. We were promised 5 car trains on the Portsmouth to Cardiff route years ago and they spent a fortune lengthening the platforms and have we seen 5 car trains absolutely not. Any additional trains for bath rugby weekends absolutely not the railways are a joke. Don't get me started on train drivers pay which is so much they don't have to work weekends so most trains are therefore cancelled because this stupid government failed to change their working practices.

You are correct, it’s only two carriages, absolutely pathetic.  Air conditioning that’s mostly not working or if it is working it’s blowing out warm air so the guard opens the windows.   On the Welsh trains some routes have a trolley service, you may remember the Inter City 125 service with the dining car with a chef for a hot meal , that’s long gone now.

I'm cautiously excited about this prospect. I'm not sure what the odds of it making the journey from plan through to completion are, but if it did, it'd be a tremendous improvement for the area. Right now people are effectively forced into driving everywhere, and the roads really aren't up to the task. Having other options would be wonderful and could allow for some much more sensible housing development than the current approach, which mostly seems to consist of sticking a bunch of 5-bed mini-mansions in the middle of a field, joining it to a creaking road system and letting God sort the traffic out.

Where’s the money then? I personally can’t see any of this happening in my lifetime. Corsham station should be reopened first. More wishful thinking on the supporters.

There going to be on time.and they’ve employed a leaf sweeper full time.and a heated front bumper just in case it snows.

How is this going to be funded at a time when the country is £3 trillion in debt?

Getting changed ready for the OHLE to be installed

Passengers on several Eurostar trains are facing delays and cancellations after a power supply issue on a rail line in northern France led to its closure.

The Eurostar website shows at least nine services on Monday between London and Paris have been cancelled, while a further 15 services have been delayed.

The problem started at about 08:30 local time (06:30 GMT) on Monday and disruptions are expected to continue until the end of the day, with trains being diverted to run on slower lines.

Eurostar has advised passengers to postpone their journeys if possible.

Some services between Brussels and Paris and between Amsterdam and Paris have also been cancelled, delayed or faced other disruptions due to the rail closure, which happened on the high-speed line between Moussy and Longueil in the Hauts-de-France region.

French track network operator SNCF Réseau said on its website that the "severely disrupted" services were due to a power supply issue which required "major repairs".

It predicted delays of between one and five hours on the Eurostar, as well as its other services TGV inOui and Ouigo.

Trains between London-Amsterdam, Brussels-Amsterdam, Brussels-London and Brussels-Cologne have not been impacted.

Eurostar said SNCF Réseau had told it that one track would be reopened at 18:30 CET (17:30 GMT) and that this would "allow trains to run again on the high-speed line but with limited service".

"Traffic should be able to resume on both tracks tomorrow morning when services start running again," it added.

Extra staff have been sent to affected stations to help passengers.

August is a peak period for cross-Channel travel due to school holidays, meaning services are often busier than normal.

Monday's disruptions come nearly a month after a Eurostar train travelling between Brussels and London had to be evacuated in northern France due to a power failure.

And in June, there were two days of major disruptions after separate fatal incidents on France's LGV Nord line, which was followed by cable theft.

Dozens of trains have been cancelled after signalling issues led to a freight train blocking a line near Avonmouth.

Disruption on the route between Clifton Down, Bristol Temple Meads and Severn Beach continued until 13:00 BST.

Great Western Railway (GWR) said the train was moved by 10:00 BST though delays and cancellations continue to affect the service.

Rail replacement buses in the form of 16-seater minibuses have been put in place but these will not run to the train timetable due to the extended journey time by road, GWR said.

Train tickets are also being accepted on a number of local bus services at no extra cost.

A link to a thread on Bluesky that puts out feelers re. HS2 phase 2a...

Mark

https://bsky.app/profile/roadscholar.bsky.social/post/3luxcviohgc2g

From the BBC:

As said somewhere else the civil service have a tendency to "gold plate" projects

It is laughable how a county believe they should become their own country.
There are some strange people down that way, perhaps the sea air has gotten to them?

Never going to happen, but I guess it keeps certain people in a job

A Queensbury Tunnel Society spokesperson said the £22m restoration figure was excessively high because National Highways wanted to "gold-plate" the scheme.

A bunch of extra trains in the timetable for Wilderness Festival returnees tomorrow:

• 0943 Charlbury-Paddington
• 1037 Charlbury-Paddington
• 1138 Charlbury-Paddington
• 1237 Charlbury-Reading

The 0943 does it in 1hr09, even despite four minutes at Oxford and six at Reading. No Hanborough calls.

The up journeys appear to run from Oxford to Moreton, then reverse there, all ECS.

There are at least three concerns over the Interchange site as far as I've noticed.

1. Road Access, Traffic is intended to feed off the A30, in the case of traffic from the west, this involves a significant doubleback to/from that road. Additionally and more significant is that the station is located at the end of a feeder road currently used for an industrial estate, there appears at present no plan to improve this road.

2. Car Park size, this seems to be small which might become self defeating.

3. Effect on the 'Town' station, this is a significant site, it concerns me that the cafe and museum might suffer if passenger numbers transfer across to the Interchange site.  The vibility of the former could be questioned.

The issues have been caused by serious shortages of spare parts at WABTEC in Barton, Staffordshire, where the engines are sent for servicing. The C6 examinations, planned for later this year will also stretch the availability of existing units, so cancellations and 3 car formations are likely to continue.

05:23 Hereford to London Paddington due 08:24 will be started from Worcester Shrub Hill and diverted between Worcester Shrub Hill and Reading.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Additional Information
If you are at Hereford and are travelling to Reading or London Paddington, you are advised to join the 05:30 Transport for Wales service to Newport where you can connect to GWR trains towards Reading and London Paddington.
We have 2 minibuses running in place of this train between Hereford and Worcester Shrub Hill. These will depart from the front of the stations and will run later than the advertised train times. For more information activate a help point that can be found at platform level.
Last Updated:04/08/2025 04:44

06:43 Worcester Shrub Hill to London Paddington due 08:44 is being delayed between Evesham and Moreton-In-Marsh and is now expected to be 27 minutes late.
This is due to a points failure.
Last Updated:04/08/2025 07:36

07:00 Worcester Shrub Hill to Didcot Parkway due 08:46 will be started from Oxford.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.
Last Updated:04/08/2025 07:52

07:13 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 09:52 will call additionally at Shipton, Ascott-Under-Wychwood, Finstock and Combe.
It has been delayed at Worcestershire Parkway Hl and is now 14 minutes late.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.
Last Updated:04/08/2025 07:52

08:18 Worcester Shrub Hill to London Paddington due 10:25 is being delayed between Hanborough and Oxford and is now expected to be 11 minutes late.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system earlier today.
Last Updated:04/08/2025 09:33

09:43 Charlbury to London Paddington due 10:52 will be started from Oxford.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:04/08/2025 08:01

08:56 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 11:27 will be started from Worcester Foregate Street.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.
Last Updated:04/08/2025 08:33

10:37 Charlbury to London Paddington due 11:52 will be started from Oxford.
This is due to train crew being delayed.
Last Updated:04/08/2025 10:23

11:38 Charlbury to London Paddington due 12:54 has been cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:04/08/2025 11:39

10:53 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill due 13:01 will be delayed between Oxford and Hanborough.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.
Last Updated:04/08/2025 08:06

11:52 London Paddington to Hereford due 14:44 will no longer call at Hanborough, Charlbury, Kingham, Honeybourne, Pershore and Worcestershire Parkway Hl.
It is being delayed at London Paddington.
This is due to damage to the overhead electric wires.
Last Updated:04/08/2025 12:16

15:18 Hereford to London Paddington due 18:29 will be started from Worcester Shrub Hill.
This is due to damage to the overhead electric wires.
Last Updated:04/08/2025 13:44

the same time![/url]

As an aside - and not attempting to tempt providence - let's hope nothing untoward happens between Exeter St David's and Taunton on GWR's main line, requiring a diversion between St David's and Castle Cary!

16:58 Great Malvern to London Paddington due 19:26 will be terminated at Reading.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:03/08/2025 16:48