Trawling back through previous posts here on the Coffee Shop forum (as I am inclined to do Image not available to guests ), I discovered that one of my learned colleagues on the administrator team here (the one of the squirrel variety) originally noticed this transition, back in October 2023:


I must apologise that I clearly wasn't paying attention, from the back of the classroom, when Red Squirrel pointed that out. Image not available to guests

Relevant topics and posts have now been been merged here, in the interests of continuity and ease of future reference.

CfN. Image not available to guests

 
It'll be interesting to understand how much delay/repay you get. It's generally x% of the single fare,  but presumably isn't on a 5 day rover otherwise you might get back more than 100% of its cost?

 

Weymouth train was at the platform but at the extreme weatern end of it, train dispatcher said I'd missed it as its doors were closed and I asked if it could pick me up as it went past, which didn't go down well, as didn't the ensuing conversation about why trains stop in positions that impose the maximum walking distance on passengers. Now on the following Cardiff-Portsmouth with a delay-repay incoming.

Mark

 
I was walking past Aldermaston Wharf this morning and went across the station footbridge. On either side was a small blue notice and a much larger yellow banner displaying a plan showing where replacement bus services for both directions stopped - about a hundred yards away

 
From the BBC:

 
From Rail magazine

 
GWR could help here as a Weymouth train leaves 2 minutes after this one arrives. Not exactly cross platform though.

Mark

 
At Newport in time for the 19:43 home, but as it was cancelled that'll put me over an hour down at Bath.

Mark

 
Speed restriction at Little Strettion as the train was brushed by vegetation, now up to line speed again and doing that yomping past vehicles on the A49 thing. Calling additionally at a couple of stations as the preceeding service was cancelled. At Craven Arms, fog.

Mark

 
Onto the 17:44 Manchester Piccadilly to Swansea at Shrewsbury. No chef and first class is quiet but the catering crew are on to things quickly. Snow on the ground outside again. The A49 looks quiet.

Mark

 
Snow swept into heaps on the platforms at Newtown, they've had a drop.

Mark

 
After fog at Machynlleth and snow cover on the last of the climb, now touching 70mph on the Cambrian main line north of Moat Lane through a frozen landscape.

Mark

 
Impressed that it only took 21 secs  Image not available to guests to move the new bridge:

https://youtu.be/SrhKe1H6DTA?si=H7cTgrFNWNjtcs3i

Video of the replacement span carried by 4 sets of self propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) - speeded up.  OHLE gantries preinstalled, I think the ballast was preloaded as well, but not visible from the camera angle.

 
Sun shining in the west over the sea, snow on the high ground inland, about to cross the bridge. No photos as the train windows are plastered. The ticketing irregularity as yet unresolved, something about which I am intensely relaxed. Onward.

Mark

 
No trains yesterday, just departed Penrhyndeudraeth, train manager doing chapter and verse on the expired ticket, he's taken it away to make enquiries by phone to Bath Spa ticket office and to TfW retail...

Mark

 
An update, from the BBC:

 
Very good update yesterday from Courier Checker


Travelling Post Offices - with sorting on the way - ran from 1838 to 2004, and then (carrying mail but not sorting on the move) the last dedicated mail train ran in 2024.

Letters posted have changed out of all recognition. Twenty Five years ago, we at Well House Consultants produced a printed brochure that we mailed out twice a year to around 1000 customers and prospective customers, we invoiced by post, paid bills by cheque in the post and received payments from customers in the same way.  A trip into Melksham to pay in cheques at our local bank branch was a regular undertaking.

The local branches of all of the big banks have closed, and although concerned we ourselves have not really missed them.  There is still a Nationwide and a Coventy in town, and a Post Office too.  And the Post Office still has that tradition of people queueing out of the door with less than half the five tills staffed.   People for the most part are posting parcels; my own visits are very occasional - before Christmas to mail out a handful of hard copies of the Melksham Timetable to operators based away from the town, and last week to email a legal document for which I needed proof of posting and with no online alternative being available.

 

The 12:05 did sit at Saltash for close to 90 minutes waiting on an ambulance for an ill passenger - that didn't help with the storm incoming.

Some GWR staff got stranded and were forced to sleep the night in the depot.  Early in the morning there was a belief the storm would be worse then expected so GWR did, some would say for a change, a top job in keeping everyone safe, 

 
The Cornwall duty NR MOM, the well known Craig Munday, has described his shift for the night on the CRS daily news here https://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/latest-input--news--old-pictures-etc
It’s currently (0845 10/1/25) at the top but later readers may have to scroll down to the 10 Jan section.

 

Here is that same train 4 weeks ago - 14th December.  At that date, it was running to both Chippenham and Swindon.  For today, it had been cut back to Chippenham because of planned engineering, and then less than an hour before it was due, it was cancelled. 


Image © 2026 by Graham Ellis is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. I am taking this opportunity to post / remind readers of the copyright on my photographs shared / used on the Coffee Shop - it's been a recent subject of discussion (here) and it's worthy of occasional reminder.

 
Sharing from my email


I attended a previous BRTA meeting at the same venue.  I'll let Simon know that whilst I would like to attend, I will be meeting my cousins visiting the Netherlands from their home in the USA that day and have to turn down invite.    I found the previous meeting very useful in helping to bring some "left field" ideas to the table there, giving me an opportunity to give them a thought and consider whether there was a logic in some of them.  It was also an opportunity to network with a handful of others and to fill in those visiting on various current ideas with which we were all more familiar.

 

 
The launch of the WEMCA branding was in December 2024, which I missed. That date agrees with what Wikipedia says. I don't think you need to feel any shame if you missed it completely!

 

Some years ago, I was working in the now closed Jobcentre in Stapleton Road. I wasn't doing work coaching stuff, but was aware of developments. A logistics centre in Severn Beach, before Amazon, needed night shift staff. I realised that very few people seemed to know that Severn Beach was accessible by train. One manager, who in fairness lived elsewhere, asked how people would get to Temple Meads, and was shocked when I pointed out the station a couple of hundred metres away. Despite this, I saw a number of young men without their own transport jump at the chance, showing that rumours of nobody wanting a job were unfounded, none of whom were put off by the train times not fitting the shift pattern. Alas, having to arrive at work almost an hour before the shift starts, then spend over an hour in a shelter on the the platform hoping the first train home wasn't cancelled can knock the enthusiasm out of the keenest young worker. Many did not last the second week. I suggested asking the company to be more flexible with timings, but despite their desperation for staff, they couldn't/wouldn't change. Which is sad.

Mark Weston is probably in a far better position to talk to employers on Severnside and in Avonmouth about things like this, and may be able to boost any business case for the loop with answers to the right questions. Poor transport links are often cited as a hurdle to employment and expansion, so why not take the opportunity to do some real in-depth research into not what would be achieved as things stand, but what could be achieved by linking housing and employment centres well away from the traditional central area.