A "triple explosive demolition" has taken place at what was one of the last remaining coal-fired power stations in the UK.

Footage showed the moment two absorbers and a coal boom stacker were demolished at West Burton A power station on Thursday morning, as part of work to turn the site into the UK's first prototype commercial nuclear fusion reactor.

Constructed in 1961, the plant was situated in "Megawatt Valley", near the River Trent, where the cooling towers of 14 power stations once dominated the landscape.

The plant closed in March 2023 and the site is due to be cleared by 2028.

Under the new scheme motorists on Adams Road will give way to cyclists

A road is being transformed into "England's first official Cycle Street" to give cyclists and pedestrians priority over motorists.

Adams Road is one of the busiest cycle routes in Cambridge, used daily by about 3,000 cyclists at peak times and connecting the West Cambridge site to the city centre.

The redesign would see on-road parking removed, junctions reconfigured to slow traffic, and raised crossings and wider footpaths installed for pedestrian safety.

Construction on the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) project will start on 13 October and is expected to last about 30 weeks.

The transformation is part of the GCP's Comberton Greenway initiative, to improve sustainable travel across the region. It said the project would be "England's first official Cycle Street".

Motorists would still have access to the road, but must give way to cyclists.

Brian Milnes, councillor and chair of the GCP, said there would be temporary disruption, but the project was about "making everyday journeys safer and easier for everyone".

"We've heard too many stories of cyclists being knocked off their bikes and car doors suddenly opening into their path, while elderly and vulnerable residents have to step into the road just to get around bins or parked cars," Milnes said. "That shouldn't be the reality on one of Cambridge's busiest cycling routes."

As part of the changed, much of the on-road parking would be removed to stop blind spots for drivers leaving driveways and reduce the risk of car doors opening into the path of cyclists.

Dan Strauss, representing residents in the area, said fast traffic, crowded pavements and constant near misses turned the busy cycle route "into an unsafe experience".

"Change is so needed," he said. "Adams Road is a cycling success story but as it's got busier, hundreds of parked cars are creating blind spots for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists. As well as this, parents worry about letting children ride bikes or scooters, and families have watched loved ones using mobility aids forced to navigate one obstacle after another on narrow pavements."

Camcycle's Anna Williams also praised the initiative and hoped it would encourage people to choose active travel for their everyday journeys.

Alongside the road upgrades, rain gardens and green planting would also be introduced to manage rainwater and boost biodiversity.

The Comberton Greenway is one of 12 routes being developed to connect Cambridge with surrounding villages.

Railfuture Severnside have an e-mail address:

Contact Railfuture Severnside
Email: severnside@railfuture.org.uk

You could try a direct approach to ask them.

CfN. 

...  With a bike theft though it's much quicker to home in.  Assuming it's a digital recording rather than (surely not!) a physical tape you skip to the midpoint of the time between it being left and found stolen ...

https://www.railfuture.org.uk/Severnside+Branch

Neptune is equipped with a long-range infrared camera and an underwater drone

Police have launched a new £350,000 patrol boat to combat criminals behind drug smuggling, illegal immigration and other maritime crime in Devon and Cornwall.

Neptune replaces older inflatable boats allowing officers to operate in harsher conditions and for longer, said the Devon and Cornwall force.

The 36ft (11m) vessel, which was paid for by the Home Office, is equipped with a long-range infrared camera and an underwater drone. The vessel will also be used to deter illegal diving around historic wrecks and war graves, and will be used for water-based searches, said police.

Chief Constable James Vaughan said at a launch in Plymouth said police were "seeing threats from serious and organised crime groups involved in immigration and modern slavery".

"Intelligence suggests that people smugglers and drug smugglers are coming further down the south coast as activity intensifies around the Channel coasts," he said. "It has been pushed down into Sussex and Dorset and Devon and Cornwall. It's important, which is why the Home Office has funded vessels, both here and in other south coast police forces, to help us work together."

He hailed Neptune as a "serious vessel giving us both offshore and inshore capability" across 700 miles of coastline and 4,000 miles of rivers. "Having this capability helps us work with Border Force, the National Crime Agency, and regional units to tackle these national and international threats," he said.

I must admit as I was posting that comment I thought I was leaving myself open for that comment. 

With changing trends I wonder how long it will be before Sunday services come closer to the rest of the week bar some peak hour runs.  

The official tourist board of Cornwall has entered voluntary liquidation, the organisation has confirmed.

A spokesperson for Visit Cornwall said the decision was due to "insurmountable financial problems". It comes after a business review and organisational changes instigated by the board in August. The spokesperson said it had been an "incredibly difficult decision" but was "the only responsible choice" and they "needed to take it before another round of membership payments was due in two months".

Chairman of the board Jon Hyatt said non-executive voluntary directors had worked "tirelessly, in an extremely challenging environment, to create a long-term sustainable future for Visit Cornwall". He said the board had explored "every avenue possible".

"We're desperately disappointed to say that today Visit Cornwall is entering into voluntary liquidation," he said. Mr Hyatt said grants from the government's Shared Prosperity Fund had been "vital" to Visit Cornwall for the past four years. The fund ends in March 2026 with no signs of a replacement programme, he added.

Along with government money, Visit Cornwall also receives funding through members and partners with the aim of promoting Cornwall as a desirable destination.

Mr Hyatt said there was an opportunity for others to "create a new voice" for the sector. He said: "We believe that there is potential for a new organisation to be that voice based on membership and business income alone, and not reliant on grant funding. While we represent more than 500 members, there are many more businesses that could be members of an organisation like this and a number of potential partnerships to explore. That was our goal and the need of the visitor economy and your support for Visit Cornwall gave us the drive to keep working to the last."


(BBC article continues)

For any services running late on Sundays, they won't be stopping in any event.

Manvers Street will be closed between 20:00 and 05:00 on Sunday 5th, Sunday 12th and Sunday 19th October to facilitate carriageway works.

Bus strikes off as driver pay agreement reached

Strike action by 600 bus drivers has been called off after workers accepted a new pay deal.

First Bus drivers working the City Line had previously walked out from 19 to 22 September, causing mass disruption to inner-city services in Bristol.

First West of England previously would not commit to backpay - but Unite union says a deal has now been reached on an 8.6% pay increase for the last two years.

The bus company said it was "pleased to be able to continue providing regular bus services" and thanked customers for their patience.

The bus drivers work for the Lawrence Hill and Hengrove Bus depots, which serve Bristol city centre, Bristol Airport and Amazon's Bristol warehouse and local schools and universities.

Unite said drivers had faced below-inflation pay rises for the past three years and began calling for a fair and sustainable wage agreement.

Unite announced earlier that workers at the City Line will now get £250 non-consolidated backpay and their rest day working pay has gone up by 50p to £1.51 per hour, the union said.

Drivers will receive an increase from £16 an hour to £16.50 backdated to 1 April.

This goes up to £17 an hour backdated to 28 September, before workers have another rise to £17.40 an hour from 1 April 2025.

(BBC article continues)

Thousands of bikes are stolen every year from outside stations

The British Transport Police (BTP) says it will not investigate bike thefts outside stations where the bicycle has been left for more than two hours.

It means most bike thefts will not be investigated and CCTV footage will not be looked at outside a two-hour timeframe.

Commuters leave thousands of cycles on racks outside stations every day, including in specially built bike parks with CCTV. Critics say the BTP policy means those facilities are not secure and theft has effectively been decriminalised.

The BTP said: "The more time our officers spend reviewing CCTV... the less time they have available for patrolling railway stations and trains, investigating crimes which cause the most harm."

Simon Feldman has had one bike taken already from outside Watford Junction station and an attempt was made recently to steal another. He informed the BTP, which told him officers would not investigate the theft - which happened while he was on shift in London - as he had left the bike at the station for 10 hours.

"The BTP report came back after I reported it and it said they wouldn't investigate it. Even though it's right under a camera. And I found out that if you have left your bike for more than two hours, they won't investigate it," he said. "I was pretty shocked because what it's doing effectively is decriminalising bike theft and I realised how many people are being affected by this."

Mr Feldman said most secure parking was next to useless. "Lots of people across the country cycle to a station every day and their possessions aren't being looked after. They're not safe. Hundreds of thousands of pounds are being thrown into secure bike parking and it isn't secure," he said. "These cameras, you could put a bag over them and that would be exactly the same purpose they serve. The footage is never watched, the footage isn't monitored so the cameras don't do anything, so the thieves are so confident now they just take the bikes in broad daylight.

"The answer is a tough one. British Transport Police should look into these crimes but there are so few of them these days, maybe it's time British Transport Police said 'we can't do these any more' and hand it over to the local police."

In a list of crimes the BTP will not investigate, it also said thefts on trains should only be reported if the passenger knows the exact carriage.

Any bikes stolen worth less than £200 will not be investigated, neither will car thefts if the vehicle has been left for more than two hours.


A breakdown from BTP of which crimes would not be investigated

Tom Fyans, from the London Cycling Campaign, said more enforcement was critical. "A lack of secure cycle parking at stations and next to no action against thieves leaves London way behind the Netherlands where nearly half of trips to stations are by bike," he said. "Many victims of theft in the capital just stop cycling - if we want to reduce car trips in London and encourage cycling we have to redouble enforcement against cycle theft."

A spokesperson for the British Transport Police said: "Whilst we know that bike thefts are upsetting, inconvenient and potentially costly, there can often be limited opportunity for investigation. Our experience tells us at an early stage that there are some crimes that are unlikely to ever be solved – such as those without a clear estimate of time or location for the incident or if there is a lack of CCTV or witnesses.

"The more time our officers spend reviewing CCTV footage for these offences, the less time they have available for patrolling railway stations and trains, investigating crimes which cause the most harm and providing a visible presence across the network.

"We will continue to apply a test of proportionality when determining investigation – looking at factors such as timeframes, witnesses, the availability of CCTV, the impact on the victim or whether there is a realistic prospect of a successful outcome. Any offence which is not investigated will still provide us with valuable intelligence, used to direct our patrols and operations."

No wheelchair accessible entrance

Railtrack is about to meet its Waterloo, but Britain's commuters still face a daily struggle to work. Our Rail Commuter Champion has some small suggestions that he says could make a big difference.

1. Better communication

2. Common-sense staff

3. Get integrated

4. Quiet carriages

5. On-board CCTV

6. Air-conditioning

7. Litter bins

8. Rapid-response fix-it teams

9. Give passengers preference...

10. These problems are countrywide

Vote: would Jon's plans work? This vote is now closed - 80.42% voted in favour, 19.58% against. 4,122 votes were cast.

1. Bus transit timeAnd with the train arriving in from Bristol at :11 and the bus leaving at :15 ...

2. Bus Station pedestrian congestion from walking in the door of the bus station through to the 'gate' from which your bus leaves ... OK, perhaps just another 30 seconds but it all counts.

I make the trip from Bath train to bus station every now again, typically when the Chippenham-Melksham train has been cancelled so take the 271 bus instead. And I've never thought "I wish I could catch the bus in Manvers Street instead of the bus station"; in fact it hadn't occurred to me that there might be an alternative until I read this topic.

Google Earth tells me it's about 100m from the train station side exit to the bus station, compared to about 70m from the front exit to the Manvers Street stop. I appreciate I'm lucky enough to be fully mobile so an extra 30m bothers me less than others, but it still seems like a small difference. Or am I missing something?