Finn and I are currently enjoying a weekend away. Where are we today?

 
The fact that the landing gear was not retracted suggests two possibilities to me.
Firstly a major loss of auxiliary power, including that required to retract the gear. Possible but unlikely.

Secondly, that the crew realised that there was a problem, and left the gear down in the hope of returning to the airport for an emergency landing. or perhaps making an emergency landing elsewhere.

 
I'll have one coffee to go.

 

It's been suggested on another forum that Liskeard-Looe is often the first branch to be sacrificed on a Sunday when there is crew shortage as it's the easiest one to bustitute.

 
I am opposed to greyhound racing.
There seems little DIRECT cruelty involved, almost all of the dogs almost always survive the race, in stark contrast to horse racing in which many horses are killed.

My concern is the disposable way in which the dogs are treated. Many are killed or dumped if not successful, or when "retired"

Some end up as family pets, but many are dumped or killed. They are bred or selected for a strong instinct to chase prey and regrettably often even pet greyhounds kill cats, smaller dogs or wildlife.

As with horse racing, I do not wish to attend dog races, nor to gamble on the results, or to offer any other encouragement.

 
TfL did put out a consultation - and I thought it got a mention somewhere in these pages about a year ago? Anyway, if didn't, I did hear about it & responded negatively, so the word was got out.

 

Partner with who(m), exactly?

 
The 13.32 Swindon to Weymouth has been reinstated from Westbury to Weymouth so one cheer rather than two that someone has been found to provide cover for part of the journey.

 

It's never been within GWR's control.  That was the whole point of privatisation! 

 

GWR had years to address this issue when it was in their control before the DfT tightened their grip. Instead of doing so they left it on the "too difficult" pile.

 

I'm sure virtually every Father working today feels the same.

The fact that the date has been in the calendar for some time however seems to have enabled other businesses who can operate basic workforce planning to sustain their service.

 

No - the 30 won't run west of Euston. The Paddington-Euston (and Kings Cross too) route will be covered by 27 and 205, each part-way and overlapping.

 

 
Hoping the spiral ramp bit attracts a gardening group too, it's compact, defined, manageable, prominent.

Mark

 
Further pictures from our legal art wall, new art and the artists at work.

 

That is a superb question. 

"What do you think" ... I think (I know!!) that I don't know enough about what the future holds.  I can visualise good and bad scenarios; the question comes do we [just] wait and see or do we look to partner and persuade in what gets set up or not, and in what authority it has.

 

What do you think the future holds for local Rail User Groups when it's all owned and run by the nation? 

 

Indeed ... after MANY years of looking for a "solution" for the subway (= shortish tunnel) to Melksham Station, a solution has been found in a legal art all.  Not only the initial job, but now continuing.

 

I look forward to the time that everything is owned and run by the nation so there won't be (sometimes correct) buck passing.  I just fear that the nation will follow the time lines taken by the DfT which is the nation and things will get done far far far too slowly if at all.

 

Could it be that some GWR drivers / train manager are fathers too and we have a case of "More fathers than usual being required at home at the same time"

 

1.  Lessons were learnt a long time ago. 
2.  “7-day railway” discussions have been ongoing for sometime, unfortunately the DfT  won’t release any further funding to resolve the issue. They want to continue with the “cheap sticky plaster” fixes which we all know doesn’t work.

The issue isn’t with GWR. GWR run the operation as per the contract outlined by the DfT.  It’s for the DfT to sort.

 
It might be that in part that's because it's not open as a matter of course. It'll help if it's put on a more functional active travel route too - I'm now thinking of examples of other instances of shortish tunnels in urban areas that don't acquire a bad rap, so it can be done. The retrospective publicity around the 2007 opening very much hands the chalice to the people treating the location in an antisocial fashion  too.

Going off at a tangent, the sight of Heathfield Station's building and entrance on the road above the station site is a bit achy: here's Google Streetview.

https://tinyurl.com/4pr3f7yk

The disused stations site is informative on both the station and the line, and makes mention of its distinctive source of fuel for the station lighting.

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/h/heathfield_sussex/

Mark

 
From Wikipedia:
In 2019, Wealden District Council stated: "due to constant vandalism and anti-social behaviour, the tunnel is to remain closed indefinitely with no plans to look into it".
So it seems occasional openings such as this will be all that happens, which is a pity. I wonder why this particular location suffers more than similar tunnels elsewhere such as in the Bristol/Bath area.

 
With thanks to my colleague Timmer for his update posts, I have now further expanded the heading of this whole topic, to draw attention to this very frustrating situation.

Today being Fathers Day, when some families would like to have been able to have a day out in Weymouth, just for example?

CfN. 

 

1) Judging by the repetition in similar circumstances across the region over a number of years, none.
2) They won't. GWR are staggering towards the end of their franchise, there is little or no motivation for them to make the efforts required.

 
Quoting from Heart of Wessex ...


On the TransWilts service, don't forget that the first round trip was a rail replacement bus this morning - not really a replacement but a substitution by something different and inferior.

A lot of TransWilts southbound in the morning use it for onward connections which leave Westbury (today) at ...
09:32 and 09:57 (yes, 2 at 25 minutes apart) for Weymouth
09:37 for London
09:54 for Penzance
10:02 for Portsmouth
and these would normally offer connections off the train from Swindon.   Guess what - the bus arrives at Westbury at 10:14 and that breaks all of these connections.   Only 2 other GWR trains are timetabled to leave Westbury before 11:00 and could be described as connection - 10:40 to London (by Real Time Trains tells me it's not expected until 11:10)  and a train at 10:41 which - oh dear - heads up to Swindon which is where the direction the bus came in from in the first place!

 
Summer Sunday, so.................

Cancellations to services between Liskeard and Looe

Due to a shortage of train crew between Liskeard and Looe the line is closed.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled. Disruption is expected until 15:00 15/06.

Customer Advice
Due to crew shortages, we are unable to run train services today.
-
We have very limited road transport in place, taxis will shuttle hourly. Please note, they may not run to the train timetable. Please see station staff.
-
We're sorry for the delay to your journey.

 
Came up "on this day". A conference that was the turning point (or rather brought things to a head) for me. Lovely to be back in Swindon yesterday - with European Passengers' Federation / TravelWatch SouthWest, and lovely to have local support there from the likes of the Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire CRPs helping bring in the local level. After the conference I travelled home and was joined by one of the key EPF officers who's stopping in the UK for a few more days, and we travelled on a nicely busy (running in time) TransWilts train where I left him as he carried on to make a connection in Westbury.

 
Sunday June 15


RTT reports this as starting from Paddington.

 

but it would take longer to load / unload at the docks as only the front half would platformed and so a lot of passenegers would have to walk through the train...