Go on - I'll bite.  Tempted to suggest somewhere between Carmarthen and Aberystwyth

 
An addition - [AI] in a post declares Automated Intelligence content.

Our forum agreement - which all posters have signed up to (but may have been a long time ago) includes  It is your responsibility to present clean and accurate information. In my developing view, illustrations and text may be regarded as inaccurate if there is a significant risk of them misleading readers into believing that they are factually accurate when they are not.

This clears members to post "Concept" pictures - "it could like ..." provided they add the tag.

Example:
Post includes AI generated content (?)

 
I’m not eligible to enter as he sent me the photo yesterday and told me.   Doesn’t matter anyway because I’ve forgotten!!  Truly hopeless.

 
If they close the doors before the scheduled departure time, up to 40 secs before I think they say in the announcements I've heard, then I guess there's no point hanging around once they're closed?

 

Post includes AI generated content (?)

Testing - adding a tag [AI] which you may include in your posts.  More to follow about that in "News and Assistance"

 
I guess it's time for another picture from the same location to see if anyone can guess...

 

Your hint is noted, John D - with thanks.

Having reviewed both topics, I have moved a couple of posts from there to here and merged them - while preserving the original headings.

This whole subject remains more speculation than facts or dates, so I do encourage our Coffee Shop forum members to add anything else here in this topic, if you do have any more information.

CfN. 

(My highlighting some text above in yellow: if that doesn't work for you, please do let me know, and I'll look into an alternative way of including emphasis.)

 
and there's more:

 

They ran, like clockwork, throughout.  In fact, the first train on my excursion departed Nailsea & Backwell one minute early: the onboard digital display screen confirmed that.  A bit naughty.  

 
It makes sense for me to check should I start my journey at Redland for a change of trains at Temple Meads.  If it looks like there's trouble with the Beach line then there is a bus alternative but that would not be so workable with a very late cancellation or serious delay as the bus service takes significantly longer.

 

Not much has changed, then, during my absence over the past several days

 
The usual pair:

 
For what are regarded as important fixtures there is a free shuttle bus to Edgbaston which generally departs from the 'top' (northern) end of Smallbrook Queensway. When it runs there are guides with banners directing people to the departure point.
In the absence of the free service West Midlands National Express bus services 45 & 47 from stop NS4, immediately east of New Street station, both stop outside Edgbaston.

I have in the past walked to Edgbaston - 40-45 mins / 1.9 miles - which circumstances permitting is not a bad option because the traffic on big match days is dreadful. Leave New Street by the southern Hill Street/Station Street exit - down the large staircase next to the Wetherspoons - and follow Hill Street, Hurst Street, right turn into Sherlock Street and continue straight along Pershore Road.

 

It's surely good to adopt this approach, then, for infrastructure, if redundant structures are involved, evaluate them to identify them as assets to the cause (or otherwise).

Even with a train service axed in, say, the last decade, one can ask 'How has its market changed?' (And for the one I'm thinking of, the answer to that would be 'There's been strong further growth in travel not related to the daily commute to work, we axed a service that supported leisure and education-related travel. As a transport provider, we need to strengthen our hand here.)

 

Probably a minority opinion, and, er, off-topic: carriages with 1/3 - 2/3 doors aren't ideal for services along an exposed coast and with frequent station calls. I'm trying to recall one the type of trains used on the Cambrian coast line before the 158s, they had a vibe that was 'Dismal suburban'.

 
I always check as my local station is Freshford, which has an hourly service and it's not uncommon to find a cancelled train.

 
Interesting topic, as someone who is a semi-retired merchant seaman I can tick most of that list off.
However i've never counted just being at anchor or alongside in a country as 'properly' visiting it.  After many shipboard discussions to have properly visited a country you had to go ashore for a wander and have a beer, or at the very least buy a souvenier!

Cheers,
Chris

 
There are some posts on Welsh 158s moving in rumour section (perhaps moderators need to merge this)

https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=32485.0

There is a bit more, a 23rd unit is rumoured to be going to East Midlands, and 2 less damaged coaches of units that crashed are at Wolverton.  There were 24 units, one coach each of 2 units are withdrawn.

GWR is likely to use some as middle cars of 3 car units, that way they don't need to modify so many ECTS modified cabs back to standard configuration.

The Welsh 158s are about 35 years old, so feels like another stopgap with no real long term strategy, or replacements on order.

But it is all rather academic at the moment, because Wales doesn't have enough depot capacity to keep all its CAF 197 fleet repaired and operating. Although there are 77 units (51 x 2 car, 26 x 3car), only about 45-60 units normally manage to be in service simultaneously

At time of posting 25 of 51 2car and 20 of 26 3car (51 of 77 units) are in service

Currently it is hoped to put 197s on Cambrian from mid-late October, although how long before route fully converts is anyone's guess.   Only 21 of the 197s are equipped with ETCS signalling

 
9/10 trips I’ll check Realtime trains. I’m a 15-20 minute walk to Liskeard
Station. I allow 30 in case I get distracted and chat to people on the way. Hopefully the train will be somewhere between Truro and St Austell.
If it isn’t the car will get used for time sensitive trips. If it’s not time sensitive I’ll leave home once the train has psssed Truro.

 
Have we done this yet?

Rail Magazine - Transport for Wales '158s' expected to move to GWR

https://www.railmagazine.com/news/transport-for-wales-158s-expected-to-move-to-gwr

22 units expected to move from TfW to GWR (4 to be sub-leased to Northern)

Contingent on the 197s replacing them on the Cambrian.

 
Always wondered about going to Edgbaston for a day out
How easy is the journey from New Street?

 
Excellent evening ... further (initial) update at https://www.passenger.chat/r32511.html
or https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=32511msg379647#msg379647 for comment

 
The text below is shared from a Facebook post I have just got carried away answering - from Two Girls and a Mop apologising to customers for late arrivals due to congestion.  I have - I hope - brought together a reminder of what we are doing and why we are doing it - for the quality of life and for people moving around the area in their business and personal day to day, and occasional, journeys, and for the people and businesses they interact with before / after / during their journeys.

---

A reminder of how our road network in West Wiltshire is congested towards breaking point and how that impacts businesses and our economy.  How is this going to work, looking forward, as our area grows in population and mobility of both people and goods needs expand?  And how does our region cope with the freight and people passing through here located, as we are, in the heart of England?

The last two evenings I have been at meetings - very different ones (and three on two nights!) where we have been looking forward, and I have found them informative and inspirational;  we need to be planning for the future, and working to get effective plans actually implemented.

As a campaigner, and not an expert in anything (or perhaps I am through experience, observation, listening and osmosis), I wonder how effective my and other inputs are to those educated and trained to be experts and to actually do the job.  But yet I am encouraged by discussions  / chats / questions at these meetings to keep on at it. 

Last night, I asked (point blank) and in public about how we (West Wiltshire Rail User Group) should best engage with [whoever] in order to help ensure that the experts and do-ers can best fulfil their roles.   And the answers - keep making inputs. Make them positive as far as practical. Think them through.  And in the other direction, feed back and help inform / explain back to people some of the issues involved, the hard decisions, and why things are going forward as they are, but yet helping tune them.

I have learned over the years that even the people on "the other side" of campaigns who may appear to be "adversaries:" are rarely that.  They may be seeing things from a different perspective - working with them, understanding that perspective makes such a difference in what can develop into partnering to move forward best for everyone.

And I  am reminded not to look back with a view to RE-opening or RE-creating something, but rather to look back to learn from experience and the past to help inform us as to what we need for the future.

Thank you, Peter West OBE, for talking last night, sharing updates on some highly technical rail industry management issues that have been grappled with for decades and are still being grappled with, and in helping to confirm or direct our flows of inputs, directions and suggestions to those who are helping those things flow forward, even though it's not totally clear who those people are going to be and how that flow will work.

I have know Peter as a "work" contact - though my work has been mostly voluntary - with at times very different objectives set down. And yet here we are, 20 years later, affable in a common love and friendship for better outcomes, and with an ability on both sides to listen, explain and reach common good.   My goodness - how things have changed over the the years.
 
I WILL look back in history and point out how much things have been changed for the better in shared view. At times it has been frustrating and feeling that nothing has happened or we have stepped back, and yet comparing 2006 to 2026 there is no comparison, and perhaps by 2036 or 2046 there will be no comparison to today,  I look forward to continuing, for a handful of years more anyway, to doing so.  And, thank you, Peter, for your informed update and inspiration.

 
https://www.beautifulbritain.co.uk/htm/onthisday/September/d317.htm - 17th September


Don't I recall in quite recent history a station or two being "daylight hours only" because it was unlit? 

 

There are reports - I'm sure correct, though now historic, of people being excessed for travelling via Bath Spa even at times of service disruption making that route, unplanned, being the only practical alternative for them when they had planned to go via Melksham.   So the new policy, whilst it may not now make much "actual" difference, does flag up / market / remind people of what can be done - and that in itself is good in helping reduce the worry / reticence people have as they travel and are concerned at having the right ticket.

 

Reporting, really, for the record.  No (passenger) problem at all.  Faint amusement in the use of "if you arrive late" standard paragraph in these circumstances; hard to imagine any circumstance in which a longer train causes delay.  No - I have a vivid imagination.   Short platform, train to long, station delays while people getting off make there way through.  Train planned into short bay (e.g. 5 carriage train which should have terminated at platform 2 at Swindon).  Longer train - joining passengers take longer to find the carriage which includes their reserved seat, or assistance crew take longer getting to the carriage where a wheelchair ramp is required ....

 
I am increasingly checking formations before travelling.

Especially when travelling via Salisbury! When I'm travelling that way aim for the CDF-PMH that's usually a 4-car 158, which happens to give me an earlier than required arrival at my destination, with plenty of delay buffer. Except on the days I go that way when it always seems to be short-formed, so I decide to give it a miss and accept the 3-car 166 that follows, which ends up picking up a delay, meaning I have to change plans at the other end. 

 

Alternative routes was probably one thing that wasn't automatically OK (hence my mention of via Bath vs. via Melksham). However, if someone checking tickets ever raised an objection, I think the worst outcome (according to NRCoT) would be a route-change excess fare (and no penalty or need to buy a complete new ticket).

 

I am relieved to read this, albeit that since I retired this is no longer the issue it was. I'd guess on average about twice a year there would be a blockage or closure of the North Downs line between Reading and Guildford, so I'd use the "zig-zag" alternative, namely Reading-Basingstoke (usually by Cross-Country), Basingstoke-Woking then Woking Guildford (both SWT/SWR) or the same in reverse if this occurred on my return journey, in any such case to undertake a GWR service. This was never a problem on the rare occasion that my season ticket was checked, and on a few occasions this was encouraged by staff. Hence much of my confusion when the story broke. 

 
Back to the topic..

I'm surprised that the station at Moulsford has not been mentioned (why didn't I do so?).

This was the station between Goring & Streatley and Didcot between 1840 and 1892, also known as Wallingford Road. It was on the north side of the A329 road bridge, and some of the buildings survive. I think they now form part of a development of flats.

When the Wallingford branch was opened, it ran alongside the mainline from this station before diverging at the point where Cholsey station now stands. When the mainline was quadrupled, the junction was moved to what is now the Cholsey station site (the junction has sadly since been removed) and the new/current Cholsey station opened (as Cholsey & Moulsford), and Moulsford station closed.