Our worker server went offline just before midday - as you'll see it's back now. The outage was about 3.5 hours.

Evidence suggests that the company that provides the infrastructure that hosts the Coffee Shop had changed something in their configuration, and in doing so had lost one of the two IP addresses we use.  Of course, this needed research at my end before I said "oy!" and I was at the doctor's at the time so it took me a while to get onto it.  Once reported, it took them about an hour to respond to my support request and then solve the issue.   All this lot while attending GWR's central area timetable briefing. from 13:00 to 14:30 - more about that anon!

At the doctors only because they wanted a same of my blood ... checking up on me.  Only detrimental effect of all this lot - a rise in my blood pressure and need for another cup of coffee!

I do not expect this particular problem to recur - however, our original provider sold his hosting business and this in not the first time the new company has done an oopsie.  Yes, I have backups.

 

 

We were told front 2 coaches (which were in normal formation, A and B).

Claimed delay/repay for 60-119 mins, 50% of a return, but they've refunded the full amount.

 

To Be Cancelled?

 
I hope no forum members are planning a trip to Scotland via the WCML this week, see-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cde4p01g0r1t

 

Last summer, fibre to the premises people worked their way down the road, followed, one evening a few months ago, by a pop and the electricity supply failed to either one or more neighbours. The electricity people arrived in a trice, up came the pavement and all was made good again, not before I'd taken a photo of various cables erupting from a heap of arisings.

Not sure, in the near future, if anyone will be fast-charging an electric vehicle in this neighbourhood.

Mark

 
From the BBC:

 
An update, from the BBC:

 

Availability, or not, of First Class tickets is not the only factor in "selling" First Class tickets.  I have not travelled in First on GWR since the IETs appeared, to call the superior accommodation, First Class, is a sick joke. Just have a look at some photos of First in a GWR HST and compare that with today's pitiful - and grossly overpriced, offering.

The only half decent First Class in this day and age is in SWR's 159s - which I still buy !

 
We discussed the Community Rail in the City event, on the transfer deck at Reading Station on Wednesday 15 May 2019, at https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=20407.0 

 

Since GBR was first mooted I've been asking on this forum (where it's largely being enthusiastically anticipated) how it'll be better for customers and have yet to receive a meaningful response.

It's perhaps telling that one of the most well informed members of the Forum feels similarly in the dark!

 
Fair enough.

 
Was it that recent? year 2019.

Swear it was longer than that,maybe getting years mixed up with the David de Costa campaign

 

As regards your first point, you were correct. In early trade in Asia, Brent crude reached $100, and a few minutes later reached almost $110.

WRT your second point, I stand by my remarks, though I think it was longer ago than 2022. The electricity supply industry allows an average load of about 5 amps per home if mains gas is available, and 10 amps if gas is not available.
The use of ONE electric heater per home can double this loading. When heating oil prices increased substantially, a significant minority of homes locally used multiple electric heaters and power failures resulted.

 
Split tickets x 3 for £59

Split at Winchester (OPDR), Basingstoke (Evening Out Return) & OP Travelcard to Twickenham

 
From the BBC:

 
From the BBC:

 

Yes, I am - but not 'engaged' - I've been married to my good wife for nearly thirty years now.

I, too, still have my badge from that event - and I'm now searching through my drawers, so to speak, as I'm sure I still have somewhere the railway security pass issued to me on that day.

That owl (Isambird Kingdom Brownowl) is still a feature of the Coffee Shop forum - indeed, I sort of bumped into him on a fairly recent visit to Melksham.  He, by the way, was the cause of some interest to the public as grahame and I trundled him on his platform through a pedestrian precinct to grahame's overnight accommodation. 

In that picture, I am standing second from left, facing the camera.

Chris.

 
George Orwell - 1984 - Rail terms for 2026.   Perhaps it's just my age, but I am sensing that I'm more being lectured at and less being an appreciate partner who helps pay the bills and bring business these days.  We could - if we were so inclined and trusted - help explain some of the very real issues ...

 

I'm seeing First Class Advance from Bath Spa up to Paddington. However, looking for a journey I used to do by train heading west down to Cornwall, the booking engine borks out, says it 'can't find stuff, try again later', with a cheerful 'New search' button that resets the page so everything has to be entered again.

But for some reason, if the page is closed and the GWR site reopened, the page usefully populates itself with the details of the previous search.

Searching again for another journey I may do by train, the search, having prompted me to correctly identify both ends of  the trip, came back with 'Invalid destination'.

Mark

 

David's been transferred from Taunton to his local hospital. The report I have, though vague, indicate that he's getting the attention he needs and he's on his way to recovery.

 

Serious concern at some of the developments. We are at a stage where it is ever more important to have a clear picture of where we are headed at a macro level and how that will be reflected at a more granular level. It would also be good to know how customer, wannabe-customer and campaigner inputs will be effectively gathered and used to inform positive and sustainable development.   Gee - I sound like ChatGPT, don't I?

 
The opinion of Messrs Harris & Bowker (Green Signals Podcast), and one with which I completely agree, is that if this process change is designed to fix a known issue - that of used but unscanned digital tickets being submitted for refund - then this is not the correct way to go about it; our government repeatedly tells us that the GBR run railways are going to become more cost effective and passenger customer focussed but all this does is inconvenience those whose travel plans unexpectedly change and/or, possibly, persuade people to buy cheaper Advance tickets (=less revenue) the day before a confirmed journey, or even worse make the use of the car a better option. A more sensible approach would be to ensure that, where installed, ticket gates are always active and, failing that, get the on-train staff to check tickets much more regularly than is presently the case.   

 

So as we move towards GBR we can look forward to a policy of higher fares and fewer passengers. Perhaps not quite what people will be expecting from a Labour Government.

 

Maybe ... but the maths are very complex and I don't suppose anyone in the GWR fares section will be wanting to share the data.  Once we're under GBR, perhaps we can learn more under FOI!

I did some sums (I'm dangerous)

Let's say 10 people caught the PAD to PLY train first class at £104.50 - income £1045.   Now if that ticket is no longer available, perhaps 3 will pay £234.70 first class, and 5 will pay £74.90 off peak standard class.  That's two people who move away from rail completely, and income is still up - to £1078.60.    Seatfrog may take some money, and there's extra money to be made by selling rather than giving away cups of coffee.

Modern day electronics and ticketing add a different flexibily matrix which - err - I haven't tried to build into my example.

 

That doesn't reflect my experience. I often travel from Reading to Plymouth utilising Advance First class tickets in carriages which are no more than 15-20% full.

Those very same trains now appear to have no Advance First class tickets available - amongst other things, this facility encouraged people to travel by train on business as it gave a quieter and more spacious environment in which to work without incurring the enormous cost of "regular" First class tickets - this is why Avanti's "standard premium" is becoming so popular.

I suspect in the absence of these tickets people will simply downgrade to standard class instead, thereby reducing revenue.

 

Is it one of the ways that "the railway" is increasing its income from the same number of passengers while "not raising [regulated] fares"?

Advance fares were introduced to help fill seats on quieter trains, as I recall.  With trains getting so much busier and (we hear) services on Sundays being reduced, there are now and progressively will be fewer - far fewer - spare seats to offload.

 
That was a good day,still have my badge even though I didn’t make it into the picture.

 

I have some disquiet over service reductions though in certain instances they can make sense.   

At Melksham, we lost two round trips on Saturdays "so that the others can be more reliable".  The services lost were the ones that had been running pre-2013 and we were left with just the Westbury - Swindon shuttle with extended gaps in the middle of the day where those previous skeleton services had run.   In some ways a logical cut, as the trains cut had been run at times the stock wasn't really needed on other lines either - quietest time of day.  However, I spite of us being told they were being cut to help reliability, the reliability of the remaining service got worse.    This broke the promised message we had been sold - "fewer trains but more reliable" though of course we don't know if it would have been even less reliable had they remained.   As a result of this failure to deliver what we were sold on, we find it harder to trust GWR these days.

GWR services on the South Coast to the east of Portsmouth - to Brighton - were also lost.  Two round trips a day.  There was sadness rather than retention campaigning as they were lost.  Again, comment / promised that it will "let us do better / be more reliable with the other services" which has had a hollow ring, and I'm not sure that the promises - or implicit promise of the marketing hype - has been delivered.

In December, GWR cut a peak train from Warminster to Westbury in the interest of "the reliability / time keeping of other busier trains".  Problem is that as a result, they then offered no route home for students and working people from Salisbury from 16:42 to 19:13 - for sure, there are fewer passengers on the train culled than on the one it held up, but should they really be prioritising saving a couple of minutes delay over getting people home at all?   With an extra call on the train that was got in the way of sometimes,  the issues could have been compensated.  But, no, in spite of their being three minutes of extra allowances in that train, they won't add the call and seem to be intent on performance stats one serving their existing customer base.   And - we were presented with a "fait accompli" on this one - no notice at all of the significant change prior to it happening and the train just disappearing from the timetable.

So - whilst we appreciate the need to update timetables, and to provide a reasonable level of service overall that may be a lessening for some, we treat planned cuts with extreme unease and we don't trust (sorry) GWR to deliver the benefits to us that they promise.