date?

Twenty years ago today, Wessex Trains, Thames Trains and Great Western were combined into a single franchise, run by First, that operated most of the passenger trains in the Thames Valley west from London, Wessex, the Cotswolds,and the South West, with incursions into South Wales.

April 1st anybody?

Some of the longest and heaviest trains operating on the UK network are stone trains.  With ever longer trains, two locomotives are now required and sidetracks long enough to hold the stone trains are now few and far between. In order to reduce the need for a long locomotive, Mendip Rail and investing in a new fleet of powered stone wagons. Not only will this allow the effective freight capacity of the train to increase, but it will also increase the number of powered wheels in contact with the track, reducing potential wheelspin.  Better acceleration of heavy trains will give an improved performance envelope, allowing for more train paths on mixed operation lines, and better recovery from unscheduled stops.

"We expect to see a 4% increase in maximum train capacity and a 3% end to end journey time improvement" says Alan Painter, operating director of Mendip Rail "and we can move to a common fleet across both the Foster Yeoman and Hanson ARC business units". "The rail freight industry has learned from the passenger train industry, where the majority of train are now comprised self-powered vehicles"

Initially, 110 wagons replacing the older and smaller JYA box wagons have been ordered from Astra Rail for delivery starting September 2028.  Header light locomotion short wheelbase units will be rebuilt from class 080SA units, re-geared to a top speed of 75 m.p.h. and should enter service in early 2029.

I can offer this and this, but no terriers - sorry.

I think you can buy weekend first for travel the following day,but no train station booking office will sell you a weekend first on the day.

The reason is that the booking offices would not know how many wanted to buy the weekend up grade on the train.

Watched the article on this evening’s Points West and was alarmed to hear David say that people were using it as their own personal taxi service to travel to Bristol Airport or for a day out to Weston-super-Mare!

Sad when things like this happen and it ends up getting cut for those who really do need it to travel locally, though the article also stated few were using it.

WESTlink changes are coming soon to help focus the service on supporting people who don't have access to a regular bus service, as well as make the best use of reduced government funding.

From Sunday (5 April) WESTlink will  run  from Monday to Friday, 9am to 2pm, with no service on weekends or bank holidays.

Tickets will cost £3 per trip or, if you need to travel onwards, you can get an AvonRider multi operator ticket for £7 which allows unlimited travel on registered bus services across the whole West of England area.

Concessionary bus pass holders will still be able to travel for free.

There'll also be new travel zones to make journeys simpler and help connect people to their nearest bus stop or rail station, and journeys will be limited to a maximum distance of five miles - this it to improve efficiency and allow more people to use the service each day

Book WESTlink by downloading the app - just search for WESTlink in your usual app store - through the web booking system or call 0117 457 8561.

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/walking-between-stations-map.pdf

The yet in "yet to be achieved" is the key word...

My GWR contact has apologised for how long he has taken to get back to me on this (I heard on 26th), but only explained (no apology) for the database error.  He tells me the database was corrected on 19th, but as of 25th when I was last at the station, the change has not percolated through.   

Hello Graham,
 
I have had it confirmed by my retail colleagues that the Melksham TVM should now be updated with an amended set of fares on the front screen.  Hopefully this should mean that all of the outstanding issues are resolved, but please do get in touch if not.
 
Thanks,
Peter

Thanks Graham,
 
I take this away and see what more can be done.  It may simply need another day or two to be fully distributed to the machine.
 
Thanks,
Peter

Not quite got my head around on whether this concerns the entirety of TfW or just cross-border services.

Core Valley Lines (CVL) interface and simplification- A shared ambition to reduce unnecessary regulatory complexity on CVL, and a commitment to develop jointly agreed interface arrangements that support smooth operation of CVL and the rest of the rail network.