marky7890
Member
Arks are currently replacing trains on all routes West of Exeter. FGW has been renamed "First Great Wet".
CrossCountry renamed to CrossRiver?
Arks are currently replacing trains on all routes West of Exeter. FGW has been renamed "First Great Wet".
like!"!
CrossCountry renamed to CrossRiver?
Oh dear, I am needing to get to Oxford from brum tomorrow, will not be impressed if I cant get back in time for work. Luckily have a friend on standby to drive me back
This is reaching biblical proportions now, and I wouldn't be surprised if roads critical to rail replacement bus services get closed as well, which would totally finish us off down here in the South West.
Also a report of a landslip between Plymouth and Liskeard near Wivelscombe Tunnel
I wonder how many trains will run tomorrow now then, Exeter is now blocked off in all directions except the exmouth branch!
Certainly is! Now hearing of a landslip along the dawlish sea wall too. So all that'll be running tommorow at this rate will be the Exemouth line - unless any units can be sent over from Plym to work the Paignton services.
Are they sending the buses to M5 J25 from the station at Taunton or are they running them through the town and out to Wellington to join the M5 there? When I've been on rail replacement buses before I've noted that buses don't always go the same way. For example when arriving into Exeter some use J29, others J30 or even J31. This was a few years back though.To be honest the only thing letting the side down is communication and information. Even before the landslip at Dawlish (Which is fair enough) the NRES planner was giving the impression that the entire replacement bus thing was a complete mess of non-connecting un-completeable disaster journeys. In reality it was well organised with numerous buses between Tauton and and Exeter.
Exmouth is now cut off by road, so the train had better keep going...
I notice today's forecast for East Devon has gone from "cloudy" to "surprise! more rain!".
Even once we got to Exeter and the landslide reared its ugly head aside from staff at Exeter convinced the A38 was closed (It wasn't)...
Well I am in East Devon and at 08:00 a.m. the sky is blue, the roads are dry and there is a light wind, Doubtless there is some flood water around, but we should get a few hours respite.
Was it not closed for the roadworks around Marsh Mills, rather than a weather related incident?
I've only ever used the Wellington route once, it's usually J25 every time. As you say into Exeter they use a variety of routes, yesterday westbound we used J30 and Topsham Road then down to Bonhay Road, eastbound came out via Bonhay Road and out to J31, which the driver decided would be the least chance of trouble.Are they sending the buses to M5 J25 from the station at Taunton or are they running them through the town and out to Wellington to join the M5 there? When I've been on rail replacement buses before I've noted that buses don't always go the same way. For example when arriving into Exeter some use J29, others J30 or even J31. This was a few years back though.
They do a good job really when things go wrong. All they need to do now is work out how best to communicate just how good a job it is.
One caveat - all the above praise is to FGW only. There was no sign of XC doing anything other than cancelling stuff (They seemed to have given up with the Bristol to Taunton runs and had cancelled the last few)![]()

From Journeycheck it seems the line at Dawlish is now open again - quick work there from Network Rail.
And they get it from me. If anyone on this forum works in the emergency engineering part of network rail you are a credit to engineering. My parents are worried as me and my bro are travelling sheffield to plymouth in 2 weeks. I said i have every confidence the route will be open unless we have further flooding between now and then. Just going on their track record, i believe some landslips from last night along the exeter to penzance section ahve already been cleared this morning.When they put their backs into a problem Network Rail can do a really good job at getting things moving. I'm sure you'll remember earlier in the year when both the ECML and WCML were closed (by pretty significant landslips) and Network Rail had both open (in some capacity at least) in less than twenty four hours (I think twelve hours in one case). They deserve a lot of praise for their emergency engineering work in situations like this.
Quite a few flooding problems in Yorkshire today, currently en-route to Sheffield station, I'll try and post another update when I arrive.
Cowley Bridge Junction this morning
![]()
Flooding between Doncaster and Sheffield means buses are replacing trains. Currently on a bus that was supposed to go at 1245 but apparently we have to wait until 'the bus is full'! So I've no idea when we'll be leaving. Organisation isn't brilliant to be honest.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Judging from YorkshireBear's post this could be the last bus. Would I be better getting off and waiting for the 1311 train?
Wow, thats looking properly bad.
Are we potentially looking at the disruption continuing all next week?