Look on the bright side! At least it's not more houses.

Abingdon reservoir inquiry draws to close

A public inquiry into plans for a massive reservoir in Oxfordshire is due to come to an end this week.

Thames Water is proposing the development, which would cover four square miles of land south west of Abingdon and cost £1bn.

BBC Oxford

This is getting stupid, this was the third time I've been effected by these copper thefts in three months. Once at West Drayton and twice at Tilehurst. These places must be weak points in the track side security, as also there has been multiple trespassing incidents and one fatality.

Network Rail and First Great Western should be congratulated for the speed in which they get things up and running again (to an extent) after an incident, but also shouldn’t the security fences and CCTV be tighter.

Train delays around Reading after copper wire theft

Trains have been hit by delays after vandals stole copper wire from a signal point in Berkshire.

A reduced service is running between Reading, Oxford and Swindon after damage was caused near Tilehurst.

Services that are running are facing 40-minute delays while CrossCountry trains that usually operate in or out of Reading are being diverted.

In a separate incident, a signalling issue means there is a replacement bus service between Aldershot and Ascot.

BBC News

We'll be leaving Demon Broadband then!

We're paying over the going rate because of Demon's high quality of service and unlimited downloads, my peak personal usage is between 18:00ish and 22:30, and mostly HD video streaming and iTunes content, unless Demon start not counting iPlayer and other streaming services as part of your cap, we'll be going to someone else.

Demon Internet has introduced a fair use policy for its small business broadband packages, putting a cap on the previously unlimited data it offered on certain products.

Announced on Thursday, the new policies involve a 200GB cap on Demon's Business 2+ and 2+ Pro packages and a 100GB cap on the Business 2000, 4000 and 8000 packages. The caps only apply between 8am and midnight, leaving unlimited usage available in the early morning.

"We've recently seen quite an increase in the amount of heavy users on our business broadband products, and as a result we can't continue to support completely unlimited use on these services, so we need to introduce a fair usage policy with peak hour usage restrictions," Demon chief Matt Cantwell wrote in a Thursday blog post.

By David Meyer, ZDNet UK, 26 July, 2010 16:41

A new science complex, costing £26m, has opened on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.

The Research Complex at Harwell (RCaH) will bring different fields of scientists together under one roof.

It was built on behalf of Research Councils UK and funded by several organisations, including the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

The centre promises to investigate aspects such as drug development and energy research.

(read more via BBC Oxford)

This explains last nights adventures with the trains.

It wasn't that bad after getting past Reading. Only 40 minutes late home.

An investigation is under way after a woman was found dead at a house in Berkshire and a man died when he was hit by a train minutes later.

The woman was discovered by police at about 1350 BST in Malone Road, Woodley.

Just after 1400 BST officers were called to Twyford Railway Station where the body of a man was found after he was hit by a train.

Both deaths are being treated as unexplained. Investigations are being carried out at both scenes.

Police are yet to release further details about the two deaths.

(read more via BBC News)

Network Rail and the train operators run more trains across Great Britain than are run in most European countries - almost 20% more than in France and 60% more than in Italy. Great Britain's 24,000 trains per-day is also more than Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Portugal and Norway combined.

	1 April - 1 May 2010	1 April - 1 May 2009
Arriva Trains Wales	96.5%	95.6%
c2c Rail	97.8%	97.0%
Chiltern	95.8%	94.4%
CrossCountry	87.8%	91.3%
East Coast	86.4%	90.3%
East Midlands Trains	94.9%	94.4%
First Capital Connect	92.9%	92.9%
First Great Western	93.4%	93.8%
First Scotrail	94.0%	93.7%
First Transpennine Express	94.5%	94.9%
London Midland	92.6%	89.6%
London Overground	96.0%	94.8%
Merseyrail	95.9%	97.4%
Northern Rail	93.5%	93.9%
National Express East Anglia	92.7%	91.9%
Southeastern	92.9%	94.7%
Southern	94.7%	93.8%
South West Trains	96.8%	95.0%
Virgin Trains	89.1%	80.3%
National	94.0%	93.6%

(read more via Network Rail PR)

Commuters struggled to get home last night after signal problems all but closed down the rail lines out of Paddington. The faults were caused by the theft of signal cabling from the West Drayton area (not an uncommon problem, it seems). Engineers worked through the night to fix and test the equipment, and trains now appear to be running normally. All in all, not a good day for West London yesterday. Aside from the rail woes, some areas suffered power cuts part way through the England game. And there's a Tube strike on. Broken Britain. Image / ricoeurian.

What is this?
This map shows all trains on the London Underground network in approximately real time. The yellow pins are stations (click for a local map of that station), the red pins trains.

How does it work?
Live departure data is fetched from the TfL API, and then it does a bit of maths and magic. It’s surprisingly okay given this was done in only a few hours at Science Hackday and the many naming/location issues encountered, some unresolved. A small number of stations are misplaced or missing; occasional trains behave oddly due to duplicate IDs; some H&C stations are missing in the TfL feed; the front end doesn't update from the back end feed (hit refresh for now).

Who did this?
Matthew Somerville (with helpful hinderances from Frances Berriman and James Aylett). Source code.

click here to go there now.




What is this?
This map shows all trains currently on approach to a particular station. The yellow pins are stations (click for a local map of that station), the red pins trains. The trains move in approximately real time, or rather quicker if you check the speed-up box.

How does it work?
Live departure data is fetched from the National Rail website, much like my timetable site, and then it does a bit of maths and magic.

Who did this?
Matthew Somerville. Formerly a civil servant, I’m now normally to be found working for mySociety helping create and update various popular democracy and civic websites, like TheyWorkForYou and FixMyStreet. But I’m always open to offers for other fun stuff. :) I can be emailed at matthew@dracos.co.uk.

click here to go there now.

Good night out!

Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

The perfect meal at Al Gusto, Didcot.

Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Commuters on a busy rail route between London and the west faced severe disruption after a severed gas main in Berkshire forced the line to close.

Thames Valley Police said a car crash in Maidenhead had caused the leak.

Rail firm First Great Western said trains from Paddington were being halted before Maidenhead.

Extra trains were laid on from Reading to enable commuters to reach affected destinations including Cheltenham, Bristol and south Wales.

The accident happened at 1722 BST in Cannon Lane, close to the railway line.

Police said the male driver had suffered injuries but they were not thought to be life threatening.

A police spokesman said ambulance, fire crews, British Transport Police and gas engineers attended the incident.

A spokeswoman for First Great Western said: "We are working hard to look after passengers and provide alternative services to help them get home."

(via BBC News)

Most of the #UK is now on #Google Street View.

Is your house?

Showing, big flakes!