Hello, Timmer.  On Saturdays there will be an 0658 from Westbury and an 0804 and 0904 from Bristol TM^‡(resolve) but coming back looks decidedly dodgy.  There is a 1449, 1721 and 1958.  It's going to need tactical planning!  There will never be enough carriages to cope with everybody who wants to come back on the 1721.  Five carriages is the maximum for many of the stations on that route and we don't have selective door opening.

The best bet is to go down a bit later and have a meal or a drink in the evening and come back on the 1958.  But you'll need a strong stomach because you will have to share your journey with drunken chavs  from Yeovil, Frome and Trowbridge.  The language and behaviour can be quite intimidating.

Personally I would avoid weekends at Weymouth by train (if I had a choice!).

If you want to have a look at the future timetable - it is already programmed into the NRE^‡(resolve) and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) sites.  Just pop in your date and preferred time of travel and see what happens.

So you have two contingency plans, right?  One to cover the expected hand over of the route at the advertised time and another one in case the engineering works overrun.  So you'd have what, two sets of trains and crews in two different places standing by for anything that might happen?

In your job, even if you had the resources, would you be able to justify that sort of expense to your Boss to cover a 'just in case' scenario?  There are hundreds of engineering works going on all over the Country at any given time and virtually all of them finish at the estimated time.  So if you repositioned all your trains for a belt and braces approach then you are not going to cover your other services.  You have to plan for what is expected and do your best to cover if it goes wrong.  That's how life works.

I wish somebody who is obviously so knowledgeable about railways would join the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) management team as your talents are obviously wasted where you are.  It sounds as though you could really make a difference

There is an 0900 from Westbury but no connections from the Warminster or Trowbridge/Bath/Bristol directions.  You'd have to drive to Westbury to pick it up.  Otherwise it's via Southampton.

The 0804 was a 3-car 158 plus a 150 (total 5).  The 0904 was a 150 plus two 153s (total 4).  The 08.04 left the 3 car at Weymouth to form part of the 1721 northbound making that a 5-car.  Somebody's doing something sensible!

The bad news is the Sunday timetable for Weymouth from 20th May.  The earliest FGW^▸ (First Great Western) service from Bristol is the 1310 from Bristol and change at Westbury to arrive in Weymouth at 1545!

If you needed to be there earlier (say for a day on the beach?) you could get the 0910 from Bristol and change at  Southampton, Poole and Wareham arriving at 1408 making it a 5 hour journey!

It's a novel way to solve overcrowding on the return trip - make it impossible for anyone to get there!

This Easter weekend will give us a tast of what's in store for Weymouth.  Thursday evening was very busy, apparently and coaches had to be used to strengthen the two car 1721.  Yesterday - Good Friday was a lovely day, if a bit chilly for the beach.  FGW^▸ (First Great Western) had prepared an amended diagram to use a four-car for the 1721 but due to coupling problems at Westbury it didn't happen.  At least they had the foresight to pre-order coaches so the two-car 1721 left full and standing and they used two coaches for back-up.  The 1958 was very quiet.  The SWT^▸ (South West Trains) staff at Weymouth are very concerned and have made representations to FGW saying that they can't cope with shortformed services.  It's not fair on them to be left with hundreds of angry and abusive passengers that are not even theirs!

It came up on another thread that traincrews have been informed in writing that Weymouth services will not be strengthened this summer.  That would suggest that First communicate with frontline staff and that is a bit unrealistic!

All we've had is copies of the diagrams for the timetable changes from mid-May to mid-July and they certainly don't show any planned strengthening - at least for Westbury crewed trains.  Perhaps there will be some for the summer holidays.  If not, I shall have my letter of resignation in my pocket to fax to control and the taxi fare home in my pocket

I had a conversation with a senior control manager in January and as an ex-Wessex man he said he was seriously worried about First's lack of planning for the summer timetable stress points.  I was recently in a position to pass on my concerns at Director level about the Weymouth and Portsmouth-Cardiff summer peaks.  I pointed out that Wessex had been forced to heavily strengthen these services in the past and their experience should not be ignored or we will have very serious problems.  My comments were taken seriously and noted, but whether or not it is too late we shall have to see.

I'd forgotten Glastonbury - but that will be the next big problem that Wessex had learnt to cope with but FGW^▸ (First Great Western) probably hasn't considered

I think comments about Weymouth should be in the Heart of Wessex Line section rather than tagged on to SPM^▸ (St Philip's Marsh (Bristol depot)), so I'll hop over there and answer your question, Jim

Yesterday was going quite smoothly until a road vehicle hit a bridge at Romsey and did some structural damage.  All the Southampton/Portsmouth/Brighton services had to either divert through Chandlers Ford and Eastleigh in both directions or terminate at Romsey.  This was further complicated by the fact that Arriva crews do not 'sign' this route and we had to find spare crews from both FGW^▸ (First Great Western) and SWT^▸ (South West Trains) to 'pilot' the crews round.  Obviously this caused a fair bit of disruption for the rest of the day.  A northbound Weymouth experienced technical trouble and was terminated at Westbury leaving a shortage of train and crew for a later southbound service from Bristol.

Arriva Trains Wales have been providing crews for many of our Cardiff to Portsmouth services since Wales and West days, but the new diagrams (from May) brings them all back in house and Westbury crews will be taking on much of that work.

I wouldn't blame you at all, Graham.  If you are threatened with a ^20+ fine you have a right to establish your innocence whilst the evidence is, well - evident!  As far as the conductor is concerned he would just phone in the reason for the delay and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) would have to pay a fine to Network Rail.  The conductors are not at all keen on Penalty Fares as it will mean that they do not earn commission on their sales.

The downside of this sort of protest is that your fellow travellers may miss their connections or be late for work.  And the subsequent working of the train may be affected.  Being late doesn't affect the conductor - unless he's going home!

An internal circular says that the MD has just finalised the refurb plans for the West fleet and has given it a high priority.  The first unit is due in May but it will be 18 months before they are all done.  St Phillips Marsh maintenance depot won't be fully operational until September.  So there's some way to go but it looks like we've started.

Simonw - don't knock the TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express) units. They're the best we've got

Westbury to Paddington at peak time is ^121 standard open return.

BUT - Westbury to Newbury standard open return is ^41 and Newbury to Paddington is ^34.70 SOR - a total of ^75.70 and a whopping saving of ^45.30 over buying one ticket for the same journey!

The conditions of carriage state that travelling with a combination of tickets is legal if they cover your journey and the train calls (stops) at the station where the tickets change over.   http://nationalrail.co.uk/system/galleries/download/misc/NRCOC.pdf

Jim's right - it can pay to look at different combinations on your journey.

This happens quite a lot.  We regularly get pager messages reporting that a train has hit something in the tunnel and then everything is put on hold or diverted until the MOM^▸ (Mobile Operations Manager) (Mobile Ops Manager) has walked through and checked.  (What a job!).  Invariably, the next message is: nothing found, services back to normal (apart, obviously, from the inevitable ensuing disruptions).

The general consensus is that it is possibly debris on the tracks that has fallen from a freight train or a brick falling from the roof and hitting the train.  I can understand the driver wanting to get out quickly - it's horrible down there and nobody goes through unless they're pretty sure they can get out the other side!

Did you know that there are 36 huge pumps which keep the tunnel dry, of which 24 must be working continuously.  If they stopped the tunnel would fill with water in 20 minutes.  They pump between 23 and 30 million gallons a day into the Severn.  And did you also know that it is fresh water?  It doesn't come from the Estuary, it is from a huge underground spring between the roof of the tunnel and the seabed.  And did you know that it took 76.4 million bricks to build the tunnel and that they are now 120 years old?

You wouldn't catch me walking through it!

I guess if they'd made the checks later they might not have been so thorough!

Official information on the introduction of Penalty Fares has now been posted on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=1042

There is also a downloadable PDF map which shows which stations are exempt.

Dammit - they're on to me!  Not that many cross-dressing transexuals on the railway!