Great Western Coffee Shop

1st of every month, I summarise train running at Melksham to the TransWilts CRP - keeping an eye on delays and cancellations which have been a significant problem in recent years.

March was an extraordinary month and I asked myself (and the TransWilts CRO) what was appropriate ... in the absence of any response to date (heck, this is not exactly the top of many people's minds at the moment) I have taken a few spare minutes to do a log in the normal format.  Don't know if it's useful but it does let them maintain monthly graphs

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508 trains in the planned Spring 2020 timetable. Schedule reduced during the month so that 472 appeared on immediate (day by day) departure boards. 13 of those cancelled, 35 significnatly late, 59 late but by less than 5 minutes, and 365 ran on time.   

Running rate 97.2%
Ppm measure 89.8%
both of which are far better figures than we have seen for some time. The running rate is even better if we note that 7 of the cancellations were late minute timetable changes - though the changes were made so very late in the day indeed to the extent that they left at least one key workers stranded.

Passenger numbers on the train - third party reports as I have not been travelling - have plummeted. That's as requested and in these new circumstances welcomed in the immediate short term. There is, though, a core of key workers using the TransWilts service, and because of the nature of the places served and our history, that core represents a higher proportion of our passengers than on many / most lines. It's good to see our service cuts being less Draconian that elsewhere so that a useable service is maintained for those people - it's also logical because the service is very thin indeed in normal times and there was little available to cut without leaving massive gaps.

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Further comment not to form part of the report

On Monday to Friday, the cuts applied are logical and sensible ones.  They couldn't sensibly go much further - though a reduction of one further round trip in the middle of the day might be understandable

The Saturday service has - thus far - not really altered. It has its curiosities, and - though I hate to say it - the extras that run empty in one direction and in traffic the other way - with the exception of the last train from Swindon - could be suspended. That last train too if the final "shuttle" were to wait an hour in Swindon.

Sunday is a travesty. Distribution centres, medical facilities and life run 7 days a week and the service has grown to be a necessary part of life for people working in those businesses.  A single return trip in the middle of the day, with 18 minutes in Swindon, is what we have been slashed to.  It's no use to anyone!  Life is being made even more difficult than it need be for people who have to use the train.  Run the 08:20, 16:50 and 20:18 round trips - perhaps in plce of the 12:41 - and that would at least move it up from an unusable travesty to a key worker bare minimum.

Overall, this is tuning - and a tentative possibilility of making an even slimmer service fit for purpose - but a word of caution in that data from passengers is now sparse (because passengers are sparse too,and concetrating on their key roles rather than feeding back!). 

With so many changes at short notice, there are bound to be little issues.  I was - disgusted - by a report that Trowbridge to Swindon passengers who were redirected via Bath Spa on a Sunday had to buy the more expensive "via Bath" tickets.  Not the passenger's choice and perhaps not even GWR policy - but I would suggest that passengers diverted via longer and normally more costly routes during the emergency timetable be allowed to travel at the direct route fare. I am hopeful the request for more money from a key worker (for a journey that took more of his time too) because GWR isn't providing full service was a one-off action by a staff member who perhaps didn't think it through in the heat of the moment.