Still plenty of spares sitting around on occasions.  Depends on time of day, time of year, day of week, and the nearest depot as to how likely you might be able to get cover.

If you have short notice sickness then if there is no spare available it becomes very tricky.  You might get lucky and have someone that agrees to stay on, but that’s rare - especially with the current ongoing dispute.

General question (rather than line specific).

13:52 St Erth to St Ives due 14:03
13:52 St Erth to St Ives due 14:03 will be cancelled.
This is due to the train guard being taken ill.
(Return run also cancelled).

Guess the guard was at the end of their shift as no other services affected.
Where do GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) find replacement crew if someone goes sick whilst on duty?
The days of 'spare' crew sitting around 'just in case' must have ceased years ago.

On Wednesday, 22nd May 2024, Paddy Bradley, the recently appointed chair of the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership, will address members and guests of the West Wiltshire Rail Users Group.  Coffee available from 19:00, and Paddy will be filling us in from 19:30.  There will also be a brief general rail news update for the area, and an opportunity to network and ask questions. Public very welcome - we (West Wiltshire Rail Users Group) ask you for £2 as a contribution towards our costs as we are an indepedent group funded purely by our members, or you could join on the night for £8 a year (£10 for family).

The event takes place at the Bethesda Church Hall, which is about 100 yards from Trowbridge Station, and will conclude in time for people who are headed home by train to catch their services:
21:18 to Cardiff Central via Bradford-on-Avon, Bath and Bristol
21:22 to Swindon via Melksham and Chippenham (connection to Paddington)
21:31 to Weymouth via Westbury (connection to Plymouth) and Frome
21:52 for intermediate stations to Bristol including Avoncliff
21:58 to Portsmouth Harbour via Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury

Since the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership was formed some 15 years ago, to help promote use of the rail line from Swindon via Chippenham to Melksham and Trowbridge to Westbury, services and use have been transformed out of all recognition.  From around 10 passengers a day using Melksham station, served only by this line, nunbers have risen to over 200 passengers on an average day, and that's only a part of the story with the same trains also providing a link in just 19 minutes between Wiltshire's largest towns of Chippenham and Trowbridge.  The 20 fold passenger increase has been made possible by a four fold increase in the number of services, and the doubling of the length of the trains which has ensured that there is room on the trains for the passengers.

A success story, yes, which has been helped along by that partnership between the community and the rail indusrty with local and national goverment playing a crucial role too. But this is a story of a project that's still under way. The numbers look impressive as presented above, but the train service at just 9 a day is still thin, and many people tell me that they don't use it because of the inconvenience of the long gaps.  Analysis including comparisons with other similar services and towns in England suggests that an increase to an hourly "clockface" service in which the train leaves at the same time in every hour - that's 16 or 17 services a day - would increase passenger journey numbers to at least 700 per day (using the to / from Melksham measure), and that the quarter of a million annual journeys now made on the line would become more like a million each year.

TransWilts has over the years widened its portfolio - the best description I would apply is that they look to journeys within, to, from, and though Wiltshire, and a great deal of useful activity / excellent work has taken place both within communities and at a strategic level, helping lay a grounding for a positive future with both existing services and additional ones, perhaps serving new stations in the county and destinations beyond.

No.  With my acrophobia, I couldn't even look at that bridge, far less travel across it. 

Usual considered opinion from Christian Wolmer
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/labours-rail-nationalisation-plan-will-put-our-trains-back-on-track-3024206

All well and good Labour wanting to renationalise the railways but Labour aren’t always going to be in power. The long term picture needs considering, not just a 5 year period and for that reason alone I wouldn’t be in favour of nationalisation

Some very astute observations there.

This is a low risk strategy by Starmer I think - nothing like as risky or radical as messing around with Health, Education or Defence (sorry "defence"), far fewer votes at stake but it very much appeals to his party, especially those on the Left who remain to be convinced by him and wonder what he stands for.

I wonder what's next?

Thanks for that. Also, a thread from @busandtrainuser on the ex-twitter comes with recommendations.

Mark

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1783459251584655502.html

Nigel Harris (late editor of Rail magazine) and Richard Bowker (formerly head of SRA^» (Strategic Rail Authority - about)) explain it fairly well, I think. You'll need half an hour to spare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLTxYZPEo3U

It was different times, and so-called renationalisation doesn't imply that the times are returning: is there a bit of a hat-tip owed to British Rail that Intercity was working and was it covering its costs too? Also, Regional Railways was being developed in interesting ways, starting to enhance inter-regional passenger services in a way that was providing very positive returns and attracting passengers new to rail (and in the west, ok, it did not make money but at least we still had the anglo-scottish west country sleeper with a steady 50000 passengers per annum). And driver route knowledge was presumably not so much shackled to individual TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) and in some cases single routes, lending rail services more resilience.

Mark