Great Western Coffee Shop

Additional two trains on Saturdays means that from 10.00 to 11.30 there are four services arriving in Weymouth, including a return to one from Swindon. In the past that was loco hauled!

Screenshot from RTT

From a Swindon / Chippenham / Melksham view point the timetable looks good - this year we got our requests right and asked for a good service to Weymouth for day trippers and a good service back too (over an hour waiting at Westbury on the way back made the service pretty hard to market last summer!)

I am waiting to hear back from GWR's relevant manager if it makes sense to market these services this summer, or if the current appalling cancellation rates at the weekend mean we would be selling what turns out to be a flawed product, with complaints of people waking up with plans to a day trip to the seaside dashed before they even start, or turning into nightmare journeys.

Memories of my final "Weymouth" trip with Dad before he passed ... look fine when we got up in the morning, but the train didn't get beyond Pen Mill where large numbers of customers were waiting for last minute arranged buses. We turned around and headed home.  Not an experience I would be proud to have a part in selling to others.

I will update this thread as I get any clarity on the expected reliability of the timetabled services

I share your concerns too Graham. On paper, this looks a great timetable for the Heart of Wessex line this summer, but if these timetabled trains either don’t run or run short; it will just become a timetable of fiction.