Great Western Coffee Shop

Swindon tonight have reached the football league play off final at Wembley on 24th may.

Bad news for FGW bean counters and Swindon fans is no trains between didcot parkway and bath spa/ Bristol parkway that weekend due to engineering works.

FGW may need to increase rail replacement bus numbers if Swindon fans all decide to descend on Wembley.

According to some Swindon fans on Twitter, FGW have already 'nicked' all the spares coaches in the area!

https://twitter.com/mwooly63/status/595578278833971200

When Exeter city made the play off final a few years ago they ended up drafting in buses from as far away as North Wales, due to engineering works on the railway at the time.

Also Ive noticed in the rugby Bath look almost certainly to have a home premiership playoff secured for that weekend. Will be a busy weekend for rail replacement,

Congratulations and good luck Swindon! On the "shorter journeys in Devon" thread you will see details of similar playoff  problems faced by Plymouth Argyle fans.

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/12944678.First_Great_Western_creating_Wembley_contingency_plan_while_police_say_post_match_arrests_are_possible/?ref=mr&lp=5

...........common sense may yet prevail!!!

Short of cancelling the works over the BH weekend, I don't see what else can be done. You also have to bear in mind that many Advance tickets have been purchased for the services which are running via different routes and different times than a normal weekend.

Network Rail do a pretty good job of planning work to avoid major events, but you can't expect them not to arrange work in case a football team make it to the play off finals.

I wouldn't necessarily argue with that, but by the sound of it discussions are taking place - there probably aren't enough coaches in the South of England to provide an adequate replacement service - any business needs a degree of flexibility/contingency in case of unexpected events.

That's the problem not enough coaches to go round. As a local operator do you a)accept a contract from FGW/NR to use your entire fleet over the weekend b)say no to FGW/NR in case one of the local football teams makes it to Wembley?

My theory will be that FGW will lay on extra coaches (from somewhere) to take fans all the way to London rather than just to Reading.

Once again I'm not arguing with you but you're talking about shifting thousands of people in and out of London by coach, they'd need dozens, but I guess the same will apply to get them as far as Reading anyway? I'd be interested in what FGW are obliged to provide in terms of coach capacity when bustitution is in place?

The engineering works have been in a state of flux since the decision not to transfer signalling from Swindon to the TVSC at Didcot over the bank holiday weekend as originally planned.

Clearly there will be some other work going on, much of it in connection with the preparatory work on the signalling move.  Whether there is a window to give up the necessary possessions for one day of the weekend I don't know.

With the work at Box and Bath over the summer, it seems Swindon will not now close until the end of the year apparently.

but in the Swindon Advertiser


Yes, it usually is ... (and was in this case) ... but I think those comments are conveniently simplified in this case.  Had the original works gone ahead, I agree it would have been pretty hard to run anything.  But now there's a seed of doubt in my mind wondering if this "long way ahead so unchangeable" line is accurate or a just a bit convenient.

Could it be that the work is completed by Sunday lunchtime so services could be resumed by then, even if it's just East of Swindon?

Mind you if Network Rail staff are on strike over the Bank Holiday weekend no one will be going anywhere by train. If I was a Swindon fan heading to Wembley I would rule out using the railway, too much uncertainty right now.

On this evenings BBC Points West it was stated that there would be no Trains from Swindon just a coach service to Reading good luck to all of those wishing to travel .WP

A report on BBC South Today suggested that some supporters may decide to drive to Didcot Parkway to catch a train. Good luck to them, as most of the normal service will have been diverted away from there.  To be fair, the BBC did report that FGW would be laying on road transport between Swindon and Reading.

.......I think the challenge will be sourcing sufficient road transport, but they do seem to be pulling out all the stops.

Indeed there is a measly one fast train and one slow per hour to London on that day from Oxford. Half what is generally provided when trains can't come from Swindon. There may be some DID-RDG-PAD shuttles added.

Yes there is 1tph DID-RDG-PAD, down as a turbo (probably 5 car), wether anything extra is done for the Swindon Pax remains to be seen.

Seems fans of Swindon's opponents, Preston North End, will also have problems due to engineering work on the West Coast Mainline.

Ever so slightly embarrassing for Preston's sponsors ..... Virgin Trains.

Pretty embarrassing situation for the railways all round I'd say.

.......well getting home from Wembley is no longer a worry for myself and other Plymouth Argyle fans after last night, but good luck to Wycombe who beat us, and also to Swindon Town/Preston - and good luck to their fans trying to travel to Wembley to support them!

I am actually going to this match as my brother supports Swindon.. It's also my very first ever football match.. Luckily I don't have to travel from Swindon and also live close enough to travel direct to Wembley from Wycombe or Beaconsfield (and there don't appear to be any engineering works on that line fortunately)  ;D

I don't think the railways embarrass all that easily. But marketing wise it is unfortunate in the same way that the lack of trains on Boxing Day is, in that it shows how people can manage perfectly well without trains.

This is a huge game this year for both Preston and Swindon, but for one or other it's the portent of things to come - people will go to Wembley as perhaps this first support for the team and will likely start to follow whoever gets promoted.   What a pity their first trip will involve less than showcase services, as it will put many off just at the point they could be captured as regular passengers at the start of something.   However, the TOCs have been dealt a limited hand and the potentially excellent marketing and extra business for the next year really won't effect the infrastructure provider who have limited capacity to zero at Swindon in the first place (for understandable reasons!)

True - they seem quite shameless!!! -I wonder what (if any) pressure FGW have put on NR over the Swindon issue, especially over the revenue they are likely to miss out on, and to what extent NR compensate TOCs in these circumstances?

They are between a rock and a hard place. I don't think you really understand how much postponing the works is likely to cost. The contractor will need compensating for:

• hired plant that cannot be used elsewhere at such short notice;
• personnel who cannot be deployed elsewhere at such short notice;
• the costs of replanning the work to another time;
• the costs of delaying the other work that depended on this work being completed on time (further plant and personnel costs as well).

In addition they would have to consider that:

• specialist plant is not standing idle waiting for hire, it is allocated well in advance and may not be available at another time;
• there is a shortage of key skilled personnel - especially signalling resources. Not using those resources will delay further stages of this project and potentially also other projects. The skills may not be available at the new time so the delay may be much further than just a few days.

The result would more than likely be further delays to the already delayed GW modernisation programme and a further increase in the already escalated cost.

If the extra business was going to be a few ^10's millions is might just be worth it.  I suspect the increased costs of the GW improvements programme would far outweigh any increased track access charges. 

An eminently fair explanation, and one which would be better received by thousands of frustrated Swindon fans than "The lines closed, there are replacement buses.....hopefully".............it will also be interesting to consider what effect the NR strike, now confirmed as 24hrs from 5pm 25th May will have?