Great Western Coffee Shop

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/oopscdfpmh.jpg)

Bit of a melt down today ... some of these are cancellations, others are short running services (Like  'xx:xx Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff will be terminated at Fratton and not call at Cosham and [long list] to Cardiff").  Shortage of train guards is given as the reason.  Scheduling error, perhaps, or not enough guards on the books, or no-one wants the overtime ... whichever, it would seem to be a GWR management role to ensure that they have enough staff available except in the most exceptional of circumstances, none of which I can see this morning.

Specifically, the trains from Cardiff to Portsmouth at 1630, 1830 and 1930 are all cancelled, while the 1430 is cancelled between Westbury and Portsmouth. There are other cancellations between Bristol and Cardiff. This is a major service failure, not attributable to any specific incident or infrastructure issue. There is no information on journeycheck.com regarding alternative travel options for passengers planning to use these trains. Has GWR just given up?

National Rail is still showing GW as "good service"  ???

Poor and not good enough.

This line which was once one of BR Provincial's Alphaline services has become a poor substandard overcrowded local service. And to think a few years back it was down for a fleet of brand new DMU's  >:(

I tweeted GWR re arrangements for travel pointing out the last 3 trains of the day from Cardiff were not going to Portsmouth, (2030 ex CDF) terminating Westbury) and the replies went like this:-

(1) What train was I travelling on ? So went back saying I just want the info asked for.
(2) Not all trains are cancelled.   So back again pointing out that last 3 of the day were not running, so how would passengers travel..
(3) We wouldn't leave passengers stranded - So gave up
(

Thanks very much for tweeting @phile. As it happens, a couple of services have been reinstated, so I am reasonably confident of getting back to Westbury from South Wales at a reasonable time this evening. I hope that others heading further south are not left waiting too long.

2030 Cardiff to Portsmouth Hbr now going as far as Fratton

It's not an unreasonable question to ask which train you intend to travel on. In that way they can give you specific advice as to alternative arrangements for your journey.

12:08, 14:08 and 17:08 from Cardiff (to Brighton / Portsmouth ) all terminating significantly short today.   Equivalent northbound issues.

First northbound train - the 09:08 from Portsmouth now shown as starting at Warminster at 10:49 (was earlier shown as starting at Westbury).  As the first train of the day, 10:49 is incredibly late for a town the size of Warminster anyway, but that's a story for another day.

Lots of problems with lack of staff on the Severn Beach too.  For a change, no on-the-day cancellations to report on the TransWilts, probably because it's a planned bus substitution.   Just a complaint that the bus into Chippenham from Trowbridge arrives "five minutes" after the ongoing bus to Swindon leaves ...

My query was more to the highlight the absence of advice to passengers on Journey Check as mentioned in the earlier quote from BandHcommuter

Then why not tweet that?

Yep, I did that once and got a result so worth doing as they do follow up things mentioned on social media.

Back to the topic in hand with more trains added since Graham's earlier post with services starting/ending short with a shortage of both drivers and guards being the reason. Why has this problem suddenly started affecting GWR?

Been another poor day on the Cardiff-Portsmouth line due to staff shortages. Also affecting Weymouth and Brighton.

Last Swindon to Westbury train 15:28 rather than 19:53 ...

Taxis will be available

... or indeed a coach


Strikes me as a bit ironic with these staff shortages that you end up with just as many (if not more) drivers conveying passengers from place to place - just a different type of driver, and taking longer about it.

And no shelter from likely rain either, I'll bet!

GWR's 'West of England' services continuing to be the fag butt of the franchise.

Minor problem with a coach or taxi is that it fails to meet - by miles - the SLC (Service Level Commitment) that's part of the franchise.  Take passengers headed for that 19:53 who find it's been bustituted.  Here's what should have happened

19:53 from Swindon, arrive Westbury at 20:37 - that's a 44 minute journey (SLC allows up to 50 on Sunday?)

what probably happened

Passengers required to wait for 20:14 train at Swindon (actually left 20:17)
Arrived Chippenham at 20:29
Bus possibly left by 20:35 (if it all joined up - I'm being generous in my assumption)
Call at Melksham Station 20:53 to 20:55
Call at Trowbridge Station 21:13 to 21:15
Arrive at Westbury Station 21:27 - that's 94 minutes after the time you should have left Swindon.

There must be allowances for bustitutions, otherwise they'd all fail.....

There's a big difference between a bus replacement that's planned and advertised well in advance for engineering works and one that happens during the day because the transport service provider can't find the staff to run the train, but can find people to run a bus.   Former case - there certainly should be a derogation ... later case, really no excuse where it keeps repeating. 

(Occasional train driver taken ill, and I would rather have a bus driven by someone who's capable on the day)

I very much doubt there's any separate derogation. They will all be.