Great Western Coffee Shop

This popped up on Twitter just now.

https://www.built-environment-networking.com/bristol-london-transport-links-transformed-quicker/

Not sure if this is the right place, please feel free to move

How does replacing the signals 'like for like' increase line capacity....... ::) :P

It doesn't; this all seems to be little more than pointless spin. If they really want to improve things around Bristol the powers that be would a) complete the half-hearted electrification programme, and b) announce that when Bristol's power box is made redundant the Brunel train shed behind it really will not remain derelict, as I suspect it will, but be swiftly (haha) transformed into a smart new terminus for Paddington bound services via Filton.

One can but dream..

This afternoon on JourneyCheck I noticed 4 HSS amended ; -

This service will be 5 coaches instead of 10.

This is due to a shortage of train drivers.

Me thinks there is a wee bit of telling porky pies here as it only needs ONE driver to drive a train be it 5 coaches or 10.

You couldn't make it up if you tried.

Somebody has tweeted GWR to ask this question and reply stated error, should have read member of staff.   So that explains it just as we thought.

So Bristol never had direct trains to London then...... ::)
https://www.networkrail.co.uk/feeds/rail-travel-in-bristol-to-be-transformed-with-direct-services-to-london-from-2019/

I'm really getting fed up with all this NR 'spin'.......it's as though we never did any major signalling upgrades in the past (WCML comes to mind).

Edit to Add: ...and as I mentioned previously, this isn't a resignalling it's a re-control, with mostly the same signals in the same positions, so it will give exactly the same headways as today.  How can that be classed as an improvement.... ::)

Weren't we promised four per hour?

I think they man two extra

Later in the article it states seven trains an hour between Bristol and London.  Obviously that includes the Parkway only ones to and from South Wales, but even then I thought only six were planned?

The 2015 GWR franchise brief pamphlet does show a ‘line diagram’ with up to 4 trains through Parkway and up to 3 trains through Bath, but only if you ignore the explanatory notes that some destinations change between routes depending on peak or off peak.  It doesn’t show 7 in total any or every hour...

Or put another way it only shows 6 trains west of Swindon...

The sort of mistake made if you don’t read the details...

Paul.

I thought it was to be 2 from Temple Meads via Bath, 2 from Temple Meads via Parkway and 2 from S. Wales via Parkway. But it could have changed or I could have been wrong in the first place.

It was shown that way in the 2015 brief, but only in the off-peak periods.   In the peak periods (shown as thinner lines) one of the Bristol via Parkway services re-routes via Bath, and the other re-routes to South Wales.   The peak variations summarise as 3 tph to/from South Wales, and 3 tph Bristol via Bath.  Still 6 in total...

Paul

Perhaps they’re counting each train that calls at Parkway and Temple Meads as two services.   ;)

I know the maths still doesn’t add up, but I’d put nothing past the GWR spin machine these days!