Great Western Coffee Shop

Is it just me, or are the Brighton trains high up the "Cancel me first" stakes at the moment?

Perhaps GWR want to be rid of them in the next franchise.

There are quite a few options to get from Westbury to Brighton with only one change if the through service is cancelled.

Besides if it means there is a unit and crew available to run a TransWilts service......

Those options may be limited by the choice of fare though.

Indeed - there are Advanced Fares "Great Western Only" from (example) Bath Spa to Brighton.  Technically, AP tickets are on the next train of the same operator, aren't they? So that's the train to Fareham connecting into tomorrow morning's Portsmouth to Brighton.   I suspect that other arrangements would be made.  Other tickets "via Salisbury" do not specify an operator.

The presence of the GWR train from Bath Spa to Brighton, and the two trains back, does indeed open that flow for the sale of advanced GWR tickets.

My point was that, unless you have an +Any Permitted or Not via London fare between the Bristol/Westbury area and Brighton your choice is limited when the GWR Brighton are binned. No choice but to squeeze onto a following GWR to Southampton/Fareham and change. Unless you pay an excess to travel via Reading or London.

When GWR cancel their Brightons they should relax routeing restrictions.

I was travelling from Oldfield Park towards Brighton a few weeks ago, and caught the train to Westbury to connect with the direct service down to the Sussex coast. However, when I got there I found out that it was indeed cancelled, so had a wait of about an hour and ten minutes for the next train to Southampton. This was very frustrating as I had only decided to make the journey on the basis that there was a direct service, as I needed to be back in Bath by the end of the afternoon.

Westbury really isn't a station set up for such long waits, and it was fortunate the weather was warm, as I certainly wouldn't want to hang around there in cold weather. When that train arrived at Southampton, I found that the train from there towards Brighton was also cancelled, and was advised to take the next train to Fareham and catch an onward service there. At Fareham I found that all services were delayed due to a track defect, and also found, having never alighted at Fareham before, that it is even less well set up for a long wait. It is a grim place to find yourself having to wait for endlessly delayed trains, and I eventually gave up and caught the next train back to Southampton to go home, as it was looking like I would never get there...

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Perhaps GWR want to be rid of them in the next franchise.
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It's First Group really as current holders of the GWR franchise you need to aim your complaints at. And I can't see them retaining this one when it comes up for renewal hence the shocking level of interest in anything other than HSS.

Service level is set elsewhere and if Brighton's are deemed required then the next franchise will be required to deliver. That s unless the franchise is split.

It's the DfT that want rid of the Brighton extensions, as is proposed in the most recent franchise renewal consultation.  Indeed DfT have been trying to get rid of it for about 10 years now.

Paul

Thanks Paul.

It always seemed an oddity as the last bit of the old Regional Railways timetable that didn't get revised. Forget all the odd destinations that the Alphaline from Waterloo served, Manchester being one and Milford Haven another for the ferries, forget the other. Left with the rump that SWR provide from BRI. Still very useful although iirc ran non stop from Warminster set down only at a couple of points.

Someone must have seen a need for it to have retained it for so long, and we may have not seen the pink 31's which used to do the run on a Friday.  ;Date

This thread is NOT a complete log ... attachments show "Recent Times Trains" captures I did yesterday, looking back on Mondays to Fridays between Salisbury and Brighton.

Must be staffing problems at Westbury - the early service to Portsmouth was also cancelled - initially due to a train fault and then lack of crew.   The return working is starting from Salisbury.

and update

To be honest, it just doesn't seem to fit with the GWR franchise, and doesn't get much priority, its one of the few routes I do think should either be split, or taken over by SWR. I would much rather GWR focused on strengthening and improving the Bristol to Weymouth, Cardiff to Salisbury/Portsmouth route.   At the moment there are so many other routes that could do with the extra rolling stock it just seems madness.

The GWR Brighton services can be quite handy. I've used them several times over the years. A through train is always more preferable than a change so I wouldn't want the see the service split.

It would however be a more natural fit if it were operated by SWR.

Capped at both ends today. Engineering works at Bristol Parkway and lack of crew south of Westbury.


Not sure where a "natural home" would be.  Even for SWR it goes beyond their current easterly limit of operation, and it goes north west of their other end at Bristol.  Some might suggest Cross Country, but their record to Brighton isn't encouraging ...

Caped, perhaps. Unless things have changed from my days as a lad at Cary.

Aren't the Brighton trains all run by the FGW small depot based at Fratton? I can't see how issues of Westbury crews affect this?

Not sure if it's purely Fratton crews who have Brighton route knowledge, but there are certainly turns where Fratton and Westbury crews can be swapped over.   Could be that a Westbury shortage is filled by a Fratton crew and that prevents a Brighton run.  Certainly had staff sickness at Fratton filled from Westbury in the past, and the Swindon - Westbury service lost for half a day as a result!

That is correct. Unlike Wessex Trains days when Westbury crews worked the loco and coaches to Brighton, Westbury now only sign as far as Havant.

Today’s Brighton’s terminate and start from Westbury today. Train crew.

0/2 so far this week.  Probably a very small number of Fratton crew who sign that route

Not gone - just diverted.


For through passengers, no great issue.   For Southampton passengers - there are hourly services from the South Coast and 2 an hour to / via Salisbury anyway to drop back to.

Also depending on where the exact fault is there may still be a service from Eastleigh to Southampton.

I caught the 1410 from Southampton Central this afternoon - was there about 30 mins beforehand and everything seemed to be running normally then ................in fact, amazingly, my train was on time at Southampton and into Warminster.................but.... the train down was 12 mins late.

I may have been on the same train coming down, arriving about 12 minutes late into Southampton Central. The connection for the Sussex coast is 22 minutes, so for a change it was arriving in time this time, but there were no announcements on the train to alert people to the signalling problems. So those wanting to catch the Sussex coast train got off at Southampton to then discover their train was cancelled. Had that be announced in advance, they could have stayed on until Fratton and changed there.

Did anyone go to Hove as Witnesses?  ;D

I just feel sad for passengers at Brighton who've chosen that train as the only direct one of the day to Gloucester, Cheltenham and Worcester to learn it's not running from there.

Mind you ... if the 08:59 is not running, passengers for Cheltenham Spa can take the 09:05 and change at Barnham, Fareham and Bristol Temple Meads and get to Cheltenham earlier, and can connect at Cheltenham Spa into the train that should have started from Brighton and didn't.

More old friends

1048 Great Malvern to Brighton and 1702 Brighton to Bristol TM today supposed to be running but no toilet

UPDATE:-   Changed at Bristol TM on outward

Mischeviously, one wonders about a service that's touted as a through service but you end up having to change on the way - is it really a through service?  Bearing in mind that Great Malvern to Brighton is only valid via that route on the "through train" rule, does that mean it wouldn't have been a valid journey today  :D ;D

Happens on the buses too ... Axminster to Beer about 10 days ago turned out to be advertised as a through route but with a change in Seaton!

Especially "classic".  That's the 18:42 from Southampton calling at Romsey and Salisbury at 19:13.

There is also an 18:40 from Southampton which calls at Romsey and arrives Salisbury at 19:24 ... if you wonder why that's slower, it's because it sits outside Southampton - at Millbrook - for 6 or 7 minutes to let the 18:42 go through and clear the section, and it has extra stops.  I know that franchising encourages competition so it's really good having 2 trains 2 minutes apart ....

From Wednesday ... the Brighton pulls in to Westbury to pick up a "few" people:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/btnatwsb_20181031.jpg)

Shows the crowds coming off the train from the West Country and the importance of the interchange / volume of the flow. I have no idea how many of these people were going beyond Fareham ...

Goodness .. first report for a week.


Do 2 coaches cause less congestion than 3 as they get through junctions quicker??

Not such a silly question ... I have seen some of the journey optimisation software, and seen how 12 coach trains are slower than 4 coaches though corners as they have to stay at the restricted speed for longer ... quite apart from taking 12/4 times the time over junctions

A new year of Brighton reports ... subject line is NOY year specific so I will carry on

And the one actually made Brighton  ;D

Not been a good few days with the Brighton’s either being cancelled or starting back from Westbury due to crew shortages

Edit to correct spelling

A long time since I posted on this thread ... my feeling is that things have somewhat improved on "the Brightons" though frankly I've been so busy posting about cancellations on a certain other line ...

Isn’t it useful that there happens to be a very underused bay platform at Fareham for them to park in for a few hours...

Paul

I'm guessing that GWR will not be serving Brighton while it's single line working from Salisbury?

As one train per hour each way appears to be the maximum capacity of the single line working section, I can’t see how a through train to Brighton could be achieved. Whether a truncated Brighton to/from Portsmouth service might be instituted in due course, who knows?

Only by portion working ...

I think it might be sometime before we see direct Brighton services running again.

When they do return they could be operated by Turbos as route clearance for them has now been signed off.

I clicked 'Like' for this comment but that will probably mean the end of seeing 158s operating on the Severn/Solent line.  :'(

Not sure there are enough Turbos west of Didcot yet, and I appreciate the irony that Brighton will be just about as far east as they have ever been!

Once Adarna, Basan, Chupacabra, Encantado, Fenrir, Gamayun, Horus, Itsumade, Kelpie, Leutogi, Minokawa, Nachtkrapp, Pamola, Qilin, Sarangay, Turul, Vetala, Yatagarasu and Ziz ( (*) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legendary_creatures_by_type) ) start in revenue traffic on the North Downs and around Oxford, I expect we'll see Turbos routinely on the south coast to Brighton. Probably not until. Heck, there was a 158 on Severn Beach last Friday!

The incoming service, 0709 PMH-BTN arrived at Brighton at 10.29, eight late. Then left as 5Z50 ecs to Westbury at 10.54, a Very Short Term Plan notice. Arrived 8 late, but was on time for most of the journey.

There's an 09:05 to Portsmouth and Southsea - gets there at 10:23 as opposed to 10:16 - not even long enough hold up for delay-repay!   10:31 onwards from PMS to PMH - arrive 10:34

Route learning trains to Brighton start next week running ECS DOO

Service trains from July