Great Western Coffee Shop

For some reason, the 08:11 from Warminster (08:36 from Melksham) is being terminated at Chippenham this morning at 08:46.

Most of the passengers on this service are headed for Swindon ... there's a service from Chippenham at 08:41, but the next one isn't until 10:03.

Could they not have planned it a bit better?  - this looks like OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE ahead of customer care.

As customers won't arrive in Chippenham Swindon until about 85 minutes after they should, are they entitled to ... anything ... in compensation?

edit - correction

Well advertising it in advance would have been a good start...

It doesn't even connect with the 55 bus to Swindon - that left at 08:40

No, as they arrived on time   ;)

As for those heading to Swindon, that may be a different question  :)

Dire in the opposite direction also. 2M14 to Westbury has just departed from Chippenham Platform 2 on time at 17:45, with the 1T16 train from Swindon rolling into platform 1 at 17:48.

Edit: Platform numbers corrected (thanks Brooklea, for pointing out my error).

Oops - edited to correct the original post.

Indeed (although you’ve got the platform numbers the wrong way round ;)),  and a more or less simultaneous departure for Westbury and arrival from Swindon at Chippenham at 1143 this morning too. Whilst I can understand why Up direction connections are not so straightforward given that both trains would need to use platform 2 (due to a ‘feature’ of the signalling system), I can’t for the life of me fathom out why the Down connections were not scheduled to make each time.

Possibly the result of letting the computer do the scheduling. GIGO >:(

Not yet on the Coffee Shop acronyms list but a good one to include.

Gunk in, gunk out?

My original question was "Has anyone given any thought to the passengers?" and I think I have twigged the answer to my question - "No".  Or if they have done, not done anything about dealing with the inconvenience caused.

Westbury to Swindon trains tend to follow Bristol to London trains up the main line from Thingley ... slower train following faster one, so the 08:41 heads out from Chippenham first followed by the 08:47 regional (as opposed to express) train, which runs with slower stock.  London passenger change at Swindon - many more trains from there.   So Sunday, the 08:41 left as usual, the regional train arrived at 08:46 ... with a massive wait for an onward train, because the next Bristol express went round the Berks and Hants.

On return, the regional train to Westbury is timed to leave Swindon somewhat ahead of the Bristol express, and to leave Chippenham just ahead of it ... 15:43 departure for Westbury, then the express at 15:47 to Bristol.  Of course, if the train just starts from Chippenham then there's no connection from Swindon ...

If 80%+ of traffic coming up from Westbury / Trowbridge / Melksham got off at Chippenham, there would be a good argument for prioritising running the train as far as possible to normal time, rather than inconveniencing local traffic within the still-running section.  However, the figure is probably around 35% (+- 5%) and really the up train example should have been 10 minutes earlier and the down train in the example 10 minutes later.

The usual phrase is Garbage In, Garbage Out but gunk sounds about right to me too.

.... en anglais Rubbish in, rubbish out!

https://www.gwr.com/~/media/gwr/pdfs/planned-engineering/2018/week-44-saturday-26-january-to-friday-1-february-2019.pdf?la=en (https://www.gwr.com/~/media/gwr/pdfs/planned-engineering/2018/week-44-saturday-26-january-to-friday-1-february-2019.pdf?la=en)
Suggests the same issue may be expected on Sunday 27th January (hopefully I’ve attached a screenshot below in case link gets updated). However, a quick check on RealTimeTrains shows amended schedules for that day with all TransWilts trains running through to and from Swindon!

Also, the GWR website will let you buy tickets for travel on these direct trains leading me to conclude that, once again, the planned engineering poster is less than helpful for intending passengers (although at least this time it could be seen as a right-side failure).

Some good news - GWR have picked up on this and from Sunday 7th April when buses replace trains there will be an earlier bus from Westbury to connect with the bus at Chippenham to give an 09:30 arrival into Swindon.

Also in response to customer comments there will now be posters at stations giving the actual bus times.   Below is the one for Melksham.

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/mkmbus.png)

Network Rail have yet to put the extra bus into journey planners but that should happen next week.