Great Western Coffee Shop

See attachments for a sample day's service

At excellent step in the right direction for a station that I snort longer just a country halt - it's now set in the heart of residential development and with improved commuter services will blossom.

Good to see the morning commuter time gap to Salisbury fixed.  Pity there'a no return classic commuter service without a change.  Use of double back easements (at both Warminster and Westbury) will almost certainly add to the usefulness - I hope that someone (should be a TransWilts job?) will put together a timetable sheet and distribute it locally.

Yes, I used to really enjoy doing that, (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=9011.0) and its one of the things I do miss now the way TWCIC/CRP operates has changed.

The two Wiltshire stations that have especially poor passenger uses per head of population with 2km are Dilton Marsh and Melksham.  Both of them have suffered from a service that's been unfit for day to day commutes / a service that's been so thin that it's not been a serious option for people's travel. But both have / will have from May a service which is much more promotable.

At the Melksham Rail User Group meeting this Wednesday, we will be planning some local leafletting to encourage use specifically of Melksham Station - not treading on anyone's feet, but rather stepping in now-vacant shoes.  I will keep my eyes and ears open to see if there are similar vacant shoes at Dilton Marsh, where I do know a couple of the wardrobe masters.

Sadly, all the SWR services have been removed from calling at Dilton Marsh from May.

I suspect that may be something to do with the fact that the front doors on the SWR are always out of use for passengers

Could be. If so, then why are things like this not thought of in the first place?

Questions to be asked.  I suspect your guesses are correct, but don't let's assume if we don't have to.

Any answers, anyone?

From a public post / reproduced with permission:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158715023484196&set=a.10153700771924196&type=3&theater


My reply ...


and a follow up from my original correspondent ...


IMHO .... There is a community torch for someone to pick up ...

I asked Andrew Ardley about this yesterday at the TransWilts Stakeholders meeting, confirming that the SWR services that had been suggested and even appeared on planners until a few weeks ahead would make a real difference at Dilton Marsh, turning a curious, perverse and frankly pretty useless for most needs service into something that would really work for the resdincential areas that have grown close by.  "Is this just a delay of the stops until the next timetable change, or something that won't be with us for some time?"

Astonishing answer from Andrew -"That was an error than got into the timetable system.   There weren't and are no plans for these trains to stop at Dilton Marsh".  Very funny 'error' - the trains stopping all had 3 to 4 minutes of slack in them whereas SWR trains not calling are much more tightly timed. I smell a late decision taken not to make the stops for some reason, and a whitewash answer yesterday.

Pressing the point, I asked how we should set about getting those stops and Andrew told me that the timetable planning for May 2020 was now underway and a case could be looked at.  Clearly not something on his agenda, and the subsequent speaker (in a conference that was looking at the bigger picture) made something of a negative joke of Dilton Marsh ...

The problem in my view is that Dilton Marsh stops have to use the front door.  On SWR trains the front door is locked out of passenger use (presumably a union requirement as no other TOC does this with 158s).  There would be two solutions to this. Allow the front door to be used under the supervision of a staff member - Andy Mellors told me last year that this was under investigation. Or, NR to erect stops boards at a suitable location for the rear door of the front coach to be opened - this might confuse passengers but they would soon get used to it especially if on board announcements were made.

Using the front door only on a SWR 158/159 at a station such as Dilton Marsh isn't a problem. FGW/GWR hired in SWT/SWR 158 and 159 units and used them like this daily on services that called at Dilton Marsh.

In the passenger saloon, there is a hole for the guard to insert their 'T-key' in above the leading sliding vestibule doors (the ones which are automatically closed and unavailable when the driver has the driving desk in use). Turning the 'T-key' in this switch causes the vestibule sliding doors to open temporarily to allow access to the front vestibule. There is no risk of becoming trapped in the front vestibule because the open button for the sliding doors to return to the saloon remains operative at all times, even when the driving desk is in use.

As the guard is required to operate the local door at Dilton Marsh, this method of operation doesn't prevent a SWR service from calling there as they would have to be at the front of the train anyway.

Further to the above, when the driving desk is in use, this automatically renders the leading vestibule sliding door open button inoperative on the passenger saloon side only. The button on the vestibule side remains operative at all times to prevent anybody from becoming trapped in the leading vestibule. With regards to the exterior doors, it is only the external door open button on the leading set of doors that is rendered inoperative. If the train doors have been released, the internal open button will still work. The door control panels, unlocked and used by the guard to release and close the external doors, remain operational at all the doors including the leading ones.

Excellent background information [the possibilities] thank you.

"They've built what is virtually a new station at Dilton Marsh in the midst of an area that has been rapidly developing but aren't stopping trains there when they're needed" - comment from a perceptive resident ...

I am aware what is possible in theory but I suspect that this is a union issue inherited from SWT

The 159s date from BR days, and the original explanation I heard some years ago for the front door “cut out” was supposed to be that the drivers wanted a safe means of egress to the trackside when using lineside telephones away from stations, without having to clear the area of passengers first.  This was considered particularly important in the four track electrified area between Basingstoke and Waterloo.

I think the same feature was provided in the 442s originally, but never seemed to get the same criticism, presumably because their was nothing to directly compare them with.  (Don’t know if the reactivated 442s still have it.)

Paul

Nothing to do with unions and not sure where that has come from. Neither ASLEF or RMT have any policy stating that a train can't stop at a station with a platform shorter than the train. Last year, the SWR 'Summer Saturday' services between Yeovil and Weymouth called at Thornford and Chetnole, both stations having platforms shorter than the length of the train.