Great Western Coffee Shop

Some of you may be aware that there was, unfortunately, a fatality on the line between Basingstoke and Farnborough today causing the line to be closed.  Arriving at Southampton at 1435 I had planned to catch the 1451 Southampton to Weymouth service to then return via Yeovil and Salisbury.  As I had become aware of teh closure I checked SWR on line departure board which showed that the 1451 was cancelled but that the 1424 was expected to depart at 1444 following diversion via Havant. All fine so far.  On arrival at Southampton there was no indication of a Weymouth departure on platform 4 so I checked the main departure list.  This stated that the 1424 departure would now be departing at 1519.  This was confirm shortly after by an announcement that the next train on platform 3 would be the delayed Weymouth train departing at 1519 and that the next train to Brockenhurst and Bournemouth would be the 1445 service on platform 4. As a result of this everyone crossed to the latter platform.  Just after 1440 a 10 car 444 crept into platform 3 but there were no announcements that this was the Weymouth train. It left before the 1445.  On checking the Opentraintimes maps on my way to Bournemouth it became obvious that this unannounced train was indeed  the 1424 departure having miraculously recovered 45 mins.  Needless to say that train delayed all the way to Bournemouth and departed before our arrival.  There was only one staff member on the platform and he was occupied helping a passenger in a wheelchair.  I checked the departure board in the booking office which is the only one giving all departures and there was, at that time, no indication of any Weymouth departure.  A few minutes later, as the staff member had not yet returned, I checked the departure board again and a 1532 departure to Weymouth from platform 4 was shown with an expected departure of 1535.  By this time it was 1534 and those of you who know Bournemouth will know that it is a very long way from the entrance on platform 3 to platform 4.  As you may guess the train departed when I was only half way there, although there did not appear to be any member of station staff dispatching it.  By this time another member of staff arrived from Platform 2 and I raised the question of the next Weymouth train with him.  He went into an office and a lady appeared and asked him to get someone to announce the 1532 train.  She was very surprised, and initially disbelieving, when I told her it had departed as she had clearly only just been made aware of that train which it appeared was a replacement starting at Bournemouth.  She ten went into the office again and shortly returned to say that there was no indication of any Weymouth train in the forseeable future.  At this point, on her advice,  I gave up and returned home via Southampton, although the 1637 Salisbury service was cancelled due to lack of staff.
I have no criticism at all of the station staff that I dealt with who were very helpful and sympathetic in difficult circumstances.  However communications to them and to passengers was appalling.  Why was incorrect information provided at Southampton, both visually and verbally and not corrected when the error should have become apparent?  Why was the 1532 From Bournemouth allowed to depart before it had even been announced and who authorised that departure?  These are serious questions that SWR ought to be addressing.  At times of disruption information to passengers must be given promptly, frequently and be correct.  This did not happen today.  When I left Bournemouth there were still a number of passengers still awaiting a train towards Weymouth. I hope that they eventually got there, although with at least the next two Weymouth trains showing as cancelled they probably had a long wait.
Rant over
P.S.  If any senior SWR management lurk on the forum please take this up and let us all know the reasons behind this

Yes I too travelled from Hinton Admiral to Poole and back, without going into too much detail, complete and utter lack of comunications, seemed to be a lot of gurads and drivers on the cousions. all displaced I guess, also over heard a few converstatins between staf along the lines of 'dont understand why I wasnt called to work xyz, rather than being sent home'

My journey from Poole this evening was cancelled. Fortunately the previous train was running late so I was able to catch that. At Woking, just a short delay for the Guildford train. At Guildford my next train was cancelled, the last train of the night. Fortunately platform staff put me in a taxi for the last leg and I got home earlier than I had planned for.

Seemed like the plan was to get the trains back to Northam/Bournemouth etc for their planned Sunday servicing, rather than customers or staff being kept happy, all about the contract with Siemens I guess.