Great Western Coffee Shop

From Bristol Live (https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/gwr-train-delay-repay-tickets-3529671)

And here we have the exact s**t-storm that is caused by maintaining the party line "our staff are trained to refuse boarding if a train is overcrowded" response to many a complaint of overcrowding.

What use is the IET service GWR mentioned in its apology?

It doesn't call at Oldfield Park.

I wondered that too.  I suspect there may be some "lateral transfer" with Bath to Bristol passengers electing to move off the (over)crowded stoppers onto the now-more-spacious expresses.   However, that's probably hard to measure, limited in the numbers who change, and darned hard to sell to the people at Oldfield Park and Keynsham who see the trains with extra seats whizzing past them to be followed by a stopper with standing room only.

I confess to also thinking that the spin in this was interesting.

Totally agree that even with an adequate buffer of trains set aside to stand in when things go wrong, there will always be occasions when trains are short formed or cancelled.  I'm not convinced, though, that there is an appropriate buffer and short trains run on too many occasions.  Hot spares at Westbury, Gloucester and Plymouth wouldn't solve every issue but would certainly help to make things a lot better, be it the end of 2 cars on summer Saturdays to Weymouth, or half length peak trains along the Avon Valley from Bath.   No doubt readers will wonder just where GWR would get these trains from, as 150s and 158s are like gold dust;  I suspect there may be a couple of stored HSTs that could be used as "Castles" and release 3 x 2 cars from other diagrams.  And, sure, it's a business case / decision; I'm sure that the staff on the ground do everything they can to run the services - but the text "within the business case set" (by GWR or DfT?) should perhaps be added to complete the comment?

To be fair to GWR, the IET service that was mentioned does call at Keynsham. That particular call from an 'intercity' service toward Bristol has been in the timetable for some years I believe.

Provision is made at Oldfield Park for HSTs IETs to stop there when required if the scheduled local services are delayed, cancelled, shortformed etc.

It didn't happen yesterday. I went to catch an off peak train from Oldfield Park (10.11) to Temple Meads, and found it was cancelled when I got there. So I had to make my way to Bath Spa, 2 miles away, and catch the IET there. It didn't stop at either Oldfield Park or Keynsham, and I found that the 'cancelled' train was actually running, but just very late so not stopping at those two stations either.

The effect on me was that I had to make an extra 2 mile journey that I wasn't expecting to have to do; paid an extra fare (as the fare from Oldfield Park is cheaper) and arrived at my destination much later than I wanted to. Not a good service at all.

More bad news for them this morning.
07:23 Warminster to Great Malvern due 10:31
07:23 Warminster to Great Malvern due 10:31 will no longer call at Oldfield Park and Keynsham.
This is due to a fault on this train.
Will be formed of 2 coaches instead of 3.

but it does look like attention is being heeded ...

I wonder whether short forms on those services are now happening because of Mark Hopwood's promise to look at reducing TransWilts cancellations. So instead of a unit failure meaning that service is cancelled, now it's a short form into Bristol.  (Though if the service was reduced from 3 to 2, that can't be the only reason, unless there was more jiggling of stock elsewhere.)

More likely this is a knock on from the cancellation of electrification to Oxford and the Thames branches, all those services are still be operated by 165/166 which would otherwise have been reallocated. It wouldn't surprise me if GWR has the bare minimum of 143/150/158/165/166 they need to maintain a service and as soon as there is a cancellation already overcrowded trains become rammed, we have seen the same on the Didcot - Oxford services where people have been unable to board after a cancellation. This is anecdotal, but I also wonder whether 165/166 are also becoming more unreliable as I have seen a lot more cancellations recently due to train failures than I seem to remember from the past. Hopefully if the 769 ever get delivered the 165/166 that run on those services can be reallocated and the cancellations and overcrowding can be reduced.

I suspect that's the underlying cause, but was speculating that whereas up to now the first casualty would be the TW, now there's a different approach being taken.  Pure speculation though.

In both 2018 and 2019 I had a 14-day all-line railrover, and often started out on the 0745 Chippenham to Bristol (0630 PAD) which was (and still is) booked to call at Keynsham.

On two occasions in that total four week period a Special Stop Order was issued for Oldfield Park because of delay/ cancellaton of another train booked to stop there.

Was an SSO issued in this case or were they really just talking about Keynsham?

Good news if anyone from Oldfield Park or Keynsham is heading to the SW today a direct service with no change required at Bristol.

Whilst on the subject of the 7.30 Paddington-Penzance that currently runs via Bristol. I dare say this train will be missed by Swindon, Chippenham and Bath passengers when it moves over to running on the Berks and Hants at the December timetable change but I understand the reason for it moving over to the faster route.

It will indeed be missed ... a very popular train at Swindon, Chippenham and Bath Spa for Taunton and beyond.  I suspect the popularity is with a relatively small but vociferous group though (of which, yes, I number myself).

Chippenham to Truro ... 08:39, gets there at 12:31, direct service next week.   08:42, two changes, arrive 13:32 in four weeks time.   There are alternatives with just a single change  at 08:11 and 10:13 from Chippenham, but no journeys under 4 hours any longer.

Noting "Oldfield Park and Keynsham" ... the 08:26 from Oldfield Park to Swindon (a through train) finishies in 4 weeks ; there's an 08:34 on offer with a change at Bath Spa, taking virtually the same time - an 09:09 v an 09:02 arrival into Swindon.   There "never" was a direct train back in the afternoon / evening anyway.

The Penzance train was announced as cancelled at Oldfield Park yesterday, despite it not stopping there anyway. The same announcement then went on to advise passengers for Temple Meads to catch the 08.26, despite this announcement being at 08.50, well after the 8.26 had left.

The train due at 08.50 arrived 6 minutes late and was short-formed, and one of the most uncomfortable journeys I've ever had to make (and I have to stand on virtually all trains from here these days). I know the TM attempted to get everybody on board, but not sure he succeeded, especially at Keynsham. Personally I came close to fainting from the overcrowded conditions, and having no sight of my possessions just raised my stress levels.

My return train was the 16.49 train from Temple Meads which was, if anything, even more horrendously crowded, and some people definitely did get left behind without being able to board.

The 0826 service was running about 30 mins late and following the 0850 which would not have helped the crowding on the latter service.

Thanks. I was told at the time that the 0826 had already left, but maybe the staff member just wasn't aware. However, it wasn't showing on the screen, which presumably it should have been.

Keynsham still seems to have issues with overcrowding and people unable to get on trains during the morning peak, which is covered in local press (The Week In etc). Its not surprising given station usage statistics and the development within the town but I can't help but think what rail usage would be like were this service to be better and it wasn't getting such bad publicity.