Great Western Coffee Shop

How long is this train supposed to be?  How long was it this morning?

Reading Real Time Trains, it appears to me to have been 166216 (that's 3 carriages) all the way today.  Those excellent Real Time Trains pages say that it gains carriages at Westbury, and then loses carriages at Bristol Temple Meads but RTT shows it this morning as 3 all the way, and there don't seem to be any carriage movements in or out of the platforms at Westbury and at Temple Meads to do the strengthening.

With the loss of SWR services into Bristol Temple Meads,  GWR (in a Zoom meeting on 30th November) assured us that this train would be routinely strengthened to 5 carriages from the start of the new timetable.  I will admit to asking if they were sure that this extra capacity would be delivered ... and received assurances.  I will also admit that with a "work from home if you can" directive, and an SWR train that hadn't run in a while, there may not have been (over)crowding issues this morning, but I would like to follow this up just to confirm that the promise has been kept, and not just made in hope or to fob us off / hope we wouldn't notice when it didn't happen.

Just the 3-car as far as I can see.  That’s what it was booked on the drivers diagram as well- though that was an amended diagram for today only, so might change from tomorrow.

Thanks - on one hand I know I am being churlish in being "onto this" on day one, I know.  But on the other hand, GWR managers assured us it would be 5 cars from the start of the new timetable, which meant today.

Started from Yeovil Pen Mill this morning, with a two carriage class 158 instead of a three car Turbo. The three coach train that should have formed this service from Weymouth only got as far as Bristol last night “due to an issue with the train crew”. No sign of extra carriages added en route this morning.

A look at Real Time Trains indicates that there are no planned empty stock moves in the system at either Westbury or Bristol Temple Meads, so it appears unlikely that extra carriages will be added at Westbury, other than on an ad-hoc basis. I don’t see this as a great surprise, in light of the number of short-forms occurring recently on the Cardiff - Portsmouth axis, as discussed elsewhere on this forum.

In terms of additional capacity, there’s strong rumours that an IET will be used on one of the Didcot<>Oxford<>Banbury diagrams to allow a Turbo to go West.  Late Feb, early March was mentioned.

One unit isn’t a great help, but better than nothing - but of course IET availability is restricted at present, so I’m not sure if it’ll be a case of rob Peter to pay Paul?

It also might hint that the 769 introduction is still a LONG way off.

And this morning only started from WESTBURY and just two carriages.   "Yes, we HAVE added the carriages to the service at Westbury as we said we would - up from zero to two" ....

Looks like it's still just 3 carriages this morning?   Real Time Trains indicates extra carriages added at Westbury and taken off at Temple Meads, and yet previous movements at Westbury platform / subsequent ones at Temple Meads platform suggest no strengthening is taking place.  It may be academic with passenger numbers down again due to the next wave of Coronavirus, but it does look like our TOC isn't even delivering on a small compromise it promised with the permanent reduction in capacity into Bristol Temple Meads in the morning peak caused by the permanent withdrawal of SWR services north of Westbury.

Looks like it's 'in the system' for strengthening, and given an allowance for that to happen, yet it isn't yet in place?  Perhaps the Turbo rumoured to be released from the Didcot<>Oxford<>Banbury diagram in the new year will be used for that?

Revisiting this topic and doing some tidying up, I noted this in JUNE in FOI correspondence relating to the removal of the through Waterloo to Bristol Temple Meads service, which at that time was a secret between the DfT, SWR, GWR and Network Rail. - http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/011.pdf



Haven't seen the strengthening happening yet ... moot point for the next month or so, I suspect, as we are again discouraged from commuting to work, but it's something, perhaps, not to forget.

The extra carriages are due to attach at Westbury and detach at Temple Meads ... how about - from the May timetable change - running them back with GWR crew to Westbury and then on to Salisbury and Waterloo with an SWR crew?