Great Western Coffee Shop

It's really good to see the southbound call at Dilton Marsh at 08:05 on 1F05 last week, and to see it scheduled again for next week.  The West Wilts Rail User Group and others have been asking for this service to make the additional call for some time, to pick up an identified flow to school in Warminster; at present, many parents drive pupils to school in the morning and then they (pupils) get the train back in the afternoon.

The team at GWR have been concerned that a Dilton Marsh stop by this train would impact unacceptably on its timekeeping, and I appreciate that's something they need(ed) to consider. However, looking at the service last week, it actually gained time between Westbury and Wishford on four out of the five days.  I have chosen a monitoring point after Warminster, but before Wilton and the Salisbury area to record, in order to get the full effect of the extra stop in the frame, but not add any complications from other traffic. Obviously, the train cannot leave Warminster early, so we should never see Wishford more than 1 minute early.

Day   ex Westbury   pass Wishford   max lateness before Westbury
14   On Time      1 early
15   On Time      1 early
16   1 late      On Time      (was 5 late at Keynsham)
17   On Time      On Time      (was 4 late from Cardiff)
18   On Time      1 early

I was almost hoping to see the service "under stress" - more delayed from Westbury - to provide more data. I will keep my eyes open. However, it appears to have slack in the schedule anyway before it leaves Westbury (see 16th and 17th notes), which is an even better prognosis for how this train will do with a permanently timetabled Dilton Marsh Stop.

21st - 7 late at Westbury, 5 late at Wishford (Delay at Bathampton; 2 late Southampton, on time Portsmouth)
22nd - on time at Westbury, 1 early by Wishford

Evidence so far suggests that a Dilton Marsh stop does not cause timekeeping problems!

Success!   As from December, there is a permanent extra "request" call at Dilton Marsh at 08:04 in the morning, filling the southbound gap between 06:57 (to Southampton) and 09:54 (to Warminster).  This extra call on a train that passes through has been requested for many years, as it will allow school pupils from Westbury Leigh (close to the station) and Dilton Marsh to use public transport both to and from school, ending the current situation in which children are taken to school by car and come home on the 15:30 from Warminster.

In the past, GWR have been concerned that the extra stop would damage timetable robustness, but a 3 week trial this spring (rather forced on them because the 06:57 was suspended) showed it working well every day, and even though unadvertised locally up to 10 passengers joined the train southbound each day.   It is also going to be a useful service for people who want to commute to Salisbury, or have the day out in Salisbury and beyond without having a very early start indeed.  Thank you GWR - a small change that will make a big difference

(Written for RailFuture newsletter / old news on the forum ;-) )