Great Western Coffee Shop

1st January 2023 ... Cancellations:

10:44 Westbury to Swindon due 11:28
11:41 Swindon to Westbury due 12:21
14:21 Frome to Swindon due 15:23
15:44 Swindon to Frome due 16:38
16:43 Frome to Swindon due 17:34
17:44 Swindon to Salisbury due 18:55
19:29 Swindon to Westbury due 20:11
20:26 Westbury to Swindon due 21:08
21:25 Swindon to Westbury due 22:06


Other Train Service Updates:

11:01 Weymouth to Swindon due 13:28
13:41 Swindon to Weymouth due 15:50
18:24 Frome to Swindon due 19:17


Real Time Trains shows 12 trains in the timetable (6 each way) on the Westbury to Swindon line, and the short term cancellations above list 12 trains - so that leaves the line (and Melksham, population 25,000) with no trains at all today.

No offer of alternative road transport.

"Via Melksham" tickets should be accepted / sold for travel via Bath Spa, since GWR are failing to provide the train service - a situation that has happened so often before that it's an official "thing" - though online ticket sales outlets have had difficulty with it.

We tend to get rather technical on the forum ... so here's a reminder from my feed (and I will put others up from time to time) that cancelled trains effect real people's daily lives.  People will look for alternatives for a while, but there's a danger that they'll stick with the alternatives when they find them, or make radical changes that no longer involve using the train.


* No rail replacement buses are being provided by GWR

* The regular public bus service from Melksham to Chippenham does not run (any) regular Sunday, let alone New Year's Day

* Taxi availability here is patchy at the best of times ... and taxi drivers will have all been busy last night / early this morning and will be off duty this afternoon.

Still awaiting our first train at Melksham this year, then.  No alternatives (replacement services) offered by GWR, only a suggestion that you can claim through delay/repay.

0910 to Westbury seems to (still) be running

Yep - first northbound call of the year at 07:23 and first southbound call at about 09:10 (industry feed shows it a minute or so early).

From the "Tiger" feed linked from the top of forum pages


For all stations Swindon - Chippenham - Melksham - Trowbridge - Westbury, current boards:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/x20230103_swi.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/x20230103_cpm.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/x20230103_mkm.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/x20230103_tro.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/x20230103_wsb.jpg)

The Melksham Departure Board's headline implies the following cancellations from the regular timetable:
3rd January 2023 - All 17 trains scheduled between Swindon and Westbury
4th January 2023 - All 17 trains scheduled between Swindon and Westbury
5th January 2023 - All 17 trains scheduled between Swindon and Westbury
6th January 2023 - All 17 trains scheduled between Swindon and Westbury
7th January 2023 - All 17 trains scheduled between Swindon and Westbury
There are 14 trains scheduled on 8th January 2023 (just checked / Real Time Trains)

Yup - sorta back - First train called at 08:36 this morning - though only running as far as Chippenham, with an onward rail replacement road transport service to Swindon.   Similar changes to all trains all day.   Full line was served by most services on 2nd - other than that and today, nothing else so far this year. We hope full service resumes tomorrow and I will be making a positive post elsewhere to let people know.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/m23_tr4.jpg)

Four people joined the train at Melksham - very slim number, but bearing in mind it was only going one stop, that the GWR advise is off-putting (see quoted text below), and the service has not run to timetable any day yet this year, remarkably good.  No-one got off, and the train was too dirty to get a good idea of how many people were on board just passing through.

Car park empty, cafe closed, advert on gate for Santa on 10th December. Ticket machine out of order, poster threatening penalty fares if you don't buy before you board.  Engineering posters and A to Z poster up to date (in line with theory). Strike timetable poster on its last day, with no indication of what happens after 8th January even in footnotes.  Current printed timetables available in racks and CRP train timetable on platform up to date with current theory. Bicycle shelter acrylic roof has new holes in it - looks like it has been vandalised.   Station basically clean / no rubbish issue.

Was the Penalty Fares poster up to date with new Penalty though?

I "give up" ... (not really, if you are reading this, Mr GWR!)

Dunno - how am I supposed to tell? 

Here is the notice - is it current??

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/m23_tr5.jpg)

Reading back on other threads,, it goes up "in January" but I don't know what date in January.  So I don't know if the poster is up to date or not.

It has / or will go up from £20 OR the "full" (anytime?) single to £100, reduced to £50 if paid promptly, PLUS the single

So - if anyone attempts to defraud Melksham to Trowbridge (surely not!), what does it mean?
* Full fare (06:36 train, Monday to Friday) - £5.20
* Off peak (any other train) - £4.90
* Penalty fare until January 2023 - £20.00
* Penalty fare after January 2023 (but before March 2023) if paid promptly - £55.20
* Penalty fare after January 2023 (but before March 2023) if not paid promptly - £105.20

If an under-16 is issued with a penalty fare notice, is it a half fare child's one?

[/quote]

They've had a week to inspect the track while there were no b****y trains running! Grrrrr

Errrr….the inspection team were striking too

On the positive side, the message is much improved over the standard one an it looks like replacements are being provided

Neutral - perhaps this can be more forgiven as it's not the usual "here we go again" message.

But negative - the 17:36 is the train that is supposed to run if at all possible and yet with a single line still open, someone still decided to can it or not even run it as far as Chippenham.    Words are cheap ...

The points at Thingley have failed.  Trains are having to run on the Swindon bound line in both directions.  That means there is no access to the single line and no capacity to turn a train at Chippenham.

The 15:14 from Swindon to Westbury is still sitting in the bay platform at Swindon.

They didn't do the safety inspection last week as the points hadn't failed at that point.

Just tweeted disruption till at least 1900

Now able to use both lines but not the points at Thingley so the single line still closed.

There is also now a track defect reported at Dauntsey on the Swindon bound line.  20mph speed limit in place.

Not a problem on a wet January Tuesday ... though it could be on a fine July Sunday.

The 20:06 doesn’t run on Sundays.  ;D

Yeah ... it used to be the 19:35 every day except Saturday; the Monday to Friday one got pushed back later but the Sunday one remains more or less unaltered.  It provides an excellent return journey / connection from Weymouth and when promoting the service, we've had so many people at Westbury for it (when 2 carriages) that road transport had to be sourced to supplement the train.

(I note that the 17:36 was re-instated yesterday.  Don't know how many people made alternative arrangements and how many turned up at the stations to actually catch it)

Some problem atr Bedwyn meaning West Country services going via the single line via Swindon to Westbury, I believe?

Been all sorts of problems on the Berks & Hants today.  The points to the turnback siding at Bedwyn failed - one train had to run to Woodborough (beyond Pewsey) to cross over and come back.  There has also been a signal failure with trains being talked past a red.

As predicted - the last two above re-instated.

A VST (ad-hoc) service 2Z22 Swindon-Westbury departed from Swindon at 10:15, headed falteringly past Wootton Bassett Junction, and, as I type this as 10:40, has been routed via a crossover back towards Swindon.

It's still shown on the TIGER site as calling at Melksham.

If the flooding is between Chippenham and Swindon, why isn't a shuttle running between Westbury and Chippenham like it did last Sunday?

You could also ask why there is no shuttle service between Bristol and Chippenham? There must be an unreported issue between Bath and Chippenham as to why no services can run between these two stations and the Transwilts running between Westbury and Chippenham.

Depends what you mean by unannounced. There is flooding in at least two places on that route, but it didn't lead to any specific announcement since the trains it blocked weren't running anyway due to flooding elsewhere.

And from one of our regular users:

Warning! Network Rail tweeted that flooding disruption will continue into tomorrow.

Latest update from JourneyCheck

And today, Friday 13th, there were no cancellations . Two trains a bit late at Melksham ( 6 and 8 minutes ).

09:35 Swindon to Westbury due 10:16

09:35 Swindon to Westbury due 10:16 is being delayed at Swindon.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

All of the above flagged up as short runs ...gotta dash all see how later!

The 16:36 Westbury-Swindon (2M21) is now running as timetabled; somewhere between Chippenham and Wootton Bassett Jn as I type this

It has reached Swindon and is now forming 2M30, the 17:35 Swindon-Westbury. I wish I knew what the train describers and announcements at Swindon said - the TIGER feed for Swindon didn't show this train as reinstated until the last moment.

It was current - I have just established that penalty fares go up on 23rd according to LNWR


A specific date in January that I had not previously been aware of - just knew the month.

Yep - you beat me to it - I saw a warning poster at the weekend that had that date, so it's next Monday.

The 08:34 from Westbury left 32 minutes late ... so the train hasn't got the time to get to Swindon and back ... connection will arrive Swindon at 10:10 (as opposed to 09:23)

18th, 20th, 21st, 22nd ... cancellations or short runs almost every day due to rolling stock problems.   On a service that's every few minutes line London to Reading, perhaps that's not unreasonable.  But on a service that's only every 2 hours in the first place ...

A long trip with crossed legs on a cold night!  :o

The train pauses for 18 minutes in Swindon where (one hopes) the toilet facilities will be open, and that the train manager will advise customers of their availability.

Careful what you wish for.  This morning the gents toilets on the island platform at Swindon are closed with a large pool of, one hopes, water outside. 

Not exactly an immediate cancellation, but it may as well be for two people who went to catch the "train".


I have posted a warning on the Melksham site, and asked @GWRHelp about this.   With the penalty fare changes a fortnight ago, is leaving passengers unable to purchase tickets behind the new way of things, or is this a bus driver who is not aligned with how things should be done in these circumstances?

Ongoing exchanges with GWR on the problem of the rail replacement bus refusing to pick up passengers without tickets, even though there are no ticket purchase facilities at Melksham this morning.   

As I understand it, ticket machine out of action (so even pre-purchased tickets cannot be collected) and no way to purchase on a card as there normally would be. No way to pay in cash (normally pay the train manager), and no-one there to ask for help - station itself unmanned and cafe with CRP staff does not open on Sundays anyway.

A note from another driver who sometimes runs Rail Replacement Services that he's instructed not to check tickets, which seems sensible as the complex ticketing system of the railways is not something many bus drivers would understand, and they don't have rail ticket machines on the buses anyway.  So as reported, this appears to be a driver taking an authority and action outside the normal remit.

Yes, there should be no ticket checks made by RRB drivers as they are not trained.  I would perhaps say a “You need a ticket, mate” to any passengers who looks a bit dubious would be acceptable, but no more than that.  If tickets need to be checked then it’s up to the TOC to provide a member of their staff to do the check.

I visited Melksham Station. I arrived at the station actually just after the bus arrived and was surprised to see people headed from the bus stop onto the platform the use the TVM (which contrary to earlier suggestions IS working for cards) before coming back to join the bus. I spoke with the driver of the bus (11:30 to Westbury) and told him about the limitations of ticket purchase at Melksham. He explained that he could only wait so long when people had been sent to the machine, as others on the bus have connections to make.  I suspect there will be no further issues during his shift. 

From 2 hours back, @GWRHelp don't seem to have got a message through to him (and he is a First employee) - wonderful what people in the local friends group (such as myself) can do to sort out a little local difficulty even when the TOC can't!

Edit to clarify a couple of words (make it read better)

Wondering if this might be a product of the new stance on penalty fares from certain TOCs. Not sure if it helps front-line staff, and will encourage some to over-reach.

Cardiff Central the other day, two people who spoke very little english had managed to turn up at the barriers from London - and were  heading for one of the welsh valleys station. They seemed to think they'd paid for the London to Cardiff stretch using Oyster but the barrier mechanism wasn't so sure - they were wanting to know from the TfW staff outside the barrier how to purchase onward tickets to the valleys destination. I'm hoping the excess ticket window handled *that* gracefully. A tale that sort of indicates that no matter how complicated one might think ticketing is, real world examples manage to throw out something even more complicated and hitherto not imagined.

Mark

Are RRS drivers actually *instructed* not to check tickets and/or check whether they have a ticket (any ticket)? or just not instructed at all about ticket checking? There is a big difference.

If it's a rogue driver ignoring their instructions, there is very little (read: nothing) and TOC can do om a Sunday morning - there would be no one within the bus control able to get a message to the driver within a couple of hours at least (remember that drivers are *instructed* not to check their phones while working)

Using Oyster to travel long distances....is a known problem. That'd hurt their pockets trying to sort that out, even i no penalty fare issued (which I doubt it was). That is exactly why on-train checks are necessary so that errors like that are caught early. I wonder why they thought Oyster might get them to Cardiff but not on up the valleys? Hmm, that raises me a flag that would be investigated. I can understand those with a language difficulty thinking Oyster might be a uk product across all rail, but then to want to buy a separate ticket up the valleys doesn't compute easily.

He waved papers at me saying there was nothing in his instructions about checking tickets or not.


Does "nothing the TOC could do" include asking a member of Chippenham or Westbury station staff to pop down to the RRB when it's there and inform or remind the driver of the situation with tickets?   

To catch every RRS & its driver, probably. Which RRS and which driver? Station staff won't have the roster, and nor would GWR control.

It's one bus, Chris.  Shuttling up and down today between Westbury and Chippenham.  The ONLY Rail Replacement bus all day at Westbury (where staff could have a word) and Trowbridge (more difficult as staff are in ticket office and bus call is brief).   There was no suggestion that this is an endemic problem across all GWR rail replacement services.    But, I grant you, far easier when the problem is identified for @GWRHelp to pass it on internally and be secure in the knowledge the problem will go away at the end of the day - at least for the time being.

Drivers can still be swapped over, depending on their hours & shift.

Yep ... a brief chat with the current driver is not guaranteed to fix the issue, but it has a darned good chance and would have been a darned site better chance than just excuse/smokescreen mode.    Would have worked too, because there wasn't a swap / shift change.

Well said, Graham.  Sadly ChrisB’s ‘computer says no’ arguments seem to be endemic in the post-Covid government controlled railway.

Indeed - Problems can be increased with centralisation. Area Manager as was would have sorted that quickly wghere there was more local management.

06:11 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07

06:11 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07 is being delayed at Westbury.
This is due to a broken down train.

and now terminating at Salisbury.  It is (when it runs) the extra school train south of Salisbury to there many be some children  late to school this morning.  Not a huge deal as it would be further north - gap of 15 minutes before the next Salisbury to Southampton train, and most passenger on the train change as Salisbury so relatively few Warminster to Romsey or Southampton passengers.

[/quote]
Wonder if this was tied in with 1F01 failure at Romsey, and the subsequent knock on delays.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=27173.msg330624#msg330624

Potentially, a good call.  Connections are more important than being bang on time.  Slight caution flag on TransWilts that a delay at Swindon to maintain connections from London could impact connections at Trowbridge for Bristol and at Westbury for Taunton and beyond, for Salisbury and beyond, and for the line to Weymouth.

Service arrived at Westbury eight minutes late.  As it happened the service to Penzance was also delayed so no problem there nor to Weymouth.  However the connection to Salisbury was lost.

Thanks for that, Bob - really good example of the complexities.  I would not like to even suggest which was the more important connection to maintain  - the one at Swindon or the one at Westbury.

Westbury "missed" by 4 minutes ... the Salisbury train left on time, and was 2 minutes early terminating there.   That left 12 minutes there for people to connect to the next departure which was a bus to Southampton.  Wonderful hindsight suggest that a hold of the Salisbury train at Westbury like the Westbury one was held at Swindon would have created a delay which worked its way out of the system very quickly, but hindsight is marvellous stuff that always comes too late.

---

No miss at Trowbridge - there wasn't a connection there in the first place, with a Cardiff train timetabled to leave there a minute before the train from Swindon arrived.

Cancellations to services between Westbury and Chippenham via Melksham

Due to the emergency services dealing with an incident near the railway between Westbury and Trowbridge all lines are blocked. Disruption is expected until 15:00 15/02.

Train services between Westbury and Chippenham via Melksham may be cancelled or delayed.

Problems caused by an incident at a bridge just north of Trowbridge Station

https://www.wiltshire999s.co.uk/999-crews-scrambled-trowbridge-found-bridge/ (https://www.wiltshire999s.co.uk/999-crews-scrambled-trowbridge-found-bridge/)

For record
12:17 Westbury to Swindon cancelled
13:15 Swindon to Westbury cancelled

Reason code XA - "trespass" which I suppose is as accurate as they have available if you read the article.

16:25 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08
16:25 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08 has been cancelled.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.

17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20
17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20 will be cancelled.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.

Short term - if it's congested - why not stop something that's causing the congestion there??

Long term - if it's congested - why not put in an extra loop and signals - it was originally double track broad gauge after all!

Broken down train causing the congestion?

Maybe - except that the Berks and Hants is closed through Newbury and Pewsey today with oodles of diverted trains passing through Melksham, and the ONLY train that Journeycheck flagged up as being "congested" off the line was the local one, nothing else delayed, short run or cancelled.  Circumstantial evidence suggests to me that it's not a broken down train - rather trying to fit a quart into a pint pot, and the casualty of that failing, as usual, is a cancellation of service(s) at Melksham.

The 08:44 from London Paddington to Plymouth was booked to operate via Melksham due to the engineering works on the Berks & Hants.  However it left London 17 minutes late due to crew issues.  That meant it was going to conflict with the TW service on the single line.

Thank you, Bob.  It would have been really nice if they had put a stop order in for Melksham, wouldn't it?   Not even an offer to source rail replacement road transport as far as I saw.   What's the speed limit for an IET through Melksham?

Just curious.
Would a 5 car IET be able to run perhaps Weymouth to Gloucester or Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff?
I believe there were bogie issues for HST? so guess the same could apply for IET's.

There was an updated journeycheck message about taxis. 

70 towards Trowbridge, 40 towards Chippenham.

We have discussed this ad infinitum before. The Plymouth service was a nine car.  Two five cars would certainly have created an issue as it does at places like Hayle and Hungerford where people end up in the wrong half of the train even on regular services that call at short platforms.   

However the decision was taken pretty late to re-route the TW service - possibly to see how much time the Plymouth could make up between London and Swindon.   Even if stopping at Melksham was possible (I am still not sure that is programmed in) how much more of a delay would be incurred by transferring passengers from platform 2 to 4?  Station platforms were at a premium at that point with two trains to Paddington, one each to Swansea, Plymouth and Salisbury and a steam charter all in 15 minutes,

The "IEP Network" as originally defined goes into SWR territory for just two diversionary routes:
1. Castle Cary - Yeovil - Exeter, and
2. Reading - Waterloo (including via Kew Bridge).

I think that's all been proved, not that I've ever seen one passing through Wokingham. Some more bits could have been added, though I can't think why those would have been.

Indeed.  It remains an issue that is not yet solved though!

How are the plans for an intermediate loop (which would also allow 2 trains to follow each other closer) coming along?

There is a lot of work going on looking at Westbury and its environs.

A station at Devizes Parkway needs a service - which could possibly be an extension of what used to be the London to Bedwyn service.

That once again raises the question of the fourth platform at Westbury.

Looking further afield more freight and a desire to have an hourly service on all directions in and out of Westbury puts pressure to improve the single line.  A lot of talk going on but nothing concrete to show as yet.

The incoming service (16:36 from Westbury) was delayed and then cancelled at Melksham.

Good.   Called at Chippenham (say there quarter of an hour), One added (Trowbridge) just Melksham to go to a proper solution to the cancellation of the key Swindon to Westbury service of the day.

Melksham and ?

Sorry - just checked back on Real Time Trains and edited my post.  Well done GWR - it called at Swindon, Chippenham, Trowbridge and Westbury.   Just didn't go the whole hog and call at Melksham ...

I do hope we're not in for a pattern for the next fortnight of last minute missing out of Melksham, that tiny hamlet with some 25,000 residents.    I do read your earlier comment of "we've been there ad infinitum before"; we may have been, but we have not solved the issue for the passengers so the issue remains. Yes,  that is uncomfortable reading for GWR, the DfT and organisations accredited to them.

Without wishing to deny GWR praise, it was always booked to call at Chippenham.  Only the Trowbridge call was added to partly cover for the cancelled TW service.

It's grand (and somewhat unfair) of me to criticise the operational stuff that happened on the day, but there are learning lessons here looking back as the data.  The problem started at
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/oopm_3.jpg)
which reports as "This service was cancelled between Melksham and Swindon due to unknown cause (ZW)."
That was supposed to form the 17:45 back from Swindon

However, the Paddington to Penzance train stopped at Chippenham (unadvertised, please note!) and waited there, I suspect, while the broken down local train was cleared, before carrying on:
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/oopm_1.jpg)
Much of its lateness was recovered during its onward journey - just 6 late by Penzance; not sure what other connections was lost on the way and whether it got in the way of anything, delaying other trains.

For comparison purposes, I grabbed the earlier diverted express in the other direction:
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/oopm_2.jpg)

Now - I appreciate that delaying the 17:36 (Penzance) at platform 4 at Swindon while people come over from platform 2 from the late-cancelled Westbury all stations train might have held it up bit, but then it sat at Chippenham for quarter of an hour (hindsight marvellous) and I appreciate that other services were around at the time too.

Is the real solution - firstly, to see if the root cause (train breaking down) can be reduced, not that it's the most major trigger point and, secondly, not to overschedule but rather to put reliability in advanced timetable planning ahead of seeing how many trains can be squeezed though a bottleneck. 

If the 15:27 from Westbury to Paddington had been planned ahead to make the calls of the 16:35 all-stations train, with a timetabled 10-15 minute later arrival into Paddington perhaps, and those plans made well ahead of time, we would have a far more robust setup.   There was also a 17:30 Westbury to Paddington that could also have stopped, etc.   Yes - I do remember the days of HSTs calling at remote short platforms and the time taken.  I also know that how well done places like Avoncliff and Dilton Marsh are done on single door provided people now ahead of time, and that could be done at Melksham and perhaps Trowbridge (which is short), could it not?   In terms of passenger numbers involved being higher at Melksham - typically YES, though the arrival at Dilton Marsh at about 15:40 typically offloads dozens ...

It would make huge sense at times of disruption to have the regional trains call at all stations.  It would reduce congestion on the line and waits for the single line.  It would make the service more reliable - which is users's top request. It would make recovery from any disruption quicker. It would reduce interference with other lines while trains wait for the bottleneck.  And it would save GWR and the DfT money by not having to (or trying to) run so many trains and rail replacement buses and taxis, and not have to pay out so much in delay-repay.  In fact, as a taxpayer, perhaps I should be demanding of my MP that they act in the suggested cheaper way.

And how many travellers would have seen the extended journey time & gone by car?

Good question.  Over 10 to 15 minutes, I suspect very few.

P.S. I suspect the extra reliability of the train service being a little thinner would more than compensate for the extra time - in other words I suspect that the published timetable would much more accurately reflect what was actually achieved!

I think it's probably also fair to reflect (if no-one has pointed this out already!) that train gets into Penzance pretty late when on time, with no doubt passengers counting on making connections in Devon/Cornwall and elsewhere which if missed late at night could lead to all sorts of problems - it was already 20 mins late.

I wonder how that stacks up against passengers for Melksham getting off at Trowbridge and getting a bus/taxi back late afternoon which seems a much more minor inconvenience perhaps than trying to do same at (for example Redruth or Hayle) late at night?

The GWR trains routed via Melksham during these engineering works are the semi-fast services - looking at tomorrow, there are 2 services from Paddington to Taunton, one to Exeter St Davids, two to Paignton and one to Plymouth.

I very much expect that passengers headed from London at Reading to Taunton and beyond will be travelling on the expresses, through Bristol, this fortnight

So I don't think there's an issue for Camborne or Hayle passengers, nor for Passengers from Penzance and stations to Taunton being any later into London. And if they're concerned at journey time, they'll choose the faster service that doesn't call at Westbury or Castle Cary anyway, won't they?   

Point worth asking TaplowGreen, but I don't think / understand there's a problem.   GWR might agree with you, because they seem to cancel the Swindon to Westbury service far more often than anything else; I have waited 90 minutes at Trowbridge when they have to provide a taxi ... we really feel like third class customers at times, though my use of Hayle has been more limited and I'm not sure if I have used Camborne more than twice.

Edit to correct typo

Can't have been a Wednesday then  ::)

05:50 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07

05:50 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07 will be started from Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Swindon.
This is due to a late running freight train.

Thanks for that ... I note also that the 04:53 Westbury to Swindon left Westbury on time, Trowbridge 12 minutes late, Melksham 25 minutes late and terminated at Chippenham.   Not the day's busiest train even at its normal time of 05:17 from Westbury ...

The return train (flagged above) started from Chippenham at 06:05, sat (as timetabled) at Westbury for 26 minutes - all times in the timetable.  Passengers who normally use it at 06:11 to reach Westbury at 06:53 would have been disappointed - turning up at Swindon to catch an earlier 05:50 to reach Westbury at 06:30. They would have travelled today from Swindon at 06:20, Bath 06:47 to 06:58 and arrived Westbury at 07:26.  Only an hour late on a 40 minute journey and adding insult to injury by having turned up 20 minutes earlier than normal just to be delayed ... late for work in Westbury (yes, there are regulars) and no immediate onward service to Warminster and Salisbury.

I note from Real Time Trains that no less that 12 (freight) trains had passed through Melksham even earlier in the morning - a long, long way from the sleepy backwater days of the latter half of the last century - it's time to have Two Tracks Now

There is a bit of an irony here.

I had a meeting today at Westbury at 10:30 and due to finish at 12:30. 

With rail replacement during the day I had already decided to take the on-line option.   However had I bothered to check the timetable there was a diverted service from Swindon which arrived at 10:24 - ideal for the meeting and one back at 12:50.   Both better suited than the usual timetable.

The added irony - the online technology failed and the meeting was ultimately cancelled.

They say things come in threes.

That 12:50 from Westbury is still sitting at the platform (13:30) due to an axle counter failure at Thingley Junction.

10 late from Chippenham from today's timetable ... which is 10 minutes early against the normal timetable.  Back on normal schedule from Westbury - though you wouldn't think do from the Journeycheck forecast (I hope no-one spent an extra 10 minutes at home in Warminster before going to catch it!). Realtime trains is a better forecast.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/longhold_01.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/longhold_02.jpg)

Isn't timekeeping of passenger trains prioritised over timekeeping of freights  :D :D

The problem with freights is there are fewer places these days where they can be "put inside" to allow other trains to pass.

The problems this morning seem to centre around a stone train from Whatley Quarry which left nearly two hours late and then lost more time on its way through Westbury.   It reached the single line just before 7.45 by which time another freight was heading towards Chippenham on the main line.  It was left standing at Thingley for five minutes waiting for the stone train to clear.   This meant the line towards Bath was blocked while the freight waited for the road. (You can run reversible past the junction but that severely reduces capacity).

Of course at the other end of the line the TransWilts train was past Trowbridge and waiting at Bradford Junction for the southbound freight - itself blocking the route to the Avon Valley line.  It finally got underway after being delayed by 20 minutes.

So the root cause was letting the stone train depart nearly two hours late.  However what is the alternative?  Hold it for longer?  That might impact on crew availability and block up the quarry with a stranded train which might then prevent an incoming service from getting clear of the main line.

Double tracking the line through Melksham would obviously help, as would more loops to put freights away.   It is also worth noting that each end of the single line is controlled by different signallers.  It must be hard to co-ordinate services when large distances and travelling times are involved.

I agree with what you say, Bob - and thanks for the analysis and reports too.  Perhaps we need to look wider for solutions?

Yep!


On an immediate on-the-day viewpoint, your questions are the right ones.  I don't know if a delayed train could have been sent through Frome station and paused on a loop there, or been held aside at Westbury, or what the effect of doing so would have been wider I don't know.    But that is just immediate.

Question - what are the commercial penalties for late running and price reductions for being prompt on freight operators?   Is the system set up for it to make financial sense for them to invest in making sure they can run on time?

The line from Trowbridge to Chippenham overloads time and time and time again, and promises have been made to improve things - firstly with an intermediate signal, then with improvements for when Box tunnel was being done, then with extra capacity in conjunction with HS2 construction traffic. Question - When will any of these promises (or a new one) actually be kept?


Double track ... or loops ... perhaps signals ... perhaps even extra crossovers ... perhaps an ability to run late freight trains with a reversal at Bathampton (like they do with passenger trains that are due to call at Melksham!).

I'm aware I don't always have much time for people who shout "something must be done" as I am doing. But my main criticism of those people tends to be because they don't have any suggestions as to how that something can be done.   I feel we have been making suggestions until we're blue in the face.    Come on - great to hear of "Reversing Beeching" planning, but please put shovels in the ground and sort out the issues with existing routes and stations too.

There just seems to be so much freight at the moment on the GWML and the various lines that feed in to it.  They all have legitimate paths of course, but are much more likely to be delayed than passenger trains and so can cause havoc quite quickly.

It is certainly reaching the point on the Melksham branch where a passing loop (just to the south or north of the station ideally) and/or intermediate signals are becoming a real necessity.

The Mendip quarry trains that usually traverse the B&H route via Newbury to get to Acton and beyond are having to be sent via Melksham and Swindon instead due to the 2 week blockade on the B&H.  The quarries are still running a full, usual service for their customers, as their customers have paid for this and FL have paid the relevant track access fees to NR.

The trouble is, these stone train run as class 6 & class 7 trains, so they are long, heavy, slow freight trains.  Going via the normal route (Newbury), they would normally be recessed in either Woodborough or Hungerford Goods Loops, to allow the passenger traffic to pass then continue their journey in the next free gap.  The route via Swindon does not have any Goods Loops between Westbury and Swindon.  With GWR still running a normal timetable for fasts between Bristol/Bath and London, along with a normal timetable of cross Wiltshire services between Bath & Westbury, these freights haven’t the lengthy gaps between passenger traffic to unaffect passenger trains, as they do via Newbury where (until you reach Newbury and beyond), passenger traffic is less frequent to that on the Box route.  So end result, passenger train catches up with freight train, delays start occurring, missed paths on the single line through Melksham and once that ball starts rolling, it’s unlikely to stop that day.

The Mendip quarries have an increase of work coming this summer, with further new, freight services planned for Gloucester, Oxford, Appleford and Thorney Mill.  There is definitely an argument to installing a recess loop at Thingley, to allow freights to recess off the main line, whilst waiting access to the single line.  A typical shift for a Merehead based driver on an Acton/Hanwell and back turn is 11 hours.  Add in the delays this week, and many drivers have been working 12 - 13 hour shifts on this route.  It is not a sustainable way to operate.  The quarry traffic isn’t going no where anytime soon so investment is definitely needed in the Westbury and Chippenham areas to recess freight accordingly.

Here you go ... yesterday morning, trains that ran through Melksham. 

Merehead Quarry (Fhh) 6A91 Hanwell Bridge Loop 0003½ 2357½
Merehead Quarry (Fhh) 6E46 Hitchin Engineers Sdgs 0040 0034¾
Merehead Quarry (Fhh) 7A93 Hanwell Bridge Loop 0050½ 0015¾
Whatley Quarry F Liner Hh 6A71 Hanwell Bridge Loop 0127½ 0114
London Paddington 1C50 Penzance 0150 0157½
Bescot Up Engineers Sdgs 6V46 Westbury Down T.C.  0218 0217¾
Penzance 1A50 London Paddington 0233½ 0235¼
Wembley Receptions 1-7 7V23 Merehead Quarry (Fhh) 0252 0252¾
Colnbrook Foster Yeoman Fh 6C81 Merehead Quarry (Fhh) 0328 0314½
Dagenham Dock A.R.C.  6V24 Whatley Quarry F Liner Hh 0354½ 0333¼
Merehead Quarry (Fhh) 7A22 Brentford Town Days Flhh 0415 0352¾
Whatley Quarry F Liner Hh 6A15 Appleford Fhh 0451½ 0524½
Westbury 2M09 Swindon 0509 0509
Swindon 2O20 Southampton Central 0615 0615½
Plymouth 1A70 Reading 0703 0704½
Westbury 2M13 Swindon 0809 0809
Westbury Down T.C.  0M50 Bescot Up Engineers Sdgs 0826½ 0822¼
Plymouth 1J74 London Paddington 0912½ 0913¾
London Paddington 1C75 Paignton 1010 1010¼
Whatley Quarry F Liner Hh 6A60 Oxford Banbury Road (Flhh) 1041½ 1036¼
Plymouth 1A77 London Paddington 1108½ 1103¾
Whatley Quarry F Liner Hh 6Z16 Appleford Fhh 1112½ 1118½
Whatley Quarry F Liner Hh 6M20 Churchyard Sdgs (Flhh) 1129 1147½
London Paddington 1C77 Taunton 1210 1216

Eventually started from Westbury 7 minutes late. 16 late by Chippenham.

A problem with the doors.  Train now running empty back to Westbury.

11:10 Westbury to Swindon due 11:52
11:10 Westbury to Swindon due 11:52 will be cancelled.
This is due to a broken down train.

12:01 Swindon to Westbury due 12:41
12:01 Swindon to Westbury due 12:41 will be cancelled.
This is due to a broken down train.

Is it my imagination, or are GWR always running the old crocks on this service?


Yeah ... and at 11:01 a 5 car train left Westbury for Warminster.  I suppose there's a good reason for not taking 2 cars from that to form the Swindon service?

Just 2 cancellations in GWR land ... guess where a working train could not be found
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/wmn2eslxy.jpg)

All of which would appear to be very convenient in providing capacity for things like this - a train from Warminster to Eastleigh running via Westbury, Swindon, Didcot, Reading curve and Basingstoke that's an hour and a half late.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/wmn2eslxx.jpg)

and helps provide slots for other important trains running out of path too ...

05:50 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07

05:50 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07 will be terminated at Salisbury.
It will no longer call at Romsey and Southampton Central.

This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

Quite a significant fault it was too! Eastleigh to Brockenhurst completely blanked out for a period!

And finally dragged into Swindon 30 minutes late

'Due to congestion' seems to be a popular phrase.
Is this (rail) line congestion, as in something has failed/is very late, so that line is congested?
Or passenger congestion - too many passengers vying for reduced coaches?
Or a combination of both, in which case not a very informative statement.

"Overcrowding" is the term used usually for "too many passengers for the trains"
"Congestion" is the term usually used for "too many trains for the lines or platforms"

This morning, it was a stone train (or, rather, empty stone wagons) from Bow to Merehead that was running 30 minutes late - it should have been off the single line and at Trowbridge before the passenger train used the same line the other way Trowbridge to Chippenham.  However, the freight was given the line and the passengers held up.

Thank you.
Still think it could be clarified for the benefit of those of us whose brain cell loses charge by mid morning.

With these current engineering works and last weeks (?) problems, there  has to be a case for improving the Melksham line, together with the Yeovil to Exeter line.

Go on DfT, you know it makes sense!

08:45 Swindon to Westbury due 09:26
08:45 Swindon to Westbury due 09:26 will be cancelled.

This is due to a safety inspection on a train earlier today.

IET on the Berks & Hants developed a fault east of Pewsey and had to proceed at 10 miles an hour to Newbury - taking two hours to do it.

No problem ... 2 carriages should be adequate today.

Delays to services between Westbury and Swindon via Melksham
Following engineering works not being finished on time at Westbury all lines have now reopened. Disruption is expected until 10:30 26/03.
Train services between Westbury and Swindon via Melksham may be delayed.

Runs via Swindon and Westbury

Also to note the first train from Chippenham to Westbury did not run this morning.  Depending who you believe (or possibly a combination of the two) over running engineering work and/or no guard.

From journeycheck
Cancellations to services between Chippenham and Trowbridge via Melksham
Due to a points failure between Chippenham and Bristol Temple Meads trains have to run at reduced speed on the line towards Bristol Temple Meads. Disruption is expected until 15:00 27/03.
Train services between Chippenham and Trowbridge via Melksham may be cancelled, delayed by up to 30 minutes or revised.

I am going to take a look back at the end of the day ... summarise what actually ran.   Thanks everyone for keeping the updates going while I'm away - one of the really great things about the Coffee Shop is community and I deeply enjoy it here and being part of it.

The axle counters failed at Thingley Junction.  However they have been repaired and reset in time for the 16:25 to run booked route and serve Melksham.

Today it is the turn of the points at Bradford Junction

Alterations to services between Chippenham and Trowbridge via Melksham

Due to a fault with the signalling system between Chippenham and Trowbridge the line is blocked. Disruption is expected until 14:15 28/03.

Train services between Chippenham and Trowbridge via Melksham may be delayed or diverted. Melksham will not be served.

15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:58

15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:58 will be cancelled.

This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

If something goes wrong one day, you say "oops" and fix it
If something goes wrong two days in succession, you fix it but then wonder if the failures close were a co-incidence.
If something goes wrong three days in succession, you have far more than a co-incidence - you have a problem.

On 26th, 3 passenger trains out of 14 scheduled failed to call at Melksham
On 27th, 1 passenger train out of 17 failed to call at Melksham and 2 more were announced as not calling, but in the end did call
On 28th, 5 passenger trains out of 17 scheduled failed to call at Melksham

We have a problem (again) - is it big a problem?

9 actual cancellations out of 48 calls scheduled is a cancellation rate of 18.75% ... against a target (I believe) of less that 2%

11 announced cancellations out of 48 calls scheduled is a cancellation rate of 23%.

Yes it is a big problem.

Too late. 
If I'd seen those as not calling, alternative plans would have been made.
Would not have checked back later, just in case.

Quite happy if that is the only disruption at Melksham today!

09:35 Swindon to Westbury due 10:16

09:35 Swindon to Westbury due 10:16 will be starting late from Swindon.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

10:07 Westbury to Swindon due 10:54
10:07 Westbury to Swindon due 10:54 will be terminated at Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Swindon.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:48
11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:48 will be started from Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Swindon.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

To note that a couple of those are virtual (a.k.a. dreams are made of) trains.  Not sure if extras are running today to give Chippenham a better rail service - passengers for Bath and Bristol who normally travel direct on trains that come from London via Swindon being able to change at Trowbridge.  It would make sense.

Silly me - it's Saturday and those trains do exist.   They're the extras from the 2006-2013 era when they were the ONLY Saturday trains on the line that day except for an early Westbury to Swindon that fed the Stroud Valley with its unit for the day and a late Swindon to Westbury service that brought the unit back from the Stroud Valley as the services on that line ran down mid evening.

From the BBC - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-65148990

21:07 Swindon to Westbury due 21:49

21:07 Swindon to Westbury due 21:49 will be started from Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Swindon.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

11:41 Swindon to Weymouth due 13:59

11:41 Swindon to Weymouth due 13:59 has been previously delayed, has been further delayed at Chippenham and is now 32 minutes late.

This is due to the train departing late to maintain customer connections.

The incoming service from Westbury was also cancelled.

I don't think the fault is between Swindon and Westbury at all, then?

The 17:36 is a key commuter train that's in GWR's priority list

Realiability is much improved, but still has a way to go.   From my inbox this week, from a resident of Melksham Town where I sit on the Council, to me in my councillor role:

Trees down, bridges out, crew shortages & signal failures. Think everyone is feeling the pain today.

Just "for the record" really ... on time from Westbury to Swindon then a shortish delay.  Probably not too busy a train today as the schools are out.

Last train of the day.


Great. 

Passengers for from Swindon and Chippenham to Melksham who rely on public transport may instead catch a train to Bath and then catch the 273 bus to Melksham at 23:15, arriving at 23:54 - 140 minutes late.    Passengers from Melksham to Trowbridge and Westbury can catch the bus at 22:33 to Bath, changing there to the train and arriving Trowbridge at 23:52 and Westbury at 23:59 - 130 minutes late

One of our guests was helping someone just outside Chippenham yesterday from late morning with some hard physical work.  He travelled up by bus ... and the kind lady brought him all the way home when he was finished, arriving about an hour before he would have done so on the cancelled train.   People will muck in and help out, but it does our public transport no good to have cancellations like this one, with the only offer from the operator to return your fare if you have paid already.

Just to complete the record for yesterday.  The 13:05 from Swindon did not run however there were numerous announcements about alternative arrangements given out.

I say "did not run" - in fact it did, but out of service to Westbury to pick up its next working.  So presumably it was cancelled for passenger use due to the lack of a guard.

15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:58

15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:58 is being delayed at Swindon and is now expected to be 55 minutes late.

This is due to a road vehicle colliding with a bridge.

16:25 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08

16:25 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08 will be starting late from Westbury and is expected to be 25 minutes late.

This is due to a road vehicle colliding with a bridge.

Also to note the 09:45 Westbury to Swindon terminated 38 minutes late after being trapped by a points failure at Wootton Bassett Junction.

Return working departed 17 minutes late as a result.

Not sure if there is an issue between Chippenham and Wootton Bassett junction.  Trains heading east seemed to be losing time along that section today.  I was on the 12:33 from Melksham and we barely got about 60mph along that stretch. 

An example (far from the first time  ;D ) of an incident elsewhere having a knock-on to the Swindon to Westbury line.  Interworking between lines is clever in terms of stock utilisation to smartly ensure that SLC (Service Level Commitment) is reached but at the cost of some loss of reliability.

Come next month, there is a reduction of timetabled Saturday trains on this line with a revamp of the timetable. I am not screaming and shouting at the loss of two daytime trains even though it makes for longer service gaps - rather I celebrate the extra northbound service on Saturday evening and the moving of the last train back from Swindon an hour later.   I am scratching my head as to why this extra train doesn't run after the summer; last train on Saturday night at 18:35 is a bit - well - restrictive!

Left eight minutes late and arrived in Swindon nine down.  Still in time to make the advertised connections to London and South Wales.

21:07 Swindon to Westbury due 21:49

21:07 Swindon to Westbury due 21:49 will be starting late from Swindon and is expected to be 30 minutes late.

This is due to train crew being delayed.

The 08:45 from Swindon to Westbury is going via Bathampton and thus missing Melksham.

This is due to signalling problems. 

Oops - and

Alterations to services between Chippenham and Trowbridge via Melksham
Due to a fault with the signalling system between Swindon and Westbury all lines are closed. Disruption is expected until 11:00 03/05.
Train services between Chippenham and Trowbridge via Melksham may be diverted.
Customer Advice
Passengers from Melksham are advised to please use the Customer Help Point or contact National Rail Enquiries on 03457 484 950 detailing the total number of passengers in your party and your intended destination. This will enable us to get suitable replacement transport to you as quickly as possible.

Passengers For Melksham from Westbury and Trowbridge: please travel to Trowbridge where rail replacement transport has been arranged to take you forward to Melksham.

Passengers For Melksham from Swindon and Chippenham: please travel to Chippenham where rail replacement transport has been arranged to take you forward to Melksham.

The issue is on the single line itself.    Pilot working being set up.

Hmmm ... I have a 12:15 meeting in Trowbridge as part of a group with the Unitary Council Leader. Choosing NOT to risk the train this morning.

The 9.10 Melksham to Westbury was cancelled with less than 10 minutes to go. I confess I trudged home and got the car to work (yet again)

Errr

At 19:40 the decision was made to run the train via Melksham as timetabled.

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05 will be terminated at Gloucester.
It will no longer call at Cheltenham Spa.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Train reinstated at 16:49.

Let's see if this one gets reinstated.

Now reinstated, apparently

The 13:15 remained cancelled according to Real Time Trains "This service was cancelled due to a problem with the on-board safety systems (MT)".  A very short notice class 5 train (empty coaching stock) ran from Swindon to Westbury instead, and what had been running up and down as a 2 car has become a 3 car this afternoon on, yes, that re-instated 14:16

I was at the station for every train this morning - with new timetables starting on Sunday, reaching out to customers to make sure they were aware that there are some changes.  Report to follow in separate post.

The 07:37 (07:53 at Melksham) is a key one ... next service not until 10:02 and one of just three out of 17 trains each way (current timetable) that GWR have promised to prioritise.  I was at Melksham stations yesterday when thus train called and there were over 50 passengers from, to or through Melksham.

Classic illustration of the delay caused by road replacement transport in addition to the bus being slower.

As I read this, the 07:43 train (07:53 Melksham, 08:03 Chippenham, 08:19 Swindon) is cancelled because they don't have the right sort of staff to run it.

There's a bus expected at 09:20 from Trowbridge, which will be 09:35 at Melksham and 09:55 at the earliest at Chippenham. Very unlikely to catch the 09:56 to Swindon so the next train will be the 10:11 and get people to Swindon at 10:34. Ironically, that's the bus connecting into the next train from Westbury ...

Thank you to GWR for honouring their promise to lay on a bus if this train is cancelled.   Yesterday there were (look back at notes) between between 50 and 60 passengers using this train.  But I wonder how many of them will still be there for the bus ...

---

Return bus - say - 10:00 from Chippenham in place of the 09:00 train, say 10:35 into Trowbridge rather than 09:19, connection to Westbury at 11:00 rather than 09:26.   Slightly more useful than the bus the other way, as after 09:26 the next train arrival from Swindon is not until 11:47.

Oh for an appropriate hourly train service.  Cancellations would still be regretted, but it would render the need for a practical alternative (which these buses today are not!) unnecessary.

At least these cancellations were announced in good time - unlike two weeks ago when the 8.45 from Swindon was cancelled at 9.05, leaving everyone standing at Melksham wondering what the f*** to do next.

I saw this one coming and caught the 06:11 Swindon to Southampton Central at Melksham that terminated at Westbury, which luckily was as far as I needed to go in any case. The guard said he was expecting to have been with the service all the way - the problem (as usual it seems) was the lack of a driver.

Fortunately by late afternoon the service was running to time again so I was able to get home to Melksham without suffering from bustition or taxidermy or whatever the correct term is.

White Horse Soap Box Derby happening in Westbury tomorrow with 5,000 people estimated to attend, so fingers crossed some kind of service will take place...

We have the Shambles Festival in Melksham - https://www.shamblesfestival.co.uk/festival-info.html .  I don't expect anyone will come by train - put off by the rather brutal problem of there not yet being any trains to get them home after the event finishes. The 22:32 bus to Bath may be interesting.

Cancelled due to crew shortage

14:05 Westbury to Swindon due 14:54
15:10 Swindon to Westbury due 15:56
21:07 Swindon to Westbury due 21:49

Somewhat late in the day the 14:05 and 15:10 were reinstated. 

and the knock-on

Trespassers on the track between Castle Cary and Frome.   The 19:40 ex Weymouth running almost 40 minutes late, with lots of returning passengers (around 50) to Melksham ... lots of folks know me so I have been busy explaining, apologising, and being offered smokes, drinks, and to join in their singsong (which would have caused a further delay if the train staff tried to find out what the horrid noise was). Most people 'resigned' to the problem - just one serious issue of. family gain for the last x31 from Chippenham Station.

20:38 Westbury to Swindon due 21:23
20:38 Westbury to Swindon due 21:23 has been cancelled.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.

21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:15
21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:15 will be cancelled.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07 will be cancelled.

This is due to a fault on this train.

ADVANCE WARNING

GWR's strike day timetable for Saturday 3rd June shows two return trips on the TransWilts.  One in the morning and one in the late afternoon.

I have just heard from GWR that these services will now NOT run.

and  now

I do not know who controls delay attribution on the automated announcements at stations. I was at Salisbury this afternoon where there were several delayed services - some significant, some not so. Every one was stated as 'This is due to industrial action', which I find hard to believe! One such delay on a Portsmouth to Cardiff was only a few minutes due to being held at Laverstock South Junction, yet it was still announced as 'due to industrial action'!

The four services involved have now been removed from journey planners overnight.

Thanks, Bob.   Last night, I updated the Melksham and West Wilts Facebook posts that detailed services on the line over the next few days and I will do a separate "no trains for the rest of the day today or tomorrow" post later in the day.

So ... for West Wilts today (2.6.2023) - six services from Westbury
* an hourly train until 6 p.m. between Westbury and Cardiff
* no trains from Westbury southward to Southampton
* no direct trains to Swindon (change at Bath; Melksham not served)
* no Weymouth trains
* nothing via Taunton
* nothing via Newbury (change at Bath for Reading and London)

... tomorrow - no trains

Looks like it may have changed again and there are Transwilts services today - albeit with an early finish?

From what I can see, the Cardiff service has gone too ... just one train calling at Westbury today in each direction - an excursion from Slough to Kingswear and back (approaching Reading as I write). And according to Real Time Trains, an SWR service from Yeovil terminating there late in the evening.

GWR Twitter saying one thing this morning - GWR Journey planner and National Rail saying another - hopeless.

Depressing - the elements of the rail industry seem to be conspiring with (or is that against?) each other to fail to provide a useable service for their customers.  Not good for any of their reputations, long term business or continued employment.

I fear that may be optimistic.  There is no unit at the platform in Westbury to form the service forward from there - some 15 minutes after it should have left.

 This service is cancelled.
This service was cancelled due to a problem with the on-board safety systems (MT).
RTT https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:L51441/2023-06-04/detailed#allox_id=0  2M05

Now showing as "cancelled throughout" - "This service was cancelled due to a problem with the on-board safety systems (MT)."

At the time of writing, the return service at 09:14 from Swindon is still shown as running.  Also optimistic?

Well is the 08:11 cancelled throughout?  As at 08:43....

Great to see customers being provided with consistent information!  ::)

A five car Westbury to Southampton empty carriage working has been split to provide two carriages for Swindon.  Just about to leave platform 1 at Westbury.

Given the delay the service will be terminated at Chippenham with the return also starting from there.

May not be the end of the story - there is an engineering possession near Thingley which hasn't been lifted yet.  Similar issues at Uffington and on the South Wales line at Hullavington.

Indeed - though I have an element of sympathy for the staff members on the ground who have come back to the trains which have been switched off for a number of days in the sidings and find they won't start up with all systems in place.

Always hard to know how much to flag up a problem while unsure whether it can be fixed or not, and how to percolate it reliably and consistently.  But - agreed - not good for the customers.   The real solution, perhaps, lies in getting train reliability and availability high enough to make these difficult calls into very rare ones.

Good call Bob!

08:11 Warminster to Swindon due 09:03
08:11 Warminster to Swindon due 09:03 was started from Westbury and will be terminated at Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Warminster, Dilton Marsh and Swindon.
It has been delayed at Westbury and is now 30 minutes late.
This is due to a fault on this train.

09:14 Swindon to Westbury due 09:56
09:14 Swindon to Westbury due 09:56 will be started from Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Swindon.
This is due to a fault on this train.

Not in the right topic area, but on the subject of consistent information (ish).
A random example.
15:30 London Paddington to Taunton due 18:03
15:30 London Paddington to Taunton due 18:03 will be reinstated.
It will be terminated at Bristol Temple Meads.
It will no longer call at Nailsea & Backwell, Yatton, Worle, Weston-Super-Mare, Highbridge & Burnham, Bridgwater and Taunton.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

So.
It's now reinstated but not to Taunton. Reinstated from London to Bristol only.
I want to travel to Taunton, but I need to read the additional information because it is NOT reinstated for me.

Misleading information.

With 2M05 sat at Chippenham awaiting its return to Westbury, 1A10 (Weston to London) took wrong line working from Thingley to Wootton Junction

Looks like sensible connections made at Chippenham from Swindon and to Swindon too.

Just for the record ...


I would not anticipate an overcrowding issue.

Northbound gap at Melksham - 14:22 to 21:34,  Southbound gap from 15:22 to 22:36.  Oops.

On the 08:00 this morning towards Swindon - Melksham +10, -4 with about 20 passenger in each carriage (2 car) on departure [44,14] - looks like day trips; hope they are all out for the morning only or coming home late.

Surely with that much notice there must be scope to arrange a bus replacement for at least one of them?

More likely a taxi off Chippenham?

The latter both reinstated around 12:30pm.

EDIT: The first two listed have also been reinstated.

There were on;ly 4 trains mentioned by Graham, so was that all reinstated then with no canx?

It was.   Didn’t see a mention of the 16:35 being put back it but it did run.

Probably not a huge issue - I saw the 2 car Bristol to Weymouth that called at Westbury last night at 21:39 last night and it was heaving even there, so goodness knows how it had been off Bath to Trowbridge.  Today, the 11:45 from Swindon is too late for day trippers - during the middle of the day lull - so I suspect it's not going to be an overcrowding issue.


It seems so; how sad that the warning flags were raised and perhaps put people off travelling out for the day - but that must be a hard call.

JourneyCheck forecasts a 21 minute late arrival into Southampton too, but it was 27 late off Westbury according to Real Time Trains;  9 minutes at Salisbury can be cut, so perhaps under 20 late by Southampton.  So much depends on what else gets in the way.

Curiously, RTT reports both as operating normally.

Not a good morning

If you look closely both trains took over 25 minutes to get between Bradford and Thingley Junctions instead of the usual 12.  That is the time it takes to go up to Bathampton, reverse and come back through Box Tunnel.

I'm impressed by people who read the small print!

Indeed. 2M81 passed Bathampton Junction at 0755, and 2M13 did so at 0818. RTT shows no report at Melksham, and the data feed shown on LiveRail has no report at Thingley Junction either. The latter has a reported time on RTT - is it just filling in the gaps?

Not very much left ....

Down to just 14 late at Melksham, and more chance to recover on the way - likely to be down to single digit minutes by Southampton (pathing allowing)

On time into Southampton!

But ...


Both TransWilts services, disrupted this morning because of problems at Gloucester

Same quartet as last Saturday.  Wonder if they will be reinstated as happened seven days ago?

I share that thought.   But announcing trains as CANCELLED before people head out for the day, leaving a six hour gap in opportunities to get home, is far from clever.    The rail industry is not exactly encouraging people in our parts to use the trains - occasional "oopsie"s understood.   Week after week and one has to wonder ...

But is “might be reinstated, but cancelled for now” achieve any better?

Or not announcing the cancellation until say, they’re sure about 2 hours before deoparture?

Difficult….I’m not sure anyone has come up with a better alternative to give travellers a better experience

Treating the cause rather than the symptoms and employing sufficient staff to ensure these scenarios don't repeatedly occur springs to mind as one solution?

Yep, I would agree ...

And to anyone (from GWR, the DfT, or HM Government who's reading about this little local line and wonder if return trains matter)  ... I got on the 09:10 from Melksham this morning (our first southbound train) with dozens of others ... it's a three car train, and pretty well all the seating bays in the carriage I got into are occupied - quick look around and piece of arithmetic and I would recon we're just shy of 150 passengers.   Earlier rain has now ceased; it may have put a few people off a summer Saturday outing which (judging by typical party composition) is what most people are here for.  Please, Mr GWR, let them get home and happy later in the day.

Same goes for the Devon/Cornwall branches

It is beyond ridiculous that they are not adequately staffed on summer weekends, exactly when demand is likely to be highest.

You are basically wanting staff employed to sit on their haunches when all routes are working full services?

And don't suggest that will never happen. Many, many routes operate full service day in, day out. You can't loan drivers between depots as they won't have route knowledge.

so how will your suggestion work?

I see you're fully aware of the objection you'll raise so you're getting your answer in first.

There are ways of doing it better, and not simply more of the same. 

............sounds like a fair few people are going to have to "sit on their haunches" waiting for road transport to arrive.

Cancellations to services between Swindon and Westbury via Melksham

Due to a shortage of train crew between Westbury and Swindon all lines are closed. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Train services between Swindon and Westbury via Melksham have been cancelled.

Customer Advice
Due to a shortage of train crew, train services between Westbury and Swindon via Melksham have been cancelled.

Road transport has been ordered to cover intermediate stations, however customers are advised to travel to Bath and change where possible.

Melksham is being served by road transport.

Additional Information
Due to a shortage of train crew, train services between Westbury and Swindon via Melksham have been cancelled.
Road transport has been ordered to cover intermediate stations, however customers are advised to travel to Bath and change where possible.

 https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/23596403.swindon-great-western-railway-trains-hit-staff-issues/ (https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/23596403.swindon-great-western-railway-trains-hit-staff-issues/)

Do we know how many passenger train crew sign this route?

Wellllll ... I will on the 19:40 Weymouth to Swindon. NOT showing as disrupted at the moment. Dozens of passengers this morning from Melksham and loads more from Swindon and Chippenham to all sort of stations south of Melksham - most but not all to Weymouth.  The train is NOT flagged up on Jouneychac as a none-runner.   

As I write, enjoying a pint and food in a pub in Weymouth.  Watch this space to see if it turns out
1. That the train runs - happy days
2. That the train does NOT run and I turn into a malleable drunk
3. I get stroppy, pointing out that GWR should have enough staff to routinely run the contracted timetable.

Good luck Graham - Twitter is saying all lines closed between Swindon and Westbury but hopefully Option 1 works out for you.

You may well get to Westbury, but.....

Left Weymouth on time according to National Rail

I can confirm that.  I'm on it  :D

There is evidence it's making all its normal calls, other evidence that makes me wonder it's skipping Melksham, and the more general evidence that the line is closed and it will petre out at Westbury.  I am not a betting person and unless offered exceptionally good odds I would not place a bet on what will happen.  I am using words like "probably" and phrases like "I think" when I speak with people.    Newcomers not helped by a change of platform at Weymouth which they did not find re-assuring,

20:32 Westbury to Swindon due 21:15
An additional train service has been planned to operate as shown 20:32 Westbury to Swindon due 21:15.

Stopping Trowbridge, Melksham, Chippenham, Swindon......guessing thats the one you're on?

Errr ... no.   Now 20:45 and we've just left Yeovil Pen Mill after waiting there for an SWR service off the line from Castle Cary.   Been watching two seagulls on the platform - not sure if they were fighting or it was some sort of courtship ritual, but they were really going at each other.  As it was YPM, either explanation would be likely if they were human.

Interesting comment posted to the above story.

According to NR the one you're on will stop at Melksham and go on to Swindon.

There's also a 2213 Swindon to Westbury listed calling Melksham at 2238

According to Real Time Trains, the 19.40 from Weymouth arrived at Melksham at 21.35 (one minute late).

Yep ... it DID run through to Swindon, calling at Melksham (in spite of that being missing from the in-train display) and Chippenham on the way.

84 on board ex Trowbridge, 27 off and 6 on at Melksham - so that's 90/33 passengers.  The train was returning as the 22:13 Swindon to Westbury and it's possible it will be busier than usual on that run as it's ideally timed for the end of the Pride event in Chippenham today, and advertised on their Facebook page

Could have done without the "closed throughout the evening" announcement which was picked up by various of the people with us in Weymouth and caused some consternation. ....

09:35 Chippenham to Westbury due 10:04

09:35 Chippenham to Westbury due 10:04 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

The first Sunday train from Melksham to Swindon is a bus to Chippenham at 08:25 this morning.  Then






Sadly, this does not reflect the "we have got more crews trained on the line and it should be better this year" which I recall hearing from [senior manager - name redacted].   Thank goodness the bus is running - that early "train" is a key service, but for a leisure day out by train you're now looking at an afternoon out with a first train at 11:20 northbound and 12:07 (if that time is to be trusted) southbound.  But yet perhaps it is better - still very bad compare to what it was, just not very, very bad.

From yesterday's trains that did run:

08:45 Swindon to Weymouth has just arrived in Weymouth
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/wr20230617_01.jpg)

19:40 Weymouth to Swindon has just arrived in Melksham
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/wr20230617_02.jpg)

I also have pictures on the train when it was down in Dorset on its way to Weymouth showing it full - an educated estimate of 350 people on board.  On the return journey it was very lively indeed from Weymouth as far as Yeovil; raw numbers not as high on to Chippenham and Swindon as some folks had chosen to travel back earlier and change at Bath Spa.

Marketing wise?   Numbers spot on.  Without a longer train, lots more passengers would cause a loss of product quality.  And there's a significant risk that needs to be managed of the service failing to run - as (for example) it fair to run on 3rd June - thank goodness we had good notice and did not promote.  Now keeping a controlled watch in the summer and liaising with friends in Chippenham, Swindon, and West Wilts.

Thank you, yes.   Great minds were thinking alike there ... I was writing rather longer having been on the ground and seeing the hundreds of people using the services that were left yesterday.  We could do so much more if the service was reliable ...

Words fail me ...

Cancellations to services between Westbury and Swindon via Melksham

Due to a shortage of train crew between Swindon and Westbury all lines are blocked. Disruption is expected until 19:30 18/06.

Train services between Westbury and Swindon via Melksham have been cancelled.

Customer Advice
Due to a shortage of train crew, services between Westbury and Swindon via Melksham have been cancelled until 19:00. Road transport has been requested. We will provide updates as to when and where this will run from.

And this is a correct delay - thank you GWR - at the end of an awful weekend.

Around 150 people on the outbound train when it left Melksham for Weymouth this morning - this could be interesting. 

Updated at 11:21

Reviewing yesterday after the event ... yes, the 19:40 Weymouth to Swindon was restored to run its full route throughout.  Many thanks to those who made it possible.  Have to question (but I have no answer) at what stage a train is flagged as cancelled / partially cancelled when in reality there is some doubt - just "being worked on" to see how rotas can be moved around. Around 70 passenger on the train as it left Trowbridge a handful of minutes late, and a further few minutes lost at Bradford Junction as we awaited the line to Thingley Junction to be cleared by a freight train ahead of us.

Not really an "update and amendment log" thing, but the loadings of the 08:45 Swindon -> Weymouth and the 19:40 Weymouth -> Swindon have differed metrics.  Very much a strong core of passengers making the day trip both ways, but an equally strong set of metrics using the trains in just one direction.  On outbound people head in different directions from Trowbridge and Westbury, as well as going to Weymouth, and on the return there are substantial flows - larger ones - rejoining at Westbury and Trowbridge, but far fewer through passengers from Weymouth all the way to Chippenham and Swindon, with some day trippers preferring a change at Bath Spa to a 10 p.m. arrival home with the kids.

From Yeovil Pen Mill to Weymouth, full to capacity and we need to keep limiting promotion of "Day out in Weymouth" to keep it manageable - "a few standing" is fine and that's what we have;  there are, however, still a few centre seats still available so "almost full" rather than "full".  On the return, the rear coach is crammed off Weymouth and the extra people above the morning load are well lubricated.  But the front coach is very, very much more comfortable.

Not sure what that was about - but Realtimetrains shows it arriving at Dilton Marsh three quarters of a minute AFTER it is was shown as having departed!

20:38 Westbury to Swindon due 21:23

20:38 Westbury to Swindon due 21:23 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:15

21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:15 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

13:15 Swindon to Westbury is diverting via Box, not calling at Melksham.

Points problem at Bradford Junction appears to be detaining a Castle Cary bound empty stock move, and this is blocking a Wootton Bassett bound stone train from entering the single line.

Platforms filling up at Westbury as nothing can head for Bristol until the freight train moves…

And unhelpfully, the live departures for Melksham (link at top of page) are still showing the 13:40 to Westbury expected at 13:46 (this at 13:54), whilst the train is sitting at Bathampton Junction  :-\

Left Westbury 26 minutes late.

At the bus meeting I was at in Trowbridge this morning (I went by bus!), talk was of the importance of accurate information ....

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08 will be starting late from Westbury.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

Problems on the single line again today.

The 07:45 from Westbury was diverted and did not call at Melksham.

Pilot working has now been set up but the 08:45 from Swindon was delayed by nearly an hour while that was put in place.  It left Swindon 15 minutes late, was half an hour late at Chippenham and then an hour behind time at Bradford Junction.

And problem again today.  It feels there's something on most days ...

2

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08 has been delayed at Westbury and is now 37 minutes late.
This is due to this train being late from the depot.

.....similar delay advised on the return trip.

Getting familiar isn't it?

(https://mbob.co.uk/rforum/cpmcan.jpg)

I got caught up in this. Arrived at WSB in time to get the 14:19 to Mkm, only to see it was cancelled because the driver failed to show up. Despite valiant efforts on the part of platform staff to find me and 2 others a taxi to Melksham, it was school run time and no taxis were to be had. We were assured the 16:23 would run on time. 16:23:30 came and I could see the train still sat away in the distance in the yard at Westbury showing red running lights (they probably have another name, but you know what I mean - the ones that turn white when it's good to go). In the far opposite distance a figure in an orange jacket ambled towards the distant loco - a driver! Half an hour later it trundled into Platform 1 to the accompaniment of an ironic round of applause from some now fractious would-be passengers. By 5:19 I was on my way back to Melksham, a mere three hours after arriving at Westbury station.

…and Delay Repay doesn’t even start to cover it.

A very interesting illustration of how things can go wrong and the effect of cancelling a single service on a line with an already poor service.

The staff at Westbury have to (and do) make valiant efforts far too often and full credit to them for this.  However, they [don't/can't] offer practical alternatives which would have got you home quicker.  Such an important topic I have split it off into a separate thread at http://www.passenger.chat/27635

The other answer to shorter delays in the case of a cancellation is, of course, to run the service at the hourly frequency it should be and not at the poor level it's currently running at.  But then, is there any precedent for asking for a better and more appropriate service, and actually getting it?

22:12 Swindon to Westbury due 22:54

22:12 Swindon to Westbury due 22:54 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.


......sorry just noticed that's already been posted!

Don't worry - easy to miss a post in the sad flurry we have in this thread.

Interesting that that same train - the 19:40 Weymouth to Swindon (reverse working of the train I logged with around 150 on it at Melksham this morning) is still shown as running throughout.

So good they cancelled it twice.   ;D

Looks like a Gloucester based guard is working it covering a Westbury diagram from Westbury to Swindon and is at the end of their day and unable to go back to Westbury with it. 

That particular guard is working parts of three different diagrams from three different depots today.  A good example of the elastic band at full stretch again!

While frustrating to lose the final service cancelled the post above does show the efforts that are made to cover things with the resources available.  Whether there should be greater resources available is, of course, a whole different question.

Little doubt of the effort made. Whether the tools (Resources) are enough and rules (applied methods) are right and making best use of those resources, I don't know either.    I can't help wondering if the whole setup has become over complex to squeeze the ultimate out of every resource when everything is working exactly as it should, but when the slightest thing goes wrong, the ripples of problems spread far further and wider than they would if the system as a whole wasn't so complex and running so close to its limits.

21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58
21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to industrial action.

22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:11
22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:11 will be cancelled.
This is due to industrial action.

For clarity of the message you relay there, Bob - it remains cancelled as far as passengers at stations like Melksham are concerned, loosing their southbound peak hours, get-to-work service.   First train via Trowbridge now leaves at 09:10.

I met one of our well established local train users in the Market Place half an hour ago, and she was telling me that these days she catches a bus on the start of her journeys, which are often long distance, because of the lack of reliability in the local service and the danger of her missing an ongoing reservation if it's cancelled.  Lack of reliability has driven her away, you'll note - not lack of decent frequency.

So that's 5 out of 18 cancelled - 72.2% running versus a 98% minimum target.

(Unfortunately) Forewarned is forearmed.....

Wed, 5 July 17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06
05/07/23 17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be terminated at Swindon.

It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury.

This is due to industrial action.

Good to see that announced ahead of time.  The have added an extra Westbury to Salisbury train running in its path

Announced today

Oops - missed one

17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25
17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25 will be cancelled.

This is due to a shortage of train crew.

And with the industrial action concluding tonight, for tomorrow we have ...

10:58 Weymouth to Swindon due 13:24
10:58 Weymouth to Swindon due 13:24 will be terminated at Westbury.

It will no longer call at Trowbridge, Melksham, Chippenham and Swindon.
This is due to a shortage of train crew




13:42 Swindon to Weymouth due 15:57
13:42 Swindon to Weymouth due 15:57 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

14:21 Frome to Swindon due 15:34
14:21 Frome to Swindon due 15:34 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

15:44 Swindon to Frome due 16:38
15:44 Swindon to Frome due 16:38 will be started from Westbury.

It will no longer call at Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Will be formed of 2 coaches instead of 3.

18:27 Frome to Swindon due 19:33
18:27 Frome to Swindon due 19:33 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

19:42 Swindon to Westbury due 20:25
19:42 Swindon to Westbury due 20:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

......a grim day for Transwilts.

......another grim day for Transwilts.

For the record, both trains were reinstated to run as scheduled (message went out just after 10:00 this morning).

Reinstated just after 11:00, to run as booked (although with a ten minute delay anticipated at Westbury “due to a shortage of train crew”).

From what I can gather, said tree may not even be on our line ...

It isn’t and is causing all kinds of problems on the Berks and Hants.

Spare a thought for those who had the misfortune to travel on the 17.03 Paddington to Penzance currently running a whopping 194 minutes late!

The 16.35 Paddington to Plymouth terminated at Westbury 148 minutes late.

Spare a thought for the driver who saw it fall in front of the train! 

To be clear - that is a tree blocking a different railway line ... but rather par for the course (or is that the line).

Did they manage to stop in time?

Whereabouts did it happen?

Lavington on the Berks & Hants line to the west of Pewsey.

Tree damaged the train but the service was able to continue to Westbury where it was terminated.

Sets then went empty to Stoke Gifford.

1703 Paddington to Plymouth was turned at Woodborough Loop.

WoE services on divert, it’s about time GWR got Melksham added to the IET database so they can make the additional stops….. unlikely as Hitachi charge a fortune to amend the database, at least a six figure sum.

There's a stretch there that seems to be especially prone to this. - http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/mirror/R082011_110407_Lavington.pdf

Excellent - waited and so it should at that time of night / last train

Spot on, again.

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07 will be delayed at Romsey.

This is due to a points failure.

It wasn't (delayed there) in the end, but never mind.  About 5 minutes late at Melksham, +6 -2 passengers, missed the very tight and unofficial connection to Bristol (which in any case was cancelled) and so here I am in Bristol - shock, horror, about 15 minutes after I hoped to be.

Contrast the effect of a cancellation on a line with a frequent service - quarter of an hour delay - with the effect of a cancellation on a poor / infrequent service.  Had the 06:36 not been running, next southbound train would not have left until 09:10 - that's half an hour in the future still, and here I am sitting on a bench on College Green.

I have just been to the Transport Focus meeting in Bristol.  And the one thing they keep coming up with is that the key thing the passenger want is reliability.   We don't have it ... next train 2 hours after the one I had planned ...

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05 will be started from Swindon.

It will no longer call at Westbury, Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

So that's a gap from Swindon from 15:14 to 20:13, with two services in succession cancelled including the 17:36 which is a "priority" service that's the busiest southbound of the day and every effort is made to run it.   If it was very rare for us to have to report cancellations, or if there was an exceptional ongoing reason (for example - the line's flooded) then it might be easier to accept and explain to passengers.

Regulars on the line are now measuring what proportion of their fares they get refunded through delay / repay over the weeks, and it is significant.  If all passengers who could claim did so every time, would the railway financed be even more of a mess?

Put me in mind that on the day of the meeting Transport Focus were tweeting about Highways undertaking to ensure road disruption was cleared within a 2 hour horizon as there was otherwise a risk of people heading to Bristol Airport by car and missing flights - and coupling that with the decision quite a few years ago to... was it pull the railway's local mobile operations manager in from their workstation at Bath Spa to the likes of Parkway, resulting in additional disruption when they needed to travel to site when there were issues. I may have that completely wrong, it's hardly a role that is public facing despite its importance.

Also thinking of a particularly galling two hour delay at the start of a long journey early one Saturday morning at Bath while the railway found someone to take responsibility for the decision that a lorry hadn't structurally clouted the arch that leads to the area behind Bath Spa Station. (The vehicle had certainly clouted the masonry but lets say that the masonry wasn't particularly concerned...)

Mark

Transport Focus covers road these days - adde to their portfolio when they changed from "Passenger Focus".   And during the meeting they made specific reference to road delays to Bristol Airprort too.

I think it was Marcus Jones of Network Rail who was telling us of changes in how repairs to (?) points and signals were prioritised - or not - at the moment and that a points failure just outside Penzance was given the same priority as a points failure just outside Paddington, whereas that's changing so that there will in future be more priority on busier places.    On the face of it, sounds like good news for the Thames Valley threat about ongoing problems, and yet I worry that problem where there are relief and main lines don't lead to a total stoppage of traffic, whereas a point out at Penzance ....

And I'll really worry if point and signalling issues between Chippenham and Trowbridge take even longer to fix

I understood the thought behind prioritising the response to infrastructure failures but I didn't see the relevance of the particular example quoted.  The same group of technicians is hardly going to have to decide whether to go to Paddington or Penzance to fix something.  Unless of course there are plans to centralise maintenance crews?

No services on the single line due to today’s industrial action but might have been problematic anyway.  Axle counter failures led to pilot working for a few freight services using the line.

More and more, I get the feeling that Delay Repay is not enough.  What passengers want is the ability to get home at the time tha they had planned, or close to it, reliably and with little fuss or worry.  Getting their fare back is no compensation for being home on the next train 110 minutes later!

It looks like, today at least, their wish has been granted.  Both services were reinstated in full just after 7.15 this morning.

Can't disagree, Graham - One needs a taxi substitute if that would get you back earlier than the next train would

Might look like an obscure service - almost 10 users last week when I used it at Melksham (06:36) and those and not typically optional / leisure users.   Noting that JourneyCheck does not mention any alternatives; next train 09:10.   An example of why so many people do not (yet?) use the train here - passenger journeys 75k per annum, when it should be 175k - so more than double what it is based on analysis of local catchment and comparison with otherwise - like towns.

The rail industry and government (GWR, NR, DfT, LTA) should be ashamed of this sort of thing.  See the thread elsewhere ( http://www.passenger.chat/27697 for transport scholars) in which people tell of why they do NOT use Melksham Station.

No problem at that time on a Monday.  Concern if it was the Saturday train coming up from Weymouth

Mon, 31 July 05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07

Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07 will be terminated at Westbury.

It will no longer call at Dilton Marsh, Warminster, Salisbury, Romsey and Southampton Central.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

So that's a gap from 09:46 to 14:19 in trains from Westbury to Swindon.  Pretty awful on a line on which an appropriate service would be hourly.

Apparently now it's down to a train fault!

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.

What a way to run (or not run) a railway.

13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57

13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 will be cancelled.

This is due to a shortage of train crew.

12:07 Westbury to Swindon due 12:53
12:07 Westbury to Swindon due 12:53 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

13:10 Swindon to Westbury due 13:53
13:10 Swindon to Westbury due 13:53 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

OK - we can manage the day trip to Weymouth as its "only" those two lost.  But this summer is not only about having great days out, but also about risks assessments ahead of time and managing issues in the lead up, on the morning, and during the day.

Have you seen the Amber weather warning now issued by the Met Office Grahame?

Yep, and I have been tracking the weather forecast for Weymouth.  Probable rain before we arrive - 25% chance thereafter in each hour.  There's some inside things to do there - at least there were a long time ago when I was last there; that was many weeks ago before Saturdays were being wiped out by Industrial Action.  Wind will be "refreshing" - need to watch for sand blowing around ...

Straight onto the open-top bus for Portland light surely?

Mark

Probably best to leave the mankini at home today.

There's a handful of "bucket and spade" types on the train ... but mostly more mature and more warmly dressed types. There are some drinking out of cans which I suspect contain sense-modifying beverages, and I can't help noticing the big group of young ladies around me who are clearly going to need to find somewhere indoors if they are to keep warm, and look like they're going to a fancy dress (camouflage) event.   All in all, perhaps 40% occupancy on the train now, approaching Maiden Newton.


It *does* have a closed-bottom ...

I'm hoping the same can be said for the mankini!  ;)

16:35 Westbury to Swindon due 17:17
16:35 Westbury to Swindon due 17:17 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25
17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Graham's speechless!

Unusual..... ???

Here we don't go again

That's the same out & back service.

Indeed.

From an operation viewpoint, it's just one trip cancellation.
From a customer viewpoint, it's two services cancelled.

Sometimes, we see the same thing, but from a different perspective.

I'm out west for the day and from Bristol I have a train back at 15:30 and then nothing until 18:15.  The two in between are lost at 15:41 (close to 15:30, I admit) and 17:30.   There's a 16:30 that a joined up public transport network could offer - change at Bath Spa onto the b-u-s. 

Around 60 people (I kid you not) got off the 08:38 Melksham to Swindon this morning, and there must have been almost that number waiting to go back on the return service.  Talking with a regular passenger, he was planning to return on the 17:44 ... until he learned of it being cancelled. 

He also reports the 22:30 from Swindon that started at the end of May is already into double figures (good) and that it's being held for the London connection at Swindon on a regular basis (good, though it really should not be needed if the London trains were on time).

I was reminded of the old picture "passenger view" and "DfT view" from years back this morning:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/yourview.jpg)

The top two pictures were taken within 2 minutes of each other - one as the train waited and the second a couple of minutes earlier just after it arrived.

The lower two pictures are on my onward train on the South Cotswold line, and on Portsmouth->Cardiff yesterday evening.

I happened to be back to connect into that at Chippenham (from Bristol) ... four passengers to Melksham, all got off and 4 more got on there.  Bus left Chippenham about 5 minutes late waiting for the 18:07 train which arrived at 18:12 and (yes) the delay got extra custom.  Not a lot of people but we know that there's an order of magnitude shrinkage of traffic when the "train" gets roaded.

From Rail Advent (https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2023/08/no-boards-on-board-gwrs-services-to-newquay-surfing-festival.html)


Very nice, but when will you (GWR) be running the trains in your regular committed timetable?  The passengers to Newquay for Boardmasters will be here this week and gone next week, but your customers from where I write in Wiltshire are here this week, next week, and the week after.  You need to look after your loyal customer base.

I note the Boardmasters trains are advertised as "reservations mandatory"......I wonder how that will be enforced?

With a bit of flex I should imagine.

Probably need cable rather than flex with those numbers!

High voltage cable perhaps (live, of course)!

17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20

17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20 will be starting late from Swindon.

This is due to a safety inspection of the track.

13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57
13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 will be cancelled.
This is due to urgent repairs to the track.

14:19 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01
14:19 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01 will be diverted between Trowbridge and Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Melksham.
It will be delayed due to the diversion and is expected to be 10 minutes late.
This is due to urgent repairs to the track.

15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:59
15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:59 will be diverted between Chippenham and Trowbridge.
It will no longer call at Melksham.
It will be delayed due to the diversion and is expected to be 7 minutes late.
This is due to urgent repairs to the track.


16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08 will be cancelled.
This is due to urgent repairs to the track.

17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20
17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20 will be cancelled.
This is due to urgent repairs to the track.

Re-instated though running late - MUCH better

16:35 Westbury to Swindon due 17:17
16:35 Westbury to Swindon due 17:17 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25
17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

That will be interesting for any of the 35 people who joined the opposite working at 09:10 at Melksham this morning on the way to Weymouth.   I think there is a train half an hour later from Weymouth to Westbury - hope GWR gave a good supply of buses there!

And it wasn’t as a result of the driver overtime ban as the train ran ECS to Westbury. Couple this with the 17:35 being canned meant it wasn’t the best of evenings on the Heart of Wessex line.

09:14 Swindon to Westbury due 09:56
09:14 Swindon to Westbury due 09:56 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

10:46 Westbury to Swindon due 11:31
10:46 Westbury to Swindon due 11:31 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

11:42 Swindon to Weymouth due 14:01
11:42 Swindon to Weymouth due 14:01 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

A vaguely philosophical, or possibly unnecessarily pedantic, question; might a majority of the aforementioned cancellations be better described as an absence of train crew?

Certainly the word "shortage" makes it feel (to me, anyway) that the reasons are technical in nature and it dumbs down the severe and ongoing issues we have, and the utterly heartbreaking effect of customers (or, rather, on customers and the potential customer base) and those of us who want to befriend the railways and foster their success.  How on earth can we motivate ourselves, and ask our friends and contacts to trust our advocacy of rail, when the service provided leaks like a colander?

Having missed the last "Meet the Manager" due to work commitments, were these issues and the subject of crew "shortage" on the agenda, and what was Mark Hopwood's response?

Certainly feels like it's the #1 issue just now (not just on the Transwilts), whether induced by industrial action or simply a failure of the TOC to recruit and retain enough staff to fulfil their commitments.

DfT won’t authorise any increase in base personnel number

Thanks - for how long has that been the case?

Since the pandemic, as far as I know

These three questions would have pretty much covered it if work commitments and apathy from forum members had not given Mark a very easy time of it.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=27702.0

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=27700.0

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=27703.0

I have "liked" that but will suggest a step further - should members post follow up questions there, I would be happy to bring them to the attention of Mark and his team and invite further comment from him should he wish.

Some of the topics are, perhaps, more for the DfT rather than GWR to answer, and earlier this month we invited Mark Harper, the Secretary of State for Transport, to join us in a similar session.  I will let members know if and when I hear back; if I don't hear back, the moderator team will decide whether to chase up.

A responsible forum wouldn't put Mark in a position where he is being asked to comment on the requirements of his paymasters, IMHO

I would agree, and indeed Mark (Hopwood, I think you mean) has already clarified that some of the issues raised are those required by his paymaster.   Our problem there is that we talk to GWR who talk with the DfT and until the questions are asked we can only make an educated guess as to where one responsibility ends and another begins, so we do need to ask the questions which may fall into either area to understand where that interface line is

In the case of asking Mark (Harper) should we have the opportunity, there is a subtle difference as he's part of the government with a shared cabinet responsibility and so we can reasonably ask him questions where HM Treasury rather than DfT are setting and running the systems.

The case of two Marks! - yes, I meant Mr Hopwood.

And I agree that Mark harper would be game for any questions aimed at HMG, regardless of department for the reason you give.

Given that many of these requirements have only evolved post pandemic, it's perfectly reasonable and responsible to ask him about why his business didn't have adequate staffing levels beforehand in order that they didn't have to rely on overtime to sustain the service and why issues around Sunday working etc weren't resolved prior to this - GWR had years to do this.

Being scrutinised and having to answer tricky questions goes with the lofty position as MD of GWR, and very generous salary.

18:27 Frome to Swindon due 19:33
18:27 Frome to Swindon due 19:33 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

19:42 Swindon to Westbury due 20:25
19:42 Swindon to Westbury due 20:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

And he was sat logged in on the forum and ready to face them.  Just a shame that none were asked.

They could have been included in the original set of questions by the Mods team - so who really chickened out?

If you include the additional questions that were emailed to Mark and were answered and posted afterwards, we did not exclude any member questions.   If you had questions you wanted answer Chris, but didn't put them though us, were you not one of the ones who chickened out  ;) ?

Not me Graham, I'm  happy with those that were asked. Seems other members aren't - & could have asked questions anonymously

Last nights up sleeper being routed via Melksham this morning.
Hope it doesn't delay the normal regular services!

I have read through the numerous responses to my question and in summary the answer seems to be "No" - thanks all!  :)

09:46 Westbury to Swindon due 10:34
09:46 Westbury to Swindon due 10:34 will be cancelled.
This is due to train crew being delayed.

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47
11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47 will be cancelled.
This is due to train crew being delayed.

But the two evening trains have been re-instated (or at least no longer shown as cancelled on JourneyCheck)

How are people supposed to plan and implements their days with this sort of thing going on?

Well ... I've heard back from passengers who went to Weymouth for a family day out ... and it would appear that customer care was not in place ... later train as expected, but then long wait at Westbury for taxis giving a compound lateness of 90 minutes.  And with information and planning along the way that left the passengers feeling stressed, but also complimentary about the operational staff they met along the way.

06:11 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07

06:11 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07 will be started from Trowbridge.
It will no longer call at Swindon, Chippenham and Melksham.

It will be delayed at Trowbridge and is expected to be 5 minutes late.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Looking at Real Time Trains, this service was supposed to appear out of thin air at Swindon - no ECS showing that I could see, and not starting back from Gloucester as it usually does because of planned engineering.  A Trowbridge start indicates it came down from Bristol to enter service there;  should have doubled back at Swindon if GWR provided the service to plan, or Chippenham if they were short on time.  As it is, first southbound train at Melksham now at 09:10 rather than 06:36

Looks like a planning error.  The sort of thing that has always happened from time to time, but is increasingly common at the moment due to the general shambles the industry is in.

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08 will be starting late from Westbury.
This is due to a broken down train earlier today.

09:52 Westbury to Swindon due 10:36
09:52 Westbury to Swindon due 10:36 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.

11:04 Swindon to Westbury due 11:48
11:04 Swindon to Westbury due 11:48 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

The 09:10 at Melksham this morning (the Weymouth train) turned up with 2 carriages not 3.  Full and standing ... I have exact figures to follow.   Not sure what's happened to GWR's promise of a three car on this one; may seem a small issue in the big picture, but there are hundreds of people from Swindon, Chippenham and Melksham looking for a pleasant train ride for a day at. the seaside and many are new or newly returned to rail.

The blogger 'IansVisits' was bitten by a three carriage train from Waterloo followed by a... missed connection at Salisbury. He will have caught the 7:10  Exeter train from Waterloo, 3 carriages, which actually got going at 7:29, perhaps everyone knows it has a 20 minute wait at Salisbury.

Its Realtime trains trace looks odd, because once it neared Salisbury it was recorded as simultaneously east of Tunnel Junction (with the Warminster connection occupying the platform ahead of it at Salisbury) and also at Tisbury loop - having called at Salisbury and gained additional 3 carriages (at the point at which the overcrowding from Waterloo will have likely eased).

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:L21693/2023-08-19/detailed#allox_id=0

Ian then waited 40 minutes or so and presumably caught the 09:45 from Salisbury to Cardiff, running slightly late, but not quite late enough to afford a connection from the 9:50 Exeter train close behind it. Ian would have arrived at  Warminster at 10:09 and, until he saw the length of the bus queues, might have ruefully pondered on the attractions of Warminster's one through train of the day from Waterloo, the 08:50 departure, which though it also had only three carriages, left on time and remained so throughout. Indeed, he might have admired it from his vantage point in the queue for buses  as it called at the station at 10:49.

It'll be interesting to hear how his return journey goes.

Mark

Update, the Waterloo - Warminster through train ran full and standing:

https://twitter.com/msolwilliams/status/1692821404255719713

Mark

The 12:07 Westbury to Swindon left at 12:46 ... "train late from depot".  I was catching it at Trowbridge ... story to be written up this evening.  Only getting as far as Chippenham when I left it at Melksham - by that time 41 minutes late. 23 passenger on from Trowbridge, 3 off at Melksham and a further 14 joined.

16:35 Westbury to Swindon due 17:17
16:35 Westbury to Swindon due 17:17 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25
17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Selective Door opening not working / available then.  All doors can open at Yetminster.

08:11 Warminster to Swindon due 09:03
08:11 Warminster to Swindon due 09:03 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

09:14 Swindon to Westbury due 09:56
09:14 Swindon to Westbury due 09:56 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

10:46 Westbury to Swindon due 11:31
10:46 Westbury to Swindon due 11:31 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

11:42 Swindon to Weymouth due 14:01
11:42 Swindon to Weymouth due 14:01 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

etc ...

oh geeze ...

Here we are - what GWR advertise as Trowbridge to Melksham the weekend ...

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/muchone20230819.jpg)

Top line showing what has run, what has been cancelled so far ... bottom line, we are waiting to see.

9 trains scheduled so far. 4 cancelled, 4 ran more or less to schedule, and 1 ran 40 minutes late and only as far as Chippenham.

I can tell you about that delayed and truncated one.    I arrived at Trowbridge Station at 12:00 to catch the train if it was running, or to walk up to Trinity Church to catch the 12:09 bus if it wasn't.  Train showing "on time".  But then as it was due, it slipped a couple of minutes.  Then the board flagged up "correction" and the 12:18 (Cardiff, I recall) moved to 1st train and the Swindon marked "delayed".  Way too late to catch the 12:09 bus - ah well, these things happen short term.

But then after a wait - about 12:25, someone asked at the ticket counter and the clerk there looked it up and told us that the train to form the service was coming down to Westbury on the back of another service, and it would be about half an hour late by the time the train reached us.   The clerk was asked why we weren't too earlier, but we were told that the clerk had only just heard about the delay.   Asked why there hadn't been earlier advise  so that we could catch the bus, we we told that the clerks know nothing about the buses (I wonder if the ticket office staff when moved to customers assistance roles will actually have the sort of useful customer information that was lacking yesterday)

"Delayed" switched to "Expected 12:44"

A few minutes later (12:30),  the (announced as) 2 car but actually 4 car Salisbury train stopped on its way to Westbury. 2 cars detached 12:36 to 12:46 there - eventually we left Trowbridge at 12:53, back into Melksham at 13:04.

23 passenger on board from Trowbridge. 3 off at Melksham and an extra 14 joined.  So that's 37/17 the way we used to log it - 37 passengers using the train of whom 17 were Melksham specific.  How much of that was effected by the delay and previous train cancellation?   

I don't know, but during the wait I did meet a family of four who had gone to the station for the 09:58 train with prepurchased tickets for a day out in Oxford, "via Swindon".  They were already disappointed at having lost a couple of hours; I suggested they could change at Bath but (no) their tickets said via Swindon; their English was not good and I suspect they're guests from Ukraine.  When the board changed from "Swindon" to "Chippenham" as the destination, they near-panicked.  I suggested that they get the next train and change at Bath or Chippenham; they went to ask at the ticket office and I didn't see them again - they may have gone via Bath, they may have given up their day trip - they certainly weren't on the service via Melksham.

Edit to add - for the archive record - there is no industrial action on GWR this weekend.

Emergency services dealing with an incident at Castle Cary, blocking all lines.
From GWR. Journey Check
Swindon to Weymouth cancelled. Weymouth to Swindon held at Pen Mill
Seems to involve 1003 Paddington to Penzance.

Thank you for that update.  We'll learn more in coming hours.  These earliest indications suggest to me that this may be the sort of thing that Journey Check is really for, and is the sort of thing which is perfectly reasonable to cause disruption. A different category to "not enough staff" or "not enough working trains".

Person reportedly struck just past the station but currently believed to have survived.

With that amount of time delay for those on board, 'at least' it was a 10 car, rather than a 5 car.
Driver must have been badly shaken.

Apologies, mods please move (thank you)

(Back to) logging the TransWilts - the Weymouth to Swindon dragged in at 14:55 - two and a quarter hours late and terminated.  The next train to Swindon (actually the first to run today?) left at 14:45 so anyone who had joined the Swindon train at Yeovil Pen Mill or south thereof for Melksham or north thereof ...

20:38 Westbury to Swindon due 21:23
20:38 Westbury to Swindon due 21:23 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:15
21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:15 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

So to complete that Trowbridge to Melksham log for a weekend without industrial action
* 7 ran more or less on time
* 6 were cancelled
* 1 was 40 minutes late

It feels like we are back to the bad old days where the forum was set up as a protest group and not a partnership,

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/muchtwo20230819.jpg)

06:11 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07 will be started from Trowbridge.

It will no longer call at Swindon, Chippenham and Melksham.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

Yet real time trains says


Not sure what to believe.

Yes, seriously, TransWilts board.  Train runni,ng this week Salisbury - Westbury - Swindon (reverse), Bristol Parkway (reverse), Gloucester (reverse), Cheltenham Spa and Worcester Shrub Hill.

Melksham to Bristol Parkway journeys via Swindon are interesting.  The fastest journey is almost always via Swindon but it is not a route for which tickets are sold. 

Edit - the GWR booking engine does offer you a journey from Melksham on this train (at 07:21), with 2 changes (Chippenham and Bristol Parkway) and an 08:43 arrival at Bristol Parkway.     But if you had stayed on the same train you would have arrived at Bristol Parkway at 08:20.   

 AIUI, Tickets are always valid on through  trains even if the route is not normally accepted

Wouldn’t apply in this case necessarily but reminds me of the trains to Pembroke Dock.  Passengers reserve a facing seat only to discover at Swansea that it reverses so they move seats.  Then discover they have to shift again when it gets to Carmarthen.

Not sure to what you are referring to here?

Routing on "Any Permitted" always includes through trains - so an "Any Permitted Melksham to Bristol Parkway" would be valid on the 07:21 via Swindon, arriving 08:20.  But there isn't an "any permitted" fare - just a "via Bath Spa" one so the GWR journey planner offer you the 07:21, change at Chippenham and Bristol Temple Meads and arriving Bristol Parkway at 08:43

Of course, if you want to go to Bristol Parkway you can buy any any permitted ticket to Severn Tunnel Junction and get off short. That's valid via Swindon and usually involves a change there - and is usually faster than via Bath Spa.

06:11 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07 will be started from Trowbridge.

It will no longer call at Swindon, Chippenham and Melksham.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

This is *only* true if the through train is shown in the published timetable, not just as a temporary add owing to railworks. I(t doesn't suddenly become true owing to those - it would nneed to be permitted by the operator specifically for the duration

Maybe, Chris - we could argue as to what is a "published timetable" these days, but in any case here the problem is the lack of an "any permitted" ticket on what is consistently the fastest route.

What a massive un-surprise. It would seem that with the Swindon to Gloucester line closed, GWR have put in a temporary timetable for the through trains between Gloucester and Westbury via Swindon to run just south of Swindon. However, they simply don't seem to have the staff to run robustly what they have planned in their temporary timetable.   I suspect that these services in normal running are crewed from Gloucester ...

Another one bites the dust ...


Yet again, the service(s) fed to and from the line through Kemble. 

Since there are very few through passengers at Swindon on these trains, would there be some logic in making them more robust by operating them purely locally?   In the evening there are no fewer than 3 trains floating around - one parked in the bay in Swindon while two more swap off and on the South Cotswold line.  Absurdley inefficient this week!!!   The 06:35 Salisbury to Worcester (* below) seems to be the exception in that it's running robustly AND it's a key train.

Dream - short term until we get a second train - from Westbury at about 05:17, 07*05, 07:45, 09:46, 12:17, 14:19, 16:23, 18:26, 20:06 and 21:46, returning from Swindon at about 06:11, 08:45, 11:05, 13:15, 15:15, 17:36, 19:16, 20:56 and 22:36.

20:06 Westbury to Swindon due 20:50
20:06 Westbury to Swindon due 20:50 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

20:13 Swindon to Westbury due 20:58
20:13 Swindon to Westbury due 20:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Thanks - the trains that normally run too / from the Kemble line, again!  GWR have been overoptimistic in their scheduling and would have done far better not to even pretend they could run these services until the final few hours!

I'm out on the train this evening (appointment in B-o-A) - at least the late train is running.

"Services may be disrupted due to a fault with the signalling system between Exeter Central and Paignton" I get that, but why does it mean cancelling ALL of the remaining services today between Westbury and Swindon FFS?

Stranded again.

At Trowbridge playing "spot the difference"

18:18 via B-o-A cancelled; next train 18:47
18:43 via Melksham cancelled; next train 21:24

The effect of a cancellation on passengers using thin services

I believe the 21:16 (Westbury time) is running, Phil.

Possibly spoke too soon?

22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:11
22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:11 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.