Great Western Coffee Shop

Big THANK YOU to GWR for arranging the Central Timetable briefing and news update earlier today. Although I'm all at sea (see follwowing pictures) I managed to listen in and even ask a couple of questions.  I have a copy of the slide set - marked "not for public circulation" but I can share data and thoughts as appropriate. (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/mirror/gwr_central_20230308.pdf)

A very useful session indeed - I have more detail to come back to. But what I feel it does need in talking to is passengerisation - questions on things like connections and what the effect of timetable changes will be on fares (moves from off peak to peak) seemed to catch our hosts from left field. There is a lot of good news in there; there is also news that has good and bad bits and some distinct losses - the good does seem to outweigh bad, mind you.

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We were being INFORMED of these changes and ASKED FOR INPUTS about December changes.

* Cardiff to Portsmouth Main Line

Stock changes
4 of the 8 diagrams will now be 4 car 158s
Remaining diagrams will be 5 car or 3 car turbos.
Services to intermediate stations will be 3 or 2 carriages

No changes to timings at Salisbury - so Bradford-on-Avon / Trowbridge to London Waterloo and back on these trains remains dire. However, the MetroWest extensions to Salisbury (see below) give an 20 to 30 minute change which is much better. (GWR came pre-armed with this answer ;-) )

* Metro West

- up from 1 local train an hour to 2 from Bristol to Westbury
Really good news for Keynsham and Oldfield Park
most hours 1 train continues to Warminster and many to Salisbury
Good news for Dilton Marsh and Warminster
every 2 hours 1 train continues to Weymouth

- up from 1 local train an hour to 2 from Bristol to Gloucester
[edit to correct]: - once every hour, one of these trains continues to Cheltenham and Worcester

* London express services

- reduction in early services from Hereford (starting now Oxford and Gt Malvern)

- London to Bristol services extended to Weston-super-mare every 2 hours (NLS, YAT, WOR calls)

- Many more London / Carmarthen services (something to do with noting opportunity highlighted by open access proposals?)

- The 06:37 / 3 hour superfast PAD to PLY is replaced by an 06:00 via Swindon, Bath and Bristol
(sensible change - 06:37 for a high speeed service had become inappropriate)

- The 10:04 Paddington to Plymouth (and beyond?) will no longer call at Taunton

- Some 10 car (5+5) services reduced to just 5 car
This releases trains to replace Castle class trains which are being withdrawn because they are old and expensive to run.

* Thames Valley

- Revisions of some Paddington to Didcot services as Elizabeth line taken over urban stops

- Some 12 car formations reduced to 8 cars

* North Downs line

- proposed additional services (up from 2 to 3 per hour) will NOT be happening
Reason given is lack of rolling stock.  GWR is not leasing 769s

* Heart of Wessex

- Becomes two-hourly and that means
Extra late train from Weymouth to Bristol
Extra morning train Bristol to Weymouth

Concern that the well-timed off peak service Bristol to Weymouth that has been ideal for day trips has been replaced by trains an hour earlier and an hour later.  Concern expressed that the train an hour later reduces the attractiveness for day trips, and the train an hour earlier is too early. GWR were unable to tell us if off peak tickets would be available on the earlier train (I think I heard "I do timetables - don't know about fares"!)

Concern has also been expressed (away from the meeting to GWR) that day trips from Freshford and Avoncliff to Weymouth will now require a change of trains with a wait of around 30 minutes at Westbury.

Finally, questions asked about connections at Castle Cary from Yeovil to Tauton (and the other way too); none of the folks at the meeting knew, so open question

* TransWilts (Swindon to Westbury line)

- 4 journeys on Saturdays are being withdrawn
Said to be for "better stock utilisation"
Mark Utley of GWR says changes are to "protect core services"
(Thank you for the "heads up" that we are not "core" in Melksham!)

- An additional summer Saturday service Swindon -> Weymouth and back is added
It is unclear ("will let you know") whether the Swindon -> Westbury -> Swindon runs all year - IT SHOULD

- Not announced, but noted that the 05:17 Westbury to Swindon, Mon to Fri is withdrawn
- Not announced, but noted - extra evening round trip Westbury -> Swindon -> Westbury

Personal View Provided the extra evening services happen 6 days a week all year, this is net positive from a passenger viewpoint and the changes should be welcomed.

The connection off the 08:44 from Swindon to Westbury for day trips to Weymouth on Mondays to Fridays is no more; there is now a 1 hour wait at Westbury.  The previous train (06:11 from Swindon) misses a Weymouth train at Westbury by 2 minutes.  There is no longer a marketable day trip on Monday to Friday from Melksham to Weymouth.

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The key issue which was only partially addressed through the meeting is reliability.  GWR put up some graphics to show this, but in my view the data was incomplete showing only short term cancellations - the industry standard which GWR follow is to massage the figures by excluding from their cancellation logs services which are in the published timetables, but then withdrawn because of industrial action Edit - I have struck through that element as it has been challenged by GWR or because a line is required for extra freight and long distance trains when other lines are closed.

There was talk of staff numbers available being "better than has been" in a long time - good, but that seems to disregard again the fact that is they are on strike they are NOT actually available. And also talk of clever better use of rolling stock with a suggestion of improved availability / fewer stock shortages due to breakdowns and standard maintenance.  We were not told how these improvements will be achieved, and I hope it's a concrete plan that will work.

Passenger journey numbers are still a bit below pre-covid numbers.  Income is down more than journey numbers - suggesting that income per journey is less.  Whether that's because more people are travelling off-peak, or journeys are shorter, is not clear to me.

In Summary - generally I am positive; if we get the reliability and the all year evening services in Wiltshire, we can market this.  I need to look at connections at Chippenham into the new Weston-super-mare services for day trips to there.  If GWR want to provide decent connections to Weymouth only at weekend - sure, we can market those until they are rammed ;-)

The former, and fewer peak journeys of course.

Season tickets which used to give a base of revenue are also still significantly down.

I have edited my report of yesterday - input from GWR suggesting that trains cancelled because of strikes do show up in cancellation stats.  I need to be more awake before answering in full - it's early where I am!

Maybe a few snifters from a nearby bar to help

Heart of Wessex Fares

Apart from the early (06.51) service from WSB to WEY, all down HoW services are priced as off-peak. This facility extends at least as far back as Bristol.

Did this GWR TT Briefing include anything west of Taunton ?

If so could details be advised ?

This was "Central" - so, sorry, the only things touched on west of Taunton were things flowing into there from the mid-shires.

As I recall, departure of Castles, the 06:37 super fast from Paddington becoming the 06:00 via Bath Spa and picking up the same timings from Taunton, the 10:04 from Paddington skipping Taunton and certain 10 car IETs being reduced to 5 cars.

Unusual for a train to non stop Taunton, a county town.

County Towns like Northallerton (admin centre / HQ for North Yorkshire) have trains running through the station none-stop and you could argue about Gloucester, skipped via the avoiding line by South West to Midlands XC services.   And isn't Reading the County Town of Berkshire?  Not sure how much skips Reading from May.   But, agreed, a Taunton stop miss is unusual. "Cornish Riviera" and Plymouth in less than 3 hours marketing anyone?

Edit to add - shown as exactly 3 hours in the public times; noting that the train does stop at Newton Abbot and Totnes.

It is, I think/hope, better than that - the Worcester service will be hourly. At least if this is to be believed... (https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/gb-nr:%57OS/to/gb-nr:%42RI/2023-06-07/0000-2359?stp=%57VS&show=all&order=wtt)

(I had to change "WOS" in that URL to "%57OS" to stop the autolinkifier messing it up ;) )

Reading has not been the county town since Berkshire was split into 6 unitary authorities. Their equivalent locations are now are Slough (lots of passing services), Maidenhead (ditto), Bracknell (I think all trains stop there), Wokingham (as Bracknell), Newbury (skipped by the fast B&H services) and Reading itself.

Then there's Trowbridge: county town that, 15 months back, lost its entire service from London.

Mark

You are correct and I have gone back and edited my report.

I think we are focussing on the wrong issue here. Surely the key factors in deciding how many trains will stop at a station are the size of the settlement, the number of passengers who use the service and its importance as an interchange between different rail services/routes.

Trowbridge, like Northallerton, Dorchester (the Dorset one) or Winchester is not the largest town in its county nor a key interchange on the rail system even though it is the county town. The key interchange points on the GW system are (I am pretty certain) from east to west - Reading, Oxford, Swindon, Cheltenham, Worcester, Gloucester, the two main Bristol stations, Exeter St Davids and Plymouth. Westbury, Didcot (at least until there's OHL to Oxford), Bath & Salisbury also probably rank above Trowbridge or any seat of local government in any unitary authority taking all these factors into account.

I think we’re agreeing. County towns are no longer the centre of the local universe. Since the advent of the motor car and demise of many rural rail lines, regional hubs - like those you’ve listed above - are the most important.

Rather interesting future suggestion in the February / Network Rail document - I included it in my slide set at WWRUG at the start of this month ( http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/mirror/wwrug_20230301.pdf ) showing 5 trains an hour Bristol to Westbury, 3 of which are all stations and 2 of which only call at Bath Spa.  So the Trowbridge "quantum" is up from the 2 (at present, until May) to 3, but with six intermediate stops on all service into Bristol. And there are 2 trains running through none-stop.

There is a case for some very long distance stuff to skip significant places. I could fancy a Lumo-priced service from Plymouth to Scotland, none-stop from (say) Bristol, Gloucester or Cheltenham Spa to perhaps Preston or Doncaster, or Carlisle or Newcastle, or even into Scotland - first stop Motherwell, Coatbridge or Falkirk for connections into Glasgow and Edinburgh then Perth, Dundee and Aberdeen.  Two active train sets, making a daytime and an overnight run.  Potential timetabling nightmare with the other services on many of the lines all being regional cross country ones, and pressure from communities skipped to add stops at underserved stations such as Northallerton and Chathill.

Much of this post is so futuristic it will be seen as a "ha,ha, lets have a laugh" idea, and people may check whether it's already 1st April.  I would be surprised to see Network Rail's 3 trains an hour each way at Avoncliff happening, and apart from London services I see no-one suggesting long distance services with a primary business case of moving people between major regions of the UK (in competition with airlines).

And the future with my local view: http://grahamellis.uk/blog799.html

You ought to explain why other local stations have faired better? Isn't it because their increase is mainly down to WEVA's Metrowest scheme (and therefore WECA money being spent, rather than a GWR initiative?

There have been three reasons given.  The first is indeed that it's a WECA initiative. The second we are told is that there are no more paths available over the single track (and that there's now no possibility of an upgrade until 2029, and funding for Melksham improvements needs to come from Melksham).   The third, given by GWR during the briefing, is that some peripheral services have been pulled to make things more operationally efficient and make the core services more reliable.   

It's some of each of those but, as ever, more complex and there are shades of grey in what's been said.  I would rather have a service every 2 hours that runs 95% of the time than a service that's timetabled every hour, but only runs 75% of the time.