Great Western Coffee Shop

From the evening of 24th December for 30 days, "Westbury" will be closed for engineering works including track renewals.  Early notice of this was broken to attendees at the community briefing by GWR on 14th March 2024, and it generated great interest and questions from the audience.   As it's early notice, plans are liable to amendemnt but ...

1. Warminster, Frome and Trowbridge will be used as railheads with buses between and service starting onwards from there.  In particular, I asked about Trowbridge where the sigalling does not allow for train reversal at the station.  I was reassured that both services to Bath and Bristol, and to Swindon, will operate from Trowbridge though their times may vary from the normal timetable.

2. I am unclear whether the Westbury avoiding line is also closed; I would imagine not, so that trains to the South West are not diverted via Bristol and so that freight from the quarries is not stopped for the month

3. I understand the opportunity is NOT being taken to make passive provision (let alone re-instate) the fourth platform at Westbury.  The fourth platform is something, GWR told us, they would like but would be a separate project at a later date.

4. Ticket acceptance for journeys from Bath and north west thereof to south east of Romsey via Reading was request and "yes in principle" but that was a hesitatent yes and so we should wait and see.

A month?!?! That’s ridiculous, why? They’ve only recently replaced track and switches at Westbury.

I’m not surprised it generated great interest and questions. To me, that seems a long time to have Westbury closed with all the implications for both those who travel from/connect at Westbury as well as those who are on trains that travel through Westbury from the south and Frome/Weymouth.

What benefit are passengers going to see from this major inconvenience? Not much I’d say without this massive opportunity being taken to reinstate a fourth platform.

Too right they ‘may vary’. There’s no way you could operate the current 3 trains an hour to Bath and services to Swindon at the same frequency without trains continuing towards Westbury and reversing there.

I’m not impressed, this seems to have come from nowhere. I understand closing a line for a week or two maximum, but a month? This isn’t going to be very popular.

Given the regular problems at Westbury North, Heywood Road and Hawkeridge - many of them reported on here - something needs to be done.  Apparently 30 point "ends" will be worked on during the month.  It was a little unclear if the station will be closed in all directions all the time during the works or whether there will be disruption on different routes at different times.

The first week of that month is Christmas so hardly anyone would be travelling anyway, and as we are always being told that time of year presents unique opportunities for large scale work.

What impact is this closure likely to have on long distance London - Devon/Cornwall services?

Yep, you could characterise that as 10 days over the holiday season and then 20 days when the people and daily flows are back.

I was unclear at the meeting as to whether the main line via the Westbury Avoider will be closed or not, and that would make a huge difference.  I suspect the people at the meeting are just learning into this too; the question WAS asked in passing but I don't think there was an answer.  If I was GWR, I would characterise the comments on Westbury as an early information piece to help prepare friends in the community and to pick up what were going to be the element GWR have to "sell" rather than any detail as yet.  The big thing they have to sell (in my mind) is that they are not taking the opportunity to do any "platform 4" work - even passive provision.  That's sad because when they do that work it will be another significant possession and further penalty payments / compensation paid within the industry; it make no sense to me NOT to be thinking about the 4th platform.