Great Western Coffee Shop

After a reasonably good run of reliability on the service out of Swindon the 1754 from Swindon to Cheltenham was without a driver this evening, apparently stranded in Cardiff as a result of the signalling problems down there this afternoon.

I got on the train at 1740 on platform 2 as usual, normally the engines are running but this evening all was silent. The departure time came and went then the inevitable sms text message to advise cancellation duly arrived from FGW. However the conductor hadn't been told and was still apologising for the delay explaining that the driver was still en route. In the meantime he had loaded a wheelchair passenger via the ramp which was all well and good. At 1805 the expected on train announcement was made advising cancellation and telling passengers that they had to evacuate the train much to the amusement of most! The conductor then duly produced the ramp and off loaded the wheelchair customer.

For the savvy traveller the next service would be the 1854 to Hereford however no on-station announcements were made to this effect resulting in many folks trying to find out information. Then a further sms text message arrived from FGW advising that the train was reinstated which seemed strange that at 1820 there was still no driver and no sign of any trains coming from South Wales.

A few minutes later the reinstated message was passed to the conductor by a member of the station dispatch team and he invited the wheelchair passenger to join the train, getting the ramp out again for a third time. There was still no station announcements advising the service reinstatement.

The regular travellers will know that once a service is delayed by more than 10 minutes or more the single line bottleneck comes into play. With the service coming down from Gloucester going on to Southampton not due until 1840 and with the 1854 to Hereford to go up the line to fit in there was no realistic way the 1754 was going to run. Unsurprisingly the next sms text arrived at 1830 confirming cancellation again! In the meantime other people had joined the train again, still silent, no engines or driver having been advised by the conductor that the service would now go. So everyone was turfed off again including the poor wheelchair customer who enjoyed his forth trip of the evening on the ramp!

Throughout this time the doors on the train were open and with the 1844 to Southampton due that normally runs from platform 2 a number of passengers were getting on thinking incorrectly that it was their train. 

The 1844 duly pitched up and was diverted into platform 1 and after rounding up the passengers it left a few minutes late. A delayed South Wales train arrived and the missing driver turned up and started up the unit. Only then were the train doors closed and the unit made inaccessible to the travelling public!

The 1854 turned up but not before the usual comedy show of last minute platform changes. The 1854 was diverted to Platform 3 and a further train from South Wales bound for London was switched to platform 1 .  The digital Dennis announcements were made so late that both trains had come almost to a halt in the platform before all the passengers made the change to get their required trains!

My thoughts on this would be;-
1) Why did FGW think about reinstating the train when they must have known that the driver would not have got to Swindon until 1835 at the earliest
2) Why didn't the station staff make 'manual' announcements at Swindon just to tell everyone what was happening in regard to the cancellation but also to advise of the late platform change for the 1854 and the London bound service?
3) If a train is cancelled why not lock it out of use rather than leave it to confuse passengers still further?

As usual - communications are dire in times of service disruption. This time the staff had the information, it simply wasn't conveyed to the passengers!

One question does the driver for the 17:54 drive from Cardiff to Swindon or are they on the cushions?

Noted the comments re advice in case of train cancelled.    Ideally, when a train is cancelled passengers should be given advice re amended journey plans instead of being left running around like headless chickens trying to find somebody to give them suitable information
Not a FGW instance, but I was travelling back from Glasgow Central yesterday and a message was posted on the screens inforing that there was no service between Central and Edinburgh due to freight train derailment.
Good detailed information, but guess what ? No advice re alternative travel arrangements for passengers.
This information should be forthcoming as soon as immediately, if possible.

To answer eightf48544 the driver for the 1754 is normally on 'the cushions' from Bristol every evening however yesterday was different in that strangely he came from Cardiff!

Ah ... does that explain this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG8tfb-eSuo

Date given as Dec 2009! So i doubt it