For good measure, the remaining SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) trains to Bristol, already bustituted between Bath and Bristol 'cos no track at the moment, haven't run since before last weekend, and are announced as not running over the bank holiday weekend either.

Thanks for that insight.

OK, to their credit, South Western Railways responded quickly to my request for information and this can now feed a request for a response or preferably action from Passenger Focus.

SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) have in the main echoed the paragraph from the 2022 document though - citing 'Any changes are based on the fact that the route between Salisbury and Bristol Temple Meads has historically been served by both South Western and Great Western Railways... duplicating services between the two operators doesn’t provide good value for the taxpayer.'

It's difficult not to think of the SWR services Yeovil - Castle Cary - Westbury - Salisbury - London Waterloo as they share a few qualities with the Bristol to Waterloo through trains - including the suddenly reviled 'One route, two TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company)'. Whenever I've caught one of those (anecdote not data) they doesn't seem to attract nearly as many passengers as did the Bristol to Waterloo trains. Perhaps there are planned changes for these too. Not that the travelling public is in a position to know. At the moment, we're 15 weeks out from an entire rail service being axed and there's essentially been no information provided to the people who use them. I suggested to SWR that they put out a press release...

The IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) 5 car sets - when running coupled as 2 x 5 ,does each need a TM^‡(resolve) before it can run?

This weekend: quote from their web site below. It's not just the weather that's a washout, the Waterloo to... currently Bath Spa trains: cancelled.


Late amendments to train services Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 August

Due to the volume of train crew required to self-isolate, please find below a list of service alterations for this weekend on top of the planned engineering work.

 

Saturday

    Services between London Waterloo and Salisbury will start from Basingstoke.
    Services between Salisbury and Bath Spa will not run.
    Services between Brockenhurst and Lymington Pier will not run. A replacement bus service will operate.

Sunday

    Services between London Waterloo and Exeter St Davids will start from Basingstoke.
    A reduced service will run between Basingstoke and Reading.

Clan Line wrote: SWR^» (South Western Railway - about)» have (had) increased the number of through services since then. Their trains are spotless, the air con works, the seats are more comfortable and the Advance fares are fantastic.

Thanks for this perspective from Warminster. Thinking of tribulations suffered by the Bristol - Waterloo services from March 2020 to the present day, here's three.

* Covid: so, during lockdowns, essential journeys / keyworkers only = minimal passengers.

* Covid-related temporary suspension of the morning service to Waterloo (not yet reinstated).

* Friday 7th August to 3rd September 2022 - service truncate at Bath Spa owing to the engineering works at Bristol Temple Meads. Note that this for some reason breaks the evening service from London Waterloo, as it imposes an hour's delay at Salisbury before the train proceeds to Warminster, Westbury, Trowbridge, Bath Spa and then a bus to Bristol arriving at 22.30 - a journey time of 4 hours 10 minutes, so we'll say that that service is suspended, yes? Consequence: a damper on the trend seen elsewhere passenger numbers starting to recover.

Chris B wrote: Which sort of limits any action against the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company), with everything needing aiming at the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) via your politicians.

Thanks for this, Chris B, and agreed.

Having logged a case with Transport Focus stating that this will be a matter for the DfT, they've initially referred it to the TOC as that's their practice - matters to be resolved by the TOC in the first instance. So, before it can go back to Transport Focus, I'm now awaiting a response from South Western Railways about a matter which is outside their jurisdiction.

I've raised the issue with my mp and they've taken it up the same morning.

This decision will be reversed once it becomes a topic of conversation in workplaces, coffee shops, bookshops, hairdressers etc - and it may have every chance of becoming just that.

Thanks for your suggestion to list the benefits of the service. The ordinary benefits of a through service are in relatively plain sight, but there are others that apply at the current time and I'll have a think about those. It would be interesting to know if there's figures for what percentage of travellers abandon rail as a travel mode when through services are no longer provided. (I've heard 30 to 40%)

If I was the DfT I'd be tempted to sidestep the political pain and put this unconsidered decision on hold at least for a year and possibly two.

Thanks for this Grahame - so the franchise was running from 20th August 2017 until 'At least August 2024' - the direct trains between Bristol and Waterloo being very much part of the franchise. Then Covid came along and kicked the legs out from under the franchise system, hence the national rail contracts set up to run from May '21 for two years (taking them to May '23) with a possible two year extension after that.

Following this, while the railway press (and the national press) have reported on the national rail contracts, there's been an asssumption that those are 'Continuity contracts', albeit with a slew of reductions in service levels - but the press has (understandably) missed the (unannounced) impending cessation of an entire service - and if they are aware, there has been little public reaction from groups representing passenger interests.

As an aside, visit the web site for 'Transport focus', and the masthead text is 'Transport Focus' followed by 'Working in partnership with London Travelwatch' and I wonder if the site owners know how that plays out in, say, Rhyl, Bolton, Dingwall, Bristol, Tavistock. They might want to change that.

https://www.transportfocus.org.uk/

The '2022 service consultation that isn't a consultation with the public' aside, has the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) decision to cease the Bristol - Waterloo services in December '21 had any public announcement anywhere, anyone, please?

The contract between the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) from May 2021 - is it an extension of the franchise that has terminated or does it replace a franchise that would otherwise have run on - and until what date, please?

The Wiltshire Times website has a substantial reminder of the previous attempt to ditch the service - at a change of franchise. The MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) for West Wiltshire was committed to this - and is still the MP.

https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/961688.waterloo-train-service-saved/

If you use these trains and are a constituent of Dr Andrew Murrison, please drop him a line about the proposed cessation of the service, which currently provides Bradford on Avon and also Trowbridge's only through trains to and from London.

Dr Murrison's contact details:

https://members.parliament.uk/member/1466/contact

The passenger counts for trains on the Bristol - London Waterloo services: are these publically available, anyone?

The national rail contract that FirstGroup and DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) signed off on in May - is the document available to the public, anyone?

The railway press in particular has interpreted these contracts as a short term continuation until 'Great British Railways' is in place - but with changes like this emerging, has the railway press perhaps missed the fine print?

You may know of the consultation in progress on a December '22 services recast for the South Western Railway network - find more in the PDF linked from their page here:

https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/timetables/timetable-consultation-december-2022

I've appended the text from the PDF at the foot of this post, because, tucked away on page 37 is an announcement on a completely different subject: that a 'separate review' by the Department for Transport has produced the decision that the South Western Railway services between London Waterloo and Bristol be axed as of December this year, 2021.

I've not found any reference to this forthcoming change save for this paragraph in the December '22 consultation.

There are a number of aspects to this announcement of a prior decision on the Bristol - Waterloo services which... stink:

* The cessation of the (popular) Bristol-Waterloo service is not part of the December 2022 consultation so should not have been announced via a single paragraph 37 pages into a report on something completely different - a  Vogon-like tactic. This approach is (surely deliberately) damaging to the prospects that travellers will see this decision reversed.

* A previous attempt to cease this service resulted in an early day motion in the House of Commons and a pile-on from 30 MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) who lent their name to the cause.

* It may only be the Department for Transport that thinks this service duplicates other trains. Its users are very well aware that it does not.

* It is poor practice to cut services in an unconsidered way during a pandemic.

* This is an example of an organisation (the Department for Transport) making changes under cover of a national crisis (Covid) and this should be called out and not encouraged.

* There is very little awareness of the withdrawal of the Bristol to Waterloo trains among the travelling public and indeed with, now, a three month lead time, reduced opportunity for people to make adjustments to their travel mode when these services cease.

* Perhaps the first thing that should happen is this proposed change should be postponed to 2022 to match those in the rest of this document in order that a proper consultation can be followed through on what is a valued service that has been known to load to capacity.

* The untruth in the concluding sentence: 'Great Western Railway will continue to meet demand on the line' has angered me - often, the railway has done anything but 'meet demand' for travel between Salisbury and Bristol.

Mark

"SALISBURY TO BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS
The route between Salisbury and Bristol Temple Meads has historically been served by both SWR^» (South Western Railway - about)» and Great Western Railway, with SWR running  ve of the average 25 daily services in the May 2019 timetable.
Following a separate review with the Department for Transport, SWR will withdraw its current three daily services from December 2021 as duplicating services between the two operators does not provide good value for the taxpayer.
Great Western Railway will continue to meet demand on the line and services will connect into London bound trains at Salisbury, Bath and Westbury."

Thanks for this - I'll do just that and start a public thread.

Mark