14:14 ex Westbury yesterday
8 on train into Melksham. 1 off and 7 on 15/8
10 off (and 1 on) at Chippenham.

Am I starting to note an increasing local (inter-urban) traffic?

I am also reminded when I see 'just' 15 passengers against an average target of 20 across all eight trains of just how peaky the peaks are.  This is a diagram that's getting old, but reminds us never the less

Those look like a couple of good ideas.  I'm a bit reluctant to start pulling in larger libraries although JQuery is getting to be pretty standard;  I will probably go with the "quick to implement" hack of redirecting to a hidden iFrame.   BIG pile of stuff on my plate for the next couple of days - probably a Sunday project for me to take further.

1 got off and 5 got on at Chippenham
3 got on and 6 got off at Melksham (I were there to meet Bob)
16/9

I think we concluded elsewhere that the problem in moving this train back was the MOD path from Didcot to Warminster - a "runs as required" which is hardly ever required.   Looking at Real Time Trains this morning, I notice that the path has gone from where it used to be, and is now somewhat later in the morning - copy attached.

Is this a permanent move of the path?   If so, a sign that the 08:49 may become an 08:36 in December?   Hope so 

Yes indeed, No. 3 is at Taunton ... that's not a siding that I would expect to see a 153 parked in, and so I'm not surprised this was the last one to be identified.

Hmm ... Status code 204 (the one I've used) is defined as follows:


Any geek-types like to advise me of a better alternative?  200 would always redraw the page ... can I write a form of "target = null" into my Javascript request to prevent display at the client end?

I think that has to be exactly right.  We have the raw data and can judge it (with footnotes) later rather than having it processed prior to adding to the spreadsheet.

There have been other occasions when the passenger numbers have been deflated due to operating incidents - a handful of times when a train was said to be cancelled, but ran in the end.   Passengers sent via Bath (and probably overtaken) by the nearly-empty direct and re-instated train), or put into road transport but then the train turned up.  Again the records are best showing actual numbers rather than should-have-been numbers, though when it comes to a daily total of journeys enabled and made because of the TransWilts service, they SHOULD be counted as they have clearly been enabled and encouraged to make the journey because of the publication of a schedule which includes the service.

There are also occasions where passenger numbers are inflated due to operating incidents.  A notable one (from way back, before the improved service) was when the first London - Bristol train was diverted due to problems in Box tunnel, and  a late-running 06:12 TransWilts service took Chippenham to Bath / Bristol passengers as far as Trowbridge where they changed.   There may have been extra (Swindon - Taunton and Exeter) traffic during the flooding of the line over the Somerset levels too - indeed connections at Westbury heading west make this a rather good regular route, and the flow is rather stronger than one might guess.

Commenting here (a good opportunity) on counting methods for any technical reader ... the enumeration approach I take (and encourage) is to count all human passengers, including under-5s.  Babies yet to be born are not counted, however - "this is my last week before I go off on maternity", regrettably, was just a count of one.  Staff at work are not counted, employees of the railway travelling in the passenger accommodation and not working are counted (sometimes, of course, we can't tell).   Dogs and other pets are not counted.   The person counting is only counted if he / she is travelling for purposes other than the count - i.e. would have been on the train anyway.

Looking at counts getting on / off the train.   The chap who travels with his partner and baby in pushchair from Trowbridge to Chippenham ... gets off the train to help his partner with the pushchair on the step down when she leaves the service at Melksham, then gets back on, does not count as a Melksham exit and entry, and only counts as a single TransWilts journey not two journeys.

Something I've seen recently is ticket checking on board, before the train sets off - it's happened quite a few times at Westbury, and ( vaguely remembered ) on an occasion at Swindon on the TransWilts.  It not only helps to collect Westbury - Trowbridge revenue, but also expands fare checking and collection time which can be at a premium for services that pick up substantial passenger numbers at Trowbridge when the booking office is closed, or at Melksham.  As a side effect, it also helps to identify the occasional passenger for Bradford-on-Avon / Bath who gets on the train in error before it's too late.


Appearance is only a trend .. and it works both ways.  Difficult one that, and fraught with "bias" and "political correctness" risks however the staff play it.   For an outside observer, there can be a feeling of false bias too; on the smaller lines (and I count TransWilts in there even though our passenger numbers are starting to overtake other lines) the staff get to know the habitual fare avoiders on one hand, and the regulars who are always fully ticketed ... and an occasional user / first time user on the line may observe the application of specific knowledge as the application of stereotyping / bias.


I agree with you.   

And taking the opposite side of the coin, barriers which delay passengers trying to exit with legitimate tickets lead to a resentment of the system; personally, I sometimes feel that my integrity is being called into question when I have to queue to get off the platform, and / or get rejected by the barriers.   Should arrival time statistics be measured for when passengers exit ("escape") from the controlled area rather than the time at which the train's wheels stop turning?

So would I, but I suspect we never will. I wrote a little more on the public forum {here} to describe the day, but I am more concerned at working out ahead of time (if we can) which are "risky" Sundays to publicise for the services, as the let-down rate is far too high at the moment.   Sunday was a "double whammy" for anyone looking to use the return services, and I've got three other incidents in which trains I understood to be running on Sundays are not now running, in all but one cases after publicity has gone out which directly or indirectly promotes them strongly.

 

Oh - please don't, Chris.  For this month at least, that project is one thing too many to actively work through;  far more important to ensure that we have both short term publicity and longer term aspiration inputs together.   No, not Swindon!

Yep, just no. 3 to go

Correct

Basically, engineering works were due to finish in time for the first train yesterday (09:12 from Westbury to Weymouth?) but they overran.    There is a degree of eagerness in Swindon / Chippenham / Melksham to use the new TransWilts services and to have days out in nice weather (which it was) and so there was quite a busy load on the first train from Swindon to connect into the 10:17 at Westbury.

Information that the connection train turned into a bus at Yeovil didn't reach everyone before they started their journey (though it was know before we left Westbury), and when we got to Yeovil there weren't any buses waiting.   So there were about a hundred people waiting at the front of the station.  A coach rolls in with about 50 seats, everyone pushed for it and it fills up and heads out.  Second coach "will be here in 17 minutes" and it looks like it's going to be another full load.

When asked about getting back later in the day (for those of us out for the day), we were told trains should start running with the 16:10.  I was a bit dubious about the word "should", was taking my father and dogs for a relaxed day out at the seaside, and felt that a very full coach which looked awkward for the dogs and a element of uncertainly about our return wasn't going to be fun for the party, so we chickened out and returned on the 11:54 Yeovil to Westbury.

I don't know what caused such a long overrun. It differed between "overrun" and "emergency" in what was said, and if I make a guess I would suggest that the people doing the work found something nasty extra to do.     Probably a good job we barrelled out, as the 16:10 and 17:56 didn't run from Weymouth in the end ...

Yep, it is ...

Yes ... good quick start there!