Good job we're not doing the survey today:


In both cases


Let me see ... service has been running for nearly 4 years ... shouldn't that be enough time to get a decent supply of drivers?    Interesting feedback from a crew member very recently - "came in to work a Swindon diagram on Sunday and got sent to Weymouth instead" ... rather confirms our place in the pecking order.

Nothing else cancelled or short working in the area!

Yes it is, mate is on 1A03 which is a 10 car 800. Currently running 14 mins late at Southall but that's not due to the train, there's a couple of late-running turbos in front of it. Was pretty much right time until after Reading.

I was impressed too when I was up in Scotland last week - services running mostly to time, plenty of seats even on the 'fast' 17:45 Edinburgh to Glasgow service which also provides for outgoing commuters to Linlithgow, Polmont and Falkirk. Plenty of ticket inspection staff too; no unchecked journeys made - even a "one stop hop".   

Of course, I don't have enough samples there to give a balanced statistical view - even with an 8% cancellation rate as recently reported on one of our GWR lines (not a TransWilts figure!), chances are I could have been OK.  There probably are peak trains that are squashed like some of ours.   And the Scots edition of the Metro is making a bit thing of trains skipping stops to catch up the timetable.

One of the lines I took had one train along the whole route every two hours when I visited it many years ago. Now it has  two trains every one hour - a massive improvement.  Not unique to Scotland - with the exception of the morning peak, Chippenham has gone similarly over the same period;  perversely, Chippenham's service on its key and largest commuter flow (Bath / Bristol) is only offered hourly at the start of the day, yet half hourly coming back.  I didn't spot any such oddity in Scotland, but there probably are some.

One of the lines I travelled on, and where I stopped at stations, wasn't open when I visited Scotland 40 years ago. And looking at / comparing maps, I note a number of Scots lines re-opened to passengers after a significant number of years of closure.  Lookng ONLY at line with station re-openings, I see (sample stations given):
* Bathgate
* Larkhall
* Alloa
* Tweedbank
* Glasgow Central (Low Level)
* Kirknewton
* Paisley Canal
* Possil Park
Looking for a similar list across the South West (my definition being Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Bristol, Devon and Cornwall), I found none at all - a number of new/reopened stations which are fantastic news and a huge success for the most part, one line which had a "parliamentary" service which has moved up to a useable (but very thin) service, with a station re-opened halfway along.

Someone may correct me on re-openings in the South West, and tell me of problems I didn't come across in Scotland; for sure, there are things I could ask "wouldn't it be nice if" and questions I would be asking about specific stations, lines, information and practises if it were my place.  But the overall impression is that we have a lot of good (effective) practise to look at north of the border.

I agree with you, Sixty3Closure - what a positive experience!

As previously mentioned, if GWR don't get this debacle sorted before the Christmas Party silly season there is likely to be a substantial increase in 'public order' offences at Paddington and other hotspots for their staff and BTP to deal with.

Judging by the empty stock moves from Stoke Gifford and North Pole shown on RTT it seems the IETs are back in passenger service this morning.

A consequence of the lack of Class 800 diagrams yesterday was that GWR had to press into service a 2+6 HST set as (indirect) cover, and had to cancel the 0529 Bristol TM - Paddington beyond Swindon to keep this short set away from heavily loaded services as far as practicable. It ran to Cheltenham then formed the 0831 to Paddington, the 1122 to Great Malvern, the 1425 back to Paddington, the 1722 to Hereford then 2151 back to Paddington. 

Another two Class 43 power cars and a handful of Mk3s are scheduled to go off to Scotland today. GWR are probably hoping Hitachi can supply the 800s they are contracted to.

There were a couple of late evening IET runs out from Stoke Gifford depot to Swindon and back yesterday. Via Box and Hullavington. With (non-passrnger) station stops at Bath, Chippenham, Bristol Parkway and Bristol TM.

I think it'd be a safe bet to assume that the SDO was being tested.

Well for the Cotswold line there's no promise of decreased journey times after they're introduced apparently.

I had a similar feeling as I sat at Ealing Broadway late last night waiting for a train and watching the orange people working. Except most of the activity appeared to involve standing around talking and bitching/gossiping about managers or supervisors or sitting on the station forecourt smoking. What little work I did see going on on the platforms appeared to be being done in the most inefficient, labour intensive manner possible and I felt a little better informed about why many major rail projects overrun budgets or projected completion dates.

I came here as a frustrated FGW/GWR passenger and have continued to watch things fail to improve over the years. My posts tend to reflect that so I though I'd post a positive one.

Having been in Scotland for the last week and done a fair bit of travelling on Scotrail I;ve been really impressed. The tickets seems a lot cheaper than the south east, I got a seat on every journey, the trains were clean and the staff seemed happy to stop and chat. Even the stations were a bit more cheerful with flowers and containers.

Perhaps I was lucky but chatting to family and friends they seemed reasonably happy with the service they get especially after i mention the £4k+ a year I pay to stand quite often. It maybe that the Scottish network is 'simpler' - essentially one operator or there's more money about because of the Scottish Governments attitude and whoever pays for what was formally the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive.

And the views were great 

Only downside is that outside the central belt it's pretty limited.