It was switched off the day they published that plan. Only for a 'review', mind.

My sister, who was a stockbroker at that time, lost a couple of her investor clients from Cheltenham.  I also remember her saying that, among the wreckage, there were mobile phones ringing ... but without being answered.

A very sad day. 

I suspect it has something to do with Bristol PAYG^▸ (Pay as you go), despite none of the start/finish stations being in that zone. Introduction of the cards involved replacing existing single fares, just below the return fare, by new ones at half the return fare. That is roughly what has happened with the Trowbridge fare.

Quite why this has been done is not obvious: it might be preparing for an extension, or trying to smooth out some of the anomalies (well-known for introducing more of them), or something else. And they could have got it wrong, of course.

Thanks for the suggestion, ChrisB.

We do have an existing topic relating specifically to the Ladbroke Grove collision in 1999, so I've moved and merged all of the posts here, in the interests of continuity and ease of future reference.

This topic has been moved to Railway History and related topics and merged with a substantial topic there.  A very sad day, 5 October 1999.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=5433.0

Fingers crossed they are correct and commonsense has prevailed!

Both realtimetrains and internal systems are reporting this as being a 10-car.  Formed with 800010/21.

I suspect the Trowbridge fare is the 'incorrect' one....and hence I wouldn't challenge the Melksham one myself

12:18 Penzance to London Paddington due 17:32 will be started from Plymouth.
It will no longer call at Penzance, St Erth, Camborne, Redruth, Truro, St Austell, Par, Bodmin Parkway and Liskeard.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

14:18 Penzance to London Paddington due 19:32 will call additionally at Hayle, Lostwithiel, St Germans and Saltash.
This is due to the train making extra stops because a train was cancelled.
Will be formed of 5 coaches instead of 10. There are no reservations on this service.

16:18 Penzance to London Paddington due 21:32 will be terminated at Exeter St Davids.
It will no longer call at Tiverton Parkway, Taunton, Reading and London Paddington.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Short trains and cancelled journeys for Cornish customers - if you're going to start Penzance-London Services from Plymouth or finish them at Exeter, at the very least make sure the one that's going all the way isn't half its usual length, especially if it's making extra stops 

That was the bargain we made when we agreed to forgo the two extra round trips on Saturdays. We expressed a community preference for 7 reliable round trips rather than a timetable of 9 which was unreliable because of cancellations on the day.   Sadly, we have been short changed and perhaps taken for fools.  Services were indeed cut to 7 in the timetable, but take a look at the record over the last few months on those 7 are just as unreliable as the 9 were.  I know this is part of a pattern, but this sort of thing makes it very hard to trust what we are told / promised.