Weekend Traffic

[whole diary]

[NickF]

0915 today from Melksham (Good Friday), 2 on, 0 off, approx 20 already on board: 22/2?

[grahame]

Frankly, it's getting hard to do an accurate count.   This is the 09:48 at Melksham to Swindon.  4 got off, between 35 and 40 got on and the train left with every seat taken and (I counted) 25 standing that I could see. Realistic estimate for stats - 109/42

[Chris from Nailsea]

"You need a bigger train."

 

[grahame]

"You need a bigger train."

 

We do indeed ... 18:02 to Westbury arrived with rather a lot of people on board this evening, 38 got off, 4 got on and gawd knows how many remained on ... 

[NickF]

Although I am delighted to see it, the 0948 may have been a little busier than normal as Swindon Town had a key game today with a 1215pm kick off rather than the usual 3pm.  I am not sure what the STFC fan base numbers in Melksham would be.

[grahame]

Although I am delighted to see it, the 0948 may have been a little busier than normal as Swindon Town had a key game today with a 1215pm kick off rather than the usual 3pm.  I am not sure what the STFC fan base numbers in Melksham would be.

What's  "Normal"?   Yes, lots of Swindon Town fans, but not really (m)any more than for a normal Saturday home game.  They're mostly a regular crowd who go to the matches by train.

[NickF]

I've managed to encourage a friend who lives in Melksham who normally drives to the Swindon Town matches to use the service recently as he has had a spot or two of 'car trouble', so thats +1.  He normally gets the 1148 or 1329

[grahame]

I was down at Melksham Station this morning - seeing a fair old number of passengers headed for Swindon.

This will really please them!

18:10 Swindon to Westbury due 18:52
This train will be delayed between Chippenham and Trowbridge and is expected to be 7 minutes late.
This train will be diverted between Chippenham and Trowbridge.
This train will no longer call at Melksham.
This is due to congestion caused by earlier delays.

At least Swindon Town were playing away - had it been a home game, there would have been over 100 people on that 153, with around a third of them form Melksham!

[John R]

Slightly curious that two freights from Swindon to Hinksey and Goring have run along the branch at roughly the same time as the 1810 ex Swindon should have done. I presume at least one of them is engineering related. I guess reversing that at Bathampton Jn isn't possible because of the need to run around.

It appears the branch is under a lot of pressure today with diverted services including South Wales to London services, with not enough margin so once delays begin they continue. Now if only there was a passing loop or at least the ability to hold something clear of the main line.  A service from Swindon to Bristol has been in a queue at Chippenham for 25 mins waiting for the line to clear ahead.

[bobm]

I passed up and down the branch twice today on diverted HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train).

The trip to London (which used the branch in the down direction) passed without incident.

Coming back we crawled from just after Newbury to Bedwyn following a stopping train - but it seems that was built into the timetable.  However we were held at Bradford Junction for a few minutes waiting for another HST to come off the single line.  There was also another HST held on the approach to Westbury to allow us to cross and take the branch.

However it seems there are some very tight timings and it doesn't take much for delays to build up.

(Oh and the information screen was out of order at Melksham both times when I went through)

[grahame]

I passed up and down the branch twice today on diverted HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train).

Oh good - did you get a passenger count 

(Oh and the information screen was out of order at Melksham both times when I went through)

It has a very poor record indeed at present.  "Pease wait while the system restarts" it says .. for days on end. Fortunately, no-one does wait 

[bobm]

I passed up and down the branch twice today on diverted HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train).

Oh good - did you get a passenger count 

I did notice several cars in the car park with people sitting in them when I passed at around 11:20.  I was slightly more concerned with two Americans I met on the train who were going from London to Cardiff and a "friend" had bought them both First Anytime singles - when an off peak standard with a weekend first upgrade would have saved them ^125 each.  The train manager did take time to explain to them what to do if there was a "next time".

[grahame]

Slightly curious that two freights from Swindon to Hinksey and Goring have run along the branch at roughly the same time as the 1810 ex Swindon should have done. I presume at least one of them is engineering related. I guess reversing that at Bathampton Jn isn't possible because of the need to run around.

I run a customer serving business, and if any of our team prioritise ourselves and our needs over our customers, it's a pretty poor show.  With Network Rail controlling the signals and probably responsible for the wrong trains in the wrong place at the same time, that feels like a similar poor show - especially as they had already pushed the 17:36 back to 18:10.  However, I guess there's a differences that make my analogy a poor one.

It appears the branch is under a lot of pressure today with diverted services including South Wales to London services, with not enough margin so once delays begin they continue. Now if only there was a passing loop or at least the ability to hold something clear of the main line.  A service from Swindon to Bristol has been in a queue at Chippenham for 25 mins waiting for the line to clear ahead.

{like} ... we really could do with something more robust than we had in the early 1980s when there were just six passenger trains each way per year.