Bath to Bristol and Bristol to Bath performance figures

[whole diary]

[grahame]

The Bath Chronicle reports

The train journey between Bath and Bristol has been found to be one of the least efficient routes in the country.

Average delays of around 4:15 minutes adds just over 28 per cent to the forecast journey time.

Bath to Bristol train route found to be one of least efficient in UK^▸ (United Kingdom) with average 4:15 minute delays

Data compiled by GoEuro.co.uk, suggests the return route from Bristol to Bath experiences much shorter delays.

In fact, the Bristol to Bath route is one of the best in the country with arrival times averaging at just 1:55 minutes after the schedule arrival time.

[johnneyw]

In my experience the problem is in part due to boarding and disembarking times at Bath station at busy times. Never seems quite so bad at Temple Meads. As to why....?

[grahame]

In my experience the problem is in part due to boarding and disembarking times at Bath station at busy times. Never seems quite so bad at Temple Meads. As to why....?

Purely boarding time in the stats, I suspect ... how long it takes to disembark, get to the exit area, queue to buy a ticket if no other opportunity has been offered ... probably doesn't form part of the stats, even though that extra time is a necessary part of a journey.

Bath is a through station in every sense, where most of the trains arrive as short a time as possible before their due to leave for the benefit of through passengers.  But that's not really the case at Temple Meads, where many trains reverse, terminate or have a significant pause for operational reasons.

Bath has 6.2 million journeys per annum - 3.1 million per platform;  Bristol Temple Meads has 10.1 million - that's between 0.77 and 1.26 million per platform, depending on whether you count the long platforms with 2 numbers as 1 or 2 platforms.

[stuving]

On the other hand ... about  half the trains towards Bristol terminate at Temple Meads, so they get an extra "terminating trains allowance" in the timetable. On a quick look that's about three minutes for London trains, maybe five for stoppers. So you would expect those trains to arrive early most of the time, and more specifically to be more early than at Bath (as the allowance covers for delays earlier on the route). And yesterday in the evening peak (likely to be the worst time) they were. If trains still are on average arriving late, there must be a major problem. When were those stats collected?

[Tim]

Not sure how meaningful this stat actually is.  For most of the day it is almost a turn up and go service.  When you have such a frequency the trains that are late and delay you are at least partly compensated for by the occasions that you end up catching the delayed previous train and arriving a few minutes early.

The real frustration is when a few minutes late means a missed connection and an hour late arrival at the final destination.

And of course still astoundingly better than the Bath-Bristol Bus.

[Chris from Nailsea]

And of course still astoundingly better than the Bath-Bristol Bus.