Due to the Kennet Valley line being closed between Theale and Westbury from Monday 12th March to Thursday 15th March due to electrification upgrade, the Westcountry services are all being diverted via Bristol or Melksham. This appears to result in daytime (and evening) services on the Transwilts being canned (bustitution?)
Peak services will still operate however with departures from:
Westbury @ 06:44, 07:21, 19:32
Swindon @ 06:10, 08:31, 17:36, 18:48
Note that these times are from the OTT▸ crystal ball which may be incorrect / altered nearer the date. (I will note however that the 08:31, on arrival at Westbury heads to the sidings, whilst the 17:36, runs ECS▸ in from Bath, which would suggest some element of truth in these timings)
Closure of the line through Newbury is also planned for April and June with currently unconfirmed dates.
Many thanks for that ... hopefully our friends in significant closures will be in touch to discuss.
We are very much aware of the use of our line for diversions - it goes with the territory. We were given an overview / warning in 2013 that there would be quite a few in the following 3 years. Actually not been as bad as we were led to believe.
It's interesting to look at engineering schedules because you can learn so much:
And it strikes me that with 59 minutes from arriving in Swindon to leaving Westbury, this train has time for Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge stops and the sensible way to run the TransWIlts would be to combine it with the express service that week.
