I was about to post this ;-
With the Swindon line shut (a planned one) is it not beyond the gumption of someone in the GWR▸ Ivory Tower to issue special stop orders for stations Bedwyn to Newbury in the current situation on at least one of the diverted services per hour.
Why do that when buses could be used?
Because the buses -
once they're sourced - take 50 minutes for a 15 minute journey. At time of unscheduled disruption they take time to source. At time of poor weather, the roads to Bedwyn and Kintbury stations are liable to be difficult or impossible to drive and (for
TOC▸ 's benefit
) it's cheaper to stop an existing train passing through than to source and hire buses.
"Once they're sourced" can be interesting. Noting it took over an hour - in good weather the other week for a taxi to be provided at Trowbridge - that's Wiltshire's County Town, how long does it take to get a bus to Bedwyn ...
Yes I certainly agree with you. I had made a slight dig at GWR for preferring buses over additional stops, as happened at Melksham during last week's diversions. Although I guess both situations aren't comparable, because at Melksham they appeared to be constrained by the time the single track was occupied so it was either buses or less diverted trains running. Generally it does seem that GWR are inconsistent at choosing when to add extra stops on another service due to a cancellation, but I guess that's probably the same with all TOCs.
