Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 16:35 28 Mar 2024
* Passengers pleaded with knifeman during attack
- How do I renew my UK passport and what is the 10-year rule?
- Jet2 launches first flight from Liverpool airport
- Easter travel warning as millions set to hit roads
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
28th Mar (1988)
Woman found murdered on Orpington to London train (*)

Train RunningCancelled
15:16 London Paddington to Cardiff Central
15:30 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington
16:51 Filton Abbey Wood to Bristol Temple Meads
16:54 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
17:04 Bristol Temple Meads to Filton Abbey Wood
17:51 Filton Abbey Wood to Bristol Temple Meads
17:54 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
17:57 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street
19:33 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill
20:56 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington
Short Run
12:03 London Paddington to Penzance
13:28 Weymouth to Gloucester
13:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
15:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
15:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
15:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
16:19 Carmarthen to London Paddington
16:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
17:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
Delayed
13:55 Paignton to London Paddington
13:59 Cardiff Central to Penzance
14:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
14:36 London Paddington to Paignton
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2024-03-25 Easter Escape - to where?
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 28, 2024, 16:43:37 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[142] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[80] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[56] Return of the BRUTE?
[46] If not HS2 to Manchester, how will traffic be carried?
[43] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[34] Reversing Beeching - bring heritage and freight lines into the...
 
News: A forum for passengers ... with input from rail professionals welcomed too
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: The Westbury to Salisbury line - a status update on enhancement proposals  (Read 8496 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« on: April 07, 2019, 09:28:40 »

From my Railfuture talk on Wider Wiltshire yesterday which included status updates for a number of current aspirations - ranging from improved and new services and through new stations and line improvements. In Wiltshire, I do not see any lines being (re)laid in the next few years.

Status update - Dilton Marsh

A Station formerly serving a village that survived the "Beeching Axe" against odds. It dropped to peak-only services at the low point, but now has a requirement for at least one train every 3 hours that makes the service a "curious and perverse" one as GWR (Great Western Railway) struggle to meet the spec without stopping the only regular train on the line - the hourly regional express from Cardiff to Portsmouth. Odd trains call, daily commutes to any one destination are interesting, and there's a much better service to all destinations from nearby Westbury. However, nearby fields to the station are now covered in houses and Dilton Marsh has a significant catchment to service daily direct journeys to any reasonable pair of major work centres.

GWR changes in December 2019 - relatively small adjustments based on major timetable upgrade.

SWR» (South Western Railway - about) - possibility / probability of extra services though the station from May, and some calling from (?) December. Would add some useful journeys to already-served destinations (timetable completion for some) as well as new journeys to places such as Basingstoke, London and Yeovil.

TransWilts / Severn and Solent proposals replace most of the current infrequent "curious and perverse" service with an hourly train on the Swindon to Southampton route; they leave a peak return services to Bath / Bristol.

Audience reaction ... including a small number of local residents who had come along ... a pride in the station and a frustration at the current service that reduces their use to near-zero, driving to Westbury or Warminster. A further frustration that they don't know who to turn to / how to ask to get it improved.

Status update - Wilton Parkway

Wilton - from which WILTshire got its name. Population around 5,000. Large park and ride car park, underutilised, beside railway which heading out from Salisbury branches there towards Exeter (south west) and north north west across Wiltshire to Bath and Bristol. Wilton House and outlet village. Easiest rail access for buses to Stonehenge. Existing stations closed in 1955 (on Bristol line) and 1966 (on Exeter line). Note P&R (Park and Ride) prospects not just for Salisbury but for Southampton, Andover and London.

Initial proposal for simple 2 platform station in cutting beside car park, funded by development of housing on the rise behind the car park. To be served by hourly TransWilts (Swindon - Southampton) service and SWR London - Bristol trains.

Proposal extended to add footbridge over Exeter tracks to provide access to Wilton Town and attractions. Proposal extended to add platforms on the Exeter tracks.

The new station at Wilton Parkway is not a mandatory element of the Swindon - Southampton hourly train case; these trains have an excellent case even if they run through without stopping.

Audience reaction ... from my personal comment added in speech about 'campaign drift' - proposal up from 2 platforms to 4, single ended bridge to double, 2 slopes to platforms up to at least 4 lifts and stair cases ... no direct answer, but a comment from the Wiltshire Council portfolio holder for transport that the station can't come soon enough because the park and ride as it stands was built by the DfT» (Department for Transport - about) but has now been passed to the council for running and is loosing them a lot of money; lucky to find 40 spaces out of 400 occupied.

Status update - Swindon to Solent trains

Proposal to link .. Swindon to Westbury, Westbury to Warminster / Salisbury / Southampton, and Salisbury to Romsey via the Southampton loop. Efficient trains, new regional journeys in addition to serving all existing traffic.

Would work - from December 2019 every 2 hours Swindon to Westbury and every hour south from there. No extra trains needed, but it would need cross-franchise agreements and co-operation which have, I'm pretty sure, been put on the "too difficult" pile as limited staff struggle to thread north-south services between the important east-west trains on their new schedules, at the same time sticking to what have - in some cases - become anachronisms in the service level commitments.

Best look to see what can be done May or December 2020.

Provision of hourly north of Westbury in peaks could be done; off peak, all day, clock face hits a capacity / robustness issue until works undertaken on the single line bottleneck.

Audience reaction ... A well known local campaigner suggested this is in the hands of the DfT, as an option they could choose, based on a proposal made by GWR and SWR.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
bradshaw
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 1450



View Profile
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2019, 10:09:33 »

Andrew Ardley in his talk to SERUG mentioned Wilton Parkway in relation to the WoE line, suggesting that they were looking at a station serving both lines.

He also mentioned a meeting concerning the TransWilts, which I took to mean that a Swindon-Solent service was being looked at.


Logged
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page