2022 - TransWilts cancellations and amendments log

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Sat, 1 January 07:44 Westbury to Swindon due 08:26
Sat, 1 January 08:35 Swindon to Westbury due 09:23

01/01/22 08:35 Swindon to Westbury due 09:23 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[TaplowGreen]

10:07 Westbury to Swindon due 10:49 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[TaplowGreen]

Just added;

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:48
11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:48 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

12:05 Westbury to Swindon due 12:55
12:05 Westbury to Swindon due 12:55 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[grahame]

Friends suggested I meet them for a trip from Severn Beach to Weston-super-mare today.  Quite apart from doubts I have about socialising widely at present (though happy to do online), we seem to be starting the year at a really low point.   This is not a new phenomenum - pre-Covid things tend seemed to go belly-up at the very start of the year, though this year (and last) we have a new and "better" (more accepted by the public) reason to give.

[TaplowGreen]

Starting to look like a virtual write-off;

13:05 Swindon to Westbury due 13:48 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[grahame]

Starting to look like a virtual write-off;

13:05 Swindon to Westbury due 13:48 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

The Saturday fiction timetable is an inefficient one.  As well as the shuttle train going up and down all day, there are two extra runs - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.   The morning one ran and the afternoon one is - at the moment - anyone's guess.

Now - TransWilts is very much about the general traffic for the area, and for these two exceptional "holiday" days of 1st and 2nd January, a pre-planned service comprising just those two round trips, and a further late afternoon / early evening one, would have been understood and "saleable".  A service that's anyone's guess, though, is not marketable and seems designed to discourage!

[TaplowGreen]

15:05 Westbury to Swindon due 15:49
15:05 Westbury to Swindon due 15:49 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

16:03 Swindon to Westbury due 16:44
16:03 Swindon to Westbury due 16:44 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[Timmer]

All the best to those trying to use the Cardiff to Portsmouth line changing at Bath as an alternative, service is a right mess with cancellations and short running a plenty.

[grahame]

All the best to those trying to use the Cardiff to Portsmouth line changing at Bath as an alternative, service is a right mess with cancellations and short running a plenty.

Indeed - a change along the way on a day like today is a game of double jeopardy.





I'm guessing that the 12:53 Trowbridge to "Westbury" is really a Portsmouth Harbour train running short?  Nothing shown south of Westbury - to Warminster and Salisbury - at all.   Where are the "duplicates" that SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) used to run when you need them? What has happened to the assurance that other services will be sufficient?

Issue is ... not that there are occasional problems, but that there are routine (daily) problems that anyone with an ounce of knowledge would have suggested as probable even ten days ago.   

How do rail industry finances work on a day like today?  "All income to HMG" I believe, and a fee to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) for running trains.  Are they paid for trains that don't run?  Penalised for failing to provide such trains?  Who forks out for delay/repay? Are Network Rail access charges paid for trains that are cancelled?

[ChrisB]

No theyvaren’t, in answer to your very final question. Not sure about the rest

[stuving]

How do rail industry finances work on a day like today?  "All income to HMG" I believe, and a fee to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) for running trains.  Are they paid for trains that don't run?  Penalised for failing to provide such trains?  Who forks out for delay/repay? Are Network Rail access charges paid for trains that are cancelled?

What rules are GWR operating under?

In March GWR's EMA was extended to June 2021, and that was noted at the time. They also got a new two-year direct award, but suspended while the EMA was in force. We also noted that when SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) got a new National Rail Contract in May, nothing was said about the soon-to-expire GWR EMA.

In their notice of results for the half-year to September 2021, First Group summarise their position thus:

In the period both SWR and TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express) commenced operating under new National Rail Contracts which run to 2023 with potential extensions to 2025. Discussions are ongoing with DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) regarding the GWR and West Coast Partnership (incorporating Avanti) National Rail Contracts, with expected durations of up to six and ten years respectively (during the period the current pandemic-related emergency arrangements on these contracts were extended to March and October 2022 respectively).

I can find no trace on-line of the re-extension of the GWR EMA, but some details of a new direct award surfaced in a tender notice. Presumably that would be a National Rail Contract.

[grahame]

The Saturday fiction timetable is an inefficient one.  As well as the shuttle train going up and down all day, there are two extra runs - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.   The morning one ran and the afternoon one is - at the moment - anyone's guess.

Now - TransWilts is very much about the general traffic for the area, and for these two exceptional "holiday" days of 1st and 2nd January, a pre-planned service comprising just those two round trips, and a further late afternoon / early evening one, would have been understood and "saleable".  A service that's anyone's guess, though, is not marketable and seems designed to discourage!

If only it had been preplanned, what "we" ended up with yesterday would have been marketable.



I also give you that we do not have a huge raft of cancellations on JourneyCheck today.  What has changed overnight??

[Timmer]

I also give you that we do not have a huge raft of cancellations on JourneyCheck today.  What has changed overnight??

A look back on this forum over the years will show that New Year’s day has often been a poor day for traincrew shortages, covid or no covid.

[grahame]

From my mailbox:

I don't understand how GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) work a timetable out.

Today is a Bank Holiday so every direct train Westbury to Swindon is running with no cancellations.

Tomorrow when everyone is back from holidays they change the timetable to a service like last week. Complete utter madness.

I don't understand either - can anyone here explain?

Base data:

Today (public holiday)


Tomorrow  (work day)


A correspondent tells me of just a few passengers on the 07:52 this morning - not a great surprise on a bank holiday for what is essentially a "work flow" train.

[ChrisB]

Thinner timetable, fewer trains, nonpeaks, running. Therefore more crew available