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Author Topic: 2022 - TransWilts cancellations and amendments log  (Read 44665 times)
grahame
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« Reply #330 on: August 21, 2022, 21:27:20 »

I actually looked at taking the 1426 today. I didn't, not because it was cancelled, but because it sits around at Westbury pointlessly, ....


Hmmm ... it  arrives at 14:41 and leaves at 14:52, providing a connection off the 14:46 arrival from Exeter.    Well - in theory at least as the train from Exeter didn't arrive until 45 seconds after the Swindon train had left from the adjacent platform.

With nice juicy junctions at both ends,  it's a compromise and the choice is made to wait until the train from Exeter is in sight; from Swindon, the main onward connection is to London.  The South Wales connections especially are a bit random, and routings from the TransWilts tend to be via Bath Spa - "via Swidon" isn't even a valid route from Melksham to Bristol Parkway, even though it's very much faster than going via Bath Spa.

Quote
... only to miss the Swansea and Cheltenham connections at Swindon by minutes – whoever does the timetable should change this to have it do a sensible two-minute stop at Westbury instead and get to Swindon at a useful time. The train two hours later is just as bad. ...

A perpetual nightmare for timetabling and one we have had great fun "playing" with over the years.   Basically, Swindon and Westbury aren't synchronised so it's going to be random at one end or the other.

Looks like common sense ... perhaps we should use this sort of thing to inform our friends in Salisbury that it can be done

10 late and 9 late off Swindon, about 5 minutes after the arrival of a connection from London.

8 late into Westbury, no connections there failed (it was schedule in just a few minutes after the Portsmouth train had left anyway) - so all made sense.
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grahame
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« Reply #331 on: August 22, 2022, 06:09:56 »

Quote
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05
Facilities on the 20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Will be formed of 2 coaches instead of 3.

Unlikely to be a problem with 2 rather than 3 carriages ... but the mind boggles (or at least mine does) as to how train crew shortage might cause the issue ... for sure, such a problem could occur if they're short of service / maintenance staff to have a three car train available ...
« Last Edit: August 22, 2022, 06:31:49 by grahame » Logged

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« Reply #332 on: August 22, 2022, 09:30:47 »

Goodness knows, Graham.  There’s no additional internal information that I can help you with.  Another random overnight journeycheck entry.  And also one that’ll not be an issue at all at that time of evening I expect?
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grahame
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« Reply #333 on: August 22, 2022, 09:33:47 »

Goodness knows, Graham.  There’s no additional internal information that I can help you with.  Another random overnight journeycheck entry.  And also one that’ll not be an issue at all at that time of evening I expect?

 Grin Grin
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jamestheredengine
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« Reply #334 on: August 22, 2022, 14:15:58 »

I actually looked at taking the 1426 today. I didn't, not because it was cancelled, but because it sits around at Westbury pointlessly, ....


Hmmm ... it  arrives at 14:41 and leaves at 14:52, providing a connection off the 14:46 arrival from Exeter.    Well - in theory at least as the train from Exeter didn't arrive until 45 seconds after the Swindon train had left from the adjacent platform.

This is actually another instance of the previous train being much, much better: it comes from Weymouth, and therefore already serves Castle Cary and Bruton. This allows the Taunton/Exeter connection to happen at Castle Cary, which is a bit easier to stop fast trains at than Westbury. It's a shame that this train is an oddball in being a Trans-Wilts with a Castle Cary call, as it's useful to have that extra option.

Quote
With nice juicy junctions at both ends,  it's a compromise and the choice is made to wait until the train from Exeter is in sight; from Swindon, the main onward connection is to London.  The South Wales connections especially are a bit random, and routings from the TransWilts tend to be via Bath Spa - "via Swidon" isn't even a valid route from Melksham to Bristol Parkway, even though it's very much faster than going via Bath Spa.

This is fundamentally an issue of the Routeing Guide being a mess. Bristol Group is a bit of a nonsense as a routeing point and should be replaced by having Temple Meads and Parkway as separate routeing points. Fixing the Routeing Guide like this ought to be easier than explaining to passengers that Bristol Parkway is pronounced "Severn Tunnel Junction".

And even though the main connection in volume is London Paddington, those trains are so frequent that that connection scarcely needs planning – there are relatively few long gaps in eastbound onward service at Swindon. The ones heading west and north-west are much more sensitive to small timing adjustments.

Routeings via Bath Spa are unattractive for a couple of reasons. As well as being very slow, it's also very crowded, and the trains that continue to Cardiff don't have First Class. The combination of a train calling at Bristol Temple Meads and being Standard Class only is not one I'm personally comfortable with travelling on if I can possibly avoid it. At least if my destination is Temple Meads itself, I can wait for Cross Country at Bristol Parkway.

Quote
Quote
... only to miss the Swansea and Cheltenham connections at Swindon by minutes – whoever does the timetable should change this to have it do a sensible two-minute stop at Westbury instead and get to Swindon at a useful time. The train two hours later is just as bad. ...

A perpetual nightmare for timetabling and one we have had great fun "playing" with over the years.   Basically, Swindon and Westbury aren't synchronised so it's going to be random at one end or the other.

Definitely something I'll have a play with to at least understand the issues better. I certainly noticed with the timetable on my outward journey that there were intervals with very poor connections at both Swindon and Westbury – in particular, the 1514 from Swindon on a weekday gets to Westbury when there's a gap of over an hour and a half in onward services – it would be much more use from a Westbury-focussed perspective for that train to run half an hour earlier. The previous train at 1315 isn't good when it gets to Westbury either, but there's not a lot that could be done to improve that one. It looks like the rot begins to set in with the 1147 arrival at Westbury waiting for not one, but two connections from Salisbury and Warminster before heading back to Swindon, making the rest of the day run 20 minutes later at a stroke. But then again it predictably looks like the freight paths around that time are at particularly unhelpful times.
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grahame
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« Reply #335 on: August 24, 2022, 08:45:08 »

Dubious as to whether to log this under "TransWilts" - it's a delay on one of the more distant extensions.   The train is one of the busier ones into Swindon, where most people leave it and (during school terms) it fills up with school / college traffic to Stroud; the third filling is people from Kemble, Stroud and Stonehouse into Gloucester.

Quote
06:35 Salisbury to Cheltenham Spa due 09:03

06:35 Salisbury to Cheltenham Spa due 09:03 is being delayed between Stonehouse and Gloucester.
This is due to trespassers on the railway.
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grahame
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« Reply #336 on: August 24, 2022, 09:17:40 »

Dubious as to whether to log this under "TransWilts"...

Even more dubious as it's turned out to have extended the running time from Standish Junction (where it was 2 minutes early) into Gloucester (where it was 1 minute late [shock, horror  Grin]) ... good ole JourneyCheck!
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grahame
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« Reply #337 on: August 24, 2022, 10:36:26 »

Definitely something I'll have a play with to at least understand the issues better ...

Very interesting information / thoughts / comments.  I'm just quoting a tiny part, but very much with you on much of the rest.  Needs much more than just a thread to sort it out and there are people there with the knowledge - just that they are constrained in all sorts of ways - financial, practical, administrative and political as well as there probably not being enough of them.

The head can end up hurting around some of the connectional issues on and off the TransWilts, and so much of the time it comes down to compromises and, yes, pathing of freight ... and of mainline trains on the tracks, and of crossover movements too where trains from Westbury onto and off the single line have to make that movement in a gap between main line trains coming the other way.

Starting with the 15:14 off Swindon. That train (or its near-equivalent) in the early days of the improved TransWilts services from 2014 was a "lemon" - a poor performer - and has been tweaked to make it, now, a good performer.  In particular, it calls at Chippenham at a time that it can pick up educational traffic from there and it now arrives at Westbury making a perfect (when running to timetable) connection into the Portsmouth service.  I am aware that it misses the timetabled service to Paignton by an irritatingly few minutes at Westbury - but running it 10 minutes earlier to make that connection would ...
* Miss the Chippenham education traffic
* Irritate the people heading on to Warminster and beyond due to extended connection
* Give a very tight turn around at Swindon off the incoming train
* Send the Swindon departure out very close (too close?) ahead of a Cardiff train
* Platforming changes at WSB» (Westbury - next trains) needed as it arrives at the platform just vacated by PGN
* Tighten a connection from Cheltenham at Swindon and make it less reliable
* Cause an issue with 2 freight paths over the single line (not avail until 15:30)
... and I think it's probably a "do not touch" service, in spite of missing the train westwards at Westbury by an irritatingly short margin.

I have "majored" on the 15:14 simply because it's a case I know well. I could look at each other service. And we could do the same sort of thing on the Westbury to Weymouth service too.  Noting that passengers from Chippenham and Melksham flow mainly towards Salisbury (at Westbury) and towards Bristol (from Melksham, at Trowbridge), the randomness of connections to Weymouth is to be regretted, but not prioritised in general (though they might be for day trip services) connections to the Heart of Wessex.  Similarly passengers from Weymouth, Yeovil and Frome typically carry on to Bath and Bristol rather than to Chippenham and Swindon.

Now - those irritating service gaps of over 2 hours. The single train tootling up and down arrives in Swindon at 08:15 and on a 2 hour cycle would set off back at 08:30 ... later return trains at times like 14:30, 16:30 and 18:30 - so you would loose the 15:14 and the traffic that generates and the 17:36 for "9 to 5" folks returning home. I appreciate that post-pandemic "9 to 5" is especially reduced, but I don't like the idea of going 2 hour clockface on Monday to Friday.  Add a second train into the cycle, a loop on the single line section, and we'll go clockface please - from Westbury at :16 into Swindon at :01, and from Swindon at :13 into Westbury at :58 ... that's a dynamic loop from just north of Melksham Station to Lacock or just short of Thingley Junction.
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grahame
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« Reply #338 on: August 26, 2022, 05:20:38 »

Quote
06:35 Salisbury to Cheltenham Spa due 09:03

26/08/22 06:35 Salisbury to Cheltenham Spa due 09:03 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Salisbury and Warminster.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
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grahame
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« Reply #339 on: August 27, 2022, 07:37:13 »

Quote
15:05 Westbury to Swindon due 15:49
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.
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grahame
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« Reply #340 on: August 27, 2022, 13:21:54 »

Added information

Quote
Additional Information
Sorry for the disruption to your journey today.

Passengers from Westbury and Trowbridge are advised to await the next GWR (Great Western Railway) service towards Bath Spa and then change there for services towards Chippenham and Swindon.
Depart Westbury at 15:12, Trowbridge 15:18, arrive Bath Spa at 15:36.
Change there, for the 15:43 GWR service to London Paddington, arriving Chippenham 15:54 and Swindon 16:08.

Passengers For Melksham: please await the 15:12 GWR departure from Westbury to Cardiff Central. Get off the train at Trowbridge and change there for replacement taxis to Melksham.
Please check the stations Onward Travel Information poster and wait for the replacement road transport at the designated stop.

Passengers from Melksham: Replacement road transport has been arranged to run in lieu of part of this train service to Chippenham. Change at Chippenham for connections to Swindon.

so that's 16:08 v 15:49 arrival from passengers from Westbury and Trowbridge into Swindon, with a change on the way.

I'm noting that the 15:05 from Westbury is no longer offered on the GWR booking site (good), but the fare being offered on the alternative 15:12 is £17.00 rather than the £8.50 via Melksham fare. Very naughty of GWR to charge a higher fare when they cancel the train - especially when they have promised us that people can travel via Bath at via Melksham fares in these circumstances.

Quote
Additional Information
Sorry for the disruption to your journey today.

Passengers from Swindon and Chippenham are advised to await the next service towards Bath Spa and then change there for services towards Trowbridge and Westbury.
Depart Swindon at 16:29, Chippenham at 16:41, arriving at Bath Spa at 16:52.
Change there for the 17:03 GWR service towards Weymouth, arriving at Trowbridge at 17:24 and Westbury at 17:32.

Passengers For Melksham: please await the 16:22 GWR departure from Swindon for Weston super Mare. Get off the train at Chippenham and change there for replacement taxis to Melksham.
Please check the stations Onward Travel Information poster and wait for the replacement road transport at the designated stop.

Passengers from Melksham: Replacement road transport has been arranged to run in lieu of part of this train service to Trowbridge. Change at Trowbridge for connections to Westbury.

so that's 17:32 v 16:44 arrival from passengers from Swindon and Chippenham into Westbury, with a change on the way.

« Last Edit: August 27, 2022, 13:31:17 by grahame » Logged

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« Reply #341 on: August 30, 2022, 15:52:41 »

Quote
15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:58
15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Additional Information
Road transport has been requested to run in place of this train. Calling at:

Swindon (departs station front at 15:20)
Chippenham (departs station front at 15:51)
Melksham (departs station car park at 16:08)
Trowbridge (departs station car park adjacent to platform 1 at 16:21)
Westbury (arrives 16:33).

Misses the 16:03 connection to Salisbury and beyond  at Westbury, so arrival there will be an hour late.
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« Reply #342 on: August 31, 2022, 06:31:13 »

Quote
06:35 Salisbury to Cheltenham Spa due 09:03

06:35 Salisbury to Cheltenham Spa due 09:03 will be cancelled.
This is due to a problem currently under investigation.

No alternative offered.  This is one of the line's "key trains" (I don't always point that out as it would get boring).  No suggestion to use the bus; still waiting for arrangements which we have promised are being discussed are actually implemented. (I don't always point that out as it would get boring)
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« Reply #343 on: August 31, 2022, 06:34:47 »

Now reinstated from Westbury northwards.
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grahame
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« Reply #344 on: August 31, 2022, 14:20:31 »

Now reinstated from Westbury northwards.

But two more cancelled

Quote
14:16 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01
15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:58

15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.
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