2023 - Train update and amendment log - Swindon <-> Westbury

[whole diary]

[grahame]

And how many travellers would have seen the extended journey time & gone by car?

Good question.  Over 10 to 15 minutes, I suspect very few.

P.S. I suspect the extra reliability of the train service being a little thinner would more than compensate for the extra time - in other words I suspect that the published timetable would much more accurately reflect what was actually achieved!

[TaplowGreen]

I think it's probably also fair to reflect (if no-one has pointed this out already!) that train gets into Penzance pretty late when on time, with no doubt passengers counting on making connections in Devon/Cornwall and elsewhere which if missed late at night could lead to all sorts of problems - it was already 20 mins late.

I wonder how that stacks up against passengers for Melksham getting off at Trowbridge and getting a bus/taxi back late afternoon which seems a much more minor inconvenience perhaps than trying to do same at (for example Redruth or Hayle) late at night?

[grahame]

I think it's probably also fair to reflect (if no-one has pointed this out already!) that train gets into Penzance pretty late when on time, with no doubt passengers counting on making connections in Devon/Cornwall and elsewhere which if missed late at night could lead to all sorts of problems - it was already 20 mins late.

I wonder how that stacks up against passengers for Melksham getting off at Trowbridge and getting a bus/taxi back late afternoon which seems a much more minor inconvenience perhaps than trying to do same at (for example Redruth or Hayle) late at night?

And how many travellers would have seen the extended journey time & gone by car?

The GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) trains routed via Melksham during these engineering works are the semi-fast services - looking at tomorrow, there are 2 services from Paddington to Taunton, one to Exeter St Davids, two to Paignton and one to Plymouth.

I very much expect that passengers headed from London at Reading to Taunton and beyond will be travelling on the expresses, through Bristol, this fortnight

So I don't think there's an issue for Camborne or Hayle passengers, nor for Passengers from Penzance and stations to Taunton being any later into London. And if they're concerned at journey time, they'll choose the faster service that doesn't call at Westbury or Castle Cary anyway, won't they?   

Point worth asking TaplowGreen, but I don't think / understand there's a problem.   GWR might agree with you, because they seem to cancel the Swindon to Westbury service far more often than anything else; I have waited 90 minutes at Trowbridge when they have to provide a taxi ... we really feel like third class customers at times, though my use of Hayle has been more limited and I'm not sure if I have used Camborne more than twice.

Edit to correct typo

[GBM]

and I'm not sure if I have used Camborne more than twice.

Can't have been a Wednesday then 

[TaplowGreen]

05:50 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07

05:50 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07 will be started from Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Swindon.
This is due to a late running freight train.

[grahame]

05:50 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07

05:50 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07 will be started from Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Swindon.
This is due to a late running freight train.

Thanks for that ... I note also that the 04:53 Westbury to Swindon left Westbury on time, Trowbridge 12 minutes late, Melksham 25 minutes late and terminated at Chippenham.   Not the day's busiest train even at its normal time of 05:17 from Westbury ...

The return train (flagged above) started from Chippenham at 06:05, sat (as timetabled) at Westbury for 26 minutes - all times in the timetable.  Passengers who normally use it at 06:11 to reach Westbury at 06:53 would have been disappointed - turning up at Swindon to catch an earlier 05:50 to reach Westbury at 06:30. They would have travelled today from Swindon at 06:20, Bath 06:47 to 06:58 and arrived Westbury at 07:26.  Only an hour late on a 40 minute journey and adding insult to injury by having turned up 20 minutes earlier than normal just to be delayed ... late for work in Westbury (yes, there are regulars) and no immediate onward service to Warminster and Salisbury.

I note from Real Time Trains that no less that 12 (freight) trains had passed through Melksham even earlier in the morning - a long, long way from the sleepy backwater days of the latter half of the last century - it's time to have Two Tracks Now

[bobm]

There is a bit of an irony here.

I had a meeting today at Westbury at 10:30 and due to finish at 12:30. 

With rail replacement during the day I had already decided to take the on-line option.   However had I bothered to check the timetable there was a diverted service from Swindon which arrived at 10:24 - ideal for the meeting and one back at 12:50.   Both better suited than the usual timetable.

The added irony - the online technology failed and the meeting was ultimately cancelled.

[bobm]

They say things come in threes.

That 12:50 from Westbury is still sitting at the platform (13:30) due to an axle counter failure at Thingley Junction.

[grahame]

05:50 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07

05:50 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:07 has been delayed at Chippenham and is now 10 minutes late.
This is due to a late running freight train.

10 late from Chippenham from today's timetable ... which is 10 minutes early against the normal timetable.  Back on normal schedule from Westbury - though you wouldn't think do from the Journeycheck forecast (I hope no-one spent an extra 10 minutes at home in Warminster before going to catch it!). Realtime trains is a better forecast.

[grahame]

07:53 Westbury to Swindon due 08:36 has been delayed between Trowbridge and Melksham and is now 19 minutes late.

This is due to a late running freight train.

Isn't timekeeping of passenger trains prioritised over timekeeping of freights 

[bobm]

The problem with freights is there are fewer places these days where they can be "put inside" to allow other trains to pass.

The problems this morning seem to centre around a stone train from Whatley Quarry which left nearly two hours late and then lost more time on its way through Westbury.   It reached the single line just before 7.45 by which time another freight was heading towards Chippenham on the main line.  It was left standing at Thingley for five minutes waiting for the stone train to clear.   This meant the line towards Bath was blocked while the freight waited for the road. (You can run reversible past the junction but that severely reduces capacity).

Of course at the other end of the line the TransWilts train was past Trowbridge and waiting at Bradford Junction for the southbound freight - itself blocking the route to the Avon Valley line.  It finally got underway after being delayed by 20 minutes.

So the root cause was letting the stone train depart nearly two hours late.  However what is the alternative?  Hold it for longer?  That might impact on crew availability and block up the quarry with a stranded train which might then prevent an incoming service from getting clear of the main line.

Double tracking the line through Melksham would obviously help, as would more loops to put freights away.   It is also worth noting that each end of the single line is controlled by different signallers.  It must be hard to co-ordinate services when large distances and travelling times are involved.

[grahame]

I agree with what you say, Bob - and thanks for the analysis and reports too.  Perhaps we need to look wider for solutions?

The problem with freights is there are fewer places these days where they can be "put inside" to allow other trains to pass.

Yep!

So the root cause was letting the stone train depart nearly two hours late.  However what is the alternative?  Hold it for longer?  That might impact on crew availability and block up the quarry with a stranded train which might then prevent an incoming service from getting clear of the main line.

On an immediate on-the-day viewpoint, your questions are the right ones.  I don't know if a delayed train could have been sent through Frome station and paused on a loop there, or been held aside at Westbury, or what the effect of doing so would have been wider I don't know.    But that is just immediate.

Question - what are the commercial penalties for late running and price reductions for being prompt on freight operators?   Is the system set up for it to make financial sense for them to invest in making sure they can run on time?

The line from Trowbridge to Chippenham overloads time and time and time again, and promises have been made to improve things - firstly with an intermediate signal, then with improvements for when Box tunnel was being done, then with extra capacity in conjunction with HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) construction traffic. Question - When will any of these promises (or a new one) actually be kept?

Double tracking the line through Melksham would obviously help, as would more loops to put freights away.   It is also worth noting that each end of the single line is controlled by different signallers.  It must be hard to co-ordinate services when large distances and travelling times are involved.

Double track ... or loops ... perhaps signals ... perhaps even extra crossovers ... perhaps an ability to run late freight trains with a reversal at Bathampton (like they do with passenger trains that are due to call at Melksham!).

I'm aware I don't always have much time for people who shout "something must be done" as I am doing. But my main criticism of those people tends to be because they don't have any suggestions as to how that something can be done.   I feel we have been making suggestions until we're blue in the face.    Come on - great to hear of "Reversing Beeching" planning, but please put shovels in the ground and sort out the issues with existing routes and stations too.

[IndustryInsider]

There just seems to be so much freight at the moment on the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) and the various lines that feed in to it.  They all have legitimate paths of course, but are much more likely to be delayed than passenger trains and so can cause havoc quite quickly.

It is certainly reaching the point on the Melksham branch where a passing loop (just to the south or north of the station ideally) and/or intermediate signals are becoming a real necessity.

[ReWind]

The Mendip quarry trains that usually traverse the B&H^▸ (Berks and Hants - railway line from Reading to Taunton via Westbury) route via Newbury to get to Acton and beyond are having to be sent via Melksham and Swindon instead due to the 2 week blockade on the B&H.  The quarries are still running a full, usual service for their customers, as their customers have paid for this and FL have paid the relevant track access fees to NR^» (Network Rail - home page).

The trouble is, these stone train run as class 6 & class 7 trains, so they are long, heavy, slow freight trains.  Going via the normal route (Newbury), they would normally be recessed in either Woodborough or Hungerford Goods Loops, to allow the passenger traffic to pass then continue their journey in the next free gap.  The route via Swindon does not have any Goods Loops between Westbury and Swindon.  With GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) still running a normal timetable for fasts between Bristol/Bath and London, along with a normal timetable of cross Wiltshire services between Bath & Westbury, these freights haven’t the lengthy gaps between passenger traffic to unaffect passenger trains, as they do via Newbury where (until you reach Newbury and beyond), passenger traffic is less frequent to that on the Box route.  So end result, passenger train catches up with freight train, delays start occurring, missed paths on the single line through Melksham and once that ball starts rolling, it’s unlikely to stop that day.

The Mendip quarries have an increase of work coming this summer, with further new, freight services planned for Gloucester, Oxford, Appleford and Thorney Mill.  There is definitely an argument to installing a recess loop at Thingley, to allow freights to recess off the main line, whilst waiting access to the single line.  A typical shift for a Merehead based driver on an Acton/Hanwell and back turn is 11 hours.  Add in the delays this week, and many drivers have been working 12 - 13 hour shifts on this route.  It is not a sustainable way to operate.  The quarry traffic isn’t going no where anytime soon so investment is definitely needed in the Westbury and Chippenham areas to recess freight accordingly.

[grahame]

Here you go ... yesterday morning, trains that ran through Melksham. 

Merehead Quarry (Fhh) 6A91 Hanwell Bridge Loop 0003½ 2357½
Merehead Quarry (Fhh) 6E46 Hitchin Engineers Sdgs 0040 0034¾
Merehead Quarry (Fhh) 7A93 Hanwell Bridge Loop 0050½ 0015¾
Whatley Quarry F Liner Hh 6A71 Hanwell Bridge Loop 0127½ 0114
London Paddington 1C50 Penzance 0150 0157½
Bescot Up Engineers Sdgs 6V46 Westbury Down T.C.  0218 0217¾
Penzance 1A50 London Paddington 0233½ 0235¼
Wembley Receptions 1-7 7V23 Merehead Quarry (Fhh) 0252 0252¾
Colnbrook Foster Yeoman Fh 6C81 Merehead Quarry (Fhh) 0328 0314½
Dagenham Dock A.R.C.  6V24 Whatley Quarry F Liner Hh 0354½ 0333¼
Merehead Quarry (Fhh) 7A22 Brentford Town Days Flhh 0415 0352¾
Whatley Quarry F Liner Hh 6A15 Appleford Fhh 0451½ 0524½
Westbury 2M09 Swindon 0509 0509
Swindon 2O20 Southampton Central 0615 0615½
Plymouth 1A70 Reading 0703 0704½
Westbury 2M13 Swindon 0809 0809
Westbury Down T.C.  0M50 Bescot Up Engineers Sdgs 0826½ 0822¼
Plymouth 1J74 London Paddington 0912½ 0913¾
London Paddington 1C75 Paignton 1010 1010¼
Whatley Quarry F Liner Hh 6A60 Oxford Banbury Road (Flhh) 1041½ 1036¼
Plymouth 1A77 London Paddington 1108½ 1103¾
Whatley Quarry F Liner Hh 6Z16 Appleford Fhh 1112½ 1118½
Whatley Quarry F Liner Hh 6M20 Churchyard Sdgs (Flhh) 1129 1147½
London Paddington 1C77 Taunton 1210 1216