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

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

16:35 Westbury to Swindon due 17:17 will be cancelled.
This is due to industrial action.
17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25 will be cancelled.
18:40 Westbury to Swindon due 19:26 will be cancelled.
19:44 Swindon to Westbury due 20:25 will be cancelled.

20:08 Westbury to Swindon due 20:54
20:08 Westbury to Swindon due 20:54 will be cancelled.
This is due to industrial action.

[grahame]

From The Sham Shoutouts - this is an example of why it's so hard for the railways here about to maintain their passenger numbers at the moment:

5 out of 8 train journeys from Melksham this year cancelled and needing refunds. Absolute joke. Will not be bothering with the trains again.

[Mark A]

It's as if there are core routes e.g. London to Bristol that are more shielded from cancellations - but others that are further down the priority list - and the Transwilts is bitten both by staff availability and inadequate infrastructure.

It's really good that the trains are there but since the tenth anniversary has just been toasted, does anyone know what a graph of the reliability would look like over the last decade, and if there's a downward trend is this related to increasing amounts of freight, need for diversions or something more subtle?

At the gathering yesterday at Westbury, it was good to talk with a career railway person with perspective back to 1976, someone who just possibly held a position on the pros and cons of the one time practice of having a couple of train crew spare at any time - a provision for resilience that's long gone, being frowned upon by the accountants of the privatised railway. Also, the days, admittedly in a less crowded timetable, when cancelling a service was really frowned on and resulted in an immediate summoning to travel a considerable distance to set foot on a range of possible carpets.

Mark

[grahame]

18:27 Frome to Swindon due 19:34

18:27 Frome to Swindon due 19:34 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Frome.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[TaplowGreen]

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

[bobm]

From The Sham Shoutouts - this is an example of why it's so hard for the railways here about to maintain their passenger numbers at the moment:

5 out of 8 train journeys from Melksham this year cancelled and needing refunds. Absolute joke. Will not be bothering with the trains again.

Interesting the header of their Facebook page says, in capitals, “please no naming or shaming of individuals or businesses”

[grahame]

Interesting the header of their Facebook page says, in capitals, “please no naming or shaming of individuals or businesses”

Great minds think alike, Bob - I had picked that up too.  I decided to let it be rather than follow up - positive post in many places to follow.

[brooklea]

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

Showing as reinstated by 08:00

[grahame]

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Again?

[grahame]

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Again?

Here are a couple of (overlapping) logs from Recent Time Trains which show this train's performance and also the performance of the one before it:



I have chosen 10 weeks of data - because there should have been 50 services and it makes the numbers easy to work with.    I think there have been 2 weekday strike and on one of them the earlier service actually ran (or at least remained in the timetable.  So from a customer viewpoint, the train ran 38 times out of 50 - or a 76% record.

Whenever we ask about performance issues, we are given short term reasons for the problems, assured they are overcome, and we are told to look at longer data.  So here is the report, I believe as long as I can go, for six months:



104 ran out of 126 ... we know that there were at least 3 and probably more like 5 or 6 strike days in there, so the longest term performance I can quote is still under 80% - so not a new problem, then, but the autumn has been if anything a little worse than the summer.  We need long term fixes, and not platitudes about what went wrong last week!

[grahame]

And - oh look - the following train has been cancelled.

20:13 Swindon to Westbury due 20:58

20:13 Swindon to Westbury due 20:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Remind me - is there still industrial action ongoing?

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05 will be started from Swindon.
It will no longer call at Westbury, Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Will be formed of 2 coaches instead of 3.

[bobm]

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05 will be started from Swindon.
It will no longer call at Westbury, Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Will be formed of 2 coaches instead of 3.

20:13 Swindon to Westbury due 20:58

20:13 Swindon to Westbury due 20:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

..and just to note Graham has passed 40,000 posts - although not all on this thread and its predecessors!

[grahame]

..and just to note Graham has passed 40,000 posts - although not all on this thread and its predecessors!

Yeah - I knew that was coming and it's just under 12% of the forum content.  I wonder if that's excessive and at times moderate my posting though a lot of my activity relates to acting as the roving reporter, quoting with little or no comment from wider sources, and some posts relate to the admin / webmaster tasks. 

Edit to add ...
10,000 include quotes from external sources
13,000 do not include quotes at all

[brooklea]

And - oh look - the following train has been cancelled.

20:13 Swindon to Westbury due 20:58

20:13 Swindon to Westbury due 20:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

And so as to restore equilibrium…

18:37 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[TaplowGreen]

Cancellations to services between Westbury and Swindon

Due to a shortage of train crew between Westbury and Swindon fewer trains are able to run.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled or revised. Melksham will not be served. Disruption is expected until 21:00 11/12.
Customer Advice
-

Please be advised that owing to a shortage of train crew we have a large gap in service for customers travelling to/from Melksham this evening.

-

The next rail service to run to Melksham will be the 21:16 Westbury to Swindon service. The following services are not calling at Melksham today:
- The 18:37 Westbury to Swindon service which is cancelled.
- The 17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury service which terminates at Swindon.
- The 20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa service which terminates at Swindon.
- The 20:13 Swindon to Westbury service which is cancelled.