Major changes - mid February

[whole diary]

[grahame]

I found this little gem at National Rail - hadn't seen any publicity.


Edit to add - 18th February 2023 to 2nd March - so weekday services affected from 20th to 24th February and 27th February to 2nd March, we believe

Engineering work is taking place between Theale and Bedwyn all week and also between Reading West and Theale from 20:05 until 05:05 each morning, closing some lines.

As a result the following amendments will apply:

Monday to Friday (all day)
Trains between London Paddington and Plymouth / Penzance will divert between Reading and Taunton (via Bristol Temple Meads, most calling). They will depart London Paddington and Reading earlier than normal.
Trains between London Paddington and Exeter St David's / Paignton / Plymouth which normally call at Newbury, Hungerford and Pewsey will divert between Reading and Westbury (via Swindon). They will not call at Newbury, Hungerford and Pewsey. Most will depart London Paddington and Reading later than normal.
Some trains will call additionally at Swindon and some trains will not run.
Some trains between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads (and beyond) will extend to run to / from Paignton / Plymouth / Penzance
Most local services between Swindon and Westbury will not run. Trains that do run will be retimed.
 
Monday to Friday until 20:00
Trains between London Paddington and Newbury will call additionally at Reading West and will terminate at Theale.
Most trains between Reading and Newbury will not run.
Trains between Newbury and Bedwyn will not run.
 
Monday to Friday after 20:00
Trains between London Paddington and Newbury / Bedwyn will start / terminate at Reading.
Trains between Reading and Newbury and also between Newbury and Bedwyn will not run.
 
Rail replacement buses will run between:
Reading and Newbury / Bedwyn
Theale and Bedwyn (calling at Thatcham, Newbury, Kintbury and Hungerford)
Theale and Newbury (calling at all stations)
Chippenham and Westbury (calling at Melksham and Trowbridge)
 
Check before you travel:
You can plan your journey using the National Rail Enquiries Journey Planner

Replacement Bus Travel Advice:
For helpful advice if you need to travel on a rail replacement service, including accessibility and bicycle information, please use this page.
You can find the location of your bus replacement by checking station signs or by searching for your station on our station information pages.

For Melksham it seems to reduced our train service to
05:07, 08:09 and 19:07 to Swindon
06:13 to Southampton
18:11 to Westbury

[WSW Frome]

Note that this information is for 20-24 FEBRUARY 2023

[bobm]

Note that this information is for 20-24 FEBRUARY 2023

According to the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) website there is work from 18th February to 2nd March - so weekday services affected from 20th to 24th February and 27th February to 2nd March.

[grahame]

Note that this information is for 20-24 FEBRUARY 2023

According to the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) website there is work from 18th February to 2nd March - so weekday services affected from 20th to 24th February and 27th February to 2nd March.

Note that this information is for 20-24 FEBRUARY 2023

Yep - I am seeing two sets of details which look the same for each of the weeks on National Rail.  Title of thread says "mid February" but I will go back and edit original post to put it at the top of the message too for clarity

[grahame]

Press release from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)

Rail improvement work in the Newbury area will affect trains between Swindon and Westbury for 13-day period.

Great Western Railway (GWR) is warning that planned engineering work in the Newbury area will affect the TransWilts Line for 13 days from Saturday.

From Saturday 18 February to Thursday 2 March, Network Rail will carry out track renewals in the Newbury area which will have knock-on consequences for rail services between Swindon and Westbury.

Non-stop trains between Swindon and Westbury will continue to operate but these will run at different times to normal. Buses will however replace the majority of trains between Chippenham and Trowbridge.

Weekend services will continue to run, but trains will depart at different times to normal and customers should check carefully before travelling.

GWR Regional Station Manager Tom Butler thanked passengers in advance for their patience and advised them to plan ahead before travelling. He said:

“These works are essential to maintaining and improving the railway but we understand the consequences this will have on our customer’s journeys and we thank them for their patience during this time.

“We strongly encourage passengers to check their journey beforehand as services will either be replaced by buses or run at different times to normal.”

On completion of these works, further weekend closures will continue to take place on Sunday 5 March, the weekend of 11/12 March as well as the full Easter weekend from Friday 7 to Monday 10 April.

Network Rail project manager Bradley Wallace said:

“The upgrades between Reading and Westbury will help secure the future of an important route that links Reading to the south west and ensure passengers and freight continue to enjoy safe and reliable journeys.

“There is never a good time to close the railway but working over a short period removes the need for long-term interruption.

“We’re grateful to passengers and our lineside neighbours for their patience and understanding during this time and we’re working closely with GWR to ensure passengers can still make their journeys with a rail replacement bus service.”

Further information on these engineering works can be found at GWR.com/Newbury

I note that the non-stop trains from Swindon to Westbury and vice versa take only a few minutes longer that the normal stopping train.  Passengers  these parts would have preferred a train service to a bus, even if it meant that train being a different time to normal, and the London departure time had to be advanced by a further five minutes or so.

I also note that these works are not about improving the Swindon to Westbury line, where we still await the provision of proper capacity over and above the basic railway of 40 years ago.

[ChrisB]

Press release from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)

Rail improvement work in the Newbury area will affect trains between Swindon and Westbury for 13-day period.

Non-stop trains between Swindon and Westbury will continue to operate but these will run at different times to normal. Buses will however replace the majority of trains between Chippenham and Trowbridge.

I seem to be missing something. Non-stop trains will *continue* to run? Really? They do at the moment? Do they mean *stopping* (at Melksham) per chance?

[grahame]

Press release from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)

Rail improvement work in the Newbury area will affect trains between Swindon and Westbury for 13-day period.

Non-stop trains between Swindon and Westbury will continue to operate but these will run at different times to normal. Buses will however replace the majority of trains between Chippenham and Trowbridge.

I seem to be missing something. Non-stop trains will *continue* to run? Really? They do at the moment? Do they mean *stopping* (at Melksham) per chance?

Engineering works at Newbury.    Semi-fast trains from London via Westbury will be calling at Swindon in Lieu of Pewsey "Continue" is not-really as they are different trains.   There are still a couple or local TRAINS too.

[ChrisB]

So what GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) *really* mean is that non-stop trains will continue to run between *Reading* & Westbury with a Swindon stop in lieu of stops at Pewsey....