2024 - Service update and amendment log, Swindon <-> Westbury

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Delays to services between Westbury and Bruton

Due to a safety inspection of the track between Westbury and Bruton trains have to run at reduced speed on the line towards Castle Cary.
Train services running through these stations may be delayed. Disruption is expected until 10:00 07/09.
Customer Advice
Due to a safety inspection on the track, trains are running at reduced speed.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused to your journey today.

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05
17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:18
18:35 Westbury to Swindon due 19:17
19:44 Swindon to Westbury due 20:25

19:44 Swindon to Westbury due 20:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[grahame]

Off to Weymouth today - last Saturday day trip of the season, and indeed it may be the last through day trip run by First Great Western (still the company name behind the marketing title of "Great Western Railway" which belongs to HMG)



It promises to be a "First Class" day - there's an "unacceptable" gap in late afternoon and early evening trains back into Melksham - but of course whilst I say "unacceptable" we have no choice but to accept it today.

First Great Western, like many other train operating companies, have struggled to provide the service that they have promised - not just to Melksham (I'm writing this message locally for our town of 25,000) but in some other places and First, and the government, and other train operating companies have the convenience of being able to pass the buck to each of the other players as the whole has tried this summer, and for. a considerable time before, to deliver a quart when they only hold  a pint pot of resources.

We have time of great opportunity, and great risk, as we move forward.

[grahame]

.
We have time of great opportunity, and great risk, as we move forward.

77 on the train as it left Melksham this morning, plus another 4 who got off - 81/13 in the way we use to measure it.  And whilst that's far from fully loaded, I am reminded that if it was still run by the 153 that we had from the service improvement in 2013, it would be (a) every seat taken and (b) four times the number of passengers needed on each train to declare the service a success.   On board, I do not see a lot of people I expect to be going through to Weymouth for the day.  The headlines of the weather forecast are wet, the school holidays are over, and the temperature will be pleasant to walk around but not to spend a day on the beach in your bikini or mankini.  There ARE a lot of people with luggage, pushchairs, etc - very much off or returning home - longer than day trips more on the 'leisure' than the work side. Numbers much as I expected - muted promotion and fingers crossed that I get home before midnight.

[Mark A]

This U, grahame? Lookin' good at the Castle of Cary.

Mark

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:C90638/2024-09-07/detailed#allox_id=0

[ChrisB]

Off to Weymouth today - last Saturday day trip of the season, and indeed it may be the last through day trip run by First Great Western (still the company name behind the marketing title of "Great Western Railway" which belongs to HMG)

Errr, not quite - it's First Greater Western.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/05113733

First Great Western no longer exists as a company.

[grahame]

14:22 Frome to Swindon due 15:33 
15:44 Swindon to Frome due 16:38
18:11 Castle Cary to Swindon due 19:33
19:43 Swindon to Westbury due 20:25

19:43 Swindon to Westbury due 20:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

17:44 Swindon to Salisbury due 18:57

17:44 Swindon to Salisbury due 18:57 will be terminated at Westbury.
It will no longer call at Warminster and Salisbury.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

16:43 Frome to Swindon due 17:34

16:43 Frome to Swindon due 17:34 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Frome.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[grahame]

I had seriously thought about that - however, trains that are cancelled sometimes disappear from Real Time Trains too - the example in the earlier point being a case in point, with 2M30 which should have called at Melksham at 18:00 on its way from Swindon to Melksham (but was cancelled) being absent.

Is the accuracy (where I think the 'sometimes' might be better described as 'on rare occasions') helped by clicking on the 'CAN' button, which is unchecked by default?

Ah yes - sadly I have had a chance to to that with yesterday's data and it does reveal the missing services

So that's a gap in northbound calls from 14:43 to 21:34, and southbound from 15:29 to 22:34.

Not just bad - awful!  All cancellations flagged up as due to shortage of train crew.  And no "barbecue weather" reason either - it was really throwing it down and any BBQs would have been drowned!

[grahame]

This U, grahame? Lookin' good at the Castle of Cary.

Mark

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:C90638/2024-09-07/detailed#allox_id=0

Almost - I got back to Weymouth station early, having tried but failed to purchase an umbrella at the one potential shop still open after 17:30 ("I started the day with a whole boxful but have sold them all - sorry; don't even have any ponchos left") .   Weymouth station is an awful place to wait after 18:00 when the building is locked ... and I caught the 18:45 as far as Westbury.  On checking my ticket, the train manager advised that he was not going to Melksham, and totally understood when I explained I was early and would prefer to wait at Westbury than Weymouth.    Also defensive travel - I would also prefer to have to make a call "Can you pick me up from Westbury?" than something further south or much later ...

Turned out to be an educational change.   We got to Westbury at about 20:30, and Real Time Trains told me of a train headed for Swindon at 20:38 from platform 1 - presumably supposed to be a return working of the cancelled train from Swindon due to arrive at 20:25.   Well - I tootled through the subway to platform 1 and sure enough 166214 rolled in and although the departure board was showing the next train to be for Portsmouth, it was signalled out towards Trowbridge.  I asked a chap in GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) uniform if this train was going to Swindon, and he confirmed that it was, but said it was a "3" and wasn't taking passengers - just him (turned out to be the driver) and the train manager.  And so they set off.   Somewhat ironic that after the previous two passenger trains had both been cancelled, GWR managed to find two staff to run an empty one, and refuse passage to waiting customers.

I did join the train you logged, Mark, and got back to Melksham the at the time it was due.  Only between 45 and 50 passengers on board into Melksham. A dozen off and about 6 on. So that's roughly 53/18 which is a creditable number considering the awful weather we had had. I suggest that many of the people who had gone out in the morning from Swindon and Chippenham had returned via Bath mid to late afternoon. 

Cancellation rate at Melksham - 28% for the day.  Same 28% rate expected today, plus 2 short runs. "You can't judge on just one weekend" we are told.   Fair enough - but that's not an unusual figure ...

[bobm]

And no "barbecue weather" reason either - it was really throwing it down and any BBQs would have been drowned!

There was England football though, kicking off at 5pm.

[Mark A]

**snip**

Turned out to be an educational change.   We got to Westbury at about 20:30, and Real Time Trains told me of a train headed for Swindon at 20:38 from platform 1 - presumably supposed to be a return working of the cancelled train from Swindon due to arrive at 20:25.   Well - I tootled through the subway to platform 1 and sure enough 166214 rolled in and although the departure board was showing the next train to be for Portsmouth, it was signalled out towards Trowbridge.  I asked a chap in GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) uniform if this train was going to Swindon, and he confirmed that it was, but said it was a "3" and wasn't taking passengers - just him (turned out to be the driver) and the train manager.  And so they set off.   Somewhat ironic that after the previous two passenger trains had both been cancelled, GWR managed to find two staff to run an empty one, and refuse passage to waiting customers.

**snip**

!! Sorry *that* happened. It's the sort of event that if it landed in a newspaper (if we still had 'em) one could imagine the tale rattling around the media for days. The account could only have been improved if the passengers from the two previous cancelled trains hadn't melted away having pursued other options.

Mark

[grahame]

!! Sorry *that* happened. It's the sort of event that if it landed in a newspaper (if we still had 'em) one could imagine the tale rattling around the media for days. The account could only have been improved if the passengers from the two previous cancelled trains hadn't melted away having pursued other options.

Mark

I really don't want to step beyond the "critical friend" philosophy. In spite of how it might appear here sometimes, I don't want to follow the MTLS^▸ (More Train Less Strain) or SHRUG route.    The service that's being provided is routinely not fit for purpose; the raw stats no worse that some other places (on time trains suggests that we're around 1800th of 2500 stations) BUT on a thin service each cancellation is a bigger deal and. longer delay, and for a town of 20,000 rather than a town of 2,000, it impacts people ten times as much.

[grahame]

20:38 Westbury to Swindon due 21:23
21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:16

21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:16 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Another one has snuckered up on us.  I will take a look at a summary in the morning.

[grahame]

4 out of 7 round trips cancelled - 43% cancellation rate

[Chris from Nailsea]

Please pardon me for perhaps being a bit simple about that image, but does that mean that all of those timetabled evening services have been cancelled? 

[grahame]

Please pardon me for perhaps being a bit simple about that image, but does that mean that all of those timetabled evening services have been cancelled? 

Yes - the 18:10 which was supposed to run to Salisbury (nice the "O" head code)  petered out at Westbury and the 19:06, 20:09, 20:54 and 21:59 were all cancelled - the 20:54 and 21:59 during the day so that people who may have planned to use them after the other cancellations would have been in for an ugly shock. And the late buses from Bath which are our ultimate fallback don't run on Sundays.