0635 Salisbury - Worcester Foregate Str thru Melksham keeps running late

[whole diary]

[matth1j]

But it really should NOT be this game and big smileys as to whether a daily commute works!

To be fair to FGW^▸ (First Great Western), 3 of those misses were mainly due to the speed restriction (reported by brooklea) around Westbury.

[brooklea]

Picking up on a post in the TransWilts thread

06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47 will be reinstated.
It will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Salisbury and Warminster.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

I also note this

04:54 Plymouth to London Paddington due 08:37 will be diverted between Westbury and Reading.
It will no longer call at Pewsey, Bedwyn, Hungerford and Newbury.
This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident.

So the unofficial connection at Chippenham will certainly not ‘make’ this morning as the Worcester train is going to run behind the diverted Plymouth - Paddington. Looking at the OpenTrainTimes signalling map, it appears the Worcester train is being held-back at Westbury so the line towards Bath isn’t blocked at Bradford Junction while it waits to go onto the single line to Melksham.

[grahame]

Picking up on a post in the TransWilts thread

06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47 will be reinstated.
It will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Salisbury and Warminster.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

I also note this

04:54 Plymouth to London Paddington due 08:37 will be diverted between Westbury and Reading.
It will no longer call at Pewsey, Bedwyn, Hungerford and Newbury.
This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident.

So the unofficial connection at Chippenham will certainly not ‘make’ this morning as the Worcester train is going to run behind the diverted Plymouth - Paddington. Looking at the OpenTrainTimes signalling map, it appears the Worcester train is being held-back at Westbury so the line towards Bath isn’t blocked at Bradford Junction while it waits to go onto the single line to Melksham.

Just left Westbury and switched from "Delayed" to "07:36" on the board at Melksham

Where there's a quarter hour delay, it does nit make sense to try and maintain the connection, as this morning.

[matth1j]

Yep, in a Chippenham station waiting room now

When I first looked at the National Rail app (~0540) the service was completely cancelled and I'd started making alternative arrangements. Was going to catch the 271 bus and would probably have made it to Bath in time to pick up the train I've missed at Chippenham. Oh well...

[matth1j]

Took the bus to Bath this morning, and very glad I did. I believe the first **4** services from Paddington to Bristol via Chippenham were cancelled due to either overrunning engineering works or crew shortages.

I was able to catch the little 0752 Filton Abbey Wood service from Bath instead of the mainline 0747 Weston-super-Mare I'd usually catch from Chippenham at 0734 so it didn't affect me too much. A colleague who lives in Chippenham who usually catches the 0711 had to wait for the 0832 in the absence of the 0711, 0734 and 0809 (and earlier 0633). Unsurprisingly he told me that the 0832 when it arrived was a tad busy

[grahame]

Took the bus to Bath this morning, and very glad I did. I believe the first **4** services from Paddington to Bristol via Chippenham were cancelled due to either overrunning engineering works or crew shortages.

Exactly what we need to do in the event of disruption.  Not sure whether you just knew what to do or whether online systems sold you? 

Come December 24th to January 24th closure, we have asked Great Western to arrange with Faresaver to accept train tickets on the 271/272/273 as well as just the x34 from Mellksham and the two companies have got together again and agreed this extra.  It's a pretty small concession to the decimation of our services again, but at least it's something.   And we do have one peak train rather than zero.

[matth1j]

Took the bus to Bath this morning, and very glad I did.

Exactly what we need to do in the event of disruption.  Not sure whether you just knew what to do or whether online systems sold you?

Luck. I need to be home a bit earlier on Mondays, but not leave work too early, and the train to Bath then bus to Melksham is the only way to do that. Even so, in the past I've still always caught the train from Melksham in the morning. But last week I used the bus to Bath instead of the Melksham-Chippenham bus replacement train service, and it seemed to work pretty well. So given that it also saves about £3 it seemed daft not to.

[matth1j]

Lucky again this morning. Well, lucky it wasn't any worse...

Woke up early so decided to catch the 0632 Southampton service from Melksham, to get to Bristol via Trowbridge. Looked to be running fine when I left the house, but by the time I got to Melksham, it was delayed, meaning I'd miss the train I was planning on catching at Trowbridge.

Initially I thought I'd wait anyway, and catch the next train at Trowbridge. But I checked it, and it was also showing as 'delayed'.

So I kept walking and caught the 271 bus from Market Place, ending up in Bath in time to catch the Weston-super-Mare service I would have caught at Chippenham if I'd gone for the usual 0721 Melksham train. Although the 0721 was badly delayed; would have ended up hanging around until the 0802 (only slightly delayed). Hence some relief at not choosing the worst option

(The Weston-super-Mare service was only running 6 mins late.)

[TaplowGreen]

Would this thread perhaps be better off within the "Transwilts Line" section?

[matth1j]

Would this thread perhaps be better off within the "Transwilts Line" section?

Sorry - it probably would, I'm not that familiar with the forum and its sections. Or next time I post regarding this trip, I start a new thread in that section?

[grahame]

Would this thread perhaps be better off within the "Transwilts Line" section?

Sorry - it probably would, I'm not that familiar with the forum and its sections. Or next time I post regarding this trip, I start a new thread in that section?

Helpful suggestion - I will move it there. 

General note - please post / start threads where you feel is sensible and don't worry about perfect placement - there's no such thing and we can always move stuff around if appropriate