Weymouth ghost train running on empty

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

From the Dorset Echo http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/10378447.Weymouth_ghost_train_running_on_empty/

A GHOST train is running out of Weymouth at dawn without any passengers.

Empty coaches not advertised in the timetable run non-stop as far as Wareham early on Saturdays where the train starts picking up passengers and forms a service to London Waterloo.

Passengers from Weymouth and Dorchester wanting to get to the capital early on a weekend have to catch the first advertised service which leaves more than an hour later than the ^ghost train.^ The train has been running empty for the past year, leaving Weymouth at 5.42am.

Operator South West Trains has now decided to officially start the service from Weymouth on a trial basis ^ a move welcomed by transport campaigners. Continues...

[bobm]

Just as an aside - top marks to the Echo for NOT using a library photo but an actual picture of the train involved...

[paul7575]

Hardly news that empty trains run around, and I think this one has probably been the case since the 2 tph^▸ (trains per hour) Weymouth service first started up.

Obviously 'what goes down must come up', and as there are late night arrivals at Weymouth on a Friday evening, so there have to be early am departures to get the stock into Saturday's 'start position'.  On recent Saturday mornings there have been three ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) departures from Weymouth following overnight berthing:

5W92 05+42 Wareham      
5W94 06+25 Bournemouth Middle Sdgs
5W06 07+49 Bournemouth

In the December 2009 timetable there were also three ECS departures on a Saturday morning, but the Wareham train ran nearly hour later:

5W92 06+22 Wareham
5W94 06+33 Bournemouth Middle Sdgs
5W06 07+49 Bournemouth
   
So basically rather than run a positive story about bringing an ECS into service for passengers, they've run a critical story about a 'ghost train'.  I think what has probably happened is that they've initially provided for an earlier first train from Wareham, and as that has presumably been a success they are now going to do the same for Weymouth.  The relevant track access application does not mention it being a trial, it is only end-dated at the normal franchise expiry.

Paul

[bobm]

I agree about ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) moves but the slight difference with this one is it appears to leave from a platform at Weymouth (rather than a berthing siding near the station) and seems to have a guard as well as a driver on board so it does not require any additional moves to turn it into a passenger service.  It therefore, to the outside observer, seems a little odd that they didn't run it for passengers from Weymouth in the first place.

[LiskeardRich]

As well as Weymouth residents having been campaigning for an earlier london service for some time, didnt go down well by all accounts when they found an ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) was operating from Weymouth.

[Timmer]

I wouldn't be too keen to travel on the 05.42 all the way to London myself as it stops at almost every shack between Weymouth and Southampton but better than nothing if you want an earlier arrival into London.

[paul7575]

I agree about ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) moves but the slight difference with this one is it appears to leave from a platform at Weymouth (rather than a berthing siding near the station)...

All the trains listed above leave from the station anyway.  SWT^▸ (South West Trains) use two of the platforms for berthing overnight.

Paul

[Brucey]

(Random question)

Why are there so many hyphens in the article?

"Chris-tine"
"Up-wey"
"Wey-mouth"
"Water-loo"

[Chris from Nailsea]

I generally assume such strange formatting is simply due to the text being copied from a narrow printed newspaper column layout and pasted straight into a wider webpage by staff at the publication involved. 

[readytostart]

It may have been so that if a late night arrival at Weymouth needed depot attention then one could be sent to Bournemouth, a set could then run empty from Bournemouth depot to Wareham around the same time that the empties would have left Weymouth anyway, meaning a full service at start-up.