Dilton Marsh - services and improvements (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[grahame]

15:28 Warminster to Great Malvern due 18:35 will no longer call at Dilton Marsh and Avoncliff.
This is due to a fault on this train.

That will be 'fun' ... around 30 people usually get off that train at Dilton Marsh ... it's the busiest one of the day carrying school traffic (I have checked - term ends tomorrow!) from Warminster ... almost always people joining too.

[grahame]

17:11 Westbury to Warminster due 17:20
17:11 Westbury to Warminster due 17:20 will no longer call at Dilton Marsh.
This is due to a fault on this train.
Further Information
Please use the customer help point for further information.

Which renders the 17:11 Westbury to Warminster POINTLESS!.

There's a train that runs from Westbury to Warminster at 17:02 carrying lots of though passengers, and the 17:11 is never - err - [understatement mode=British]the busiest of trains[/understatement] ...

I do appreciate that as well as meeting the franchise requirement for stops at Dilton Marsh (if it can actually stop there!), this train does turn round at Warminster and form a better used train (17:28) coming back.  But that return train really should be an extension of the service from Romsey to Southampton that terminates at Salisbury at 17:15 and should really carry on, calling at Warminster at 17:35 ...

[froome]

How does a 'fault on the train' stop it from stopping at an intermediate station?

Presumably it can move along, and stop, otherwise it wouldn't be running at all, so what is actually preventing it from stopping at Dilton Marsh?

[paul7575]

How does a 'fault on the train' stop it from stopping at an intermediate station?

Presumably it can move along, and stop, otherwise it wouldn't be running at all, so what is actually preventing it from stopping at Dilton Marsh?

Incomplete door control modifications on the Turbo fleet isn’t it?  Been going on for a while.

Paul

[grahame]

How does a 'fault on the train' stop it from stopping at an intermediate station?

Presumably it can move along, and stop, otherwise it wouldn't be running at all, so what is actually preventing it from stopping at Dilton Marsh?

Incomplete door control modifications on the Turbo fleet isn’t it?  Been going on for a while.

Paul

You're correct Paul ... Incomplete door control + Short platform + Lack of a stop board forward of the platform to tell the driver where to stop correctly for the door on the left of the rear coach and the rear drive door to be on the platform.   That latter should be possible at the southbound platform; northbound the distance between the doors is greater and so it may not be possible.

[SandTEngineer]

A few interesting photographs on the Cornwall Railway Society site here: http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/news---latest-reports-and-photographs

Warning: As the days and weeks progress the photographs will appear lower and lower down the page.

[grahame]

Dilton Marsh now has a regular service to/from Waterloo on Mondays to Fridays with departures at 0743, 1139, 1544, & 1748 and arrivals back at 0948, 1449 & 2023

See attachments for a sample day's service

At excellent step in the right direction for a station that I snort longer just a country halt - it's now set in the heart of residential development and with improved commuter services will blossom.

Good to see the morning commuter time gap to Salisbury fixed.  Pity there'a no return classic commuter service without a change.  Use of double back easements (at both Warminster and Westbury) will almost certainly add to the usefulness - I hope that someone (should be a TransWilts job?) will put together a timetable sheet and distribute it locally.

[Lee]

Yes, I used to really enjoy doing that, and its one of the things I do miss now the way TWCIC^» (TransWilts Community Interest Company - see here)/CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) operates has changed.

[grahame]

Yes, I used to really enjoy doing that, and its one of the things I do miss now the way TWCIC^» (TransWilts Community Interest Company - see here)/CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) operates has changed.

The two Wiltshire stations that have especially poor passenger uses per head of population with 2km are Dilton Marsh and Melksham.  Both of them have suffered from a service that's been unfit for day to day commutes / a service that's been so thin that it's not been a serious option for people's travel. But both have / will have from May a service which is much more promotable.

At the Melksham Rail User Group meeting this Wednesday, we will be planning some local leafletting to encourage use specifically of Melksham Station - not treading on anyone's feet, but rather stepping in now-vacant shoes.  I will keep my eyes and ears open to see if there are similar vacant shoes at Dilton Marsh, where I do know a couple of the wardrobe masters.

[Timmer]

Sadly, all the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) services have been removed from calling at Dilton Marsh from May.

[rogerw]

I suspect that may be something to do with the fact that the front doors on the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) are always out of use for passengers

[Timmer]

I suspect that may be something to do with the fact that the front doors on the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) are always out of use for passengers

Could be. If so, then why are things like this not thought of in the first place?

[grahame]

Sadly, all the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) services have been removed from calling at Dilton Marsh from May.

Questions to be asked.  I suspect your guesses are correct, but don't let's assume if we don't have to.

[grahame]

Sadly, all the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) services have been removed from calling at Dilton Marsh from May.

Questions to be asked.  I suspect your guesses are correct, but don't let's assume if we don't have to.

Any answers, anyone?

From a public post / reproduced with permission:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158715023484196&set=a.10153700771924196&type=3&theater

Just looking at train times from Warminster to Salsibury (fabulous service why can't some stop at Dilton Marsh).

My reply ...

SWR were planning to stop extra trains at Dilton Marsh from May but at the "last minute" those timetabled stops didn't appear.  I don't know why this step towards a sensible / appropriate service that would fill significant gaps failed - a point I made at the RailFuture Severnside AGM^▸ (Annual General Meeting) held at the hall in Dilton Marsh in early April; not sure if anyone has picked that up and followed it ...

and a follow up from my original correspondent ...

I am amazed at how often there is no sensible option to and from Dilton and wonder that they did all that work to build, in effect, a new station but without trains.

IMHO^▸ ('in my humble opinion') .... There is a community torch for someone to pick up ...

[grahame]

Sadly, all the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) services have been removed from calling at Dilton Marsh from May.

I asked Andrew Ardley about this yesterday at the TransWilts Stakeholders meeting, confirming that the SWR services that had been suggested and even appeared on planners until a few weeks ahead would make a real difference at Dilton Marsh, turning a curious, perverse and frankly pretty useless for most needs service into something that would really work for the resdincential areas that have grown close by.  "Is this just a delay of the stops until the next timetable change, or something that won't be with us for some time?"

Astonishing answer from Andrew -"That was an error than got into the timetable system.   There weren't and are no plans for these trains to stop at Dilton Marsh".  Very funny 'error' - the trains stopping all had 3 to 4 minutes of slack in them whereas SWR trains not calling are much more tightly timed. I smell a late decision taken not to make the stops for some reason, and a whitewash answer yesterday.

Pressing the point, I asked how we should set about getting those stops and Andrew told me that the timetable planning for May 2020 was now underway and a case could be looked at.  Clearly not something on his agenda, and the subsequent speaker (in a conference that was looking at the bigger picture) made something of a negative joke of Dilton Marsh ...