2023 - Train update and amendment log - Swindon <-> Westbury

[whole diary]

[grahame]

21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58
22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:11

22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:11 will be cancelled.
This is due to a tree blocking the railway earlier today.

To be clear - that is a tree blocking a different railway line ... but rather par for the course (or is that the line).

[hoover50]

Spare a thought for the driver who saw it fall in front of the train! 

Did they manage to stop in time?

Whereabouts did it happen?

[bobm]

Lavington on the Berks & Hants line to the west of Pewsey.

Tree damaged the train but the service was able to continue to Westbury where it was terminated.

[a-driver]

Lavington on the Berks & Hants line to the west of Pewsey.

Tree damaged the train but the service was able to continue to Westbury where it was terminated.

Sets then went empty to Stoke Gifford.

1703 Paddington to Plymouth was turned at Woodborough Loop.

WoE services on divert, it’s about time GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) got Melksham added to the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) database so they can make the additional stops….. unlikely as Hitachi charge a fortune to amend the database, at least a six figure sum.

[grahame]

Lavington on the Berks & Hants line to the west of Pewsey.

There's a stretch there that seems to be especially prone to this. - http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/mirror/R082011_110407_Lavington.pdf

[grahame]

22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:11

22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:11 has been delayed at Swindon and is now 8 minutes late.
This is due to the train departing late to maintain customer connections.

Excellent - waited and so it should at that time of night / last train

[grahame]

22:12 Swindon to Westbury due 22:54

22:12 Swindon to Westbury due 22:54 has been delayed at Swindon and is now 4 minutes late.
This is due to the train departing late to maintain customer connections.

Spot on, again.

[grahame]

20:38 Westbury to Swindon due 21:23
21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:15

21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:15 will be cancelled.
This is due to train crew being delayed.

[TaplowGreen]

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07 will be delayed at Romsey.

This is due to a points failure.

[grahame]

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07 will be delayed at Romsey.

This is due to a points failure.

It wasn't (delayed there) in the end, but never mind.  About 5 minutes late at Melksham, +6 -2 passengers, missed the very tight and unofficial connection to Bristol (which in any case was cancelled) and so here I am in Bristol - shock, horror, about 15 minutes after I hoped to be.

Contrast the effect of a cancellation on a line with a frequent service - quarter of an hour delay - with the effect of a cancellation on a poor / infrequent service.  Had the 06:36 not been running, next southbound train would not have left until 09:10 - that's half an hour in the future still, and here I am sitting on a bench on College Green.

[bobm]

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08 will be cancelled.

This is due to industrial action.

17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20

17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20 will be cancelled.

This is due to industrial action.

[grahame]

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08 will be cancelled.

This is due to industrial action.

17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20

17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20 will be cancelled.

This is due to industrial action.

I have just been to the Transport Focus meeting in Bristol.  And the one thing they keep coming up with is that the key thing the passenger want is reliability.   We don't have it ... next train 2 hours after the one I had planned ...

[grahame]

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[TaplowGreen]

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05 will be started from Swindon.

It will no longer call at Westbury, Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[grahame]

So that's a gap from Swindon from 15:14 to 20:13, with two services in succession cancelled including the 17:36 which is a "priority" service that's the busiest southbound of the day and every effort is made to run it.   If it was very rare for us to have to report cancellations, or if there was an exceptional ongoing reason (for example - the line's flooded) then it might be easier to accept and explain to passengers.

Regulars on the line are now measuring what proportion of their fares they get refunded through delay / repay over the weeks, and it is significant.  If all passengers who could claim did so every time, would the railway financed be even more of a mess?