... and I note that the opening of Sapperton Tunnel is the very earliest event we have "On this Day" - all 430 listed in chronological order
(here) through to the last day of the through Bristol to Waterloo service on 10th December 2021
The very much loved, used, busy service finished on 10th December 2021 with a busy mid-afternoon train from Bristol to Waterloo, a final run from Waterloo to Bristol (not quiet either!!) and a packed very last
SWR» with perhaps 20 people there because of the finality and the rest just normal traffic as the train went back to Salisbury depot. And, yes, it was packed - I travelled as far as Bath Spa to connect to my last bus home and the Salisbury service left full and standing.
The evening SWR train was so important that its place / path is now taken by a
GWR▸ train from Bristol as far as Westbury, form where SWR now provide a connection on to Salisbury using a train that's come up from Yeovil and waits for scheduled time at Westbury, a few minutes after the GWR service arrives. Which is a reasonable theory except on days that the GWR service is running late; I watched this at Westbury in the early days and saw the Salisbury service leave on time and almost empty a couple of minutes before the GWR train arrived from Bristol, delayed I believe by the intermediate station dwell times being inadequate for such a busy evening service of slow-loading and slow-leaving passengers. There may well be a "hold" order in place for this connection now, but it still feels far riskier and less convenient than a through service.
The withdrawal was followed by the withdrawal of the through trains south of Westbury to Brighton, and of a couple of local GWR services south of Warminster, leaving only the early train that terminates at Southampton in addition to the hourly Cardiff - Portsmouth.
Connections at Salisbury for this route from London became a joke, with the Portsmouth - Cardiff service each hour leaving just ahead of the arrival of the London - Exeter service and passengers looking to use the old route being left with a wait of a couple of minutes short of an hour, and almost as bad in the other direction.
And that was the low point ...Restoration of the second train in the hour from Salisbury all the way to London (Waterloo) gave back through services from places like Overton and Whitchurch to London, and with also a connection of around half an hour rather than an hour at Salisbury for through passengers.
And with the Bristol Metro, additional GWR services have been added as far as Salisbury; there are now 8 GWR Salisbury terminators - 6 from Bristol, one from Westbury, and one from Severn Beach.
"All" it needs now is for the Bristol to Salisbury train (very often a class 158 unit) to become or be joined to the Salisbury to London service (a class 159 / 158 service, often starting or strengthened there) to provide the through service again.With this through working again, we would not be just back where we started. We would have a more frequent through service than before, and that would encourage traffic. It would have more calls - so useful (as a for-instance) from Oldfield Park to London for the noticeable student traffic to and from Bath universities who reside in that part of Bath. It would allow leisure days out from London to Oldfield Park, ramble under Combe Down and along the valley to Dundas and Avoncliff with a direct return to London ...
Come on, GWR, SWR,
DfT» ... doesn't it make common sense to join up these trains? At present, arrivals from Westbury turn back pretty quickly at Salisbury but at the other end of the station arrivals from both London and Romsey have significant dwells and I have to wonder if a timetable expert could sort this out. It may also be worth taking a fresh look slightly wider afield too, but this is a long way from Sapperton Tunnel
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