New Oxford - Bristol direct service, ongoing developments and discussion

[whole diary]

[bobm]

"We're short of a driver from Bristol to Oxford and that's a High Vis service"
"OK - let's take George off the Bristol to Salisbury - he can drive an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) and knows the road"
"But who will drive the Salisbury train"
"We can take Gillian off the Westbury to Swindon shuttle for that"
"So who will drive the TransWilts train"
"Oh - we'll cancel that ... it's no longer a high vis service with ministerial interest"

Dangerous to read too much into one month's figures - but in April TransWilts passenger numbers were up on April last year and April 2019.   I think that is the first time it has got above pre-pandemic levels.

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[ChrisB]

That is still *way* down on total customers mentioned by Graham on other routes - and the operators WILL take number of customers affected into account when cancelling/altering services. Of course those services carrying the fewest customers will suffer the biggest brunt of cancellations

[bobm]

Agreed although my somewhat unspoken point was that if the service is reliable people will use it.   There were less than 20 cancellations in April (with eight on one day).  This was preceded by a reasonable February and March where barring a car on the line and several attempts to demolish the bridge at Limpley Stoke, the reliability was markedly better than pre-Christmas.

[ChrisB]

Agreed - but would *still* be well below the previous highest customer number on other routes....

[JohnM]

Catching 17:12 from Bristol for first time today - well I was, but it's been cancelled (showing 'on time' at 17:12). Now on the 17:29 Paddington, was originally hoping to continue to Chippenham to still connect with the 18:00 Melksham service (just), but it's now 17:35 and we're not moving - 'delayed'.

So looks like plan C - get off at Bath, assuming we ever get there, and catch 18:15 Melksham bus, after walking/running up to the Hilton to catch it.

[TaplowGreen]

Confirmed along with its return running......

17:12 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 18:29
17:12 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 18:29 has been cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time

19:04 Oxford to Bristol Temple Meads due 20:16
19:04 Oxford to Bristol Temple Meads due 20:16 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

[JohnM]

Ha if only - broken down freight train between Bristol and Bath. So 17:29 first stop is Swindon - that's the only option really I think, and come back from there. Just departed Bristol.

[JohnM]

Hopefully catch 18:45 from Swindon, Melksham 19:09. Although the speed we're going at the moment I'm not sure whether that's likely either...

[Mark A]

I hope you got... somewhere useful yesterday evening.

Mark

[JohnM]

I hope you got... somewhere useful yesterday evening.

Depends on your definition of 'useful'...

Thanks - yes, got to Swindon in plenty of time, and caught the (late running) Taunton service to Chippenham in case the Westbury one was cancelled. It wasn't, although it did run about 10 mins late, so ended up at Melksham at 19:18, 78 mins later than the train I should have been on. It felt like longer

Will try the 17:12 Bristol-Oxford again this evening; fingers crossed...

[JohnM]

BTW^▸ ('by the way') I think they cleared that broken down freight train fairly promptly; it might have been better to stay at BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads station (strictly, it should be BRI) but BTM is a commonly used alternative)) and wait for the next 'normal' Melksham route via Bath instead of hopping on the diverted 17:29. Can't be bothered to check, might not like the answer

[TaplowGreen]

BTW^▸ ('by the way') I think they cleared that broken down freight train fairly promptly; it might have been better to stay at BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads station (strictly, it should be BRI) but BTM is a commonly used alternative)) and wait for the next 'normal' Melksham route via Bath instead of hopping on the diverted 17:29. Can't be bothered to check, might not like the answer

Looking at what happened to the Transwilts service last night, if you'd waited any longer you may well still be travelling now!

[IndustryInsider]

Just for the record, but hopefully everyone will be pleased that all the Oxford<>Bristol’s ran again today…as well as all of the services through Melksham!

[grahame]

Just for the record, but hopefully everyone will be pleased that all the Oxford<>Bristol’s ran again today…as well as all of the services through Melksham!

Yes - and thank goodness.  How it should be.

As a separate note, the 20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa via Swindon (2G91) was flagged up as cancelled ... "This service was cancelled due to the planned cancellation (was not planned to operate) (PD)". However, a train 2Z91 ran in its path ... and from my logs looks like that's been the case earlier this week too.  Not an Oxford <-> Bristol issue / even for comparison, so I'll let's comment further (if we want) on the TransWilts log.

[grahame]

05:47 Exeter St Davids to Oxford due 08:32

05:47 Exeter St Davids to Oxford due 08:32 has been delayed between Worle and Yatton and is now 10 minutes late.
This is due to a fault with barriers at a level crossing.

Not really any great problem - but a very interesting new working ....