There are some extra trains today for Bath Christmas market, but some other important ones eg Cardiff - Portsmouth are down to just 2 cars
Also appears a number of these short trains are losing 10, 20, even 30 minutes presumably due to alighting and boarding delays whilst very crowded.
No fewer that 25 "Z" Specials calling at Bath Spa today
grahame@Kryten ~ % grep -c '^[12]Z' z
25
After a few better days, here we go (or don't go) again. I wake to 4 cancellations, with no alternative travel plans offered or suggestsetd. Two successive trains each way, leaving a six hour gap inn the schedule.
I have left the 16:27 Exeter to Penzance in the whole GWR▸ area cancellation list - the only other train they have cancelled in this period across their entire patch. Next train Exeter to Penzance is at 17:14. After the 16:23 from Westbury to Swindon, the next train is at 20:08. The GWR website will offer you travel via Bath if you are going to Chippenham and beyond, for which their website cheekily charged £19.80 rather that £9.80 (single) and if you have mobility issues "
The lifts are out of order between platform 1 and the subway at Bath Spa station."
Three words: Bath Christmas Market.
It strikes me that GWR have taken on more than they can reasonably have coped either - but then are they under an obligation of some sort to do so? What they have absolutely got wrong is to sacrifice their everyday every week customers from Westbury to Swindon
on the day.. I emphasise "on the day". Had they announced changes well ahead of time - as they do with things like the Cheltenham Gold Cup or Glastonbury - there would have been some disappointment. But to schedule it knowing all the extras were planned, build up passenger expectations and then crash out on the day - defies belief. What a ****up!
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