Weather updates, from across our area - ongoing discussion, 2025

[whole diary]

[grahame]

DO NOT TRAVEL warnings now issued -

PAD^▸ (Paddington (London) station) - BRI^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads station (that is the formal station code - see also BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads station (strictly, it should be BRI) but BTM is a commonly used alternative))), or Bristol Royal Infirmary (hospital), depending on context)

PAD - South Wales

Exeter & Barnstaple

HFD^▸ (Hereford station) - WOS^▸ (Worcester Shrub Hill stationnext trains)

From my email

Dear Graham,

You may have seen that weather warnings have been issued for Storm Claudia with wind speeds of up to 80mph and heavy rain through the weekend. We have already experienced flooding on some sections of the network and we would urge all customers to check before travel by visiting:

www.gwr.com/check

Further travel information is also available through our live network updates page:

https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates/live-network-updates

Due to current heavy flooding of the railway we are asking that customers do not travel on the following train lines:

London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads via Swindon and Bath Spa
London Paddington to Swansea via Bristol Parkway and Cardiff
Exeter St Davids and Barnstaple
Hereford and Worcester Shrub Hill
On these routes we advise customers do not attempt to travel as we are unable to source any meaningful replacement road transport and cannot guarantee to be able to get you to your destination today. If you are able to make alternative travel arrangements we strongly suggest you do so. Customers with tickets for travel today will be able to use their ticket for travel up to and including Sunday 16 November. For refunds and compensation, including delay repay, please visit GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) compensation.

This graphic may be useful to share with your networks.

Any support you can provide communicating this would be much appreciated and please do not hesitate to get in touch should you have any queries.

Best wishes,

Olivia

Olivia Barlow | Deputy Head of Public Affairs | Great Western Railway
E: olivia.barlow@GWR.com

[grahame]

Chaos at Swindon

Whats happening at the train station loads of police and it looks like they’re not letting anyone in

Trains are cancelled due to flooding and ppl fighting over taxis no system in place for passengers who are stuck getting home

Trains cancelled and no spare transport to shuttle ppl.

[ChrisB]

But is it better to try & run (& then fail) or to advise in advance & not trap anyone away from 'home'?

That's the conundrum, and a very difficult one - especially so in weather like today's where there may not be any available road transport should you try & run & find you can't.....

Hmmm......I bet they wish that they'd been told not to travel this morning.....

[a-driver]

The line between Chippenham and Bath Spa is under several feet of water.

[Trowres]

The 20:12 Swindon-Westbury has reached Trowbridge on time.

I wonder if any passengers for Bath or Bristol were directed this way? - in spite of the cancellation of one service from Salisbury, there's a fair connection onto the Portsmouth-Cardiff.

Meanwhile in the opposite direction there's a FO 9 coach IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) running ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) Westbury-North Pole.

Some Paddington-Bristol services (in both directions) are being diverted via Newbury, although GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Journeycheck is notably lacking in this bit of info (deliberate or not?)

[ChrisB]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gw5xxej04o


Routes between London Paddington and Bristol and Swansea are closed due to flooding on the tracks, including here at Corsham near Bath

[grahame]

The 20:12 Swindon-Westbury has reached Trowbridge on time.

I wonder if any passengers for Bath or Bristol were directed this way? - in spite of the cancellation of one service from Salisbury, there's a fair connection onto the Portsmouth-Cardiff.

It was an very unfortunate evening for a Swindon - Westbury (18:44) and a Westbury - Swindon (20:06) to be cancelled, wasn't it?

There is an ability to reverse trains at Bradford Junction, added for use during the closures for (non)electrification of Box tunnel. Why on earth is this not used?

[Mark A]

Ok, the line there is in the bottom of a valley, but that's a surprising sight, wondering if the aqueduct overtopped. Also wondering where the start of the 1:100 gradient down through Box Tunnel might be.

Mark

[grahame]

15th November ... lines still closed due to flooding with GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) taking actions to divert / shorten / provide service where they can. Many are shortened / diverted - Swansea to London train becomes Swansea to Bristol (Temple Meads), London to Taunton becomes London to Chippenham, train from Bath to Swindon replaced by a bus which takes 80 minutes - three times longer than the train.   

Thank you - GWR - you are at least doing something to help; I have no evidence to tell me if you are doing as much as you possibly could, or if you are working to a (tight?) replacement and diversion budget - and indeed what proportion of travellers will still be travelling in spite of the weather and disruption.   Personally, discgression is the best part of valour and I am not carrying on with my plan to visit the Horniman museum, nor replacing it with anything else - though I may go shopping at Lidl.  Partly put off by the weather and not wanting to add a wanted but needless passenger to what they have to cope with, but also put out by doubt as to how / when I would get home:

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05
17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:18
18:35 Westbury to Swindon due 19:17
19:44 Swindon to Westbury due 20:29

19:44 Swindon to Westbury due 20:29 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Further Information
We're sorry for the disruption to your journey.
-
Road transport will be arranged and we'll update this message with more information.

Weather, sure, understood ... noting "shortage of train crew" so we'll employ bus or taxi crew instead.  Rum system!

[Timmer]

When I saw the picture ChrisB posted last evening of the line at Corsham, I thought there’s no way that will be open this morning and it isn’t and wouldn’t be surprised if it’s all day if any line side equipment is damaged.

We’re travelling up to London today for a long weekend, fortunately not time sensitive and from Westbury. We go knowing that there will be diverted Bristol to London trains sharing the B&H^▸ (Berks and Hants - railway line from Reading to Taunton via Westbury) tracks up to Reading on a very short notice timetable, so there may be a delay to our train.

After the amount of rain that fell yesterday, totally understandable and I commend GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) for the plan they’ve put together overnight to run trains as best they can around both flooded areas of track.

[TaplowGreen]

Going to make travel to Twickenham/Cardiff more difficult - International matches at both venues today.

[Mark A]

Friday's rain, and SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) ran everything Waterloo - Exeter on time. Not saying that to throw shade on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) as yesterday's weather was a challenge, but as we all know there's something to be said for having two independent lines available - useful 365 days of the year, but on these occasions, particularly useful.

(Not dared look to see if the Exeters were all three carriage sets, hopefully not...)

Mark

[Timmer]

Line between Bath and Chippenham now open meaning Bristol to London can run their booked route.

[Rob S]

My experience on Friday was:
At about 2100 during the second interval of the thing I was in London to see, I checked the Railboard app to see what the trains were like as I was aware the BPW^▸ (Bristol Parkway station)-SWI^▸ (Swindon station) route had issues on my outward journey....the app said everything for PAD^▸ (Paddington (London) station)-SWI was cancelled for the rest of the night....after the show I headed to Tottenham Court Road for the Elizabeth Line and rechecked the app and it said the 2202 was running but delayed while everything else still cancelled. I got to Paddington 5 minutes after the 2202 eventually left (2211) but again, everything else still cancelled...then the 2228 changed from cancelled to 'On Time' (I had overheard the would be train manager telling a member of the public it would be running shortly before it appeared on the screens) and although it did go through the 2 mins late, 4 mins late, Delayed thing it did eventually leave at about 2300 on a planned route to Bristol TM^▸ (Train Manager, or Ticket Machine, or Temple Meads (Bristol), depending on context) via SWI,CPM^▸ (Chippenham station),WSB^▸ (Westbury station),BTH^▸ (Bath Spa station).

[Mark A]

Useful to know from someone travelling, how this evolved, thanks - how busy was Paddington / your train by the way?

Mark