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John D
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« on: July 21, 2026, 07:08:27 » |
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Engineering works and week long closure between Bedwyn and Pewsey/Westbury 10-16 October have been announced Saturday to Friday:
No trains will run between Bedwyn and Pewsey / Westbury.
Long distance trains between London Paddington and Exeter St Davids / Paignton / Plymouth / Penzance will be diverted, and will either run via:
Bristol Temple Meads (calling to drop off only when running towards London Paddington, and picking up only when running from London Paddington)
Chippenham (some trains will additionally call at Swindon, Westbury and Castle Cary)
No trains will run to / from Pewsey. Replacement buses will run direct between Swindon and Pewsey.
Trains will continue to run between Reading and Bedwyn.
Some trains between Swindon and Westbury will be retimed to run up to 23 minutes earlier or later than usual, in order to accommodate the diverted services.
Monday to Friday:
An amended train service will run during morning / evening peak times between London Paddington and Newbury / Bedwyn.
Due to diversions, the vast majority of local trains between Swindon and Westbury will not run and will be replaced by road transport between Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge and Westbury.
However, the 17:36 Swindon to Westbury and 07:45 (amended to depart at 07:52) Westbury to Swindon trains will run.
At Trowbridge, buses towards Westbury will drop off only, and buses from Westbury will pick up only.
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/engineering-works/bedwyn-and-pewsey-westbury-20261010/ |
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grahame
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« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2026, 17:21:17 » |
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From GWR▸ / Network Rail Dear Graham, We wanted to make you aware of upcoming track renewal work which will affect all train services operating via Pewsey from Saturday 10 to Friday 16 October. During this period, replacement road transport is planned between Swindon and Pewsey. Trains between London Paddington and Plymouth or Penzance will be diverted via Swindon, extending journey times by at least 15 minutes. Most of these services will also be diverted via Bristol Temple Meads, adding a further 30 minutes to journey times, although some services will instead run via Melksham. There will be no direct trains between London Paddington and Paignton or Frome. Train services will continue to operate between Reading and Newbury or Bedwyn, however please note that no replacement transport is planned between Bedwyn, Pewsey and Westbury. Trains between Swindon and Westbury will operate to an amended timetable over the weekend, with a very limited train service operating on weekdays. From Monday to Friday, the only local stopping trains via Melksham will be the 07:52 Westbury to Swindon and the 17:36 Swindon to Westbury. At all other times, replacement road transport is planned between Westbury and Chippenham, with other train services continuing to operate between Chippenham and Swindon. Customers should check their journeys before travelling and allow additional time where replacement road transport or diverted services are required. For more information and to view a map of the proposed works please visit: gwr.com/check. We would be grateful if you were able to cascade this to your networks and, if you have any questions, please do get in touch.
Best wishes, Olivia & Heledd Olivia Willett | Deputy Head of Public Affairs | Great Western Railway E: olivia.willett@GWR.com Heledd Iolo | Senior Public Affairs Manager | Network Rail E: heledd.iolo@networkrail.co.ukSharing, as requested. Also on my personal Facebook page. And as invited, I have written to them as follows Dear Olivia and Heledd, Thank you for your email which, as per request, I will share with members of the Melksham Transport User Group, of which I am chair, amd I’m going to share with the West Wiltshire Rail User Group committee next week. Have I read it right? People who normally catch the 10:00 from Melksham to Swindon, getting there ar 10:27, and return on the 18:44 into Mellsham at 19:10 won’t be able to get to Swindon until 11:09, and on return won’r get to Melksham until 20:38 - that’s 42 minutes delay in the morning and 88 minutes in the morning - on a journey that normally takes just 25 minutes between Swindon and our town - nt a small place, but with a potation of around 25,000. You (thank you) equipped the IET▸ trains to call at Melksham a year or to back for the very purpose of providing a service when you made diversions like this. Having gone to that expense why on earth aren’t using it? The trains have to slow down to go round the curve through the station here anyway! My own Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/graham.ellis.melksham/posts/pfbid02gULtaV3sqNjaN6FTKa79ufPdw3Ad9HFLWobJiraLJ2txi7ktKNJMDjHHJLEnoUEQl Expresses my view. Please get back to me “by return” so I can include any comments from you on the group’s feed which has a far wider reach. Thanks Graham Graham Ellis 48 Spa Road, Melksham, SN12 7NY graham@sn12.net07974 925928 or 01225 708225 My emailling policy: https://grahamellis.uk/email |
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Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Transport User Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group Committee and TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
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grahame
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« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2026, 08:04:45 » |
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No feedback from GWR▸ or NR» - that looks like a classic "email bad news on a Friday afternoon, invite questions and RUN AWAY for the weekend". So I can't fill you in as to why they are not stopping the trains that are running through and stealing the paths. I'm also noting that their web site is charging far more for the week for journeys from Trowbridge to Swindon for a slower journey. Taking advantage of the customer who know no better? Upping the price of ticket from £6.50 to £13.15. Regulated fares? Easement that is in place if the direct train fails to run? A bit cheeky?   |
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Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Transport User Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group Committee and TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
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ChrisB
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« Reply #3 on: October 03, 2026, 20:26:05 » |
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Is that £6.50 an Advance? TOCs▸ generally don't offer Advances during Engineering works
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grahame
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« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2026, 20:47:21 » |
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Is that £6.50 an Advance? TOCs▸ generally don't offer Advances during Engineering works
No - off-peak single with (my) railcard via Melksham. The £13.15 is "any permitted". |
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Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Transport User Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group Committee and TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
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Chris from Nailsea
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« Reply #5 on: October 04, 2026, 21:18:28 » |
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We would be grateful if you were able to cascade this to your networks and, if you have any questions, please do get in touch. Best wishes, Olivia & Heledd Olivia Willett | Deputy Head of Public Affairs | Great Western Railway E: olivia.willett@GWR.com Heledd Iolo | Senior Public Affairs Manager | Network Rail E: heledd.iolo@networkrail.co.uk If I may perhaps share some of grahame's understandable frustration here: Olivia & Heledd both offer their first names, as a friendly point of contact - but then they both leave the office over the weekend. CfN▸ .  |
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William Huskisson MP▸ was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830. Many more have died in the same way since then. Don't take a chance: Stop, Look, Listen.
"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner." Discuss.
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Chris from Nailsea
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« Reply #6 on: October 04, 2026, 21:22:43 » |
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... and yes, before Coffee Shop forum member TaplowGreen even gets here, they were possibly headed towards a GWR▸ weekend barbeque.    |
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William Huskisson MP▸ was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830. Many more have died in the same way since then. Don't take a chance: Stop, Look, Listen.
"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner." Discuss.
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grahame
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« Reply #7 on: October 06, 2026, 08:28:13 » |
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If I may perhaps share some of grahame's understandable frustration here: Olivia & Heledd both offer their first names, as a friendly point of contact - but then they both leave the office over the weekend.
My email system has asked me "follow up?" because here we are, Tuesday morning, and not even a "we'll get back to you" or "we have passed this on to [xxx] to answer" to my enquiry of last Friday afternoon taking up their invitation to engage. |
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Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Transport User Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group Committee and TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
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TaplowGreen
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« Reply #8 on: October 06, 2026, 09:38:25 » |
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We would be grateful if you were able to cascade this to your networks and, if you have any questions, please do get in touch. Best wishes, Olivia & Heledd Olivia Willett | Deputy Head of Public Affairs | Great Western Railway E: olivia.willett@GWR.com Heledd Iolo | Senior Public Affairs Manager | Network Rail E: heledd.iolo@networkrail.co.uk If I may perhaps share some of grahame's understandable frustration here: Olivia & Heledd both offer their first names, as a friendly point of contact - but then they both leave the office over the weekend. CfN▸ . This type of email is known as "fire and forget" - very common amongst public/quasi-public servants on Friday afternoons (those that work on Fridays), they tend to be sent a few minutes or seconds before shutting down in order to avoid having to deal with any replies until after the weekend. |
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John D
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« Reply #9 on: October 07, 2026, 09:30:53 » |
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If anyone travelling to/from Melksham had the foresight to check engineering works on another line 2 months ago they would have known about the bus service. But of course why would they have looked up works elsewhere
Lots more info on these works now in the public info, and with the afterthought of highlighting the rubbish service on Melksham route to a select few in Melksham area
But telling users well in advance, seems to be non-concept with GWR▸ , my local station, Bradford on Avon has nothing about the weekday closures to Bristol later in October.
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grahame
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« Reply #10 on: October 07, 2026, 10:09:57 » |
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But telling users well in advance, seems to be non-concept with GWR▸ , my local station, Bradford on Avon has nothing about the weekday closures to Bristol later in October.
I CAN understand their conundrums. Early publication of changed timetables means that people turn up for a service that's not yet running ... and/or there's a long period of negative publicity around a relatively short period of disruption. In the past, MRDG» / MRUG» / MTUG» has put together an calendar for perhaps half a year which highlights dates on which disruption to the normal timetable is planned; it has been a moving and pretty thankless task though. And there's also the four-week-ahead posters these days at stations; they are *something* but lack a practicality of usefulness in my view: * They don't always look 4 weeks ahead when you see them - they may look back 2.5 weeks and forward 1 * They can include a single late night train change which masks the whole-week-no-trains content * They are fine print with lots of stuff which is way out of area for the station they are displayed at * Key numbers on the map need to be searched for in the list of changes - no necessarily numeric order |
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Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Transport User Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group Committee and TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
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bobm
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« Reply #11 on: October 07, 2026, 10:25:42 » |
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It was also in the August and October TransWilts newsletter.
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grahame
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« Reply #12 on: October 07, 2026, 10:45:20 » |
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It was also in the August and October TransWilts newsletter.
Yes, appreciated, Bob ... we (all), perhaps, have the issue of too much information being available these days and having to compete and tune it to reach all the right people at the right time. That was a topic - local example here in Melksham - with the SCOB (Shadow Campus Operation Board) 15 to 20 years ago ... our local community body planning to replace 6 separate old Wiltshire Council and linked facilities in the town with a single current setup. We had many ways of getting the message out - we counted up to 12 avenues of publication including online, printed press, local radio, an in person leaflets and events and attendances. And STILL people said "we didn't hear". Not really a "fault" of ours, nor of theirs. |
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Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Transport User Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group Committee and TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
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eightonedee
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« Reply #13 on: October 07, 2026, 15:45:51 » |
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Grumpy ageing person here. Are the public suffering from information overload and too many sources of information? Did it work better when anything really important was sent out in the post only to those really affected?
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grahame
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« Reply #14 on: October 07, 2026, 20:55:22 » |
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Grumpy ageing person here. Are the public suffering from information overload and too many sources of information? Did it work better when anything really important was sent out in the post only to those really affected?
Superb questions and massive challenge. I could write you a book on the subject - studied it quite a bit (and still do). With dynamic and altering data, it becomes important to have it easily updated from a single source, and to have it headline to the right people when it changes. At tiimes, yes, there is information overload. There are one or two of my sources that push me so much data that much of it washes over without me always appreciate what's there. And having headlines appear just when there is something of note on my daily social media feeds is really useful. There are lessons / morals in my comments that should help inform those people who generate the data. |
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Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Transport User Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group Committee and TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
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