Is there demand for a stopping service to Westbury along the Kennet Valley

[whole diary]

[amiddl]

Why do stopping services only go as far as Bedwyn? Its a real pain  to have to go back to Newbury or even Reading to pick up a train down the Kennet Valley for the West Country. Have stopping trains always not gone further than Bedwyn. I presume the only reason this happens is to provide a connecting service for the bus to Marlborough. It would be so useful to be able to conenct on or off of West Country service at Westbury from stations between Newbury and Westbury.

[Timmer]

Why do stopping services only go as far as Bedwyn?

Probably because there is only one station, Pewsey that would benefit between Bedwyn and Westbury with extending services to Westbury. The current London-SW services stopping there are able to cater for demand from this station.

[devon_metro]

Lack of platform capacity at Westbury is another issue.

[amiddl]

The problem is that its very easy to go towards London from Bedwyn, Hungerford, Kintbury, Newbury etc but not so easy to connect to the West Country. Granted we have a few trains West from Newbury but there are other times when you dont want to have to go all the way to Reading and back again to get here. I have had journeys where I have gone through Newbury on a fast service to  Reading and then its taken me vitually and hour and a half to get back.

Someone I know regularly travels from the West Country on a Sunday evening and has a real problem conencting at Newbury back to Hungerford. It just seems strange that the stopping service doesnt connect through to Westbury.

[moonrakerz]

Lack of platform capacity at Westbury is another issue.

Didn't used to be before they shut one of the platforms   

[grahame]

The Westbury platform track is to be restored; that's said to be needed operationally for use during Reading blockades, quite apart from overcoming what has become something of a tight spot at times, and will become more so as we move towards the GWRUS^▸ (Great Western Route Utilisation Strategy (a Network Rail document)) levels of service from there to Swindon.  It will also avoid that annoying need to sent a train on its way to make space for another one where people would just love to connect.

As I recall, the proposal for the current franchise that almost got converted into a real service was for the Bedwyn stoppers to be extended to Westbury - but that the services calling at Bedwyn would then drop from hourly to every 2 hours. I went to a meeting in Bedwyn in 2005/2006 where the MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post (a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London), depending on context) (Michael Ancram) actively took up the case and (as a result?) the status quo was maintained.  But actually his record on 2 of the 3 stations in his constiutuency (Bedwyn and Pewsey, where he live(s/d)) is/was a good one; it's rather reverse in the case of the third station that was in his constituency - at a very much larger place, where services were slashed while he appeared to do very much less than he did for the either Bedwyn or Pewsey.

[thetrout]

I would say there is more chance of demand for a Bristol Temple Meads > London Paddington service via Westbury. I believe I may have raised this point before.

If your at Bath Spa for example, getting to anywhere like Newbury or Bedwyn is an absolute pain...! You either have to go via Reading or via Westbury, problem is there are few trains from Westbury that call at Bedwyn. So really Reading is the only viable option. Which is madness!

It sort of reminded me when I travelled from Bruton - Taunton some time ago, I took the service to Bristol Temple Meads and had a superb Sunday Lunch down at the Knights Templar on Temple Quay... Went to catch my service down to Taunton, XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) were running diversions via Westbury, so I went all the way back down where I had come from and straight back through Bruton...! The XC service did call at Bath Spa, so a call at Westbury would have made so much more sense than having pax^▸ (passengers) go all the way up to Bristol Temple Meads or Bath Spa to come back again!

[Tim]

I agree, Westbury has much potential as a hub for passengers from Bath and Chippenham (and that neglected town in Wiltshire). Two busy and growing routes meet there and I am pleased to see that the fenced off platform is reopening.

[XPT]

I would say there is more chance of demand for a Bristol Temple Meads > London Paddington service via Westbury. I believe I may have raised this point before.

That would be interesting.   But can't really see FGW^▸ (First Great Western) ever introducing brand new services such as this though.

A year or so back though I did notice whilst looking on the Bristol Temple Meads arrivals/departures page on the FGW website, that on one Saturday afternoon there was actually such a service running on that day.  From London Paddington-Bristol Temple Meads via and stopping at Reading, Theale, Thatcham, Newbury, Hungerford, etc.  With a journey time of 2 hour 40 minutes.   

[Toiletdriver]

If Turbos go west of Bedwyn, then it's either more Reading guards needed, who'd also have to learn a new route, Reading Westbury, or DOO^▸ (Driver-Only Operation (that is, trains which operate without carrying a guard)) gets extended west of Bedwyn.
Both cost money.

Therefore no extension west of Bedwyn