To complete 2021 ... looking back at December's figures:

467 services logged plus 15 removed from system without notice, so total 482 services timetabled

303 on time, 98 delayed, 66 shown as failing to run (cancelled), a further 15 failed to run but removed from system without notice (also cancelled). So as far as passengers are concerned, 81 cancelled

41 cancellations shown due to train crew shortage
15 cancellations not shown at all
2 cancellations "train crew delayed" which is really a shortage
1 cancellation "a problem currently under investigation" looks like failure to sneak from the system when there was no crew.

So of 81 cancellations, 59 attributable to lack of crew from GWR
3 points failure, 8 faults with signals, 4 level crossing barriers - 11 or 15 attributable to Network Rail

401 of 482 ran - 83%.  17% cancellation rate - and let's remember that 2% is a generously lax target.

Now - let's try to summarise that with a suggestion.  "If you are that short of crew, switch to an amended timetable and tell us you are doing so.  Say round trips from Westbury at about 07:30, 09:45, 12:30, 14:30, 16:45 and 19:00.  That's 12 trains per day, with 29 days of running it would have been 348 trains - well under the 401 managed and everyone would have known where they stood."

 

Indeed - and thank you.  I was up earlier and failed to press "post".  The 05:17 Westbury to Swindon was lost too ...

 

06:11 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:09 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

I am following up at http://www.passenger.chat/25812 - I have just split the topic as this is far more than "just"  a cancellation and amendment ... and I am going to lock this topic for a few hours, purely to help keep all the data in one place - that new thread.  Please contribute there

 

Personally, I guess I'm happy it's not just me taken by surprise ... from a wider perspective, though, I am really disappointed in GWR. From my message feed (from a contact I am trying to get information for)

 

I can only see this rather generic message on the alterations page of the website:

ALL ROUTES
ALL Monday to Sunday - Services on many routes will be amended over the Christmas and New Year period. Please check your journey.

The drivers diagram for the 09:46 Westbury to Swindon exists today and then has that driver working the 12:34 Westbury to Weymouth after the return from Swindon - which is also now missing from the timetable.  That suggests a very short notice change that should be on JourneyCheck.

 
I have split the following into a separate thread as it merits its own topic and I want to be able to point direct to it with a direct URL - http://www.passenger.chat/25812


News to me.

It would appear that train departures from Melksham this week are scheduled as follows:
Trains to Swindon at
05:31 07:24 07:52 12:32 14:31 20:23
Trains to Westbury at
06:36 09:09 11:25 13:39 15:40 19:16

Taking a look at a day in the middle of next week (5.1.2022), the following are offered (trains missing this week indicated with "*" to help see the difference:
Trains to Swindon at
05:31 07:24 07:52 10*01 12:32 14:31 16*40 18*49 20:23
Trains to Westbury at
06:36 09:09 11:30 13:39 15:40 18*02 19:16 21*06

Also flagged up to me by users.  Researching.   Further research inputs welcome.

 
No spare driver to split the two units and take 158958 to the sidings.   Split was done when the two came back from Swindon two hours later.

 
Yes ... it really was 5 cars.  I was due to pop by the station just to check it was tidy and the 09:10 to Westbury was indeed a 2 car 158 leading a 3 car 158, operated single door at Melksham which was adequate for the handful off and handful on a windy, rainy Bank Holiday.



Station itself very much "switched off" - not a key day for new customers, but it needs to be a bit more open come the New Year.

 

 

Posted 14 minutes after train should have departed from Gloucester.

 
Yes, ironic that the most reliable of the South Wales trains was the one cancelled! But the staff at Swindon were brilliant. They issued me with a supplementary travel authority and sent me via Bath (in First Class). With how busy the train between Bath and Westbury was, I was glad to have succeeded in avoiding Bristol Temple Meads on the little trains in the present circumstances.

 

Of course replacing TER services by buses is something SNCF do routinely, on the grounds that "it's not worth running a train just for six people". It doesn't need disruption, and sometimes it's part of the normal timetable.

 

I wonder if someone has been reading the forum  ... 


One cheer, but better than none - road transport (bus, minibus or taxi) on this basis remains much inferior to a train service in the view of most passenger.

 

Never mind - there will be another one along on 27th December ... ah - that's all right - I can claim compensation:

 

I half agree and half disagree with stuving on this.

I must admit that when grahame posted that earlier, it sent a bit of a shiver down my spine. I would indeed be concerned that once you "temporarily" lose some TransWilts services from the timetable itself, there is a high risk that they will then be gone for good, with the remaining trains still considered low priority and thus still subject to cancellation as well. Certainly i have seen similar moves cause a spiral into terminal decline elsewhere.

On the other hand, it is important to note that what stuving describes is not typical everywhere in France. Here in Brittany we are unfortunately, as you would expect with the current Covid situation, having to cancel the odd local/regional service here and there due to staff shortages. However, we always quickly put on alternative transport and/or extra stops in other services, and it is a top priority to get the message out as quickly as possible through as many channels as possible, from station information right through to very swift Social Media posting.

However, we have no plans to remove any local/regional services from the timetable itself. For one thing, it would be counterproductive for the future given that passenger numbers have held up remarkably well on our patch.

 

Be careful what you wish for. SNCF have completely removed some TER services, notably five around Perpignan. When pressed, they said this was due not just to staff self-isolating but that the number of passengers had fallen too. Presumably they meant "below the level that made the service worth running at all". So far, buses are replacing them, though with passengers having less space per each. Of course that depends on the bus drivers being there ...

 

Eight of those cancellations through the afternoon were down to a points failure somewhere past Avonmouth. No doubt that was the source of the misinformation about why Swansea trains diverted around the Severn Tunnel - the real cause being a points failure at Severn Tunnel Junction. Mind you, an incinerator train did get through, via Henbury. But even if that route was available for passengers, the through trans to Severn Beach probably needed cancelling anyway due to lack of staff.

 

Of course, we have been here before with putting forward just such a proposal shortly before the then similarly chronically reliability-challenged 5 trains each way per day TransWilts Rail service was slashed as a "quick win" back in December 2006 - see http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/open.html

Back then industry experts verified our figures as being credible, but were of the view that a locally run "Open Access" local rail service would not be possible in the then prevailing rail climate. However, our figures did end up being far closer to the actual ones recorded when a similar enhanced service was eventually introduced in December 2013 than those put forward by the official consultants.

Fast forward to December 2021, and now it's the figures that are up the swanee everywhere due to Covid, but Section 26 of the GBR White Paper says "It will be easier to design the geographic and financial size of contracts to reflect local markets and needs, and to reduce barriers to entry for new and innovative bidders where this is value for money." and "Integration could also enable multiple, smaller operators to co-exist efficiently in a way that has not previously been possible."

It's a funny old world.

 

See you later ;-) ... the story of the 08:45 told in another follow up.  Interesting how the one you doubted ran, and the one you did not doubt ended up cancelled, but you would probably chose another word

 
However, unlike yesterday, the 06:35 Salisbury - Cheltenham Spa being terminated at Swindon today (train crew shortage), seems likely to be riding to the rescue of the 08:45 Swindon - Westbury (which is fortunate in a sense as the Worcester to Weymouth doesn’t have the luxury of two units today, as it did yesterday).

 
Well, here's to £64.40 in Delay Repay. They've also cancelled the 0628 Swansea to Paddington for good measure. So even if the 0845 were running, I'd now miss it.

 
Here we (don't) go .... AGAIN ....

 

An illustration of just what a mess there is at the moment - and how anything that involved a connection is double jeopardy at the moment.

I would suggest an emergency timetable - fewer trains, with additional trains run as staffing and "train repairs" allowed.  Something with a built in robustness which didn't fall over like a pack of cards at the first piece of disruption.   Of course, I haven't had THAT call suggested elsewhere yet  ... and everyone seems to be so busy fire-fighting that the niceties of keeping in touch with the users feels very limited at times.

 
Hope no one was travelling from Melksham to Severn Beach today.

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/gb-nr:SVB/2021-12-23/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

 

I got to know - a little - Andrew when he was MD of Great Western Railway. That was long before he took on the wider role of Great British Railways. And I have a huge respect for him.  He has a mountain of issues to confront, which it would take me until Christmas to list, and I do not envy him that mountain.

In the UK, we have a number of strong community, local, regional expertise and that community, outside of the conventional rail industry, Horseferry Road and political sphere could bring that expertise to help with perhaps radical progress if only it were allowed.  You jest, Lee, about Andrew Haines calling  and elsewhere I comment about asking Mark A to take on a role.  You yourself have more than a little to offer (and indeed you are doing so on the buses) and I could find some really excellent others - no shortage of candidates, many of whom are likely to be reading this (and I hope will know I am hinting at them!)

But ... it does require some brave decisions, and trust and a free reign to get on and do the darned job from those who have perhaps over-managed to the extent they have stifled improvement.  There are some really excellent people, but some work in really constraining systems.

 

The unit for that train is formed from the 06:40 Bristol Temple Meads to Westbury service. Since the timetable change it is also the driver from that train as well. If the 06:40 from Bristol is disrupted it doesn't bode well for the 07:37 from Westbury as both another driver and another unit have to be found. 

Having checked, the 06:40 from Bristol appears not to have run today.

 
This is filling me with confidence, as I'm meant to be getting that train tomorrow. Here's to ending up in Bath...

 

Thank you for that ... I would have guessed otherwise (from the sidings) ... but these things change around.

 
Answering my own question, off the back of the Worcester to Weymouth train.

 
Finally reported as cancelled on Journeycheck at 08:36

 
RealTimeTrains link - cancelled due to unknown cause https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:L88360/2021-12-23/detailed Where does the unit come from for the next round trip I wonder?

 

Well you would have thought so - but as of now there is no mention on Journeycheck and the screens at Swindpn are showing it as running.  No sign of an empty stock move to provide for a service either.

 
And predictably, the train’s return trip at 08:45 from Swindon to Westbury also cancelled.

 
07:37 Westbury to Swindon due 08:19
07:37 Westbury to Swindon due 08:19 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

 
Vive la Transwilts! 

 

I do.

I have been reviewing the Option 24/7 TransWilts Pilot Area Bus Network for 2016 (EDIT to fix link)

What I noticed was how well it still stands up today. Therefore, I am going to look at adapting it to form a Wiltshire Base Bus Network for 2022 that can withstand reduced or removed Covid grant funding.

The basic idea would be where in 2016 we looked at profits and the savings from a more efficient network cross-subsidising, and in some cases improving services, and enabling the reduction or removal of Wiltshire Council funding, in 2022 I will look at Wiltshire Council funding mixed with the £671k Subsidised Bus Service Fund award and the savings from a more efficient network underpinning, and in some cases improving services, and thus withstanding the reduction or removal of Covid grant funding.

That way we can create a Wiltshire Base Bus Network for 2022 that we can then enhance with whatever Bus Service Improvement Plan funding we are allocated, and move on with Bus Back Better more or less as originally planned.


Whatever else people might think of us, they can't say we are not innovative in TransWilts-land. Therefore, why not transfer control of Westbury-Swindon rail services to an interim local management team that includes Option 24/7 and Wiltshire Council representation, with a view to integrating them with the TransWilts Pilot Area Bus Network under a Comité De Lignes-style arrangement for the longer-term.

There you go, fixed that for you. Andrew Haines has grahame's phone number, and we will be expecting the call imminently.

 
It's not you. Railway companies generally need to stop the piecemeal cancellation approach and run provisional timetables along with develop a plan to restore services. Also, the DfT needs to not even dare think of using the reduction in passenger numbers as an excuse for unstructured permanent cuts to services. Lastly, the minister of state for transport, every time he dares stand up and talk about the £96 billion investment in rail for the north? That needs challenging by everyone else in the room.

Mark

 

We aren't the only ones - here are other issues this morning:


We do seem, though, to have consistency one of the worst records and, time and time and time again, huge gaps between services.


Makes me weep.  Don't know what to do.

 
07:37 Westbury to Swindon due 08:19
07:37 Westbury to Swindon due 08:19 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

08:45 Swindon to Westbury due 09:26
08:45 Swindon to Westbury due 09:26 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 
I consider myself the most loyal and patient of customers but even I'm not using the TransWilts to commute to and from work (MKM - WSB) this week. I found during the past three weeks or so that I could usually get in OK, but either had to leave early to get the "last train" (a lunchtime service, with everything after that showing as cancelled) or rely on the invariably helpful station staff at WSB to find me a taxi to MKM - which I twice abandoned on the outskirts of Melksham and walked home in the dark, rather than sit in ring-road traffic for an additional 20 minutes just to get to the station and join up the dots. I'm lucky: I have the option of using the car if I want to. For most of the year round I choose to use the train as I consider myself very fortunate to have the service available and played a very small part in fighting to save it once long ago; but quite frankly it's too unreliable to be any use to man nor beast right now. Whether or not I'll return to the train in the spring remains to be seen.

 

Thanks for that ... pretty depressing at the moment.

Edit to add - 34 out of 340 services scheduled so far the month cancelled for crew reasons alone.

 
MONDAY 20th December - one more which slipped the net yesterday 
1750 Gloucester - Warminster was cancelled throughout (as shown on RealTimeTrains)

 

 


Sadly, no, not the contributors on the forum.  There are times that the pedant in me skips over JourneyCheck reports of things like formation changes, and consolidates multiple cancellations into a a single post.

Where a line has a train service multiple times per hour, a cancellation or two every couple of days is something that most passengers can live with even if not happy about it.  Where a line only has one train every several hours, any and every cancellation has a serious impact on passengers - both on the day of the cancellation, and in their trust in the rail industry to provide a reliable service on future dates, and they will look for alternatives.

 
10:45 Westbury to Swindon due 11:31 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 
Is someone out there making a determined effort to try to get to the 30th page on this thread before the year is out?

(just to be clear - someone in the rail industry, not the unfortunate contributors to this forum who have undertaken the sad task of keeping us informed of the problems, including changes of information issued to passengers, on this service)

 

 

In 1970 I had a friend whose father was in Western Region operations.  On Christmas Eve he sent every train out double headed to ensure that a breakdown would not prevent services. 

 
1217 Westbury-Swindon
1315 Swindon-Westbury
1416 Westbury-Swindon
1514 Swindon-Westbury

- cancelled, crew shortage.

 

I do admire your courage & faith that GWR will get you home on Christmas Eve under current circumstances.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

 
I'm currently looking forward to what I fully expect to happen on Christmas Eve. I've already bought my rather dear First Class Advance from Neath to Melksham (and a comparatively bargainous Standard Anytime Single from Melksham to Frome). 0640 from Neath, 0845 from Swindon. What could possibly go wrong?  Worst comes to the worst, I get diverted to Bath (and phone for a lift, rather than any more messing around) and GWR somehow work out how to excess me for staying in First between Chippenham and Bath after they cancel the 0845.

 

Nope - they'll tell you your "via Melksham" ticket will be accepted, but charge you twice that amount if you buy off the web site.

 

Noting the routing dispensation - wasn't there (still isn't) on the earlier services, but I can't imagine GWR getting upset with anyone who travels via the alternative route because they've not provided the train that's in the timetable!   Of course, whether they sell walk up tickets at "via Melksham" fares to people who are diverted via Bath is another matter.

 

That will make for an arrival into Westbury at 18:57 (if a tight connection "makes" at Bath) or 19:04.

In these circumstances, a "via Melksham" ticket (£8.20 for the cancelled train) should be accepted via Bath Spa - for which an "any permitted" single ticket on the train you are being redirected to would cost £16.40; I assume this arrangement is still in place, though it seems to have slipped off the customer information and passenger need to know.

 

 
What's going on at Westbury? Not only the Transwilts services cancelled but loads of others too. And yet according to the website there's a good service across the network....

 

All four ran, but only the 1416 Westbury to Swindon went via Melksham.

1625 Westbury to Swindon has gone via Melksham, but delayed after Trowbridge.

1736 Swindon to Westbury
1834 Westbury to Swindon
Both showing as cancelled presently.

 

The later services missing out Melksham too.

 
But unfortunately 1217 Westbury to Swindon diverted, not calling at Melksham. Signalling fault on the single line.

 
All four now re-instated.

 

 

I was asked (FB) about the cancellations - Covid or new timetable? - pointing out the gap from the 05:33 through to lunch time.

 
0946 Westbury - Swindon
1106 Swindon - Westbury

Both cancelled due to train crew being delayed.

 
The Salisbury to Cheltenham was started late from Westbury at 0730, so has ended up almost (not quite, I grant) running in the pathway of the 0737 Westbury - Swindon.

 

So that's both "peak" services - the ones that GWR have registered as key services (of which there are just three a day) - 07:20, 07:50 and 18:01 at Melksham) cancelled, and just a "phone for help" alternative on offer.  Northbound gap, 05:33 to 10:02, southbound 06:36 to 11:31

I appreciate this is the first day of a "work from home if possible" phase but, really, no better way to spend out crew than to cancel the two successive main trains? 

 
The 18:35 from Westbury was cancelled at 09:50 today but then re-instated just under an hour later along with the 19:34 from Swindon.

 

That look asymmetric - but then there are some very odd workings on a Saturday evening where (in theory, anyway) the northbound service finishes at half past six but the last southbound train doesn't reach end of journey until nearly 10 O'Clock.

 

And so it should 

 

Last day south of Warminster ... almost as if it's going very, very reluctantly!

 
and the inevitable ...

 

 
So today

21:12   Westbury      a shortage of train crew
20:22   Cheltenham Spa   On time   -
19:17   Southampton Central   On time   -
18:55   Swindon      a shortage of train crew
18:01   Westbury      train crew being delayed by service disruption
16:41   Swindon      train crew being delayed by service disruption
15:39   Westbury      a points failure
14:32   Swindon      a points failure
13:40   Westbury      a points failure
12:33   Swindon   On time   -
11:30   Westbury   11:32   --
10:02   Swindon   On time   -
09:10   Westbury   On time   -
07:51   Swindon   On time   -
07:20   Cheltenham Spa   On time   -
06:36   Southampton Central   06:37   --
05:33   Swindon   On time   -

Melksham times, train destinations. 17 scheduled, 10 ran - that's 41% cancellation, for multiple reasons (the later cancellations were reported long before the points failure, so cannot have been in consequence from it).

 

It sat at Chippenham for over half an hour before diverting.

 

 

 

Indeed ...

 
Points failed at Thingley Junction. 1315 Swindon to Westbury has just diverted via Bathampton Junction. Next round trip will clearly be disrupted too.

 

Fourth day out of nine so far in December with cancellations ... and the base service on this line is so infrequent that each and every cancellation means serious disruptions to people's schedules - in none of these cases is it "there will be another one along in half an hour ..." but rather "yikes - what do we do now?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think DfT/SWR recently sent you a message that, if the railways were ever really run with the customer in mind, they certainly aren't now.

 

After effects from:


Better logging on JourneyCheck than it was earlier ...


Yes, I know, the line only survived the 1970s because of its use as a diversion route but, my, I wish we had the capacity or the ability to switch (when it's in use for that purpose) to switch over to timings to planned alternatives that continue to provide a local service too - calls on the modified long distance semi-fast services at the intermediate stations?   The local train at 2 or 3 cars is shorter than the 5 car (4.5 passenger accommodation) regional ones - but the carriages are just as busy or at times busier and the extra stops really would not be inconveniencing "the many" for "a few". Now more like "a little more delay for some to prevent really significant delay to others" - that's the TransWilts success that could be so much better nurtured with just a little customer-tuned adjustment on days like today.

 
Midgham

From Journeycheck

 

Hungerford?

 

Trying to think where our level crossing might be ...

 
17:50 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 20:36
17:50 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 20:36 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Gloucester, Stonehouse, Stroud, Kemble, Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge.
This is due to a fault on this train.

 
For November:

326 trains "On time"
154 services delayed, cancelled or not logged
14 services cancelled
4 buses shown as "On time" but not actually real time tracked

Total of 498 services
2.8% cancellation rate

The reasons for cancellations where known:
20:22   Cheltenham Spa   reason:   --
18:10   Westbury   reason:   --
21:12   Westbury      a shortage of train crew
18:55   Swindon      train crew being delayed
15:39   Westbury      a shortage of train crew
14:32   Swindon      a shortage of train crew
15:39   Westbury      a shortage of train crew
14:32   Swindon      a shortage of train crew
12:33   Swindon      a fault with the signalling system
11:30   Westbury      a fault with the signalling system
06:36   Westbury      a shortage of train crew
05:33   Swindon      a shortage of train crew
12:33   Swindon      a problem currently under investigation
11:30   Westbury      a problem currently under investigation

 

 

 

Shouldn't be an issue this afternoon ...

 

Back to old habits - leave a four hour gap on the TransWilts rather than an hour gap elsewhere, and I would have hoped for a rail replacement bus to have been provided without having to call for it.  Sad.

 

 

 

Oh dear ... and welcome back, Rob S.

Shows as 20 late off Swindon at 10:00, 12 late into Weymouth.  I wondered what had happened

 


I tried to catch this train yesterday, even got to sit on it for a few minutes before the train was taken out of service, this was because the whole of the 'northern side' of the front carriage, including the side windows, was completely covered with an unauthorised silver and yellow paint scheme courtesy of a local graffiti artist, and the driver declared it couldn't be used as he couldn't see out of his cab's side window. We ended up using the stock that arrived in Swindon at about 0955