Rather sadly, I am about to start a 2024 thread on this topic;  this one remains open for comment and analysis as there is so much we can all learn from the history.  A big "thank you" to other members who have helped with the recording of the data and the doing so in a measured and constructive way; that is not an easy balance when through the year the service has had significant issues.

 

 
15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:57

15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:57 will be started from Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Swindon.
This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident.

 
1B15 1248 Paddington to Carmarthen has stopped at at a green signal between Rushy Platt and Wootton Bassett Junction since 1343.
1A22 1330 Bristol to Paddington changed ends past Chippenham and now diverting towards Westbury and delaying 2M19 1419 Westbury to Swindon waiting to go on towards Melksham!

 
Cancellations to services at Swindon
Due to the emergency services dealing with an incident at Swindon all lines are blocked.
Train services running through this station may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 16:00 30/12.
Customer Advice
We are sorry for the delay to your journey today.


Can you tell me more about the incident?
It is with great sadness that we report a person has been struck by a train, leading to all lines being blocked. It is necessary to bring all trains in the affected area to an immediate stop. Where we can, we will divert trains to run on other lines around the affected area.

If you are onboard one of the services in this incident and are distressed by events, please do speak to a member of Train Crew for assistance. Alternatively, if you need to talk with someone privately the Samaritans offer a 24hr phone line available via 116 123.

More information will follow as we have it.

 

At least Swindon Town are not playing at home ..

 

Reports getting to me are that it didn't work ...

and


From time to time trains get cancelled, yes, of course, and we know that.  But:

1a. It happens far too often and
1b. It seems far too often to be a train which is NOT followed by an alternative service

2a. Alternative provision is hit and miss
2b. Information about alternative provision does not seem to reach the customers who need it.

Not a new story - hopefully one GWR can deal with better in 2024

Suggestion - Dear Control, for 2024 if Swindon Town have an evening fixture at home, please do NOT cancel the one and only train back to Melksham, Trowbridge and Westbury after the game.     I do know that Swindon Town has some super fans, and some staff at Control may be amongst their numbers  - so I'm sure the occurrence of this match isn't exactly a surprise to the people who are making difficult decisions when they haven't got enough staff or enough trains ...

 

Should be fun.    Swindon Town are playing at home this evening to Forest Green Rovers and I would have expected a LOT of Swindon fans to travel  up from Melksham for the match.  How many does an MPV take?

 

 

Appears to have carried on from Swindon to Paddington as the 18:40 (which should have started from Weston-super-Mare, and then formed the 19:53 to Hereford, so the TransWilts’ loss ended up being the North Cotswolds’ gain.

 
Driver’s hours to get it back to Stoke Gifford I suspect.

 

Expanded


Real Time Trains shows it to be operated by an IET.  You would have thought it could carry on as far as Westbury, wouldn't you?

 

 

 

 

 
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08 will be starting late from Westbury and is expected to be 12 minutes late.
This is due to a fault on this train.

 

 

 

...at Newbury Racecourse.

 

 

 

I'm loosing track today!

 

I was aware GWR was looking to increase the route knowledge of staff so more could cover TW services.  I assume in this case an Exeter guard has the knowledge primarily for the occasions when West of England services are diverted via Melksham.

 

Now showing cancelled throughout.

 

Left Westbury 56 minutes late….
Running it through to Swindon will presumably have a knock-on effect to the next round trip.

 

Yeah, the train manager is booked to arrive at 11:55 on the 10:35 from Paddington.  22 minutes is tight even when the train is on time.  Today it didn't arrive until 12:38, so it would have been 12:45 at the earliest by the time it would have been available for departure.  I guess a 30 minute delay was seen as too much?

A good example of all the chopping and changing of crews I've been talking about screwing things up.  After that trip to Swindon, the TM has their break and then works the 14:40 to Bristol, before travelling back to their home depot at Exeter.

 

Real time trains gives the cause as
So maybe the fault with the signalling system caused the late arrival of crew from an inbound service?

 
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be reinstated.
It will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.


20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05 will be started from Swindon.
It will no longer call at Westbury, Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

Wow!!!   Then I stand up and am proud to be Unreasonable.



Chris, I think you'll find if you read wider that [we or I] are admitting to al those things and we are working very much with all parties - partnership - but that has to be a partnership that includes the needs of the community which is served by the railway.  In the none-railway world, passenger are known as "customers" and a business needs to provide what the customers want. Which starts with a reliable product they can trust.

Behind the scenes, there is far more than just groaning at GWR and in many ways there are ongoing activities working with them - "what can we do to help" is asked, and followed up on.  And away from this rather niche logging thread, you'll find an awful lot of community support on social media looking to explain, suggest, promote, help.

 

No, you're not - but you aren't 'giving credit' to GWRs ability to do much abut it going forward? You & I both know that the screws have been put on all TOCs to reduce costs, and unfortunately, that means 'branch' lines like yours (and others to maybe slightly lesser extent - cf the Cotswold Line) have been majorly affected.

So maybe work *with* GWR to put pressure on the Government by meeting/lobbying local MPs etc? Simply groaning at GWR won't achieve very much?

 

 
Another day and another cancellation already logged.

Are we being reasonable in looking for a more reliable service from Swindon to Westbury?  I believe we are.   What could be achieved, even by the current team?   Let's not look for something beyond what they have achieved elsewhere - let's compare to what we know can be done.

We have often compared Melksham to Newquay - towns with similar populations, and with a similar train service of a single shuttle train every couple of hours or so.    Here is the recent report, and the last six months that you can compare upthread.

Worst loss - 7 times in six months for Newquay, 22 times in six months for Melksham.  Yep, I would be happy if I can come back to this thread at the next timetable change at the start of June and see that Melksham has been raised to the Newquay standard that GWR have achieved at Newquay.

 
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

 

I am totally in agreement (that data needs to be looked at over a longer time scale) - and the longest offered to me by recent time trains is six months.





23 cancellations out of 127 scheduled on the 18:44 from Swindon.  I suspect that should be out of 130, but three days lost a few days ahead because of anticipated industrial action.

But yet the whole picture needs to be looked at, not just the worst train.  The busiest southbound train of the day is the 17:36 and it's my understanding that GWR prioritise its operation.  Never the less, 10 cancellations out of 129 - at 8% cancellation rate - is 4 times what the average should be, over six months - and a failure once a fortnight to provide a train home.

 

 

Grahame, I think (and I dare say you would agree) that this is far too short a timeframe to draw any meaningful conclusions.

Nevertheless, even over this period, the 18:44 from Swindon stands out to me as being especially unreliable. It would be interesting to look back over a longer period (12 months) at this particular train, and the 20:06 from Westbury to Cheltenham.

I suspect you might find a deterioration in reliability since May 2023 when I understand a decision was implemented to change the crewing arrangements for this pair of trains, with associated implications for the type of train to be used.

 
If train cancellations and delays were consistent - always the same train, always caused for the same reason, they might be easier to analyse and fix.  But one of the difficulties I find in looking at the data and thinking how that takes us forward.    Here is recent history from recent train times, Swindon to Melksham:



* The CANC/NR boxes are what are admitted to being lost in official stat
* The greyed out area are where there should have been trains but they were cancelled earlier on
* The yellow highlights are trains that were flagged up as cancelled but then ran after all

I have looked at a similar recent trains time diagram for Bath to Bradford-on-Avon and it is a very similar patchy picture - with the massive difference being that each cancellation in the sample I took was followed by another train that actually ran within around half an hour - exception on 7th December.

 

Totally understood and thank you for explaining / commenting thus far.   And please excuse the frustration.

 
I'm off to Swindon from Templecombe this evening. Going via Reading rather than Westbury for three reasons.

- At my chosen departure time there would be a lengthy connection wait at Westbury for a TransWilts train.
- Said TransWilts train may not run.
- Avoiding circulating through Bath in the evening peak.

- Okay. Four reasons. I can grab a beer in The Three Guineas at Reading.
- Okay. Five reasons. If either the SWR or GWR networks fall down I'd rather be stuck in Basingstoke or Reading than Westbury.

All that is worth the extra £8 or so for the ticket valid via Reading. Welcome to rail journey planning in 2023. So many more variables have to be accounted for due to the woeful state of the railways.

 

I don't have the time to delve too much into that, and I'm not a resources manager (I can't think of a much worse job the way things are now set up tbh), but there seems to be too many of the 'West' area jobs covered by multiple drivers/guards these days.  And, as mentioned before, so much chopping and changing crews around on a given train generally. 

It makes 'stepping up' crews from other train at short notice even harder.

 
Rather an illustration that a single train might be more efficient ...


Chippenham to Melksham for the 17:53 train - or is that wait for the 7 O'Clock?

 

Maybe ... and if the service was typically reliable it would be far easier to forgive.   But where there are cancellations every day, "short notice" isn't an easy sell, and if GWR are one driver short at the last, why choose the diagram where the following train isn't for over 2 hours (northbound) and over an hour (southbound).

 
Could well be someone has gone sick at short(ish) notice?  First part of the diagram (that bit) now uncovered, hence the cancellation.  Then the remainder of that diagram - a trip to Cardiff and back and associated shunts - covered by no less than four different drivers doing bits and pieces.

 

What the **** - no strikes, no industrial action, no widespread cancellations elsewhere - there are times I feel that we in Melksham are treated as second class citizens when it comes to running our train service.    Then there are time like this that I feel more third class than second.

With last Friday's party out the way, do the powers that be feel that they can relax again as we won't be in the limelight again for a while?    One of the local county team wrote to me after Friday "rail connectivity is very much part of our Local Plan for Wiltshire and I will be working hard to make the case for further developments over the coming years across the County" which is great, but we must make sure that what we have at the moment is working properly, and I see in that letter no commitment to do that. 

 
This is rather better than past form ....


But a long way from the service that should be provided.

 
Cancellations to services between Westbury and Swindon

Due to a shortage of train crew between Westbury and Swindon fewer trains are able to run.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled or revised. Melksham will not be served. Disruption is expected until 21:00 11/12.
Customer Advice
-

Please be advised that owing to a shortage of train crew we have a large gap in service for customers travelling to/from Melksham this evening.

-

The next rail service to run to Melksham will be the 21:16 Westbury to Swindon service. The following services are not calling at Melksham today:
- The 18:37 Westbury to Swindon service which is cancelled.
- The 17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury service which terminates at Swindon.
- The 20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa service which terminates at Swindon.
- The 20:13 Swindon to Westbury service which is cancelled.

 

And so as to restore equilibrium…

 

Yeah - I knew that was coming and it's just under 12% of the forum content.  I wonder if that's excessive and at times moderate my posting though a lot of my activity relates to acting as the roving reporter, quoting with little or no comment from wider sources, and some posts relate to the admin / webmaster tasks. 

Edit to add ...
10,000 include quotes from external sources
13,000 do not include quotes at all

 


..and just to note Graham has passed 40,000 posts - although not all on this thread and its predecessors!

 
And - oh look - the following train has been cancelled.


Remind me - is there still industrial action ongoing?

 

Here are a couple of (overlapping) logs from Recent Time Trains which show this train's performance and also the performance of the one before it:



I have chosen 10 weeks of data - because there should have been 50 services and it makes the numbers easy to work with.    I think there have been 2 weekday strike and on one of them the earlier service actually ran (or at least remained in the timetable.  So from a customer viewpoint, the train ran 38 times out of 50 - or a 76% record.

Whenever we ask about performance issues, we are given short term reasons for the problems, assured they are overcome, and we are told to look at longer data.  So here is the report, I believe as long as I can go, for six months:



104 ran out of 126 ... we know that there were at least 3 and probably more like 5 or 6 strike days in there, so the longest term performance I can quote is still under 80% - so not a new problem, then, but the autumn has been if anything a little worse than the summer.  We need long term fixes, and not platitudes about what went wrong last week!

 

Again?

 

Showing as reinstated by 08:00

 

Great minds think alike, Bob - I had picked that up too.  I decided to let it be rather than follow up - positive post in many places to follow.

 

Interesting the header of their Facebook page says, in capitals, “please no naming or shaming of individuals or businesses”

 
11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

 

 
It's as if there are core routes e.g. London to Bristol that are more shielded from cancellations - but others that are further down the priority list - and the Transwilts is bitten both by staff availability and inadequate infrastructure.

It's really good that the trains are there but since the tenth anniversary has just been toasted, does anyone know what a graph of the reliability would look like over the last decade, and if there's a downward trend is this related to increasing amounts of freight, need for diversions or something more subtle?

At the gathering yesterday at Westbury, it was good to talk with a career railway person with perspective back to 1976, someone who just possibly held a position on the pros and cons of the one time practice of having a couple of train crew spare at any time - a provision for resilience that's long gone, being frowned upon by the accountants of the privatised railway. Also, the days, admittedly in a less crowded timetable, when cancelling a service was really frowned on and resulted in an immediate summoning to travel a considerable distance to set foot on a range of possible carpets.

Mark

 
From The Sham Shoutouts - this is an example of why it's so hard for the railways here about to maintain their passenger numbers at the moment:

 

20:08 Westbury to Swindon due 20:54
20:08 Westbury to Swindon due 20:54 will be cancelled.
This is due to industrial action.

 

 

Thanks for that - I have corrected the link in my post.

 
Brooklea,

Many thanks - I haven't seen TrackIT before - the level of detail is ... interesting ... although perhaps not for the majority of rail users. Does anyone on this forum have an explanation of all the data feeds available and which public websites use which?

One minor correction to your post: the top-level URL doesn't have a www in it: https://trackit.uppyjc.co.uk

We agree on the final score: 9 ran, 9 cancelled.

 

Yep, I too looked at the RTT data and thought to myself that Kemble was an odd place for these trains to vanish/appear from the system. I then had a look at their subsequent/previous workings on RTT and that suggested that both had run throughout. I concluded that there had been some issue in data feeds to RTT, which is not unheard of.

So I visited this website https://trackit.uppyjc.co.uk which helpfully can display detailed signalling data for the past 24 hours (although it sometimes has gaps in the data too). This showed both trains had travelled along the Melksham line.

The specific train links don’t work forever, but this shows Friday’s 2O20 0511 Gloucester to Southampton https://trackit.uppyjc.co.uk/TrackIT/Forms/Train.aspx?TrainID=44820136&AutoRefresh=True&CameFromLocationID=10649&DisplayMode=TD&Detailed=True&Reverse=True&Estimate=True

And 2M81 0635 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street https://trackit.uppyjc.co.uk/TrackIT/Forms/Train.aspx?TrainID=44820082&CameFromLocationID=10649&AutoRefresh=True&Estimate=True&DisplayMode=TD&Detailed=True Sorry, but attaching screenshots is beyond my abilities!

Hope that’s of interest 

 
PS to Brooklea: I don't wish to come over as combative. Thank you for your continuing contributions to the forum! 

 
Hello Brooklea, just checking that I have the right figures (7 running = 11 not running on the core section):

* The 0511 Gloucester - Southampton progressed no further than Kemble.
* The 0635 Salisbury - Worcester first appears on RTT at Kemble.

I know RTT sometimes isn't right where a train runs out-of-correspondence with the pre-ordained timetable, but I have assumed that neither of these workings came anywhere Melksham (and that thhis is the discrepancy between your figures and mine).

Do you have any info to suggest there was a service through Melksham at these times?

 

Friday was a bad day for cancellations, but not quite that bad; 9 out of 18 cancelled on the core section:

07:45 WSB - SWI and 08:45 SWI - WSB
12:17 WSB - SWI
18:37 WSB - SWI
17:50 Gloucester - Salisbury (started from Westbury)
20:06 WSB - Cheltenham Spa
20:13 SWI - WSB
21:16 WSB - SWI and 22:30 SWI - WSB

Last train from Melksham was the 18:03 to Westbury.

 
Looks like the cancelled trains for today may have been re-instated.  Good - I hope that not too many people were scared away and have made other travel plans ...

 

And starting today ... 4 more cancellations ... out of just 14 because we have accepted the loss of 2 round trips in the Saturday timetable to make it operationally easier and more robust.  Sadly, by segmenting out the line we have also made it easier for the service to be sacrificed any time there's something happening like a shortage of working trains or staff ...

 
So, just to summarise: on December 8th just 7 out of 18 services ran on the core Westbury-Swindon section.

 

And the rest ... we are both posting at the same time!

 
20:13 Swindon to Westbury due 20:58
20:13 Swindon to Westbury due 20:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to industrial action.

21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58
21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to industrial action.

22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:11
22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:11 will be cancelled.
This is due to industrial action.

 
 

 

No need to hide behind the sofa. I am agreeing with you.  An initiative would quickly end up saving money as well as people's short tempers.  Using seats on buses otherwise unoccupied in place of taxis of which we have a shortage of available vehicles around here.

I went to listen to the Director of Highways and Transport in Semington village last night, and asked about public transport collaboration, citing buses to the stations to connect with trains at places like Westbury (where 4 buses a day call) and Melksham (where there are none).   I was re-assured by one of our Wiltshire Councillors that buses go past the top of our Station Approach and all it needs is a timetable change to have them connect - it's "just a couple of minutes walk".  Hmmm .... if only it were that simple.

 

It wasn't, although it did occur to me. However, I felt very uncomfortable about walking around Trowbridge town centre in the dark, feeling vulnerable (white, middle class males stand out rather in Trowbridge), not knowing exactly where bus stops are, so I got a taxi in preference. Also as it happens the 16:25 had already left by the time the 16:23 (which was standing at the platform!) was cancelled - and the next train to Trowbridge was significantly delayed beyond 17:00 as well.

 

Surely it wouldn't be that difficult to equip staff with that knowledge, or the means to obtain in it times of disruption? Why should using a bit of initiative "cost" much? The value it would add to the customer experience would far outweigh it..........surely transport modes working collaboratively is the way forward?

.............perhaps if there were more customer facing staff visibly available at stations, rather than stuck behind glass serving a small and ever dwindling number of people, this is the sort of initiative that could be championed?

(......hides behind sofa) 

 
Whilst this is known to 'a few' as to how a passenger might return home ((other than taxi)), it relies on platform staff having that knowledge.
However, they are rail staff, not bus staff, and it might have been that that bus service had been changed/cancelled earlier, so of not much help.
It needs someone further up the chain with some authority to advise exactly wasson.
That, of course, will cost!

 

16:23 - so due into Melksham at 16:38.

As an alternative, there was a train at 16:25 which got to Trowbridge at 16:31.  A bus then left Trinity Square at the top of station approach at 16:57 and got to Melksham Town Centre at 17:30.  Perhaps not as fast, but in the land of integrated public transport that I was hearing about at the Area Board in Semington this evening, surely that would have been suggested to you??

 

I tried to get home to Melksham from Westbury on the 16:23 today but not only was that cancelled (despite the train being on the platform), but ALL trains back to Swindon (four, I think) cancelled after that as well. Station staff did offer to get passengers a taxi, but that would have had to have come from Bath (they aren't allowed to use local, Westbury taxi services apparently) which would have taken longer than walking, if that were even feasible. So I paid for a taxi out of my own pocket to come from Melksham to pick me up from Westbury and offered a lift (courtesy of the ever helpful station staff) to anyone who wanted to join me. I know there's a strike happening, and the weather's been unkind elsewhere on the network, but the disruption this week really does seem to have been notched up considerably.

 
17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20
17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

18:37 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21
18:37 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Further Information

 
No.

 

Is Melksham being added?

 

Freshford and Avoncliff (and also Pilning) are being added to the next update of the SDO database which should be on all units shortly.

 

Tuesday 5th An Overview

The first five trains all ran throughout, and more or less on time / within 15 minutes of schedule
11:05 Swindon to Westbury cancelled
(unit now stranded at Swindon)
12:17 Westbury to Swindon cancelled
13:15 Swindon to Westbury ran an hour late
(at a guess, the traincrew would have had to travel via Bath Spa, or by taxi from Westbury)
14:19 Westbury to Swindon cancelled
(train had only just left Swindon at 14:19)
15:14 Swindon to Westbury cancelled
(unit now at Westbury)
16:23 Westbury to Swindon ran about 15 minutes late
17:36 Swindon to Westbury ran on time
18:37 Westbury to Swindon ran on time
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury started from Westbury
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa started from Swindon 45 minutes late and terminated at Gloucester
20:13 Swindon to Westbury was 28 minutes starting, waiting for the connection off the late-running 19:18 London to Swansea
21:16 Westbury to Swindon 15 minutes late due to delay on previous journey
22:30 Swindon to Westbury ran on time

6 cancellations at Melksham
2 others significantly late
10 trains on time, or within 15 minutes of schedule

 

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06
06/12/23 17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05
06/12/23 20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58
06/12/23 21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:11
06/12/23 22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:11 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

12:17 Westbury to Swindon due 12:59
12:17 Westbury to Swindon due 12:59 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:05/12/2023 11:12

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06
05/12/23 17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05
05/12/23 20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05 will be started from Swindon.
It will no longer call at Westbury, Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

 
Freights passed through Melksham at ...
04:01
04:45
05:17
05:38
05:57
06:19
06:38
Two tracks now!!

Looking further, the 06:36 passenger train was held up at Chippenham until 06:38, and another 10 minutes would have then allowed it a path via Melksham.   However, the Swansea express was close behind it so they decided to send it on ahead to Bathampton to get it out of the way, a few minutes delay to the express being more important that leaving people stranded at Melksham ...

 
The stone train left Cliffe Hill Stud Farm Gbrf 83 minutes early at 21:10 the night before and passed through Melksham at 06:39 - that's 159 minutes late.   It lost 41 of those minutes between Chippenham and Thingley.  I rather suspect that there were faults - signalling or otherwise - that lead to congestion.



Still far from clever to loose the only peak southbound passenger service.

 

Just for the record, I question the fact that this was "due to a signalling fault". I was waiting at Melksham to catch that one. It was showing as running 8, 9, 10 minutes late. It left Chippenham (I was tracking it) and then with no warning at all, the overhead display changed to show the next train from Melksham would in fact be the 7.21 northbound rather than the 6.36 southbound - although the overhead didn't mention it, the app showed the Southampton train would be next stopping at Trowbridge. And with that, a southbound stone train rushed through Melksham somewhat unexpectedly. Or at least, it was unexpected to me. I rather suspect the signallers knew all about it, and quite frankly lied that there was a "fault" just so that they could manage their workload. Which is fine - I get that - but I dislike being lied to even more than I dislike being inconvenienced for the best part of 3 hours (the next southbound train from Melksham not running until 9.10). If there really was a signalling fault, how come a late running freight train managed to make it through? I call BS.

 

13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57
13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

And no sign of an ECS running in it’s place from Westbury to Swindon, so it looks likely that the 13:15 Swindon to Westbury will be a cancellation too.

 

 
A report from yesterday afternoon, when the only trains serving Chippenham were the Westbury to Swindon shuttle (and you will note that the last two of those got cancelled too)

 
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05
04/12/23 20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05 will be started from Swindon.
It will no longer call at Westbury, Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 
20:38 Westbury to Swindon due 21:23
20:38 Westbury to Swindon due 21:23 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.