2024 - Service update and amendment log, Swindon <-> Westbury

[whole diary]

[grahame]

10:46 Westbury to Swindon due 11:34

10:46 Westbury to Swindon due 11:34 will be terminated at Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Swindon.
It is being delayed at Westbury and is now expected to be 40 minutes late.
This is due to earlier engineering works not being finished on time.

11:46 Swindon to Weymouth due 14:01

11:46 Swindon to Weymouth due 14:01 will be started from Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Swindon.
This is due to earlier engineering works not being finished on time.
Will be formed of 2 coaches instead of 3 from Westbury.

[bobm]

Anyone intending to catch the 11:46 from Swindon was able to catch a service to Chippenham which departed at 11:56 and connected with the TransWilts service, cross platform of course.   

The train was due to leave Swindon at 11:31 but arrived 18 minutes late and then dwelled for another 10.    It arrived at Chippenham at 12:10 - but the Westbury service was held and followed it out towards Thingley Junction. 

Could probably only be done on a Sunday - weekday services wouldn't lend themselves to a train blocking the Up Main for 20 minutes.

[grahame]

Mon, 6 May 14:19 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01
Mon, 6 May 15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:59

06/05/24 15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:59 will be cancelled.
This is due to a member of on-train staff being taken ill.

[TaplowGreen]

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07 will be terminated at Westbury.
It will no longer call at Dilton Marsh, Warminster, Salisbury, Romsey and Southampton Central.
This is due to a member of on-train staff being taken ill.


1750 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06
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 industrial action


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 industrial action.

[grahame]

21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58
22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:15

22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:15 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

I have just posted a new thread describing how traffic would rocket with a few more trains.  But what's the point in pressing this too hard if the rail industry routinely cancels so many of the services already schedules - leaving socking great gaps with four other trains already reported earlier as "canned" today, and now these two which are the last trains of the day!  The no. 1 improvement people want is reliability ... to know that trains will run when the timetable says, or at least within 10 or 15 minutes of that time.

[bobm]

Ironically on Wednesday strike action means the only trains scheduled to run in Wiltshire are between Westbury and Swindon (peak hours only).

[grahame]

Ironically on Wednesday strike action means the only trains scheduled to run in Wiltshire are between Westbury and Swindon (peak hours only).

Err ... Real Time Trains showing plenty of services at Salisbury, Tisbury, and Dean (if you count that station as Wiltshire)

[TaplowGreen]

21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58
22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:15

22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:15 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

I have just posted a new thread describing how traffic would rocket with a few more trains.  But what's the point in pressing this too hard if the rail industry routinely cancels so many of the services already schedules - leaving socking great gaps with four other trains already reported earlier as "canned" today, and now these two which are the last trains of the day!  The no. 1 improvement people want is reliability ... to know that trains will run when the timetable says, or at least within 10 or 15 minutes of that time.

Don't disagree, but there is highly publicised industrial action taking place, so perhaps not the best day to use as an example? (and/or drop a line to Mr Whelan?) 

[grahame]

Don't disagree, but there is highly publicised industrial action taking place, so perhaps not the best day to use as an example? (and/or drop a line to Mr Whelan?) 

Certainly not a good day to mention reliability into the other new publicity thread, I would agree.

[bobm]

Ironically on Wednesday strike action means the only trains scheduled to run in Wiltshire are between Westbury and Swindon (peak hours only).

Err ... Real Time Trains showing plenty of services at Salisbury, Tisbury, and Dean (if you count that station as Wiltshire)

Yes - should have qualified that as "GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) services"

[TaplowGreen]

Tue, 7 May 16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08
07/05/24 16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08 will be cancelled.
This is due to industrial action.

Tue, 7 May 17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20
07/05/24 17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20 will be cancelled.
This is due to industrial action.

Tue, 7 May 17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06
07/05/24 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 industrial action.

Tue, 7 May 20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05
07/05/24 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 industrial action

[grahame]

So that's a gap - 15:14 to 20:13 - in trains from Swindon to Westbury today due to the Industrial Action.  Very hard to promote this as a service for people to rely on - we can't even say to people "just avoid strike days" nor "there will be another train half an hour or an hour later" - really hurts where the service is already thin.

[brooklea]

21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58
22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:15

22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:15 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

I have just posted a new thread describing how traffic would rocket with a few more trains.  But what's the point in pressing this too hard if the rail industry routinely cancels so many of the services already schedules - leaving socking great gaps with four other trains already reported earlier as "canned" today, and now these two which are the last trains of the day!  The no. 1 improvement people want is reliability ... to know that trains will run when the timetable says, or at least within 10 or 15 minutes of that time.

Just for the record, it appears from RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) that these two services were reinstated at some point on Monday afternoon, and both ran, more or less, to schedule.

[bobm]

ue, 7 May 16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08
07/05/24 16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08 will be cancelled.
This is due to industrial action.

Tue, 7 May 17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20
07/05/24 17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20 will be cancelled.
This is due to industrial action.

Tue, 7 May 17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06
07/05/24 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 industrial action.

They were reinstated at 12:30. However not the 16:23 from Westbury which seems strange.

[grahame]

Out of sync - I see the latest changes - here is one I prepared earlier (very limited access here today):

21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58
22:30 Swindon to Westbury due 23:15 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Just for the record, it appears from RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) that these two services were reinstated at some point on Monday afternoon, and both ran, more or less, to schedule.

Good news - except that people (and especially on this line with an infrequent and oft-cancelled service) tend to check online before heading out for the day or evening and are likely to have replanned away from those train services.

In an extreme case, I can recall a train being advertised as cancelled, but then being re-instated literally a few minutes before it was due to run.  By co-incidence I was around when it ran, and a train that was normally comfortably busy was vitually empty.  The TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company), no doubt, said it ran and it didn't effect adversely on their stats, but it was certainly adverse on the people wishing to use it.

"will be cancelled" is pretty final, but I suspect it's the only thing that's available for the JourneyCheck report. "may be cancelled" would be a useful option for the folks in Control to have available, and it would also be really useful for potential passengers who can make far better informed personal choices if they're told the real situation, and not an assumed worst case.

As a corollary, passengers told "may be cancelled" will then ask "when will you know one way or the other?"  Journey check often says something like "Posted at 12:30; further update within 2 hours" and that is a very reasonable and already provided mechaism for th circumstabne.

Of course, I would much prefer the circustances in which trains are cancelled to be very few, cancelletions to be rare, and reporting systems less relevant.