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

[whole diary]

[grahame]

09:46 Westbury to Swindon due 10:34
11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47 will be cancelled.
This is due to the train guard being taken ill.

[grahame]

17:50 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 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.

[grahame]

12:17 Westbury to Swindon due 13:01
13:13 Swindon to Westbury due 13:55

13:13 Swindon to Westbury due 13:55 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[bobm]

14:19 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01 has been cancelled.

This is due to a broken down train.

15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:57 has been cancelled.

This is due to a broken down train.

[grahame]

08:10 Warminster to Swindon due 09:02
09:12 Swindon to Westbury due 09:53
10:46 Westbury to Swindon due 11:34

10:46 Westbury to Swindon due 11:34 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

11:42 Swindon to Weymouth due 14:01
11:42 Swindon to Weymouth due 14:01 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[grahame]

07:45 Westbury to Swindon due 08:34

07:45 Westbury to Swindon due 08:34 is being delayed at Westbury.
This is due to this train being late from the depot.

[grahame]

I have posted an analysis of the recent performance (at Melksham) at http://www.passenger.chat/28770 - in the "Transport Scholars" section of this forum, to open a dispassionate discussion as to the best way for the community / user groups to handle themselves in the light of ongoing reliability issues.

Personally, I would love to be working to promote a positive experience this summer, and I would appreciate your thoughts as to if and how we can do so.

"Transport Scholars" is not a public area of the site, but all members are welcome there.  If you are a member but cannot reach the area, please send me a message and I will add you in there, or like this post and I'll know to add you in when I'm next around.

[grahame]

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 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 shortage of train crew.

[grahame]

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07 will be terminated at Salisbury.
It will no longer call at Romsey and Southampton Central.
It was 1 minute late but is now being further delayed at Westbury.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.

[grahame]

06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47

Facilities on the 06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47.
Will be formed of 3 coaches instead of 2.

[TaplowGreen]

13:57 Chippenham to Weymouth due 15:57

13:57 Chippenham to Weymouth due 15:57 will be reinstated.

It will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

16:43 Frome to Swindon due 17:34
16:43 Frome to Swindon due 17:34 will be terminated at Westbury.
It will no longer call at Trowbridge, Melksham, Chippenham and Swindon.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

17:44 Swindon to Salisbury due 18:55
17:44 Swindon to Salisbury due 18:55 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[grahame]

17:44 Swindon to Salisbury due 18:55
17:44 Swindon to Salisbury due 18:55 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

17:44 Swindon to Salisbury due 18:55
17:44 Swindon to Salisbury due 18:55 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Further Information
We're sorry for the disruption to your journey.
-
Taxis have been arranged departing Chippenham at 18:10. If you're travelling from Swindon please join the 17:54 towards Bristol Temple Meads and change at Chippenham.
The taxis are calling at Melksham (18:28), Trowbridge (18:41) and Westbury (18:53).
-
The taxi company is Bath Taxis.

Better than nothing - and better that what is often done.   But what a silly situation where a lack one or two people to work on the rails results as a whole bevvy more getting work on the roads.   Occasionally, fine, but regularly it feels very odd ...

[Phil]

17:44 Swindon to Salisbury due 18:55

Taxis have been arranged departing Chippenham at 18:10... calling at Melksham (18:28), Trowbridge (18:41) and Westbury (18:53).
-
The taxi company is Bath Taxis.

I'd be interested to know what decision prompted the blanket use of Bath Taxis in circumstances such as this. I used to regularly - three times a month at least, if not quite weekly - get stuck at Westbury, and occasionally at Chippenham, needing to complete my journey to Melksham, and the station staff were always helpful and called a local taxi company where available. In the past year or so it's invariably been Bath Taxis or nothing. Rather than wait an hour or more for a taxi to get from Bath to Westbury in order to take me to Melksham I've tended to ring round and find my own taxi company and try, not always successfully, to subsequently recover the cost from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway). I assume there's been a corporate decision to always use Bath Taxis, but I'd be intrigued to know more. How much of the rail network do Bath Taxis cover? Did they win the contract in a transparent tendering process in which other firms were invited to apply? Are there any circumstances when common sense dictates that it might be more sensible to use a different taxi company that's already waiting outside the station in question rather than impose a long wait while a taxi is despatched all the way from Bath?

[IndustryInsider]

AIUI^▸ (as I understand it) taxis are usually dealt with centrally via First Transport Solutions who deal with a request from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).  They’ve got a lot of different companies signed up, but by no means all of the small local ones.

It’s better in that it saves all the ‘phoning around’ - GWR Control simply doesn’t have the capacity to do that - but worse in that the most local and suitable taxi might not be sourced.

[grahame]

AIUI^▸ (as I understand it) taxis are usually dealt with centrally via First Transport Solutions who deal with a request from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).  They’ve got a lot of different companies signed up, but by no means all of the small local ones.

It’s better in that it saves all the ‘phoning around’ - GWR Control simply doesn’t have the capacity to do that - but worse in that the most local and suitable taxi might not be sourced.

Also AIUI ... (source - local taxi drivers) is that there are many independent taxi drivers and a lot of them (perhaps most of the) don't want the rail replacement business as it's offered to them anyway.   There's a reputation for it to take a long time and unwanted paperwork to get paid, an absence of tips, and difficultly fitting the rail replacement work that can take them miles from home in with things like contracted school runs and other bookings from regular customers.