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

[whole diary]

[grahame]

10:57 London Paddington to Taunton due 13:32
10:57 London Paddington to Taunton due 13:32 has been cancelled.
This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident.

14:09 Taunton to London Paddington due 16:29
14:09 Taunton to London Paddington due 16:29 will be cancelled.
This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident.

[bobm]

More issues now after someone was reported the wrong side of a bridge at Royal Wootton Bassett and the overhead current had to be switched off.

[grahame]

21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:16

21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:16 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[TaplowGreen]

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.

[brooklea]

17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25 will be started from Melksham.
It will no longer call at Swindon and Chippenham.
It will be delayed at Melksham.
This is due to animals on the railway.

Which implies that the 16:43 Frome to Swindon may have only made it as far as Melksham

[grahame]

17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25 will be started from Melksham.
It will no longer call at Swindon and Chippenham.
It will be delayed at Melksham.
This is due to animals on the railway.

Real time trains says

This service was cancelled between Swindon and Melksham due to trespass (XA).

And I suppose Animals trespass just in the same way as hoomans.  Still there according to RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) a couple of minutes ago - waiting for alternative transport from Swindon and Chippenham to arrive?   With such a sparse service on the line, that would make sense.

Which implies that the 16:43 Frome to Swindon may have only made it as far as Melksham

It would appear so

[grahame]

Summarising yesterday (thanks for the idea of capturing RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) on eventful days)



7 trains scheduled on a Sunday each way. 4 ran as scheduled.

Northbound, one was replaced by an (earlier from Warminster) bus at relatively short notice (a day or two?) which (northbound) only ran as far as Chippenham, where there appears to have been a wait of over an hour for ongoing service to Swindon (no good mainland connection planned, and the next train such as it was got cancelled). One terminated at Melksham due to trespassers which I think were animals, and one was cancelled "at the train operator's request" which was described as lack of train crew from another source.

Southbound, similar pattern.  The bus DOES appear to have had an (earlier) connection from Swindon, and I suspect that the 18:09 to Westbury left rather later and the "18:06" is a glitch.  Took half an hour to Trowbridge.

Trespassers, fair enough.  Late replacement of train by bus - dubious (but northbound arrangements at Chippenham look awful). Cancellation of last train due to lack of staff - simply should not happen.

[grahame]

09:46 Westbury to Swindon due 10:29
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.

Northbound gap - 08:02 to 12:33 at Melksham, a town of some 25,000 persons
Southbound gap - 09:15 to 13:45 ...

[bobm]

Trespassers, fair enough.  Late replacement of train by bus - dubious (but northbound arrangements at Chippenham look awful). Cancellation of last train due to lack of staff - simply should not happen.

The Sunday morning bus replacement is on the current engineering poster and was mentioned in the August TransWilts newsletter.   However I agree the connection at Chippenham was not good.

[grahame]

Summarising yesterday (thanks for the idea of capturing RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) on eventful days)

[snip]

One terminated at Melksham due to trespassers which I think were animals,

These things happen ... BUT just received from a passenger a sorry tale of how he was let down by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) as he attempted to get home, long distance via Swindon to Melksham and the lack of help / provision provided.  

[grahame]

Trespassers, fair enough.  Late replacement of train by bus - dubious (but northbound arrangements at Chippenham look awful). Cancellation of last train due to lack of staff - simply should not happen.

The Sunday morning bus replacement is on the current engineering poster and was mentioned in the August TransWilts newsletter.   However I agree the connection at Chippenham was not good.

Ah - OK - thanks.   Does highlight just how difficult it is to keep up with this all the various data sources and options, but my "bad" for thinking it was short term

[grahame]

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05 is being delayed at Westbury.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

[brooklea]

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05 is being delayed at Westbury.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

In the end, only 7 minutes late leaving Westbury according to RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website), and has just arrived at Swindon 16 minutes late.

[brooklea]

According to Journeycheck, flooding has now closed the railway between Swindon and Bristol Parkway, which was being used to divert alternate Paddington to Bristol TM^‡(resolve) trains due to flooding on the line from Swindon to Chippenham (also from Journeycheck), so potentially a difficult evening ahead

[bobm]

With the route via Hullavington closed, a diverted South Wales train has now reported hitting a fallen tree near Corsham.