Great Western Coffee Shop

I didn't believe this either .. a train, running on time, held for a connection at Swindon this evening.

The train due at 20:14 (London -> Exeter HST) toddled in at 20:27 ... and a manual announcement tells people to hurry for the Cheltenham train.   That had been due to leave at 20:28, but eventually got away 5 minutes late.   We were only 3 down by Gloucester, where I left the service and with a six minute wait there it would be on time by Cheltenham.  As far as I could see, nothing else held up and the best part of 100 passengers not kicking their heals for an hour at Swindon.

Sensible decision by someone there ... congratulations on taking it against modern convention.

The 2028 does have 8.5 minutes of dwell time at Gloucester, so someone obviously realised it would still reach it's destination on-time and not affect any other services on the way.

I think common sense usually still prevails with connections, as long as:

1)  There will be a significant number of people connecting (in this case 100 certainly counts as significant).
2)  There is a significant gap until the next train (in this case it's 84 minutes).
3)  The same operator is involved (both FGW in this case).
4)  The train being held won't then go on to hold up lots of other services.