Great Western Coffee Shop

Oh sh**

While obviously not good - at least road transport will be provided so would be passengers are not stranded/out of pocket.

Not the biggest of surprises.  Weather awful ... and we've got off very lightly on the TransWilts!

Also note from Real Time Trains


Oh dear ... that's the new commuter service that has been loading rather well ...

Hopefully there will be less commuters this close to Christmas, and the news has been full of the risk of disruption today.

A non-rail example from me, if I may, from today?

I was trying to deliver Christmas goodies to a family in Winford (south east of Bristol Airport): first route there from Nailsea was blocked by a police car with blue flashing lights, officer explaining that a falling tree had also brought down power lines; my alternative second route there was blocked by 'Road Closed' signs, due to flooding; only on the third route did I eventually manage to get through - with gratifying expressions of surprise from the customer that I'd made it at all.  ::)

Now, I had three alternative road routes to try - the railway operator often only has one.  ;)

0518 Gloucester-Southampton Central terminated at Swindon without travelling further south.

There are also flooding alerts for Melksham and Westbury-Southampton, so expect more disruption.

0704 Westbury-Cheltenham Spa started from Swindon, not serving the TransWilts section of route.

10:04 cancelled (and I'm pretty sure nothing will have gone through in between) - flooding at Melksham.   It showed up on the screen at the station as "on time" until about 10:10 when the screen refreshed and it had simply disappeared.  Call centre confirmed cancellation for the four people waiting for it ... they melted away with (thank goodness) a "we'll try it again when the weather's better".

10:47 Swindon to Westbury due 11:33
This train will be cancelled.
This is due to flooding.

11:47 Westbury to Swindon due 12:36
This train will be cancelled.
This is due to flooding.

Later Transwilts services up to the 16.15 ex Westbury are also listed on Tyrell as being cancelled.

That's a bit naughty, isn't it??  :o

Next train (?) 18:50 ... so it's only a bit naughty.   The sprinkingly of hardy existing TransWilts customers are use to deeming taxis, so perhaps this is to say that it's actually "wait for next train" sometimes now.

Here is a delay to trump the lot...

There were a series of delays which culminated in the cancellation.

11:05 Swindon to Westbury arrived eight minutes late
12:01 Westbury to Swindon left nine late and terminated 36 late after waiting for the single line
13:05 Swindon to Westbury left 38 late and terminated 66 late - looks like it might have been held at Chippenham to allow two services to take the single line first.
The 14:14 Westbury to Swindon and the 15:11 return were then cancelled.

Service then resumed with the 16:32 from Westbury.

I hate to be the one who acknowledges the elephant in the room, but we are not going to retain passengers if they are subjected to days like that.

Who gets priority over the single line needs to be sorted out - pronto.

Agreed but ...


I think a lot of it was London - West Country expresses - class 1 trains - and we'll get the answer "they get priority".   Very unusual indeed for a weekday.

Trowbridge times
1A78 (PNZ-PAD) due 11:12 passed 12:12
1C76 (PAD-EXD) due 09:55 passed 12:51
1A81 (PNZ-PAD) due 12:41 passed 12:55
1A82 (PLY-PAD) due 13:13 passed 13:40
and 1C79 (PAD-EXD) due Thingley 11:57 left there 13:51 (looks like it diverted via BRI)

Unique for a weekday? HOWEVER - vey much something to flag up with "good and bad lessons from the first weeks"

Those of us Behind The Counter, along with the more knowledgeable members of the forum, would indeed see that as an (almost) reasonable explanation.

However, it is not difficult to see an ordinary would-be passenger, having waited days to even get on the train in the first place due to the weather & Christmas, being greeted with yesterday's debacle and concluding (both for themselves and telling all their friends) "sod this for a game of soldiers".

Cue the deafening sound of CRP letters/TransWilts Flyers/Central Timetable booklets being chucked in the recycling bin.

Am I wrong, and do we not deserve rather more leeway with these kind of operational service decisions, at least while we are trying to launch the damn thing and build up a decent customer base?

Its not unique either - Its happened a number of times already, including to me on the very first weekday I rode the trains during my promotional stint on the first week chatting to passengers, when a late-running freight train (very far from top priority in my book) got given the "road" ahead of our on-time scheduled passenger service. I can tell you now, it is nigh on impossible to get first-time users to accept the operational reasoning behind why their initial experience includes being stuck for over 30 minutes at Thingley in such circumstances.

I have spent a bit of time looking at how the single line through Melksham was used yesterday.

In the table below I have extrapolated the times for Melksham by using the time (and the delay) at either Bradford North or Thingley Junction as Melksham times are not recorded.  As you can see there was some pretty severe late running of the diverted West of England services.  In particular you can see the 12:17 departure from Melksham was delayed to allow two long distance services, one in each direction, to use the single line.

The lines in red are northbound services.

The final column shows the gap between services.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/MKM271213.jpg)

(Times are from Realtraintimes)

A landslip near Stonehouse has delayed the 05:18 Gloucester to Southampton Central service by nearly an hour.

It will now terminate at Westbury with another unit leaving Westbury in its path at 07:01 but only running as far as Salisbury because of flooding further south.

It means the 06:38 southbound service from Melksham will be nearer 07:30.

What an unfortunate start for anyone who's trying out the TransWilts as a new commuting alternative from the first day back in the new year ...

Journey check, for the record:

Realtraintimes is saying the 05:18 was eventually terminated at Swindon. 

Journeycheck doesn't agree but Live Departures shows it as "delayed" after Swindon.

Landslip at Stonehouse means the 17:39 from Cheltenham Spa is diverted via Bristol Parkway to Chippenham before taking the Melksham line. 

Buses provided from Golden Valley Line stations and Swindon but "may not keep to train times".

Line not expected to be re-opened until later on Friday, so possible problems for early morning Melksham commuters tomorrow.  Not good timing at all.

15:14 from Swindon cancelled at Chippenham owing to fault on the train.

The following train to 14:30 London Paddington to Weston-super-Mare was delayed behind it and missed some stops after Bristol to catch up time.  The 15:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads train was diverted via Chipping Sodbury missing its planned calls at Chippenham and Bath Spa.

And


Oh sh**

Which makes the original advice for "passengers to use the next available service" even less helpful.

I overheard a passenger at Chippenham being told "There's only one train, and it's broken down. There's no guarantee it'll be fixed by tomorrow morning either..."

More problems today.

The Class 153 operating the 09:48 from Westbury to Swindon had problems after leaving Chippenham and was 17 minutes late into Swindon.

Following that the next three trips have all been cancelled.

10:47 ex-Swindon
11:47 ex-Westbury
12:47 ex-Swindon

I dont thinks FGW are helped by teh fact that they are stretching their dmu fleet. The DFT are not helping so much by not agreeing  a temporary return to loco hauled operation on the Cardiff - Taunton route,


Certainly reducing pressure on the fleet would allow more maintence work to be done improving reliability of units and services