Great Western Coffee Shop

07:04 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa - through train, except this morning where it's a bus from Swindon.  Customer joins the train at Westbury to travel through to Cheltenham Spa - fair enough.

Train due into Swindon at 07:48, but onward bus leaves at 07:45.  Spot the problem.   Irate customer at customer service desk - "I will never use this service again" etc.   Next bus at 08:45 ...

Doesn't it seem odd that a service that's being bustituted in the middle of the journey has a bus departing before the train arrives?  Nothing can be done for this customer / today, (( it's a shame he strode off without leaving any details so that he can't even get an explanation)) but perhaps this is something to be looked at or at least explained to those who have to pass onthe message that it's not going to connect ...

Everyone else seemingly happy though this morning ... around 40 passengers on the TransWilts section.  But one lost customer is one too many if it can be avoided.

Since he was travelling all the way to Cheltenham, perhaps the information screens/announcements at Westbury could have suggested he travelled via Bristol on the 0709 instead to avoid changing onto the replacement bus. He might even have made it onto the 0800 from Bristol and arrived earlier than expected.

Higher fare perhaps?

Westbury to Cheltenham Spa only has an Any Permitted flow on walk-up tickets.

And is the 0709 a permitted flow?

I'm - err - not sure if he was going all the way through.  He was pretty upset at the lack of  the train going to Cheltenham Spa ... and in particular about the bus section leaving before the train section arrived leaving him "an hour late".   Final destination could well have been Stroud.

Question remains though ... why was the bus schedule to leave before the train it was continuing arrived.  By 3 minutes!!

I agree that this is a most unsatisfactory situation, not just because of the loss of one potential long-term passenger, but because of all the other potential pax who he will tell, possible for years to come, who will not even try to see if the train works for them.