Great Western Coffee Shop

A pretty Sunday morning in Wiltshire ... only the second Sunday that both morning trains have run, and the first one was in the middle of a Bank Holiday ... so this morning's outward bound traffic was a good thing to look at.

I'm posting here in the CRP area as the individual journeys may be identifiable ... I will post a summary in the public area too

08:52 from Melksham
3 on and 2 off at Melksham -> 19 ... 22/5
WSB-CPM
TRO-SWI
TRO-CLJ (Clapham Junction)
WSB-TWI (Twickenham)
WSB-SWI / party of 2
WSB-LHR
WSB-TWI
WSB-TWI
WSB-PAD / party of 2
TRO-SLO (Slough) ("Split ticket at Melksham and saved 17 pounds")
TRO-RDG
MKM-SWI / part of 2
WSB-GLC
WSB-TAU
WSB-PAD
MKM-SWI

09:26 from Swindon
11 on from Swindon
RDG-CLC
SWI-SAL / party of 5
PAD-TRO / party of 2
SWI-WMN
SWI-TRO
SWI-WSB
At Chippenham +12 -0
CPM-CLC
CPM-BRU (Bruton)
CPM-TRO
CPM-WEY / Party of 4
CPM-TRO / Party of 3
CPM-WSB
CPM-TRO
At Melksham +7 -0
MKM-WEY / Party of 2
MKM-TQY
MKM-BTH
MKM-TRO
MKM-TRO / Party of 2
so that's 30/7

10:32 Westbury to Swindon
10 on from Westbury
WSB-SWI / Party of 2
WSB-TRO / Party(?) of 3
CCY-SWI
FRO-MKM
WSB-SWI
WSB-MKM
WSB-GLC
At Trowbridge -3 + 13
TRO-MKM
TRO-MKM
TRO-CPM
TRO-SWI
TRO-RLS (Leamington Spa)
TRO-SWI / Party of 2
TRO-TWI / Party of 4
TRO-NOR (Norwich)
TRO-SWI
At Melksham
MKM-SWI / Party of 2
So that's 22/6

11:51 from Swindon to Westbury
33 on from Swindon (of whom 17 connected from Didcot or beyond)
-5 +6 at Chippenham
-6 +8 at Melksham
So 42/14 for stats
Journeys ..
SWI-TRO
SWI-MKM / Party of 2
SWI-MKM
PAD-WSB / Party of 8
SWI-MKM / Party of 3
PAD-WSB
SWI-BOA / Party of 2
SWI-WSB / Party of 2
OXF-BOA
MHD-TRO
PAD-CPM
SWI-CPM
Staines-TRO
LGW-CPM / Party of 2
SWI-WSB
OXF-CPM
SWI-TRO
SWI-TWO
OXF-TRO
SWI-WMN

CPM-TRO
CPM-SAL
CPM-Penryn
CPM-YPM
CPM-SOU

No  journey data for Melksham joiners as I left the train there.

So over the 4 trains - 116/32. 
Average of 29 people per train using the otherwise unserved Chippenham - Trowbridge section, Average 8 using Melksham Station.
Only the 2nd weekend of the first of these round trips running, remember ...

7 people going to Twickenham on the two northbound trains. Shows how the service can be of use for an event happening many miles away.

Slightly surprised at how few were travelling to Weymouth given the weather was reasonable today. Are you expecting to see the volumes that used the service in 2011 when it was trialled during the summer?

No. At least not all on the same few days. If we got 150 people joining at Swindon on a 153, what would the 50 at Chippenham and 75 at Melksham do?  ;D

We have a lot more runs this summer.  Weymouth is possible every day of the week from Melksham and further north east.   It's a connection at Westbury not a through train. All of which should help knock the peaks off.   Having seen how it did the first couple of weekends, though, there is scope for a lot more promotion and the summer holidays will bring more out too when there's not school the next day. 

Letter sent to Swindon Advertiser ... now that we know how the first weekends went, we can do a bit of marketing of remaining space ;)

No problems on the TransWilts this morning, but over-running engineering work means trains are not reaching Weymouth from Westbury.  Currently being turned back at Yeovil Pen Mill.

Twitter are advising passengers to go via Soton Central, where the train from Westbury arrives at xx03 and the train to Weymouth leaves at xx03 leaving an hour wait. I think I'd rather get the bus from Yeovil.

Anyway, well done to Network Rail for scheduling work on a seaside line for a summer weekend rather than November.

Latest estimate for the line to reopen is 16:00

If this was pre-planned engineering work then I agree pretty poor scheduling especially when during the Autumn/Winter there are no trains until mid afternoon between Dorchester and Yeovil.

Must be a pretty serious problem for it to over run for this length of time and on such a nice day too when plenty would be travelling to Weymouth. Hopefully they can get it fixed before everyone returns back to the station for the journey home in the evening.

Nope! The 1610 from Weymouth now down to start from Yeovil.

We (me, 2 dogs, and Dad) made it as far as Yeovil ... turned back there with 100+ people trying to get onto a 50 seat bus, then another 50 seat bus was due ... we weren't the only ones with at least one first-time family saying that it was their "first and only" train trip and promising the kids they would take them by car to the seaside next weekend.

The 11:54 coming back up left Yeovil spot on time ... so any coach / bus passengers from further south would have missed it.  And there's a l-o-n-g gap after that train on a Sunday.    It was partly realising that was happening, partly that Dad's over 90 and I have the dogs with us, and partly that the re-opening time was being guessed at that cause us to abort.

They're still unsure of the delay length ...

Latest information.

Sadly an all too familiar tale. Go by car and get stuck in traffic, it happens and you just accept it but you will probably still do the trip again by car. The train messes up that's often its one chance gone so those who have the alternative of taking the car next time will do just that.

The sad thing is that if that family you mentioned was to travel next Saturday on the Weymouth Wizard HST service on an air conditioned train with plenty of seats they might think differently...provided of course all ran smoothly and on time!

And latest now


What an utter screw-up!

Would love to know what went so wrong today for such a long overrun.

So would I, but I suspect we never will. I wrote a little more on the public forum {here} (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=13855.msg155578#msg155578) to describe the day, but I am more concerned at working out ahead of time (if we can) which are "risky" Sundays to publicise for the services, as the let-down rate is far too high at the moment.   Sunday was a "double whammy" for anyone looking to use the return services, and I've got three other incidents in which trains I understood to be running on Sundays are not now running, in all but one cases after publicity has gone out which directly or indirectly promotes them strongly.

From public board ...


For "TransWilts members" looking at individual journeys ... I spoke to all Melksham joiners.
Groups / destinations 2 x SWI, 2 x BTH, 2 x BTH, 1 x SWI, 2 x BIT, 1 x CPM, 1 x BEF (yes, there are one or two there that I had to look up!)

..particularly as that first train on a Sunday has not been that reliable in its opening month.

I'll be through Melksham later - although on a non-stopping diverted HST!  ;D

... and Sunday afternoon ...

Oh bother. Staff shortage.

A replacement coach will cover all four trains (and to Swindon not just Chippenham).

However will it take the buggies and bikes who made their way to places like Weymouth this morning.

The 19:35 from Westbury is NOT cancelled, so the Weymouth connection is ok

Reliability is starting to worry me. Since the start of the new timetable we've seen several problems on a Sunday (one of which was out of area but would not have helped), and this week the weekday service has also been hit.

If I look on the FGW website there is no reference to a coach running, nor on LDB on National Rail. So anyone that bothers to check their train beforehand has no idea that a coach will be provided and is likely to make alternative arrangements.

 

08:41 at Melksham (Westbury -> Swindon).   19 on into Melksham, 1 off and 1 on ... 20/2

Conductor's ticket machine has failed  ... unable to sell tickets on the train.

12 off that train when it reached Swindon.

And carrying on this morning ... 12 onto that train on its way back from Swindon.  2 off and 25 on at Chippenham. 1 off and 5 on at Melksham (schedule 09:50; 4 late). So that's 40/6. About 6 off and 3 more on at Trowbridge.

10:47 at Melksham 17 on board into Melksham. 2 off and 0 on - 17/2

Rather "Sunday Evening".   I've not been able to take a look at the morning train that connects to Weymouth for the past few weeks - standing in at work for a colleague.    The 19:55 from Westbury to Cheltenham Spa via Swindon - 150101 - 3 off, 1 on ... and around 55 through passengers.   Looked line a returning day trip from the seaside  ;D ... Conductor esteemed 30 on, but I'm going to strongly disagree - there may have been around 30 adults!   so 59/4

There are some odd - very odd - aspects here which I'm looking into

Given the scheduled closure of the line between Swindon and Didcot, it's possible that the journey planner threw up the journey from London via a change at Westbury to get to Chippenham or even Swindon. And maybe even allocated advance ticket flows that way. Or some other quirk because of the altered service pattern this weekend.

Alternatively maybe given it was a very nice day, it got the bucket and spade contingent out.

I'm pretty darned sure it was bucket and spade  ;D ... what's odd is that it was so much Swindon and / or Chippenham, and so little Melksham.   Perhaps because I had done a Facebook ad for Swindon?     My earlier fear was that the morning train had been 1 carriage, and so full that no-one had been able to join at Melksham.  Looking at real time trains, and the lack of any media comment, I don't think that's the case but I can't be sure.

Don't forget we have been heavily promoting summer trips to Weymouth in the Chippenham household Delivery Letters.

Good point. and as I didn't see the train at Chippenham I have no way of knowing what the Chippenham / Swindon split was; in all probability a health mix of the two. Just rather shocked at the big fat near-zero at Melksham.

To be fair though, if we match the end of June's numbers on the morning southbound Weymouth connection with those from this weekend's northbound Weymouth return connection then the surprise is rather less.

My point is this - If only 5 passengers got on the outbound journey at Melksham at the end of June, then we should perhaps not be surprised if only 3 passengers got off the return journey at Melksham this week.

Similarly, if 12 passengers got on at Swindon, and 25 passengers got on the outbound journey at Chippenham at the end of June, then we should perhaps not be surprised if a similar number, plus a few more due to the additional publicity, got off the return journey at both stations this week.

Of course, the underlying reasons are a matter of debate. I have my own thoughts on this based on my experience of the issues - these include:

- Melksham residents are less used to having trains of any description, which means we are having to repeat the message several times before it sinks in. This is why there is often an initial upward curve of a number of years with a "new station" scenario characteristic of Melksham before full potential starts to be realised.

- There will undoubtedly have been some negative word of mouth regarding reliability issues at Melksham, with first-timers saying "never-again" to friends and relatives. This is something that we will have to take on the chin and learn from.

In contrast, the Swindon and Chippenham contingents are more likely to include more experienced passengers who have have been let down before, but have come to regard it as "one of those things", and are still willing to use trains as a result.

- There is the additional selling point at Swindon and Chippenham that, if the connections are as good as they are currently on Sundays, then a trip such as that to Weymouth can look very attractive indeed journey time-wise "via TransWilts" compared to "via Bath".