Great Western Coffee Shop

As from the December '14 timetable change, the first train from Paddington (07:06?) via the Berks and Hants to beyond Taunton was diverted to Plymouth and Penzance, and the train from Paddington (07:30?) via Chippenham and Bristol beyond Taunton was diverted to Torquay and Paignton.

I was at Westbury this morning when the Penzance service called (due 08:26 / running 11 late) and I counted some 60 passengers waiting to join on the platform.   Of course, I wasn't in a role to ask them how far they were going, but it certainly does emphasise the requirement to head out west from Wiltshire at that time of day, and the importance of the Westbury stop in such services.  As the train came in from London, I got the impression it wasn't very busy - so the crowd joining probably makes a significant difference to the train's economics.  Not many people got off - but those getting off did include the people I was meeting, so I was busier greeting than observing.

I wonder how many of those 60 joining were travelling to stations to Newton Abbot and were therefore served by the pre December 14 train.

Certainly a fair few of those would be commuting to Taunton, but 60 is more than in the past.

Can you tell from a picture?

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I can be pretty close to certain that there was nobody joining that train at Westbury having come down from Swindon on the TransWilts - the option for Swindon to Plymouth passengers to travel this way in the early morning is not attractive, with a 90 minute wait at Westbury.

Unless you have a lunchtime meeting in Truro - when that route is option 1, the second is to double back via Reading at additional cost or the third is to take the sleeper the night before.  ;D

A reminder of the importance of Westbury as a hub ...

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29th December 2015, at 16:16 - awaiting the Penzance train.  A veritable sea of passengers, many just arrived on the train from Portsmouth / Southampton / Salisbury

Would be interesting/more compelling to see a similar picture on a normal working day, rather than the first day back after Christmas? Was there a normal service on the 29th? Demand would almost certainly be distorted by the time of year.

Look back up a few posts ... not the same train, but the Westbury to West flood again.

Loadings on trains on 29th were weird ... very quite in the morning, jammed with luggage in the afternoon on a train back up from Exeter that's usually quiet midweek.   Not only distorted loads, but distorted passenger metrics too.

And again - 16:27 yesterday (Saturday) afternoon.  Named train - "The Cornishman" so I guess that some of the people were headed beyond Exeter  ;D   ... not really a time of day (especially on a Saturday) that I would have expected to be particularly busy ... (and I do note that the Cornishman would have become a bus at Tiverton!)

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I headed out west yesterday too ... but not from Westbury as the first train that was was a bit late for me.   An example of business not fully catered for.

I would love to know whether GWR has a view on this state of affairs. Do they think this situation is tenable or do they think, as the rest of us surely do, that something must be done to alleviate this level of overcrowding?

There is a cynical view that suggests that the overcrowding will be alleviated by removing the Westbury stops in London to Plymouth and Penzance trains.   Studies show that by removing a through service / adding a change, you loose between 37% (Brighton through train to Bristol study), 40% and 46% (commuter and general leisure studies) of your passenger flow between the stations concerned.   

These figures are born out in other ways too - if you talk to people arriving into Westbury off HST services who live in places like Trowbridge and Warminster,  Melksham and Bradforsd-on-Avon, many of them who have a car available had chosen to park at Westbury rather than use onward connecting local public transport ("By the time I wait for a train then wait for a bus ...."). 

Graham it may be interesting if you were to survey these or similar groups of passengers (if its within your remit so to do?)as to where they are travelling? I'm sure there are numerous other small/medium sized stations for which an argument can be made, and equally (if not more) numerous regularly desperately/dangerously overcrowded services which need relief with more capacity?

Buses yesterday were running from Exeter rather than Tiverton, to Newton Abbot.

I know, having been on a rather nice luxury coach in the opposite direction from Newton Abbot in the morning. I chose the stopping service via Teignmouth, Dawlish, Starcross, rather than the concurrent express option.

But would these figures apply if the sparse direct service westbound from Westbury was replaced with a regular hourly service with short connection times at Exeter?

Nothing to say it couldn't potentially be nearer to a 37% increase rather than a similar decrease.

Good question, but hypothetical, I'm afraid; there's an hourly service suggested via the Westbury avoider. From Westbury westwards to Castle Cary you may see an hourly departure, but that would be made up of a mixture of Heart of Wessex stopping services carrying on via Yeovil and semifasts (I think that's the description) via Taunton.


Hmmm ... the 'lead' on a survey on this should probably come from the rail expert in Wiltshire Council's sustainable transport team; potentially we could pull in some help from TransWilts and approval from GWR.  It would, I suspect, be impractical on platform ... I also suspect it would be very informative and useful in informing timetabling decisions for when the class 800 and 802 start running.

Should the Heart of Wessex and Semifast to Exeter trains be run alternate hours, work could be done to inform whether the semifasts should stop at Frome as well ... and I was slightly surprised to see that the semifasts miss out Tiverton Parkway and the expresses call there in the TravelWatch SouthWest presentation yesterday.

Doesn't this fall squarely into the West Wilts Rail User Group's remit?

You may also ask if it falls into the remit of the Heart of Wessex CRP, with whom I should discuss it.

Correct, that's what has been said in the franchise document..... I'm hazarding a guess they have gone for this option because if the semi-fast was to stop at Tiverton instead it may impede the 'fast' before arrival at Exeter? Or perhaps they feel Tiverton requires an hourly service rather than the semi-fast every two hours? Or quite simply, someone in the planning dept at GWR lives in Tiverton  :D

I was down in Taunton on Wednesday coming back on the 14:22 Plymouth to London service which has a stop at Westbury.  Crowd of us got on, just to hear an announcement that the train was to be diverted due to a line problem, and that the next stop would be Reading.  Reporting it on this thread to say "you should have seen how many people got off" ... I don't think it quite half-emptied the train, but there were an awful lot!

There were a number of well-informed transport people travelling on the train, and it was good to see them have a chat with the train manager, who got in touch with 'control' and arranged a Bristol Temple Meads stop order ... with everyone piling back on again.  And a lot of those same faces were on the 15:22 off Bristol too, getting off at Bath Spa, and Trowbridge, as I noted as well as carrying on to Westbury and I know some were going beyond.

Posted here as a reminder of just how important Westbury/westwards is, a reminder of how useful it is to have an independent diversionary route, and as a "thank you" to staff involved in getting and making the stop.

P.S.  The train was the lunchtime restaurant car ... caught up with BigNoseMac who popped out at Taunton to see what was going on and was in excellent spirit.   I guess there was a bonus in the diversion - it must be very rare for a functioning restaurant car to run from Taunton to Bristol these days!

A good piece of rethinking there to benefit passengers during disruption. 

I note that although it left Taunton 8mins Late it still only arrived at Paddington 12 minutes late, so despite a long way round and stopping at Bristol - though not stopping at Castle Cary or Westbury, it only lost 4 minutes. 

Does that suggest there is some considerable fat in the timings or is the Berks & Hants route quite slow these days?

Wriggling in and out of Westbury slows the train down by rather more than any of us like.   And there's 3 minutes of recovery time and 4 minutes of station stops in the schedule.   We were lucky to get a clear run to Bristol where I left the train, it would seem there was a clear run beyond, and probably beyond judging by the timings.  And I suspect the 125 was in top form and not being driven to economise on fuel on this occasion.

Silly comment on Westbury ... the avoiding line's only 240 metres from the station - that's the length of a 9 car IEP.  There are already examples of a considerable passenger walk to get around stations (has anyone here every travelled on a 12 coach train from King's Cross to one of the new platforms in Cambridge?, then exited the station there?).  Couple of extra platforms on the avoiders, anyone?   Solving capacity and run time issues ...  Just doing an airline comparison, it would appear that the longest walk (platform -2 to +3) at a Westbury would be less that the shortest walk you'll have from road/railside to your plane at Gatwick South - excellent diagrams at
https://www.gatwickairport.com/globalassets/documents/passengers/prm/58634_prm_walkingdistances_v4.pdf

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