Great Western Coffee Shop

The 6:57 from Bath... it's a funny little number isn't it. Historically it was prone to being cancelled, this morning I found out that cancelling it is not a thing of the past. Luckily, another odd train, the one to Swansea, leaves a little before it, but that's not much consolation to people at Oldfield Park, Keynsham.

Mark

Cancelled again this morning. Showing as running on app at 06.22, cancelled by 06.50 due “this train being late from the depot”. (So neither sudden unit failure or crew being taken ill). Simply not good enough.

With a Crosscountry train to Edinburgh leaving Bristol at 7:35, it's the train from Bath that people would expect to catch to make, from Bath, the first northbound connection of the day to the likes of Birmingham for work stuff, so, cancelling it can stuff up long distance travel plans. 

Very long term, the reliability of the 06:57 from Bath has been a problem, and I can recall several times the station staff at Bath Spa putting its passengers including me on taxis to Parkway to make the connection there. Slightly hairy on dark and foggy winter mornings. This is some time ago, before privatisation, with a different fares structure with no peak time premium.

Looking at RTT, presumably (on a good day) it starts from Westbury, runs driver-only to Bristol, presumably picks up its train manager, returns to Bath for the run back to Bristol, a complicated little dance.

Mark