My journey today - thoughts and comments

Warning - long.

The Wiltshire contract for the TransWilts says that they're supporting 4 new services each way on Sundays, 5 in summer. The SLC^▸ under teh current franchise says 2 northbound trains must be provided, and since 2007 it has been practise to run the train back between the two SLC northbound runs in passenger service. All of which gives a combined Sunday services of 6 northbound and 5 southbound in winter, and 7 northbound and 6 southbound in summer ... or so you would think. Well - from now until 7th December, we have just 4 northbound and 3 southbound services; I can sorta-see how the northbound is minimum spec, as I don't think it's written anywhere that the SLC can't be met by services [also] operated under the SLC, but I can't see how just 3 trains southbound is valid as far as Wiltshire are concerned. Perhaps, from a practical viewpoint, they're concentrating on other matters which will last long into the future and have accepted this sub-spec service.

Once a service drops below a certain level, it ceases to be a service for all passengers along a flow and becomes useful only for those who wish to travel at the specific time it runs. This is a situation we were in for years, and with the occasional trains that *did* run timed such that they were only right for a very few. And it's my fear that the Sunday servie that's running a present may have crosses the line from being a train for everyone into a train for those who want it at a specific time.

I'm travelling to Cambridge today, due there mid evening, and the timetable offers me departures from Melksham at 10:20 and 14:27 (both too early) and 17:33 and 19:39 (both too late). A 16:00 departure, goive or take an hour, would have been ideal and the 16:44 - which finshed last weekend - would have been ideal. So I arranged for a lift up to Chippenham, feeling both disloyal and frankly a bit peeved. It turned out, though, that I was ahead of myself earlier in the day, that my colleague who was taking over hotel duties arrived for work a bit ahead of time, and I was able to get to the station for the 14:27.

Good signs and bad ... an industrial area, befert of people or cars - except a more than 50% full station car park which kinda lead me to think that the 10:20, and the solitary train that had already gone the other way, had picked up a few people. There were just five of us on the station ... but I was the only passenger. My wife had popped along with me to see how the train service was going, as had the two dogs, and a bloke at the end of the platform was standing in a photographer's pose rather than a passenger one. Come 14:25, and the departure board "expected" slips to 14:32 ... and an 8 carriage high speed trains comes through - travelling in direction that I'm going, but at around 40 m.p.h.. A comment to the photobloke that I'll be waiting another 15 minutes elicits the information that my train will be along very shortly because it's going in the same directon and can follow directly (my goodness - that's new and exciting!) but it turns out that his information is duff - although it was delivered with authority, and in a tone that clearly indicated he was pretty sure he was right with his timing and that I shouldn't question him.

Anyway, at 14:40 (that's ... err ... 15 minutes after I estimated it would be 15 minutes), 153 377 slips in and draws to a halt. No-one else waiting to join, but five passengers got off and I walked through the carriage and counted 28 passengers in addition to myself as we headed for Chippenham. So what looked like a blank, underspec service was actually allowing 33 journeys on the Trowbridge - Chippenham section, of which 6 were from/to Melksham. Not bad against targets, especially as I exptected this to be a quiet train, and there's evidence from all them cars that the ealier trains were much busier.

End of story? Not quite! We rans straight off the TransWilts and into Chippenham - passing an HST^▸ at Thingley going the other way, probably waiting for the single track. And that explains why we had been let out onto the main line just 4 minutes ahead of the Bristol to London express ... for we were bound to hold that up by a couple of minutes before we reached Swindon, even at a fast (for 153 377) pace.

Disruption and engineering diversions are all too common, and the lack of intermediate signals and sidetracks around the line really show. We have some clever timetablers who come up wth some very good schedules, but the events of today are just an example of how one late train can ripple through many others at present. At first glance, it was a suprising decision to let the TransWilts train onto the main line from Bristol just ahead of a London express ... but then to hold it there would have meant a further delay to it, and a delay to a Plymouth service too. So - good call - least bad option.

There are solutions - as proposed in Doorway Chippenham, and as proposed in the Western RUS^▸ (all be it from 2026!) for when the TransWilts rised to an hourly service, as against there being gaps of over three hours as there are today (and it still gets into trouble when other trains are late).

1. Provide an intermediate signal on the TransWilts section, reducing the headway betwen trains following each other from 16 minutes minimum to 8t uner 10.

2. Provide a loop at Chippenham alongside the spare platform face to allow trains to be sidetracked while awaiting the single line, or to let express trains get past. A further 5 minutes delay to the TransWilts train would have allowed the London express to clear on time.

Network Rail tell me they are making passive provision for enhancements such as these in the electirifcation work - but won't tell me about specifics. They refer me to my local council (that's Wiltshire Council) who - when I met with their rail expert and portfolio holder aboy a week ago suggested that we ask Network Rail. Somehow, I'm not re-assured.

Where I am re-assured today is that, contrary to my fears, people will still use the train for a few weeks an a below-mimimum-spec service; something of a relief as I'm unsure what's going to happen for 6 weeks next summer when we've got major diversions - the insanity of expresses creaping through Melksham, stopping outside the station at Trowbridge to reverse, with buses costing someone aroun 1000 pounds a day providing an imferieous (slower, less able to take luggage, more changes needed, bumpier ride) ... or having those diverted trains stop at the cost of a couple of minutes, and with such big gains for the local traffic and the local opinion of First and Network Rail.

You can probably tell from this long article that I'm writing offline during my journey. At Swindon, the Bristol train was indeed right behind us and came in packed; I elected to wait a further 3 minutes for a train coming round the corner from Gloucster which had rather more seats available. Turned out to be a Swansea train - so it's good to see the section to Kemble redoubled to avoid delays in one direction reflecting onto the opposite direction as they were doing on the TransWilts. Considering what an important diversioanry route it is, perhaps it should be redoubled too?

And so .. Circle line tube to King's Cross, and the 17:04 to King's Lynn where I'm seated outside the toilet, pressing the "close door" button every time someone leaves. Funny how people are perfectly capable of closing old fashioned doors, but give them somethng modern and they become unable to do that basic politeness for people sitting nearby. Or perhaps they're simply thoughtless. The train's bouncing around a bit and it's dark. I'm not recognising where we are, and I'm suspecting that I'm trying out (unintentionally) the route via Cuffley and Gough's Oak. Still - a through service to Cambridge rather than a "change at Hitchin" which was coming up on all trains on the journey planner.

I'm going to post this travellogue when I get to Cambridge. It's all mundate. It's all stuff that happens every day. But it's the experiences experienced, the notes made, the seeing it for myself that helps me when I ask questions, when I read threads here, and when I make suggestions, or look at other sugegstions and proposals and form a view or help tune / improve them. And others may care to read, think, comment on aspects.

For the record - 14:28 at Melksham, 12 late, 26th September 33/6