Rhubarb Loop in 2024

[whole diary]

[grahame]

07:04 Bath Spa to Filton Abbey Wood due 07:33

07:04 Bath Spa to Filton Abbey Wood due 07:33 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.
Last Updated:12/06/2024 04:04

That's the "Rhubarb Loop" train ... the only passenger service scheduled over that line these days?   I get the feeling of a service that's run pre-peak to get a service provision requirement out of the way before the trains are at their busiest, rather than a service to meet passenger requirements.  Do I have that right, or is there a strong flow to Filton Abbey Wood for early work starts there or connection onward to South Wales?

[Mark A]

Someone who worked for the MOD in Bath and was transferred to Abbey Wood and then used the train for travel would be well placed to answer this. I seem to recall that the service was tweaked to ease the journey, and some ran direct, and a few avoided Temple Meads.

Mark

[Sulis John]

It is reasonably well used - though unsurprisingly not as busy as trains either side of it going into Temple Meads. Operationally speaking it is one of two trains which arrive at Bath ecs from the Bristol direction to head back there within the space of about 10 minutes so it’s hardly “out of the way”.