Behind the scene - Westbury and Trowbridge yesterday

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Some Sunday stats ... from a customer travelling from Barnstaple to Melksham yesterday.   He was on the train from the South West due to arrive at 15:51 into Westbury, connect to the 16:04 to Trowbridge and the bus at 16:15  from there to Melksham.     What actually happened was that the 15:51 was 10 minutes late, and by the time he and others ("another 7 or 8 people") had found where to go and made their way through the subway at Westbury, the doors on the "connection" were closing and they were unable to board; it left (according to real time trains) at 16:04. On getting the next available train to Trowbridge, the bus was long gone ... net result, an arrival in Melksham 2 hours late, and a very unhappy customer.   Also to note - the bus eventually caught (18:15) conveyed around 20 people from Trowbridge.    That's a pretty high number for a substitute bus service ...

Posting here to add ... (not to shout about) ... it seems that the situation was worsened by staff attitude at Trowbridge.   "You'll have to wait for the next one" and when asked about alternative ways to Melksham "this is a train station - why should we know anything about buses?".    Suggestion was made of a good pub to wait in for the next rail replacement bus!

Always hard for staff to deal with customers ... just noting that the whole experience for this customer came across to him as uncaring ...

P.S. The 16:04 from Westbury waited for time in Bath (2 minutes), Bristol (6 minutes) and Newport (5 minutes) on its way to Cardiff.   I rather suspect that a 30 second delay might have been appreciated as people ran under ...

[trainer]

I have to express my dismay at the lack of consideration that a few 'customer-facing' staff show for the source of their income (i e passengers).  A polite, 'I'm very sorry, we're not provided with that information,' might have at ameliorated the negative feelings for the staff and the wider industry.

A second point is the disgraceful way (IMHO^▸ ('in my humble opinion')) that public transport is so often divided into apparently unbridgeable sectors in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).  The free market does NOT work for passengers in these circumstances. (Perhaps the pub industry does in this case - was the member of staff related to the landlord?  )

[John R]

Would that delay have justified a taxi by FGW^▸ (First Great Western)?  Although it may not have been apparent at Westbury to passengers that the delay would have been that long, and thus they wouldn't ask. And it might be difficult to persuade the staff at Trowbridge (particularly that one, by the sound of it) that one was due, as the missed connection was further up the line.