Melksham Connections

[whole diary]

[paul7575]

One of the problems with certain rolling stock is that the only options are either one door or all the doors - indeed the 'one door' is usually just the guard not completing the normal procedure of getting out then opening the rest of the doors.

This currently applies to the fairly new SWT^▸ (South West Trains) Desiros, eg on a 5 coach 444 it's either all doors or one door of the as selected by the guard, but you can't select some random number of carriages of a unit.  Luckily they can de-select a whole unit or two, so 5 carriages from 10, or 4/8 from 12, is possible - but oddly enough there's actually more flexibility in an FGW^▸ (First Great Western) HST^▸ (High Speed Train).

(However a proper automatic SDO^▸ (Selective Door Opening) system, like Southern's trains have, is in the process of being fitted which will allow endless permutations.)

Paul

[grahame]

My understanding of the door opening in relation to Melksham is that class 150, 153 and 158 units do not have central door locking.  Options are thus:
a) Open all doors
b) Open a single set of doors
c) Open a single set of doors then open others manually

On a 153 unit running on its own, or a 2 car 150 unit, all the doors that open on the single control can be comfortably on the platform. But with 2 x 153 coupled together, or a 2 car 158, doors are closer to the carriage ends and - while it can be done - the stopping has to be very accurate. For a train of 3 or more carriages (any other 2 units coupled, or a 3 car 150 or 158 running alone), the platform is simply too short.

Most trains are currently 2 car 150s, and it should be possible for both sets of double doors on both carriages to be released.   However, for quite a long time, about half of the services were 158 units and the crews got into the habit of opening just one set of doors - a habit that seems to have stuck.    There are even occasions when just the very front (not normally in passenger service) door behind the driver is opened on a 150 on the way up to Swindon, and that's a fair step from the platform, and especially awkward with heavy luggage (often how I travel on Sundays) or with a bike.

[JayMac]

Today (13/05/2013), the 1844 from Swindon to Southampton was a 2 car Class 158. At Melksham the conductor opened the set of doors at the rear of leading carriage.

How do I know this? I was on board (travelling SWI^» (Swindon - next trains)-WSB^» (Westbury - next trains)) and took a couple of pictures of the hoards of people alighting and boarding.

Okay. Not hoards. Five off, one on.

[Kim]

Lovely picture of the inside of my hood.

More 158s please, I can actually get off of them.

[JayMac]

You were on board Kim?

Next time you see this chap (the one on the right) say hi:



 

[bobm]

The one on the left is ok too..... 

[Kim]

You were on board Kim?

Next time you see this chap (the one on the right) say hi:



 

Yeah, I got on at Chippenham and got off at Melksham. I'm on it nearly every day, but not tonight...

Due to a fatality at Worle, the 18:00 from Bristol to London has been cancelled. I would imagine that delays will continue for the next few hours, so not gambling on getting the 18:30 with a 7 minute gap for the connection. If it missed, the delay is technically out of FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s control, so no one can be sure they'll get home. (Can get a lift from Trowbridge but not Chippenham tonight.) Can't say I want to sit for the 40 minutes I usually do AND get home at 8pm by waiting for that connection. More additional cost for me

[Kim]

You were on board Kim?

Next time you see this chap (the one on the right) say hi:



 

Yeah, I got on at Chippenham and got off at Melksham. I'm on it nearly every day, but not tonight...

Due to a fatality at Worle, the 18:00 from Bristol to London has been cancelled. I would imagine that delays will continue for the next few hours, so not gambling on getting the 18:30 with a 7 minute gap for the connection. If it missed, the delay is technically out of FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s control, so no one can be sure they'll get home. (Can get a lift from Trowbridge but not Chippenham tonight.) Can't say I want to sit for the 40 minutes I usually do AND get home at 8pm by waiting for that connection. More additional cost for me

Edit: I know the 18:30 comes from Weston Super Mare, but the 18:00 doesn't, does it?! Isn't that an arrival from London sent on the reverse journey upon arrival? Poor service if so FGW.

Edit: Oops, accidentally quoted above. Sorry.

[bobm]

Apparently the set to form the 18:00 was stepped up to form what would have been the 17:10 from Weston-super-Mare but started from Bristol Temple Meads - albeit it left 15 minutes late at 17:45.

[Kim]

18:30 got to Chippenham at 19:09, Melksham connection left at 19:04. I thought they were supposed to hold the last connection. There is bound to have been at least one person wanting that train; will try to find out how the taxi situation went. They would argue not within the control of the railway, but it surely was within their control to take our on time service and cancel it to run a delayed service, knowing that the next available service was almost guaranteed to be late because of the route of that service.

[John R]

There is bound to have been at least one person wanting that train;

I suspect control were more concerned with shifting the considerable volumes of people that would have been waiting for the 1730 at Bristol and down the line than optimising the evening service for the benefit of "at least one person" making a connection.

At times like this evening, I think most people recognise that the rail industry tries it best when presented with a very sad situation not of its making, and remember that a family somewhere tonight will have lost a loved one, so the inconvenience we may have suffered getting home is put into perspective.

[Kim]

No news yet on what happened with the taxi situation last night.

Spoke to a semi-regular commuter on the line this morning and his point just emphasises the fact that the current service is of no use to anyone that cannot use flexitime in the same way that he can. Due to extra hours built up because of the timings of the TransWilts, he has earned three days to take off since Easter. That's to Filton Abbey Wood, having a longer journey time than the majority of passengers who do use the line.

Can't see where the improvement will come though; as Grahame said above, passengers who would be prepared to schedule their lives around the current timings are put off by the fact that they can't travel without a Plan B. This is why I always take someone with me to the station and never leave the car there.

[grahame]

... Due to extra hours built up because of the timings of the TransWilts, he has earned three days to take off since Easter....

passengers who would be prepared to schedule their lives around the current timings are put off by the fact that they can't travel without a Plan B.

I suspect control were more concerned with shifting the considerable volumes of people that would have been waiting for the 1730 at Bristol and down the line than optimising the evening service for the benefit of "at least one person" making a connection.

At times like this evening, I think most people recognise that the rail industry tries it best when presented with a very sad situation not of its making, and remember that a family somewhere tonight will have lost a loved one, so the inconvenience we may have suffered getting home is put into perspective.

The current TransWilts service is - let's face it - pretty badly timed. There's common acceptance of this, and there are a number of people who can make use of it even at the naff times it runs.  And that gives a clue as to just how many people could use it if the timings were decent / extra trains making for day return journey opportunities , and opportunities for those who may sometimes finish early or late.

First provides a service that's timetabled to meet the letter of their contract, plus an additional southbound service from Swindon at 18:19 on Sundays. They can be criticized, but not faulted, on the timings then have chosen.  However, where even this minimal service fails to deliver is in the journey reliability.  On journey after journey, something goes a little wrong, and in such a way that it will severley disrupt the travel plans (delayed journey) but it won't show up in the punctuality figures.

We all accept - I think - that things go wrong; we all have the most enormous sympathy for sad situations like yesterday.  And, yes, they will create an inconvenience which is "small beer".  But it's where this small beer becomes part of a pattern that it becomes far less acceptable.  The other week I did four journeys between Melksham and London;  3 out of 4 would have showed up as "on time" in train punctuality tables, but due to connections failures and long dwells en route, I was only within 30 minutes of my planned time on 1 out of 4.   Furthermore, I had to resort to "Plan B" and my own knowledge and money to sort myself out even to this degree.

1 journey in 20 ... even 1 journey in 10 with an issue; yes, understandable.  But more than that, and it gets to the point - not of being unsympathetic with some of the individual causes, but asking whether there's something that can be done to reduce what appear to be systemic issues.  And a higher proportion of journeys with issues would be acceptable with help and assistance available throughout the incident.  Even at Melksham, we have a screen.  "The 06:38 is delayed; please catch the 07:20 and change at Swindon for London.  If you have already purchased a ticket that's valid via Westbury, the train manager will refund the difference to a via Swindon ticket".  Or - on arrival at Chippenham off a train that's been delayed and failed to make the connection - "will anyone for the Melksham, Trowbridge and Westbury service please contact the booking office who will arrange a taxi, the price of which is included in your ticket".

I agree, John - the you can't hold up the whole service to maintain every connection.  But the railway should take responsibiity for providing the plan B and having that automatically offered to customers who have already paid when its own specified provision fails, truely dangerous weather conditions excepted perhaps.

[Kim]

Something you want to watch on TV? Guess the usual practice is to get an earlier train. Not on this line.

I HATE FGW^▸ (First Great Western)!! I already waste two hours of my time per day due to this shambles of a service, now I'm missing Coronation Street 

I just love sitting here listening to the summer timetable announcements over and over. Guess they're not going to do anything remotely useful

HAD ENOUGH OF THIS

[John R]

But the railway should take responsibiity for providing the plan B and having that automatically offered to customers who have already paid when its own specified provision fails, truely dangerous weather conditions excepted perhaps.

I agree, although I don't think the poster had any evidence that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) didn't provide a taxi (not actually having been on the affected service).  So I feel that to complain about a hypothetical situation, which may or may not have happened, on a day when someone had lost their life, (which had caused the disruption) was a touch insensitive.