Delay / cancellation log - LSTF service

[whole diary]

[grahame]

15:11 Swindon to Westbury due 15:55
This train will be cancelled.
This is due to congestion caused by earlier delays.

[bobm]

There were a series of delays which culminated in the cancellation.

11:05 Swindon to Westbury arrived eight minutes late
12:01 Westbury to Swindon left nine late and terminated 36 late after waiting for the single line
13:05 Swindon to Westbury left 38 late and terminated 66 late - looks like it might have been held at Chippenham to allow two services to take the single line first.
The 14:14 Westbury to Swindon and the 15:11 return were then cancelled.

Service then resumed with the 16:32 from Westbury.

[Lee]

I hate to be the one who acknowledges the elephant in the room, but we are not going to retain passengers if they are subjected to days like that.

Who gets priority over the single line needs to be sorted out - pronto.

[grahame]

I hate to be the one who acknowledges the elephant in the room, but we are not going to retain passengers if they are subjected to days like that.

Agreed but ...

Who gets priority over the single line needs to be sorted out - pronto.

I think a lot of it was London - West Country expresses - class 1 trains - and we'll get the answer "they get priority".   Very unusual indeed for a weekday.

Trowbridge times
1A78 (PNZ-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)) due 11:12 passed 12:12
1C76 (PAD-EXD^» (Exeter St Davids - next trains)) due 09:55 passed 12:51
1A81 (PNZ-PAD) due 12:41 passed 12:55
1A82 (PLY^» (Plymouth - next trains)-PAD) due 13:13 passed 13:40
and 1C79 (PAD-EXD) due Thingley 11:57 left there 13:51 (looks like it diverted via BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains))

Unique for a weekday? HOWEVER - vey much something to flag up with "good and bad lessons from the first weeks"

[Lee]

Those of us Behind The Counter, along with the more knowledgeable members of the forum, would indeed see that as an (almost) reasonable explanation.

However, it is not difficult to see an ordinary would-be passenger, having waited days to even get on the train in the first place due to the weather & Christmas, being greeted with yesterday's debacle and concluding (both for themselves and telling all their friends) "sod this for a game of soldiers".

Cue the deafening sound of CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) letters/TransWilts Flyers/Central Timetable booklets being chucked in the recycling bin.

Am I wrong, and do we not deserve rather more leeway with these kind of operational service decisions, at least while we are trying to launch the damn thing and build up a decent customer base?

Its not unique either - Its happened a number of times already, including to me on the very first weekday I rode the trains during my promotional stint on the first week chatting to passengers, when a late-running freight train (very far from top priority in my book) got given the "road" ahead of our on-time scheduled passenger service. I can tell you now, it is nigh on impossible to get first-time users to accept the operational reasoning behind why their initial experience includes being stuck for over 30 minutes at Thingley in such circumstances.

[bobm]

I have spent a bit of time looking at how the single line through Melksham was used yesterday.

In the table below I have extrapolated the times for Melksham by using the time (and the delay) at either Bradford North or Thingley Junction as Melksham times are not recorded.  As you can see there was some pretty severe late running of the diverted West of England services.  In particular you can see the 12:17 departure from Melksham was delayed to allow two long distance services, one in each direction, to use the single line.

The lines in red are northbound services.

The final column shows the gap between services.



(Times are from Realtraintimes)

[bobm]

A landslip near Stonehouse has delayed the 05:18 Gloucester to Southampton Central service by nearly an hour.

It will now terminate at Westbury with another unit leaving Westbury in its path at 07:01 but only running as far as Salisbury because of flooding further south.

It means the 06:38 southbound service from Melksham will be nearer 07:30.

[grahame]

What an unfortunate start for anyone who's trying out the TransWilts as a new commuting alternative from the first day back in the new year ...

Journey check, for the record:

05:18 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:09 This train has been delayed at Stonehouse and is now 56 minutes late.
This train will be terminated at Westbury, restarted from Westbury and terminated at Salisbury.
This train will no longer call at Romsey and Southampton Central.
This is due to a landslip. Message Received :02/01/2014 06:40
Scheduled    Expected   Destination
05:18   05:18    Gloucester
05:32   06:28    Stonehouse
05:37   06:33    Stroud
05:51   06:47    Kemble
06:12   07:08    Swindon
06:29   07:25    Chippenham
06:38   07:34    Melksham
06:47   07:43    Trowbridge
07:01   07:01    Westbury
07:03   07:03    Dilton Marsh
07:12   07:12    Warminster
07:36   07:36    Salisbury
07:56   Not Stopping    Romsey
08:09   Not Stopping    Southampton Central

[bobm]

Realtraintimes is saying the 05:18 was eventually terminated at Swindon. 

Journeycheck doesn't agree but Live Departures shows it as "delayed" after Swindon.

[bobm]

Landslip at Stonehouse means the 17:39 from Cheltenham Spa is diverted via Bristol Parkway to Chippenham before taking the Melksham line. 

Buses provided from Golden Valley Line stations and Swindon but "may not keep to train times".

Line not expected to be re-opened until later on Friday, so possible problems for early morning Melksham commuters tomorrow.  Not good timing at all.

[bobm]

15:14 from Swindon cancelled at Chippenham owing to fault on the train.

The following train to 14:30 London Paddington to Weston-super-Mare was delayed behind it and missed some stops after Bristol to catch up time.  The 15:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads train was diverted via Chipping Sodbury missing its planned calls at Chippenham and Bath Spa.

[grahame]

And

16:15 Westbury to Swindon due 17:03 This train will be cancelled.
This is due to a train fault. Last Updated :20/01/2014 16:36

17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:21 This train will be cancelled.
This is due to a train fault. Last Updated :20/01/2014 16:36

Oh sh**

[bobm]

Which makes the original advice for "passengers to use the next available service" even less helpful.

[Phil]

I overheard a passenger at Chippenham being told "There's only one train, and it's broken down. There's no guarantee it'll be fixed by tomorrow morning either..."

[bobm]

More problems today.

The Class 153 operating the 09:48 from Westbury to Swindon had problems after leaving Chippenham and was 17 minutes late into Swindon.

Following that the next three trips have all been cancelled.

10:47 ex-Swindon
11:47 ex-Westbury
12:47 ex-Swindon