Loadings, cancellations and other issues

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Been watching this unfold on OpenTrainTimes when I should really have been working.

Very interesting to see that ... the points at Thingley and at Bradford seem incredibly unreliable.

Wonder why the following train - busiest of the day - had to be cancelled rather than turning back at Chippenham ... would understand if it had run back empty to WSB^» (Westbury - next trains) as the 08:49 ex SWI^» (Swindon - next trains) isn't exactly heaving.

[bobm]

Only a guess but it seems everything is running through Platform 1 at Chippenham at the moment so there might not have been the capacity to turn one there at the moment.

[grahame]

Stagecoach bus route 55: Swindon (Bus Station) - Chippenham (Station) and First Bus routes 38, 39, X39: Bristol (Temple Gate) - Keynsham - Bath (Bus Station) are conveying passengers via any reasonable route until further notice.

Noting the lack of ticket acceptance on x31 Chippenham to Bath or x34 Chippenham to Trowbridge

P.S. The 55 at nearly 90 minutes is not really a reasonable route from Swindon to Chippenham 

[grahame]

Looks like there was a gap from 06:42 to 09:15 in services from Chippenham to Bath ... the 07:44, 08:17 and 08:42 all failing to call.  That would have been fun!

[bobm]

Facilities on the 12:20 Westbury to Swindon due 13:05.
Will be formed of 3 coaches instead of 2.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

Always nice to see an extra coach.

[John R]

Looks like this evening's inbound service to SWI^» (Swindon - next trains) only made it as far as CPM^» (Chippenham - next trains), resulting in a relatively short notice cancellation of the 1736. 

[phile]

Looks like this evening's inbound service to SWI^» (Swindon - next trains) only made it as far as CPM^» (Chippenham - next trains), resulting in a relatively short notice cancellation of the 1736. 

What happened to the passengers for the 1736, a heavily loaded train.   Do you know please ?

[grahame]

Looks like this evening's inbound service to SWI^» (Swindon - next trains) only made it as far as CPM^» (Chippenham - next trains), resulting in a relatively short notice cancellation of the 1736. 

What happened to the passengers for the 1736, a heavily loaded train.   Do you know please ?

Passengers to Melksham - road transport from Chippenham.  Passengers to Trowbridge and Westbury - sent via Bath, but via Melksham tickets accepted.   Passengers from Melksham - don't know yet; not been wonderful for them in the past, but this has been flagged up.

[Chris from Nailsea]

In the (quite understandable) absence of a 'dislike' button on the Coffee Shop forum, I'm now going to say that I really do 'dislike' this treatment of passengers:

Passengers to Melksham - road transport from Chippenham.  Passengers to Trowbridge and Westbury - sent via Bath, but via Melksham tickets accepted.  Passengers from Melksham - don't know yet; not been wonderful for them in the past, but this has been flagged up.

Not good, for one of your weekday peak services, Great Western Railway. 

[grahame]

In the (quite understandable) absence of a 'dislike' button on the Coffee Shop forum, I'm now going to say that I really do 'dislike' this treatment of passengers:

Passengers to Melksham - road transport from Chippenham.  Passengers to Trowbridge and Westbury - sent via Bath, but via Melksham tickets accepted.  Passengers from Melksham - don't know yet; not been wonderful for them in the past, but this has been flagged up.

Not good, for one of your weekday peak services, Great Western Railway. 

Cancellation of the 17:36 is unclever in the extreme.  The damage done by a cancellation is in proportion to the number of passengers effected and is magnified by the lack of a further service any time soon thereafter, forcing alternative route or mode changes and significant delay.  Abhorrent.

BUT it can / does / will happen, and indeed there's a history of it.   There's no magic switch that I know of to remove every cancellation and pragmatically there's much more attention given to TransWilts services and to / from West Wilts from Swindon and Chippenham now that there ever was before, and various eyes are being kept open to help ensure it becomes as rare as possible.

I don't know what the failure was yesterday, but it looks like the problem occurred very late in the day, as the train was on its way up to Swindon, and I don't know what the alternative was if indeed it was truly unserviceable / unfixable.   There would have been a unit in the bay at Swindon that could have left at 17:36 for Westbury, assuming crew with hours and route knowledge available, but that would be robbing Peter to pay Paul / cancelling the Swindon to Cheltenham service at (?) 17:54.

[John R]

The 1530 ex PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) was held at Thingley for it to cross over in front of us, but it didn't. Eventually we went ahead and saw it waiting on the branch.  It would appear that when they realised it would have to terminate they had to let the London bound service ahead of it before it could come into CPM^» (Chippenham - next trains).  (Not clever as that would mean a further 30 min wait for pax, but maybe operationally that was the only option.) 

So it does appear as though it was a very late call to terminate it at CPM, and I can only surmise that it was absolutely necessary.  Unfortunate, but I'm not sure what else can be done in that situation, and other than a question mark over provision for those waiting at MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains), it does appear as though the contingency arrangements were put into place. 

[phile]

Systems say problem with train, so apparently unit defective

[grahame]

I know it's engineering changes biased, but delighted at things this week and noting

17:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Swindon due 19:55
Facilities on the 17:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Swindon due 19:55.
Will be formed of 5 coaches instead of 3 between Portsmouth Harbour and Westbury.
Will divide at Westbury, front 3 coaches only for Swindon via Melksham.
This is due to overcrowding because of a football match.

and on Wednesday evening (when Bath as open) 2 car train on 20:09 Swindon to Westbury, with just over 30 on board on departure.

[bobm]

A failed freight train on the single line means the 08:49 Swindon to Westbury is diverting via Bathampton Junction and missing Melksham.

[grahame]

Last night, it was the 18:32 from Westbury and the 20:06 back that were cancelled (two different stories as to why!)

Today, it's the 11:47 from Westbury and 12:47 back from Swindon ... (crew shortage)