Sunday morning

[whole diary]

[grahame]

A pretty Sunday morning in Wiltshire ... only the second Sunday that both morning trains have run, and the first one was in the middle of a Bank Holiday ... so this morning's outward bound traffic was a good thing to look at.

I'm posting here in the CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) area as the individual journeys may be identifiable ... I will post a summary in the public area too

08:52 from Melksham
3 on and 2 off at Melksham -> 19 ... 22/5
WSB^» (Westbury - next trains)-CPM^» (Chippenham - next trains)
TRO^» (Trowbridge - next trains)-SWI^» (Swindon - next trains)
TRO-CLJ (Clapham Junction)
WSB-TWI (Twickenham)
WSB-SWI / party of 2
WSB-LHR
WSB-TWI
WSB-TWI
WSB-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) / party of 2
TRO-SLO (Slough) ("Split ticket at Melksham and saved 17 pounds")
TRO-RDG^‡(resolve)
MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains)-SWI / part of 2
WSB-GLC^▸ (Glasgow Central)
WSB-TAU^» (Taunton - next trains)
WSB-PAD
MKM-SWI

09:26 from Swindon
11 on from Swindon
RDG-CLC^▸ (Castle Cary)
SWI-SAL / party of 5
PAD-TRO / party of 2
SWI-WMN^» (Warminster - next trains)
SWI-TRO
SWI-WSB
At Chippenham +12 -0
CPM-CLC
CPM-BRU (Bruton)
CPM-TRO
CPM-WEY / Party of 4
CPM-TRO / Party of 3
CPM-WSB
CPM-TRO
At Melksham +7 -0
MKM-WEY / Party of 2
MKM-TQY
MKM-BTH^» (Bath Spa - next trains)
MKM-TRO
MKM-TRO / Party of 2
so that's 30/7

10:32 Westbury to Swindon
10 on from Westbury
WSB-SWI / Party of 2
WSB-TRO / Party(?) of 3
CCY-SWI
FRO^» (Frome - next trains)-MKM
WSB-SWI
WSB-MKM
WSB-GLC
At Trowbridge -3 + 13
TRO-MKM
TRO-MKM
TRO-CPM
TRO-SWI
TRO-RLS (Leamington Spa)
TRO-SWI / Party of 2
TRO-TWI / Party of 4
TRO-NOR (Norwich)
TRO-SWI
At Melksham
MKM-SWI / Party of 2
So that's 22/6

11:51 from Swindon to Westbury
33 on from Swindon (of whom 17 connected from Didcot or beyond)
-5 +6 at Chippenham
-6 +8 at Melksham
So 42/14 for stats
Journeys ..
SWI-TRO
SWI-MKM / Party of 2
SWI-MKM
PAD-WSB / Party of 8
SWI-MKM / Party of 3
PAD-WSB
SWI-BOA / Party of 2
SWI-WSB / Party of 2
OXF^» (Oxford - next trains)-BOA
MHD-TRO
PAD-CPM
SWI-CPM
Staines-TRO
LGW-CPM / Party of 2
SWI-WSB
OXF-CPM
SWI-TRO
SWI-TWO
OXF-TRO
SWI-WMN

CPM-TRO
CPM-SAL
CPM-Penryn
CPM-YPM
CPM-SOU

No  journey data for Melksham joiners as I left the train there.

So over the 4 trains - 116/32. 
Average of 29 people per train using the otherwise unserved Chippenham - Trowbridge section, Average 8 using Melksham Station.
Only the 2nd weekend of the first of these round trips running, remember ...

[John R]

7 people going to Twickenham on the two northbound trains. Shows how the service can be of use for an event happening many miles away.

Slightly surprised at how few were travelling to Weymouth given the weather was reasonable today. Are you expecting to see the volumes that used the service in 2011 when it was trialled during the summer?

[grahame]

Slightly surprised at how few were travelling to Weymouth given the weather was reasonable today. Are you expecting to see the volumes that used the service in 2011 when it was trialled during the summer?

No. At least not all on the same few days. If we got 150 people joining at Swindon on a 153, what would the 50 at Chippenham and 75 at Melksham do? 

We have a lot more runs this summer.  Weymouth is possible every day of the week from Melksham and further north east.   It's a connection at Westbury not a through train. All of which should help knock the peaks off.   Having seen how it did the first couple of weekends, though, there is scope for a lot more promotion and the summer holidays will bring more out too when there's not school the next day. 

[grahame]

Letter sent to Swindon Advertiser ... now that we know how the first weekends went, we can do a bit of marketing of remaining space

[bobm]

No problems on the TransWilts this morning, but over-running engineering work means trains are not reaching Weymouth from Westbury.  Currently being turned back at Yeovil Pen Mill.

[John R]

Twitter are advising passengers to go via Soton Central, where the train from Westbury arrives at xx03 and the train to Weymouth leaves at xx03 leaving an hour wait. I think I'd rather get the bus from Yeovil.

Anyway, well done to Network Rail for scheduling work on a seaside line for a summer weekend rather than November.

[bobm]

Latest estimate for the line to reopen is 16:00

[Timmer]

Anyway, well done to Network Rail for scheduling work on a seaside line for a summer weekend rather than November.

If this was pre-planned engineering work then I agree pretty poor scheduling especially when during the Autumn/Winter there are no trains until mid afternoon between Dorchester and Yeovil.

Must be a pretty serious problem for it to over run for this length of time and on such a nice day too when plenty would be travelling to Weymouth. Hopefully they can get it fixed before everyone returns back to the station for the journey home in the evening.

[Timmer]

Hopefully they can get it fixed before everyone returns back to the station for the journey home in the evening.

Nope! The 1610 from Weymouth now down to start from Yeovil.

[grahame]

Hopefully they can get it fixed before everyone returns back to the station for the journey home in the evening.

Nope! The 1610 from Weymouth now down to start from Yeovil.

We (me, 2 dogs, and Dad) made it as far as Yeovil ... turned back there with 100+ people trying to get onto a 50 seat bus, then another 50 seat bus was due ... we weren't the only ones with at least one first-time family saying that it was their "first and only" train trip and promising the kids they would take them by car to the seaside next weekend.

The 11:54 coming back up left Yeovil spot on time ... so any coach / bus passengers from further south would have missed it.  And there's a l-o-n-g gap after that train on a Sunday.    It was partly realising that was happening, partly that Dad's over 90 and I have the dogs with us, and partly that the re-opening time was being guessed at that cause us to abort.

They're still unsure of the delay length ...

Cancellations to services between Yeovil Pen Mill and Weymouth Owing to over-running engineering works between Yeovil Pen Mill and Weymouth all lines are blocked.
Impact:
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled at short notice. An estimate for the resumption of normal services will be provided as soon as the problem has been fully assessed.
Customer Advice:

[bobm]

Latest information.

First services to operate will be 19:12 Weston-Super-Mare to Weymouth and 17:56 Weymouth to Bristol Temple Meads.

[Timmer]

At least one first-time family saying that it was their "first and only" train trip and promising the kids they would take them by car to the seaside next weekend.

Sadly an all too familiar tale. Go by car and get stuck in traffic, it happens and you just accept it but you will probably still do the trip again by car. The train messes up that's often its one chance gone so those who have the alternative of taking the car next time will do just that.

The sad thing is that if that family you mentioned was to travel next Saturday on the Weymouth Wizard HST^▸ (High Speed Train) service on an air conditioned train with plenty of seats they might think differently...provided of course all ran smoothly and on time!

[grahame]

Latest information.

First services to operate will be 19:12 Weston-Super-Mare to Weymouth and 17:56 Weymouth to Bristol Temple Meads.

And latest now

17:56 Weymouth to Bristol Temple Meads due 20:18
This train will be cancelled.
This is due to over-running engineering works.

What an utter screw-up!

[Timmer]

Would love to know what went so wrong today for such a long overrun.

[grahame]

Would love to know what went so wrong today for such a long overrun.

So would I, but I suspect we never will. I wrote a little more on the public forum {here} to describe the day, but I am more concerned at working out ahead of time (if we can) which are "risky" Sundays to publicise for the services, as the let-down rate is far too high at the moment.   Sunday was a "double whammy" for anyone looking to use the return services, and I've got three other incidents in which trains I understood to be running on Sundays are not now running, in all but one cases after publicity has gone out which directly or indirectly promotes them strongly.