Welcome back over most of the South West ..

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Welcome back to the land of trains everyone ... EXCEPT, it seems, on the TransWilts!

We knew of plans not to run
... 06:12 from Swindon
... 07:04 from Westbury
but this morning there's a broken down train at Westbury so what happens - cancelled are
... 07:33 from Westbury
... 08:49 from Swindon

Apart from an Ealing Broadway to Bristol train (alternative available within half an hour) nothing else is cancelled across the whole of the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) area ...

Should they run (let's wait and see), first TransWilts trains will be
... 09:48 from Westbury
... 10:47 from Swindon
(and that latter is only four and a half hours after the normal first train ...)

Having run a Facebook marketing campaign to say "yes you have trains today" and to persuade people to use the TransWilts, it's pretty galling to be the single line - yet again - to suffer an absence of service over many, many hours.  Back to bottom of the pile??

These days, it's my role to be critical friend ... I hate having to be critical but one sure way to get yourself a bad name is to offer a service, market it, then pull it at the last minute.  Perhaps a short formed train on Westbury to Bristol would have been a better thing to do than to abandon the TransWits for many hours?

This post is written in anger ... may get moved to frequent posters when I calm down ...

[JayMac]

There are a few other cancellations on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) this morning. A Bristol to Weston-super-Mare and it's return working to Newport which started from Bristol TM^‡(resolve). Also a Castle Cary to Gloucester, cancelled at Westbury and re-starting from Bristol.

[grahame]

There are a few other cancellations on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) this morning. A Bristol to Weston-super-Mare and it's return working to Newport which started from Bristol TM^‡(resolve). Also a Castle Cary to Gloucester, cancelled at Westbury and re-starting from Bristol.

Indeed - a couple of other short runs (both of which were / are followed by other services about 30 minutes later) and some delays of between 10 and 20 minutes due to point problems.

GWR Twitter tell me the 10:03 [at Melksham] is "expected" to run ... but then so was the 07:49 and so was the 09:15 ... advise to check back nearer the time which is really practical for days out!

[TaplowGreen]

Points failures, signal failures, broken down trains, and a partridge in a pear treeeeeeee!..................welcome back indeed!!! 

[bobm]

The cancellations in the Bristol area are largely due to a points failure at Worle.

[phile]

0948 Westbury to Swindon on the move.

[IndustryInsider]

Points failures, signal failures, broken down trains, and a partridge in a pear treeeeeeee!..................welcome back indeed!!! 

Though good to see the London suburban service resume as planned this morning.  Will be interesting to see how Ealing Broadway copes over the next few days.  All seemed ok on Xmas Eve with a frequent service on the Central Line (though a less than ideal station layout to get to/from it) - it will be tested much more thoroughly over the next couple of days though.

[SandTEngineer]

.....and not just railways ....http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-38442975

[grahame]

0948 Westbury to Swindon on the move.

Excellent - they've probably warmed up the cab now 

Clearly our marketing's reached some people - getting phone calls asking about the next service to Swindon and when they can come back (don't panic anyone - I know we have a gap from 17:36 to 20:06 this week!)

[grahame]

a partridge in a pear treeeeeeee!........

Partridge - small bird that should not damage the train if the collide - TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s fault if it does
Pear Tree - infrastructure - NR^» (Network Rail - home page) to blame.

Effect of Partidge in a Pear Tree having fallen onto the line - blame attribution wrangle par excellence!

[phile]

0948 Westbury to Swindon on the move.

Excellent - they've probably warmed up the cab now 

Clearly our marketing's reached some people - getting phone calls asking about the next service to Swindon and when they can come back (don't panic anyone - I know we have a gap from 17:36 to 20:06 this week!)

Not the same unit.  Original in Yard at Westbury.