Severn Beach Line; trains, performance, tickets and usage

[whole diary]

[bobm]

(Pic: From Twitter)

Chris Grayling at Bristol Temple Meads today.  Standing to the right is Andy Mellors, currently GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Deputy MD and yesterday announced as the new MD of South Western.

[John R]

Interesting take from the government release.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/bristol-commuters-to-benefit-from-new-fleet-of-modern-spacious-trains-and-contactless-payment

By what stretch of imagination is a 25 year old train "modern"?  Better maybe, not quite so ancient, possibly, but modern, no.

[SandTEngineer]

Interesting take from the government release.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/bristol-commuters-to-benefit-from-new-fleet-of-modern-spacious-trains-and-contactless-payment

By what stretch of imagination is a 25 year old train "modern"?  Better maybe, not quite so ancient, possibly, but modern, no.

Hey, that's being a little bit unfair.  The 'modern' trains are at least 25 years old whereas the ones they replaced are 30 years old, so the quote is quite accurate.....

[bobm]

Report on the Minister's visit on BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Points West

[johnneyw]

Report on the Minister's visit on BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Points West

Hmmm, just words, no specifics, nothing new and really was just confirming delays and dilution of Metrowest with talk about slow and belated progress.

[ChrisB]

He was there fact-finding.

[johnneyw]

At bit of negative coverage in the Evening Post:

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/complaints-new-severn-beach-turbo-176943

It's perhaps a tad harsh although it raises the question of how well GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) prepared for the Monday switch over.

[ChrisB]

Report on the Minister's visit on BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Points West

Hmmm, just words, no specifics, nothing new and really was just confirming delays and dilution of Metrowest with talk about slow and belated progress.

Portishead is not dead in the water - so some reasonable news there
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/portishead-rail-line-not-dead-174682

[TonyK]

Some thought may need to be given to the signage on Platform 1 at Bristol Temple Meads.

A three car turbo has one set of doors past the "Passengers must not pass this point" sign. 

You know, I have never noticed a "Passengers must not pass this point" sign right there. Boy, is my face red!

Is that recent? The Piccadilly Voyager used to park in P1 for crew lunch break (1V49, arrives 1206, now parks on P3 until 1300)

[bobm]

Is that recent? The Piccadilly Voyager used to park in P1 for crew lunch break (1V49, arrives 1206, now parks on P3 until 1300)

8.40am on Monday - so pretty recent. 

[stuving]

You know, I have never noticed a "Passengers must not pass this point" sign right there. Boy, is my face red!

Is that recent? The Piccadilly Voyager used to park in P1 for crew lunch break (1V49, arrives 1206, now parks on P3 until 1300)

It certainly seems odd. The listed length for P1 is 96 m "buffer stop to top of ramp", and provided the posts haven't been wandering about since the conveyor came down they are 21 m and 33 m from the end (top of ramp). So the sign only allows 63 m - too short for (all of) a 166. Even up to the signal post it would only be 75 m, so less than a Voyager.

Why would it be put there? I have a suspicion that it's where the width reaches 5 m, the minimum the rules allow between two faces. So why does the length in the operational rules not reflect where the sign is?

[grahame]

Why would it be put there? I have a suspicion that it's where the width reaches 5 m, the minimum the rules allow between two faces. So why does the length in the operational rules not reflect where the sign is?

Logic would suggest it should be at the point that the yellow lines come together.  As it is, there is an area that's clearly behind both yellow lines so where you can stand, but beyond the sign so you cannot stand there.  Lack of consistency!

[SandTEngineer]

I think the sign has been placed on the last lampost to avoid the cost of an extra post at the top of the platform ramp.  This has been done at quite a few stations on the National Network.

[TaplowGreen]

07:16 Bristol Temple Meads to Severn Beach due 07:53


07:16 Bristol Temple Meads to Severn Beach due 07:53 has been cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.

................welcome to Turbo world! 

[grahame]

07:16 Bristol Temple Meads to Severn Beach due 07:53


07:16 Bristol Temple Meads to Severn Beach due 07:53 has been cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.

................welcome to Turbo world! 

Thank you.  It's not a new world in terms of loss of service though ... although I'm far away, I have noted for my own local station  ... Thursday, cancellation.  Friday, cancellation plus one train (at least) skipping the stop.  Saturday, buses for trains, Sunday, buses for trains.    And that's on a service schedule of less that 10 each way over 24 hours.

The question comes  .... "how can passengers / passenger groups / etc effectively make it know to the power that be that such a high failure to provide (for whatever reason) rate has a serious impact on people's lives; how can we help them to get it better - MUCH better - for us, without nagging and grumbling in such a way that we just make more work for them in answering our complaints, and end up turning them off helping for the mutual benefit of them and us?".  It's something we're really struggling to answer on the TransWilts at the moment ... on such a sparse service, a gap of one train leaves a huge hole - there isn't another one half an hour behind it ... but it's to damned easy, operationally, to simply close a branch if you're short of crew, short of a working train, if a freight fails, or if the points stick.