The strange case of the 11:11 from Westbury

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Gotta love the 11:11 Westbury to Southampton.   Previous train Westbury to Southampton is the 11:01, same stopping pattern except the 11:11 calls at should call at Dilton Marsh.

It's not such an empty train as you might expect, mind you.   The 11:03 arrival from Penzance decants up to 50 passengers onto the 11:11 - mostly for Southampton.   And most of them have plenty of luggage which they're taking all the way to Southampton for their cruise.

11:11 Westbury to Southampton Central due 12:17
11:11 Westbury to Southampton Central due 12:17 will no longer call at Dilton Marsh.
This is due to a fault on this train.

Additional Information
To increase capacity on our Weymouth and Southampton services we are introducing 3 coach Turbo trains. Turbo trains require the fitting of local door controls to allow them to stop at stations with very short platforms. A Turbo train not fitted with these controls cannot call at Avoncliff, Dilton Marsh, Chetnole or Thornford.

Unfortunately it has taken longer than expected to fit the controls and the Turbo train being used on this service today has yet to be fitted.

If you at one of the stations the train is unable to call at please use the help point or contact National Rail Enquiries on 03457 48 49 50 and we will arrange for an additional stop on another train, or alternative road transport if another train cannot be stopped within a reasonable time.

We would like to apologise for the difficulties we know this has caused to your journeys recently.

Come 2019, services will be recast on the London to Plymouth and Penzance run, and with trains with different performance patterns I would suspect am told that the arrival of the far west express will change and not be in that 10 minute slot.  Cardiff to Portsmouth services grow from 3 to 5 carriages, with a proportionately even greater increase in seating, and I'm going to question the case for continuing the 11:11 - but rather saying "can we do better with this train?"    The return working from Southampton leaves at 12:27, to be followed by the 12:37 as far as Salisbury ... and I expect cruise passengers could make the 12:10 Cardiff service, which should also have extra capacity come 2019.

Don't get me wrong - both services fill a hole in 2018.  Not sure the hole will remain in 2019, though!

[tramway]

They could always get the ship to pick up in Plymouth Graham.