Christmas 2018

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

Details of services, or in many cases the services that won’t be running over Christmas.

https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/planned-engineering/christmas

I’m trying to think if there has ever been a time where so much work has taken place at the same time on the GW^▸ (Great Western) region?

[grahame]

Dear Graham

I thought it would be helpful to update you on the improvement work taking place across the Great Western this Christmas.
We have set up a dedicated web page www.GWR.com/Christmas which sets out the affected areas and the changes this will mean to journeys.

This year there will be work at Southall, Westbury, Guildford, and Severn Tunnel Junction. 

The range of work means that services on the North Downs, West of England, South Wales and Bristol lines are affected, some with diversions and others with replacement buses.

We are recommending that customers make their Christmas getaway by Saturday 22nd  as work will start from Sunday 23rd December and on many routes will continue through to the New Year.   

As in previous years there will be no trains on Christmas Day or Boxing Day.

If you would like more information on any aspect of the improvement work this Christmas, or indeed on any aspect of our services, please let me know and I will be happy to help.

Best wishes
Mark
Mark Hopwood | Managing Director | Great Western Railway

We have various threads running - one on each set of these works.

Note also the effect on lower tier services of these works - for example the scarcely used (  ) service between Bristol and Southampton will be broken from close of service on 22nd December until first service on 5th January, with buses replacing trains between Trowbridge and Warminster

[Adrian]

They've forgotten to mention that Cardiff - Portsmouth trains will be replaced by buses between Cardiff and Temple Meads (presumably).

[Trowres]

They've forgotten to mention that Cardiff - Portsmouth trains will be replaced by buses between Cardiff and Temple Meads (presumably).

The full horror of a Cardiff-Portsmouth journey was too much to contemplate. 

Does anyone know if platform extensions and other alterations for IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) are being undertaken at Westbury in addition to the like-for-like replacement of trackwork?

[stuving]

Does anyone know if platform extensions and other alterations for IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) are being undertaken at Westbury in addition to the like-for-like replacement of trackwork?

Platforms 2&3 are to be extended to 10-car (260 m) length, though not in a desperate hurry.

[grahame]

They've forgotten to mention that Cardiff - Portsmouth trains will be replaced by buses between Cardiff and Temple Meads (presumably).

The full horror of a Cardiff-Portsmouth journey was too much to contemplate. 

The GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) journey planner and ticket sales site doesn't contemplate it yet either. It says

Upgrade work will affect your journey, and train times have not yet been updated.

We expect Network Rail to finalise timetables by early November.

I tried Cardiff to Portsmouth on 27th December

Offers you "continue to tickets" where it will happily sell you a ticket for £54.30 (single) against an un-updated journey time of 3 hours and 22 minutes without change.  I guess this could be considered OK as you have clicked past the warning screen?

By contrast, for 27th November - very very similar train times - prices are as low as £14 (and as high as £138.80 via Reading and Guildford)

[Timmer]

Not going to be fun for those who HAVE to work in Bath/Bristol on the 2nd/3rd of January travelling from Frome, Warminster and Westbury. I know some make it a complete break and head back to work on the 7th of January but not everyone can and wants to do that.

I can only think that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) need to the extra days rather than finishing the work on the 1st of January. Still think its a shame that for such a long blockade that the old platform 1 isn't recommissioned at the same time thus requiring another major closure at a later date; if it ever happens of course.

[grahame]

Update ...



Let's see if I have this right ... as I'll be sharing on our Facebook page once my classic spelling errors have been corrected.  GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) train services over Christmas 2018 and the New Year 2018/19

4 major set of engineering works on dates shown in tables. 

Overview of engineering changes on red dates:

WESTBURY 23rd December 2018 to 3rd January 2019 inclusive
Portsmouth to Cardiff trains replaced by buses between Trowbridge and Warminster
Swindon to Westbury trains replaced by buses between Chippenham and Westbury
London to West of England trains that call at Westbury will call at Frome instead
Bristol to Weymouth trains will not call at Westbury
South Western Railway trains from Bristol to London (Waterloo) via Salisbury will not run

PADDINGTON 23rd December to 26th December inclusive also 30th December
Long distance trains from the South West, Bristol and South Wales will terminate at Reading
More local trains will only run as far in as Slough - no trains from Slough to Paddington
An exhanced train service will run from Reading to Waterloo
Passengers from the North Cotswold line map prefer to change at Oxford and take a train in to Marylebone
Passengers from Exeter and west thereof may prefer to take the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) train from Exeter to Waterloo
A wide range of rail replacement buses and ticket acceptance will in place between London and Slough and Heathrow

SEVERN TUNNEL 25th December 2018 to 1st January 2019 inclusive
GWR trains that normally go to Newport will terminate at Bristol Parkway.
(so that's Portsmouth - Cardiff, Taunton - Cardiff and London [Reading!] to Cardiff and Swansea
Buses from Bristol Parkway into South Wales

GUILDFORD 25th December 2018 to 30th December 2018 inclusive
Services from Reading that normally run via Guildford will terminate at Ash
Buses from North Camp (do not stay on the train to Ash) all stations to Redhill
Buses from North Camp (do not stay on the train to Ash) direct to Gatwick Airport
Most South Western Railway services that call at Guildford all also be replaced by buses
London to Guildford via Effingham Junction trains will run.

Note that Buses will NOT run on 25th or 26th December


General Timetable - special days

24th December - services will end early evening
25th December - no services
26th December - no GWR services. Limited Chiltern service Oxford to London (Marylebone)
27th and 28th December - some peak services will not run
31st December - some peak services will not run. Check online for evening
1st January - check online for morning services

There may be other engineering works too - we suggest you chcek all jourmeys online; timetables expected mid-November

Edit - minor spelling correction and clarification

[IndustryInsider]

Demand should at least be spread over several days this year given the day of the week Christmas Day falls on.  A fair few will travel Friday evening, but the outward load should also be spread over the Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  Returning, the 27th will, as ever, be busy but many should elect to stay over the following weekend as well.

[eightonedee]

Thanks Grahame

That's a model of clarity - GW^▸ (Great Western) please note!

[phile]

Excellent summary, Graham.    Your patience in producing this appreciated

[grahame]

Thanks Grahame

That's a model of clarity - GW^▸ (Great Western) please note!

Part of it is based on an ideal / extracted from a  sheet from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) ... so thanks to them; this is a "partnership production" 

[SandTEngineer]

Think you might have missed another closure of Filton Bank?

[grahame]

Think you might have missed another closure of Filton Bank?

At Christmas / New Year?   If that's in the date range - even the prior weekend - I'll add it

[SandTEngineer]

Think you might have missed another closure of Filton Bank?

At Christmas / New Year?   If that's in the date range - even the prior weekend - I'll add it

I have 24/12/18 to 01/01/19 in my diary.  I'll check with my sources to see if its still the case.