2019 - TransWilts cancellation and amendments log

[whole diary]

[grahame]

16:35 Westbury to Chippenham due 17:25
An additional bus service has been planned to operate as shown 16:35 Westbury to Chippenham due 17:25.

18:15 Chippenham to Westbury due 19:05
An additional bus service has been planned to operate as shown 18:15 Chippenham to Westbury due 19:05.

A darned site better than telling me to wait 5 hours for the next train, as done by GWRHelp this morning.  A bus is  understandable replacement for the occasional cancellation - what a pity, though, that cancellations are far from occasional ...

[grahame]

16:25 Westbury to Swindon due 17:07
17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:17
18:39 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21
20:45 Swindon to Westbury due 21:26

20:45 Swindon to Westbury due 21:26 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

It's NOT a Sunday .... and I can't imagine there are too many parties tonight. I wonder why they're short of crew tonight.   And I wonder why, yet again, Melksham has been singled out for "special treatment" in a downwards direction - even though it's been shown such phenomenal growth.

[TaplowGreen]

16:25 Westbury to Swindon due 17:07
17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:17
18:39 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21
20:45 Swindon to Westbury due 21:26

20:45 Swindon to Westbury due 21:26 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

It's NOT a Sunday .... and I can't imagine there are too many parties tonight. I wonder why they're short of crew tonight.   And I wonder why, yet again, Melksham has been singled out for "special treatment" in a downwards direction - even though it's been shown such phenomenal growth.

At this time of year most likely a combination of sickies & too much Annual Leave being authorised with insufficient contingency/backup.

[phile]

16:25 Westbury to Swindon due 17:07
17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:17
18:39 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21
20:45 Swindon to Westbury due 21:26

20:45 Swindon to Westbury due 21:26 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

It's NOT a Sunday .... and I can't imagine there are too many parties tonight. I wonder why they're short of crew tonight.   And I wonder why, yet again, Melksham has been singled out for "special treatment" in a downwards direction - even though it's been shown such phenomenal growth.

Despite GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s platitudes the Trans Wilts will always be taken as the easy option for cancellation

[Gaz]

It seems to be in the holiday season, the last bad run of weekday cancellations was in the summer holiday season and now Christmas. They apparently need someone better in charge of the rotas! I'm glad I'm working from home today.

[grahame]

It seems to be in the holiday season, the last bad run of weekday cancellations was in the summer holiday season and now Christmas. They apparently need someone better in charge of the rotas! I'm glad I'm working from home today.

Gaz ... keep posting please.   We don't often see the people who write the rotas on the trains, but rumour has it that some of them or their colleagues read the forum.   

To those people who have some part in the process and who read the forum ... please note that a Westbury to Bristol train cancelled (and with the following train making extra calls) will delay people by 30 minutes, but a Westbury to Swindon train cancelled puts a 4 hour gap (120 minute delay) into services at Melksham - delayed Gaz on his journey by 120 minutes from Trowbridge to Chippenham the other day too as I recall - so NOT all about Melksham.

As passengers, we can help inform, persuade, explain why it's in GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s interest to run the Swindon - Westbury service, but we have no authority to insist.  We can appreciate they have problems; it's not going to do much good to start blaming anyone for those problems, but we can suggest that whilst the problems persist they spread the misery evenly.   Sadly, they have not been following that suggestion, have they?  We are able - should we wish - to bring issues to the attention of Transport Focus but should still (in my view) do so in such a way that we can work far more as a critical friend / partner than as a protest group.

[Gaz]

I will do... yeah that's right, 2 hours! I have to go into the office a few times next week so we'll see how that goes, my guess is not well. I'm sure in the first full week of January everything will miraculously return to normal. The other thing is if they absolutely have to cancel a train why not the one in the middle of the afternoon and leave the rush hour train alone? That would make more sense. They seem to be a little out of touch with the real world, or simply don't care!

[Phil]

I will do... yeah that's right, 2 hours! I have to go into the office a few times next week so we'll see how that goes, my guess is not well. I'm sure in the first full week of January everything will miraculously return to normal. The other thing is if they absolutely have to cancel a train why not the one in the middle of the afternoon and leave the rush hour train alone? That would make more sense. They seem to be a little out of touch with the real world, or simply don't care!

I caught the one in the middle of the afternoon and was VERY glad that I didn't risk leaving it until the "rush hour service" when I saw both that one and the one afterwards were showing as cancelled.  After 18 months of using the service two or three times a week to get to and from work, I'm getting used now to working short days at least ⅓ of the time due to cancellations.

[TaplowGreen]

I guess (theoretically) from a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) perspective it makes sense to take out services on a branch line like the Transwilts and stick in a bus replacement rather than canning mainline services which may be more frequent but more prone to severe overcrowding on long journeys (especially at this time of year AND when the service is being reduced due to staff shortages)?

[Gaz]

I guess (theoretically) from a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) perspective it makes sense to take out services on a branch line like the Transwilts and stick in a bus replacement rather than canning mainline services which may be more frequent but more prone to severe overcrowding on long journeys (especially at this time of year AND when the service is being reduced due to staff shortages)?

Yeah, I can confirm the Portsmouth to Cardiff train is very overcrowded between Trowbridge and Bath at rush hour... the nearest I've ever got to a seat was sitting in the luggage rack! The Transwilts service is never close to overcrowded.

[grahame]

I guess (theoretically) from a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) perspective it makes sense to take out services on a branch line like the Transwilts and stick in a bus replacement rather than canning mainline services which may be more frequent but more prone to severe overcrowding on long journeys (especially at this time of year AND when the service is being reduced due to staff shortages)?

It's a grand theory ... but perhaps it has as many holes as a colander 

It shouldn't be a "rather than" either-or type choice.   GWR should have the staff employed and trained to handle all the trains and not fall short last Thursday, or Saturday, or today Monday. 

Sometimes they may stick in a bus replacement, but often not.  Gaz last Thursday should not have been delayed 2 hours (i.e. taken 2 hours 20 minutes for a journey that takes 20 minutes by train and should be around 35 on a bus).   And I'm still amazed at GWR's advise to me on Saturday when I asked for the alternative to the 10:20 train to be told to catch an alternative service - and when I asked when that would be I was told 15:33.

Services being thinned would not be long distance ones / long trains..  I don't think any of our train crews actually drive / manage the HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) services and the suggestion even then is the local services and not regional ones that would go.

Yeah, I can confirm the Portsmouth to Cardiff train is very overcrowded between Trowbridge and Bath at rush hour... the nearest I've ever got to a seat was sitting in the luggage rack! The Transwilts service is never close to overcrowded.

And indeed THAT is why the suggestion wouldn't be to take staff off the Secondary main line (Portsmouth to Cardiff) service.

There is indeed sense for rare occasions when there's an extraordinary crew shortage to replace the Westbury to Swindon train with a bus to Chippenham.   Let's say that's reasonable for 2% of services.   But 12% have been lost in the last week - and only a couple of trips actually replaced by a bus.   And that's on top of a new timetable which has in itself seen a 3.5% cut in the number of trains scheduled on the line!

We were aware there would be "teething troubles" as the service changed, with the perfect storm of the lead up to Christmas and the holiday season itself.   So let's treat this period from 15th December to the end of the year as a learning period - watch what happens, tell GWR where things locally fall below standard, and look to work well and closely with them in the new year to help recover and promote a reliable service - even if 2% of the services are replaced with a bus / change at Chippenham, running just behind when the train would have run.

[grahame]

 

12:16 Westbury to Swindon due 12:59
13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:55
14:16 Westbury to Swindon due 15:00
15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:55
16:25 Westbury to Swindon due 17:07
17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:17
18:39 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21
20:45 Swindon to Westbury due 21:26

All:

12:16 Westbury to Swindon due 12:59 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[grahame]

12:16 Westbury to Swindon due 12:59
13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:55
14:16 Westbury to Swindon due 15:00
15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:55
16:25 Westbury to Swindon due 17:07
17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:17
18:39 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21
20:45 Swindon to Westbury due 21:26

All:

12:16 Westbury to Swindon due 12:59 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Note - the 19:16 and 20:22 at Melksham (the through trains to / from Cheltenham Spa) were not scheduled to run this evening anyway - so that's final services before Christmas at 10:01 to Swindon and 11:37 to Westbury.  I do hope that GWR_Help are not advising "catch the next train" again today, as that's not scheduled until 07:52 on Friday 27th.

[Timmer]

Most disappointing Graham. I have concerns regards train crew shortages for this Friday and coming weekend, in fact into the start of the New Year.

[Timmer]

Latest on Journeycheck:

Cancellations to services between Westbury and Swindon

Due to a shortage of train crew between Westbury and Swindon fewer trains are able to run on all lines.
Train services running through these stations will be cancelled. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice
Passengers from Westbury and Trowbridge for Chippenham and Swindon should travel to Bath Spa and change there for services towards Swindon and London Paddington

Passengers from Swindon and Chippenham for Trowbridge and Westbury should travel to Bath Spa and change there for services towards Westbury.

A rail replacement bus service has been arranged to operate from Westbury to Chippenham via Melksham and return via Melksham.
Please wait at the rail replacement bus stop.

The bus service will be unable to keep to the advertised train times and your journey time will be extended by up to 30 minutes. We apologise for the inconvenience.