2019 - TransWilts cancellation and amendments log

[whole diary]

[phile]

Todays saga has reached NRE^‡(resolve) disruption site today as no service for the rest of the day

[grahame]

Todays saga has reached NRE^‡(resolve) disruption site today as no service for the rest of the day

Sad. Lost for words.

[grahame]

Cancellations to services between Westbury and Swindon

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.

That is still not right - it should be a train service.  However it's a darned site better that was earlier offered or was offered last Saturday. Let's hope / ask for / persuaded for / work for a proper 2020 service.  That's 98% of trains scheduled running as .... err ... trains 

[Phil]

and stick in a bus replacement

That's a luxury us regular commuters on the Trans Wilts can only dream of.

Quite frankly many of us would be perfectly happy going back to the earliest days of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and travelling in an open wagon. Most of the time we're just told the bloody service is "cancelled" and that's that.

[grahame]

I'm currently sitting on a Chiltern version of a Thames Turbo from Marylebone.  This makes the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) version of this train look like the Orient Express and an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) look like the Blue Train.

and stick in a bus replacement

That's a luxury us regular commuters on the Trans Wilts can only dream of.

Quite frankly many of us would be perfectly happy going back to the earliest days of GWR and travelling in an open wagon. Most of the time we're just told the bloody service is "cancelled" and that's that.

Totally agree with you, Phil ... I would like to see

1. reliability
2. reliability
3. reliability

and just about any train.  Shuttle a Pacer up and down if need be ... have people change at Chippenham for Swindon off it if need be.  Just publish a timetable for the darned thing and then run to what's published!

GWR have cut the trains calling at Melksham from 119 to 115 per week - that's a 3% cut - and over the last week they've not even been able to run this reduced service - missed by a mega-mile.  At last there should be no last minute cancellations for the next two days.

Summary - please can we have a service as reliable as the rest of GWR (on industry measure).  Is that too much to ask??

[grahame]

From Recent Train Times

 

Don't think I've ever seen such a high proportion of orange!

First Sunday train was replaced by a bus, pre-planned engineering.

[grahame]

21:07 Swindon to Westbury due 21:49
21:07 Swindon to Westbury due 21:49 will be cancelled.
This is due to a tree blocking the railway.

[grahame]

21:07 Swindon to Westbury due 21:49
21:07 Swindon to Westbury due 21:49 will be cancelled.
This is due to a tree blocking the railway.

This 21:07 used to be a through service from Cheltenham.  It now runs empty from Bristol to Swindon for the service, hence the tree that fell wasn't even in the area.

Delays to services between Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads
Due to a tree blocking the railway between Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads all lines are blocked.
Train services running through these stations may be delayed by up to 60 minutes. Disruption is expected until 20:45 28/12.

Stupid question - why not bring the empty up from / via Westbury in service?   I'm sure we could market a later train that 18:35 up on a Saturday night!

[grahame]

21:07 Swindon to Westbury due 21:49
21:07 Swindon to Westbury due 21:49 will be cancelled.
This is due to a tree blocking the railway.

Ah - nicked ...

21:10 Swindon to Bath Spa due 21:33
An additional train service has been planned to operate as shown 21:10 Swindon to Bath Spa due 21:33.

[grahame]

21:07 Swindon to Westbury due 21:49
21:07 Swindon to Westbury due 21:49 will be cancelled.
This is due to a tree blocking the railway.

Ah - nicked ...

21:10 Swindon to Bath Spa due 21:33
An additional train service has been planned to operate as shown 21:10 Swindon to Bath Spa due 21:33.

and another (and, yes, calling at Chippenham, Bath Spa, Oldfield Park and Keynsham on the way)

21:30 Swindon to Bristol Temple Meads due 22:07
An additional train service has been planned to operate as shown 21:30 Swindon to Bristol Temple Meads due 22:07.

[bobm]

11:25 Weymouth to Chippenham due 13:46

11:25 Weymouth to Chippenham due 13:46 will be terminated at Westbury.

It will no longer call at Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

13:56 Chippenham to Weymouth due 15:49

13:56 Chippenham to Weymouth due 15:49 will be started from Westbury.

It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[Timmer]

21:07 Swindon to Westbury due 21:49
21:07 Swindon to Westbury due 21:49 will be cancelled.
This is due to a tree blocking the railway.

You were so close to running two days in a row without any cancellations which, with the large number of cancellations across the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) network and the country as whole, would have been quite an achievement.

edit: spelling

[grahame]

11:25 Weymouth to Chippenham due 13:46

11:25 Weymouth to Chippenham due 13:46 will be terminated at Westbury.

It will no longer call at Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

13:56 Chippenham to Weymouth due 15:49

13:56 Chippenham to Weymouth due 15:49 will be started from Westbury.

It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Thanks for spotting those ... possibly the best pair of services to loose in the day (but I do not want to offer solace by saying "never mind" to whoever's responsible for failing to provide enough train crew!)

Very odd the CHIPPENHAM turn around that was scheduled; the line to Swindon is open and everything else running into there, and this particular service which normally stops for just a minute or two at Westbury on the way up has (or had till it was canned completely) a 24 minute wait there! I suspect that they're short of platforms at Swindon to turn it around ... because the new hourly Cheltenham Spa to London service isn't actually a Cheltenham Spa to London service today so the easy solution - again - is to kill the TransWilts service to make room.  Always first to go [or not go!]

[rogerw]

Scheduled for a later departure from Weymouth today which probably does not leave time for the Chippenham to Swindon round trip.  Needs a short turn round at Chippenham to avoid blocking the line, hence the extended stop at Westbury 

[TaplowGreen]

11:25 Weymouth to Chippenham due 13:46

11:25 Weymouth to Chippenham due 13:46 will be terminated at Westbury.

It will no longer call at Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

13:56 Chippenham to Weymouth due 15:49

13:56 Chippenham to Weymouth due 15:49 will be started from Westbury.

It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Thanks for spotting those ... possibly the best pair of services to loose in the day (but I do not want to offer solace by saying "never mind" to whoever's responsible for failing to provide enough train crew!)

Very odd the CHIPPENHAM turn around that was scheduled; the line to Swindon is open and everything else running into there, and this particular service which normally stops for just a minute or two at Westbury on the way up has (or had till it was canned completely) a 24 minute wait there! I suspect that they're short of platforms at Swindon to turn it around ... because the new hourly Cheltenham Spa to London service isn't actually a Cheltenham Spa to London service today so the easy solution - again - is to kill the TransWilts service to make room.  Always first to go [or not go!]

They've laid on a bus for you Graham!

Stopping Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham (and return!)

13:18 Westbury to Chippenham due 14:08


An additional bus service has been planned to operate as shown 13:18 Westbury to Chippenham due 14:08.
Further Information