Brighton Service Starts From Worcester (18/03/2008)

[whole diary]

[Lee]

From the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website :

10:43 Great Malvern to Brighton due 16:14
This train will be started from Worcester Shrub Hill.It will no longer call at: Great Malvern, Malvern Link and Worcester Foregate Street.This is due to an earlier train fault.

[eightf48544]

Great Malvern - Brighton that's a new one on me.

Who runs it, what's the route and what's the booked stock?

Is it  a stock working due to the fact the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) hasn't really enough units to cover the timetable? Otherwise there are too many junctions and bottlenecks which ever route it takes so it presumably it runs late into Brighton? Unless of course there is lot of recovery time at say BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI) but BTM is a commonly used alternative)) if it goes that way.

[swlines]

It goes via Bristol Temple Meads and Westbury and I believe has been in the timetable for at least a year and a half.

It's an extended Westbury stopper essentially.

[Jim]

The 10.43 was started at Worcester today because the 05.4X Weymouth-Bristol Parkway failed at Bath today.

There is enough stock.

It does go via Bristol, with at least 6mins recovery time in the area.

swlines, it has run from Malvern since December, before hand it was the 12.00 Cardiff-Brighton.

[swlines]

swlines, it has run from Malvern since December, before hand it was the 12.00 Cardiff-Brighton.

I blame FGW^▸ (First Great Western). 

[Lee]

The creation of the Great Malvern-Brighton service (as Jim hints) came about as part of the December 2007 timetable re-shaping of "Cross-Bristol" services. You can find several related documents in the link below.
http://www.wellho.net/wccfoi/wccfgw3.pdf

One of the most interesting aspects of the 1043 Great Malvern-Brighton service is that it is one of the very few services out of the Gloucester-Westbury pattern that dont call at Stapleton Road & Lawrence Hill.

According to FGW^▸ (First Great Western), this is because the standard path into Bristol is flexed due to following a Westerleigh oil train. The WTT^▸ (Working Time-Table) times for Parkway and Filton are in fact a few minutes later than in the PTT^▸ (Public Time-Table). The Temple Meads reversal is at the minimum already, due to the fixed path on the Coastway to Brighton, and so there is no time available to call at Stapleton Rd or Lawrence Hill.

[Jez]

It goes via Bristol Temple Meads and Westbury and I believe has been in the timetable for at least a year and a half.

It's an extended Westbury stopper essentially.

Yes. It used to go from Cardiff-Brighton via BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI) but BTM is a commonly used alternative)), Westbury and Southampton. However since the Dec 07 TT change they have reverted back to the Cardiff-Taunton services.