Weymouth summer weekend services

[whole diary]

[Jim]

The 2 morning Weymouths (0804 & n0904 from Bristol) are both worked by more than 2 coaches today

[grahame]

Excellent ... I wonder how this evening's 17:21 from Weymouth will be ...

[whistleblower]

The 0804 was a 3-car 158 plus a 150 (total 5).  The 0904 was a 150 plus two 153s (total 4).  The 08.04 left the 3 car at Weymouth to form part of the 1721 northbound making that a 5-car.  Somebody's doing something sensible!

The bad news is the Sunday timetable for Weymouth from 20th May.  The earliest FGW^▸ (First Great Western) service from Bristol is the 1310 from Bristol and change at Westbury to arrive in Weymouth at 1545!

If you needed to be there earlier (say for a day on the beach?) you could get the 0910 from Bristol and change at  Southampton, Poole and Wareham arriving at 1408 making it a 5 hour journey!

It's a novel way to solve overcrowding on the return trip - make it impossible for anyone to get there!

[Jim]

The 0804 was a 3-car 158 plus a 150 (total 5).  The 0904 was a 150 plus two 153s (total 4).  The 08.04 left the 3 car at Weymouth to form part of the 1721 northbound making that a 5-car.  Somebody's doing something sensible!

The bad news is the Sunday timetable for Weymouth from 20th May.  The earliest FGW^▸ (First Great Western) service from Bristol is the 1310 from Bristol and change at Westbury to arrive in Weymouth at 1545!

If you needed to be there earlier (say for a day on the beach?) you could get the 0910 from Bristol and change at  Southampton, Poole and Wareham arriving at 1408 making it a 5 hour journey!

It's a novel way to solve overcrowding on the return trip - make it impossible for anyone to get there!

Are the Warminster/Westbury - Weymouths still going to run?

[whistleblower]

Are the Warminster/Westbury - Weymouths still going to run?

There is an 0900 from Westbury but no connections from the Warminster or Trowbridge/Bath/Bristol directions.  You'd have to drive to Westbury to pick it up.  Otherwise it's via Southampton.

[grahame]

Looking at the online timetables / booking for June, it looks like the Summer Sunday service is as follows:

From Westbury at 09:00, 14:15 and 18:30
Returning from Weymouith at 16:15, 18:00 and 20:03

The return timings look sensible - 3 trains at 2 hour intervals to bring back people out for the day.  But there's a potential problem with the morning train in that it starts from Westbury - as far as I can tell - before any connecting services get there.

These were JUNE dates I looked at (17th) , by the way, as the system only goes 3 months ahead.

[Timmer]

Thats a shame for anyone from stations before Westbury who wanted to head to Weymouth for the day by train which is the best way as Weymouth has a chronic traffic problem in the summer months.

First I've ever known a timetabled summer sunday service that hasnt covered stations Bristol-Westbury before heading to Weymouth. Up until recently it was down on the journey planner as having started from Bristol, allbeit rather earlier than in previous years, but now as you say it appears as down to start from Westbury only.

How are the summer Saturday services looking? Has FGW^▸ (First Great Western) removed the additional services that Wessex ran last year: 8.54 Westbury-Weymouth and 16.42 Weymouth - Bristol?

[whistleblower]

Hello, Timmer.  On Saturdays there will be an 0658 from Westbury and an 0804 and 0904 from Bristol TM^‡(resolve) but coming back looks decidedly dodgy.  There is a 1449, 1721 and 1958.  It's going to need tactical planning!  There will never be enough carriages to cope with everybody who wants to come back on the 1721.  Five carriages is the maximum for many of the stations on that route and we don't have selective door opening.

The best bet is to go down a bit later and have a meal or a drink in the evening and come back on the 1958.  But you'll need a strong stomach because you will have to share your journey with drunken chavs  from Yeovil, Frome and Trowbridge.  The language and behaviour can be quite intimidating.

Personally I would avoid weekends at Weymouth by train (if I had a choice!).

If you want to have a look at the future timetable - it is already programmed into the NRE^‡(resolve) and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) sites.  Just pop in your date and preferred time of travel and see what happens.

[Timmer]

Many thanks for the update Whistleblower, sad though the news was. Also sad to say that I expected that this would be the case and that when I go to Weymouth these days it's by car now. Im sure im not the only one who would prefer to go by train, but being crammed into a 150 or 158 with dodgy air con doesnt make for a good start or end to a day out. Hardly encouraging people to use public transport for a day out/holiday. And yes the 19.58 service can be an interesting experience!

It was never the same since the ending of loco and coaches which always had plenty of space for day trippers and people going on holiday. Im not surprised this line is not one of FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s top priorities and that they will only ever run what they are required to which is fair enough if they are maintaining the timetable that was given to them; it just doesnt encourage further usage that's all.

[Jim]

The best bet is to go down a bit later and have a meal or a drink in the evening and come back on the 1958.  But you'll need a strong stomach because you will have to share your journey with drunken chavs  from Yeovil, Frome and Trowbridge.  The language and behaviour can be quite intimidating.

Well Yeovil has the 'Special Brew Crew' normally 1 of which gets on with non valid tickets

Frome is normally U16 chavs (some of which come from my school)

& yes, Trowbridge is normally where quite a few 'nasty' peopl,e get on

[Jim]

.
Personally I would avoid weekends at Weymouth by train (if I had a choice!).

Bristol work the 1721 do they not on Saturdays as well, 1958 is Westbury. So if you are Westbury then you have no choice about the 'rough train' in the same way Bristol have no choice about the 'busy train'

How would I orginise it?

0658 WSB^» (Westbury - next trains) - WEY 3 car, as that is busy on the way back
Make a solid diagram 5 car that does both busy Weymouths like in previous years, so 0804, 1504 from Bristol & there return journeys, run as far as Bristol Only, or detach 3 of the coaches at Bristol & couple to the next journeys unit.
0904 from Bristol (does it run Sat? ) would be 4 car, make it do a diagram that falls back to work the 1958 from WEY

[Lee]

Can be found in the link below.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Documents/Custom/Timetables/May%2007/Book%20E/bristol-weymouth.pdf

[Jim]

Looks like 'whistleblower' was incorrect! There will be an eaarly Bristol -Weymouth on Sundays

[Timmer]

Looks like 'whistleblower' was incorrect! There will be an eaarly Bristol -Weymouth on Sundays

Fairs fair Jim, Im sure Whistleblower doesnt need me to defend him but at the time all he had to go on was the staff rota for operations out of Westbury and the crappy journey planner which was wrong, I checked it a number of times myself. Ive been told it has finally been corrected and does now show this sunday morning service.

Personally I'm delighted to see that the sunday morning service out of Bristol has been maintained though there have been a couple of services cut that Wessex had added on Saturdays which I am concerned about, namely the loss of the 16:30 out of Weymouth. There is going to be a very heavy reliance on what will be the 17:49 service out of Weymouth. Best avoided after a long hot summers day me thinks 

The early Sunday morning service from Weymouth has been cut back to operate it's winter schedule of departing from Frome rather from Weymouth. Commonsense I feel as I doubt there were many passengers wishing to travel out of Weymouth at 8.25 on a sunday morning! There is also a late sunday afternoon service from Westbury to Weymouth that is no longer running.

[Jim]

Looks like 'whistleblower' was incorrect! There will be an eaarly Bristol -Weymouth on Sundays

Fairs fair Jim, Im sure Whistleblower doesnt need me to defend him but at the time all he had to go on was the staff rota for operations out of Westbury and the crappy journey planner which was wrong, I checked it a number of times myself. Ive been told it has finally been corrected and does now show this sunday morning service.
.

Didn't mean it in a nasty way, sorry if you got the wrong end of the post TBH^▸ (to be honest), is doesn't suprise me that NRES^▸ (National Rail Enquiry Service) wasn't correct & I doubt a crew diagram has even been made yet.