2020 - TransWilts cancellation and amendment log

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

"I don't know what's happening and cannot advise you what to do - I can only tell you your train is delayed" is not exactly what the customers headed for work at 05:45 on a Monday morning wanted to here, or found helpful.  Telling us that the next train was 07:21 if the 05:33 didn't come along ... well ... indicated a disjoint between the customer advisor and the customers!

An all to typical response from someone who?s probably many miles away from Melksham reading off a screen exactly what you already knew. I doubt you?d have got any better from the help point that goes to the same place.

That?s the problem with a one size fits all anyone can answer from anywhere type of customer service. In other words a load of rubbish. Things like this are much better served at a local level where control can supply exactly what?s going on for that particular region.

[grahame]

05:17 Westbury to Swindon due 06:00
05:17 Westbury to Swindon due 06:00 will be diverted between Trowbridge and Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Melksham.
It will be delayed due to the diversion and is expected to be 10 minutes late.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

[bobm]

Although it doesn?t help Melksham passengers, there does seem to be a greater keenness to run via Bathampton (or even Bath Spa station) and reverse when there are problems on the single line rather than cancel completely. 

Perhaps it is easier at present because there are still gaps in the mainline timetable. 

[TaplowGreen]

06:11 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:08 will be diverted between Chippenham and Trowbridge.
It will no longer call at Melksham.
It is being delayed between Chippenham and Trowbridge and is now expected to be 7 minutes late.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

[grahame]

06:11 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:08 will be diverted between Chippenham and Trowbridge.
It will no longer call at Melksham.
It is being delayed between Chippenham and Trowbridge and is now expected to be 7 minutes late.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

Yesterday ... I cycled back from Chippenham.  This morning, I am headed for Trowbridge on the bus ...   

I picked up tickets yesterday evening at Melksham Stations and met stranded passengers for the 18:55 to Swindon. Changes "last minute" all day, with no rail replacement alternatives provided or even offered when GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) were contacted.  Three problems - the flat should be fixed much quicker than this, a realistic estimate of when services will be back to normal should be provided, and customers should be provided with alternates / advice and not led to their own devices.  The rail industry has got this one VERY wrong.

In case you think of Melksham as an obscure little place ... must have been 10 people around the station between 19:00 and 19:15 when I was picking up tickets last night.  What was missing was any voice from the rail industry to help.

[grahame]

06:11 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:08 will be diverted between Chippenham and Trowbridge.
It will no longer call at Melksham.
It is being delayed between Chippenham and Trowbridge and is now expected to be 7 minutes late.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

Looks like it failed to make Southampton too ... since the return trip has started from Romsey again:

08:23 Southampton Central to Great Malvern due 12:28
08:23 Southampton Central to Great Malvern due 12:28 will be started from Romsey.
It will no longer call at Southampton Central.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

[bobm]

17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:17

17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:17 will no longer call at Melksham.

This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

Additional Information
Passengers for Melksham are advised to alight at Chippenham where onward road transport will be arranged.

18:39 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21

18:39 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21 will no longer call at Melksham.

This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

Additional Information
Passengers for Melksham are advised to travel to and alight at Chippenham, where onward road transport will be arranged.

[grahame]

Well ... looks like the 20:45 ex Swindon is also cancelled at Melksham.  Just asked on Twitter ...

Planning to catch the 20:45 Swindon to Melksham this evening but seeing many trains cancelled. Will the sone be running?  Thanks

Hello, sorry for the delays. This service won't be stopping at Melksham due to a fault with the signalling system. Please speak to station staff - Celia

Heard some comment about a pilot man (sort of human single line token) being used while they fix things. What's gone wrong with that plan??

[Lee]

Well ... looks like the 20:45 ex Swindon is also cancelled at Melksham.  Just asked on Twitter ...

Planning to catch the 20:45 Swindon to Melksham this evening but seeing many trains cancelled. Will the sone be running?  Thanks

Hello, sorry for the delays. This service won't be stopping at Melksham due to a fault with the signalling system. Please speak to station staff - Celia

You'll be talking to yourself then, grahame 

[grahame]

Well ... looks like the 20:45 ex Swindon is also cancelled at Melksham.  Just asked on Twitter ...

Planning to catch the 20:45 Swindon to Melksham this evening but seeing many trains cancelled. Will the sone be running?  Thanks

Hello, sorry for the delays. This service won't be stopping at Melksham due to a fault with the signalling system. Please speak to station staff - Celia

You'll be talking to yourself then, grahame 

I think she means at a station before Melksham.   Still several hours from Swindon - perhaps I should have a chat at the station I next change at 

[grahame]

I think she means at a station before Melksham.   Still several hours from Swindon - perhaps I should have a chat at the station I next change at 

All sorted ... left Far Far Away as per plan ... home an hour earlier than plan.  Every cloud, etc;  story in the morning.  Watching Channel 4 at the moment.

[grahame]

06:11 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:08
06:11 Swindon to Southampton Central due 08:08 has been previously delayed but is now 2 minutes late from Salisbury.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

It's Wednesday ... if we can get away with no problems more major than this at Melksham, a huge sigh of relief, and it would be the first day since last Friday - best part of a week.   Over the weekend, engineering works and bus substitution were far from ideal but notified well in advance and passengers could plan around them and were provided with alternative journeys.  Then we had two days of further disruption as a result of the engineering works, unplanned ahead of time, passengers being ill informed as to what was going on and a real destroyer of confidence - undoing some of a very great deal of good work done over a very long period.

Things will occasionally go wrong, but passenger advice and information should be set up to handle such situations, not leave people abandoned and not knowing what to do, with one section of the rail industry blaming another ... and real data being hard to come by.

[grahame]

Stop Press - I'm sadly unconvinced that the problem has been fixed. An operational line handed over late last Friday to engineers for weekend work is still having problems.  From http://www.mrug.org.uk/record.html at 08:05 this morning, which uses data from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s feeds to the help point (broken / displaying nothing at the moment, but we have the URL).

11:31   Westbury   On time   -
10:02   Swindon   On time   -
09:09   Westbury   On time   -
07:53   Swindon      a fault with the signalling system
07:21   Cheltenham Spa   07:26   --
06:36   Southampton Central      a fault with the signalling system
05:33   Swindon   05:38   --

I read that as two services diverted via Bathampton. Hard to tell without physically visiting the station, discouraged because of Covid at the moment while passengers are around or in the dark.  Real Time trains shows no call at Melksham at 06:36, and a train that lost time between Chippenham and Trowbridge, which is a clue too but only a clue as it could have taken time to pick up a pilotman or receive and follow "proceed with caution" direction.  But then .. no time shown at Melksham ...

"On Time" for 09:09, 10:02 and 11:31 may be ... an optimistic projection, a crystal ball with a fault in its bad news circuit, a dream ... or knowledge that the problem really is fixed or mitigated.  Information Systems that leave significant doubt and make what may be false 'promises' are counterproductive.  An honest "not known" would be better; "20% chance" or "70% chance" would be even better!

[bobm]

If it is not one thing it is another.

13:14 from Swindon to Westbury running 17 minutes late after a freight train briefly failed on the single line but managed to get going again.

[grahame]

If it is not one thing it is another.

13:14 from Swindon to Westbury running 17 minutes late after a freight train briefly failed on the single line but managed to get going again.

Hmm ... I had just asked GWRHelp

Thank you for your help last night. Am travelling MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains) to SWI^» (Swindon - next trains)  mid afternoon, back on the 20:45.  Are these trains running today?

and they have told me in the last couple of minutes

Hi there. The 20.45 service is scheduled to run as normal and there no delays on the route this afternoon - Josh