2020 - TransWilts cancellation and amendment log

[whole diary]

[grahame]

17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:17
17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:17 will be diverted between Chippenham and Trowbridge.
It will no longer call at Melksham.
It will be delayed due to the diversion and is expected to be 7 minutes late.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.
Additional Information
Rail replacement road transport has been requested for passengers travelling to/from Melksham.

18:39 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21
18:39 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21 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.
Additional Information
Rail replacement road transport has been requested for passengers travelling to/from Melksham.

[grahame]

From https://transwilts.org/2020/10/14/extensive-disruption-to-transwilts-services-october/

Statement from Toby Elliot @ Network Rail ?
Firstly, I?m sorry that you and other TransWilts passengers have been delayed by this issue. On Saturday night (10th) a member of our drainage team was excavating near the railway line at Melksham and pulled up a signalling cable. Due to the force it was pulled up with, it not only snapped the cable in situ but also damaged the cabling along its entire six-mile length (running from Thingley Junction to Bradford Junction).
 
Our telecoms team have been out on site since Sunday finding the all the faults, and there have been many, and replacing the broken cabling with new. This has included digging a 400-metre-long trench to locate signalling cables near Melksham. Last night (13th) we completed the final replacement, but when we came to check the system there was no detection from one of the axel counters. The issue being that no phone signal is coming through to the piece of kit.
 
We are in the middle of rectifying this by two methods. Firstly, installing a temporary phone connection (via mobile phone signal) so that we can get the signalling restored as soon as possible. At the same time, we are replacing the cabling to the axle counter so there is a permanent fix. Both pieces of work should be done by 6pm tonight (14th), if not hopefully sooner (particularly the temporary fix).
 
I hope this helps explain the situation, and I am sorry for the delays and disruption it has caused. If you need any further clarification, please jet let me know.
 
Kind regards,

[bobm]

Tonight?s 18:39 now planned to run booked route and call at Melksham.

Edit: Same now applies to the 17:36.

[stuving]

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).

Was that a wise thing to say? Tiger is currently offering just (only for Melksham!): " NoSemaAccess There is currently no train information available. Sorry for the inconvenience "

... but not for long, fortunately.

[bobm]

16:53 Westbury to Chippenham due 17:46

16:53 Westbury to Chippenham due 17:46 has been cancelled.

This is due to a problem currently under investigation.

This was a replacement bus.

[bobm]

07:05 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 09:04

07:05 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 09:04 will be diverted between Chippenham and Gloucester.

It will no longer call at Swindon, Kemble, Stroud and Stonehouse.
It will be delayed at Gloucester.

This is due to a burst water main flooding the railway.

[grahame]

12:16 Westbury to Swindon due 13:01
12:16 Westbury to Swindon due 13:01 is being delayed at Westbury.
This is due to a problem currently under investigation.

[grahame]

13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:55
13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:55 will be starting late from Swindon.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.

[IndustryInsider]

13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:55
13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:55 will be starting late from Swindon.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.

Looks like it departed 1 minute early.   

[grahame]

13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:55
13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:55 will be starting late from Swindon.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.

Looks like it departed 1 minute early.   

Indeed ... I am helping with a survey of traffic/people on Station Approach in Melksham and noted it calling on time.  Can't believe every delay you read online.

[grahame]

07:05 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 09:04
Facilities on the 07:05 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 09:04.
Toilet facilities are not available.
This is due to a fault on this train

[TaplowGreen]

Alterations to services between Chippenham and Trowbridge via Melksham
Due to engineering works not being finished on time between Swindon and Bristol Temple Meads all lines are blocked. Disruption is expected until 08:15 01/11.
Train services between Chippenham and Trowbridge via Melksham may be delayed or revised.

[grahame]

The MRUG^» (Melksham Rail User Group - site) web site gathers data on trains calling at Melksham and each month I forward a review to the team at TransWilts - the intent being to assist with long term monitoring and learning and not to get involved in day to day issues.  October having some unusual features which I had hoped no longer happened, I am sharing here too.  10% cancellation is awful! and lack of feedback from the rail industry to the passengers is awful too.

A summary of OCTOBER train services that called (or were supposed to call) at Melksham

467 services scheduled
of which
93 were amended with good notice to buses (where "On time" reports are just assumptions)
37 were cancelled trains
14 were significantly late trains
49 were late trains by < 5 minutes
274 were trains on time

Only 274 of 467 train services ran as per the published timetable - though 93 of the 193 services that did not run were replaces by buses with good notice and that is acceptable / understandable. Which leaves exactly 100 serviced late or cancelled on the day. Just under half of those were just a few minutes late, but that still leaves over 50 services where passengers for Melksham, or waiting at Melksham, suffered significant problems.

Train running rate ? 337 out of 374 ? 90% (versus 98% being regarded as an acceptable worst case)
Train Passenger Performance Measure (ppm) - 86%

Cancellations average through the whole month at five times the minimum acceptable rate, spread across four separate incidents, with once incident lasting for three days It becomes very difficult to support and promote the service, and very tempting to escalate the reports and complaints to higher management with the request that they help local staff with a service fit for purpose by their own standards.

Through the long-lasting incident, where the line was not properly re-opened until the Thursday after engineering works were supposed to be completed on the Sunday, we were being mislead by official feeds such as JourneyCheck that "disruption would be until X time" which was usually just a few hours away. Either this was a repeated over-optimism on the part of the people reporting the issue, or a cynical decision to string the customers along and not admit the extent of the problems.

The events were extraordinary, and Network Rail sent a letter of explanation to the TransWilts CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) who briefly put it on their website, but then withdrew it leaving a broken "404" link.  I regret not copying and pasting the text when I first saw it. when challenged, they explained "We thought it best to remove the post as it was agreed it breached confidentiality with NR^» (Network Rail - home page).". The lack of any explanation to customers seriously disrupted, and the clubbing together of Network Rail and TransWilts to suppress any explanation, suggests a level of disregard for the travelling passenger bordering on contempt.  I attended the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Stakeholder meeting that Friday, at which the Network Rail representative asked attendees to get in touch with him with any matters arising, and I did to shortly thereafter; he acknowledged and passed on the issue, said I would hear from [name redacted] but I have not done so. A request to TransWilts for a copy or summary for customers who were put out for the best part of a week has not been answered apart from the comment above either.

The lack of all but a handful of trains from the end of service on Friday to the start the following Thursday, with the majority of changes being short notice cancellations, will fade from memory, but I think that the rail industry really needs to remember that it's a customer-serving industry and look after customers, treating them with care, respect and honesty if it's looking to come out of the current times strong and well supported.

[grahame]

Alterations to services between Chippenham and Trowbridge via Melksham
Due to engineering works not being finished on time between Swindon and Bristol Temple Meads all lines are blocked. Disruption is expected until 08:15 01/11.
Train services between Chippenham and Trowbridge via Melksham may be delayed or revised.

08:37 at Melksham eventually ran at 09:00 but only to Chippenham.  8 waiting for train on the platform.

09:37 at Melksham (presumably from Chippenham) was on time. 11 waiting for the train.

I was down there doing light gardening as previous agreed with GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) where I was well clear of passengers.   I did hear the help point suggesting at one point that passengers for the 08:37 wait for the 11:00 ...

Interesting, isn't it  - "Disruption is expected until 08:15" and yet once again disruption seems to have carried on for some time after that ...

[bobm]

The return service did indeed start from Chippenham.

One other thing to note. With the service TO Swindon being terminated at Chippenham there is a train from Weston-super-Mare at 09:26 from Chippenham which would get people to Swindon at 09:38. Not too bad for the shop workers who normally use that first TransWilts train on a Sunday.  However today it was delayed at Bristol Temple Meads and was 34 minutes late.