Snagging - where are timetable tweaks needed?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

This is going to be a constructively negative post.  Where does your timetable need sorting out??

Huge timetable changes in December, and for the most part they've gone far better than they might have done - though some rocky starts.   My questions:

a) Where are there little (?) things that [now] need sorting out?

b) Can you see / suggest how that could be done?

I am looking in particular at the "Central" area - to the west of Network South East land, and to the east of Exeter - but by all means feed in other items.   Reason for questions - timetabling meeting coming up, zero promise of getting anything fixed (the "impossible" likely to remain impossible) but a number of things may be tweakable in December if not in May.

On my list for starters / noted and in no particular order

1. "Worcester to Bristol is a mess"

2. Bristol 'burbs - 11 local trains to Parkway aren't - they turn back at Filton Abbey Wood

3. Maidenhead (yeah, East I know) at around 07:00 into London

4. First Saturday service Westbury to Taunton far too late

5. Last Saturday service Westbury to Swindon far too early

Far from a complete list - I note the Cotswold Line 2020 issues log thread, but unsure as to which / what are key issues.  Similarly the TransWilts log, where the biggest January issue was actually broken down trains not the timetable being none-robust.

Please add your own items ... numbers would be useful.   Solutions not guaranteed, but having them on the radar is, by very fact of posting into this thread.

[ray951]

I have a seperate thread on this service but the 0740 Reading -  Oxford. Last 4 weeks RT 0% and RT - 5 minutes 24%, and it was no better before christmas.

[Richard Fairhurst]

The two big issues on the Cotswold Line are (as extensively chronicled in the Maidenhead thread) the 05.11 from Worcester failing to couple up at Oxford, and the lack of Reading stops in several evening down trains. The XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) connections were never a good substitute anyway, but in practice they just don't work reliably. See the Recent Train Times summary of evening Reading-Oxford XCs - there's a lot of red on there for a train that people are relying on to get them home...

[Timmer]

4. First Saturday service Westbury to Taunton far too late

Agree this is not good. Good news is from the start of the Summer timetable a train at 8.12 for Penzance. I think Summer only though.

[Bob_Blakey]

Connections onto the Avocet^▸ (Branch line from Exeter to Exmouth) Line from Down Paddington services at EXD^» (Exeter St Davids - next trains).

The previously not bad situation was substantially wrecked by the new timetable such that:
ex-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) arrivals at 0929, 1113, 1153, 1211, 1312, 1412, 1512 & 1613 have connection times in excess of 30 minutes (which takes some planning when the connecting services are half-hourly!).
The 1918 ex-PAD does not connect until 2017 (59 minutes).
The 2116 & 2121 ex-PADs have to wait until 2215 for a connection. The 2117 EXM service could surely be retimed.
The 2225 ex-PAD only connects to the 2340 EXM service - I bet the local taxi drivers love this.

[mjones]

I have a seperate thread on this service but the 0740 Reading -  Oxford. Last 4 weeks RT 0% and RT - 5 minutes 24%, and it was no better before christmas.

Which is a key cause of the problems with the Didcot to Oxford service, especially in the peaks. Fewer services than  before,  rammed trains and poor punctuality and reliability.  Especially the 0807 - the infamous 0740 from Reading.

[RA]

5. Last Saturday service Westbury to Swindon far too early

From the summer timetable change, the unit for the 21:07 Swindon to Westbury service on a Saturday is diagrammed to be provided by a new 20:04 Westbury to Swindon service. This is a much more useful utilisation of a unit and crew compared to the current timetable, which sees the unit running empty from Bristol to Swindon.

This will also provide a nice connection out of the 18:15 Weymouth to Bristol service, which divides at Westbury to provide a unit for the Swindon run (effectively providing a through service from Weymouth to Swindon, even if not advertised as such).

[IndustryInsider]

This will also provide a nice connection out of the 18:15 Weymouth to Bristol service, which divides at Westbury to provide a unit for the Swindon run (effectively providing a through service from Weymouth to Swindon, even if not advertised as such).

A bit of a shame it can't be advertised as such - a well timed through train returning people from a day on the coast on a Saturday would go down well, surely?

[RA]

This will also provide a nice connection out of the 18:15 Weymouth to Bristol service, which divides at Westbury to provide a unit for the Swindon run (effectively providing a through service from Weymouth to Swindon, even if not advertised as such).

A bit of a shame it can't be advertised as such - a well timed through train returning people from a day on the coast on a Saturday would go down well, surely?

It may well (and hopefully will) be advertised as such. I was just being cautious regarding the limitations of the customer information systems, although having said that, services that are currently scheduled to divide on route seem to be advertised as such on both the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) systems.

[grahame]

This will also provide a nice connection out of the 18:15 Weymouth to Bristol service, which divides at Westbury to provide a unit for the Swindon run (effectively providing a through service from Weymouth to Swindon, even if not advertised as such).

A bit of a shame it can't be advertised as such - a well timed through train returning people from a day on the coast on a Saturday would go down well, surely?

Why on earth can't it be advertised as such??  Real Time Trains also shows the 08:45 (Saturday) Swindon to Westbury being attached to the Weymouth train from May.   For upcoming "snagging" meeting it's very much a "YES PLEASE" on feeding the 21:07 off Swindon in this way and a "please continue to do so beyond September".

It may well (and hopefully will) be advertised as such. I was just being cautious regarding the limitations of the customer information systems, although having said that, services that are currently scheduled to divide on route seem to be advertised as such on both the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) systems.

Phew!

[Adrian]

I was pleased to find out this week that Network Rail are making a couple of changes in May that I had discussed with them.  These are both to fix important connections with services on the Hereford line at Newport.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that there are real people at Network Rail prepared to listen to the experiences and suggestions of individual passengers.

Although not a timetabling issue as such, I've noticed the lack of robustness when the non-stop Paddington to Bristol Parkway services lose their paths, as there are not many places for them to overtake stopping services.  It's a pity that westbound non-stop services can't make use of the middle road at Swindon while another train is stopped at platform 4.  The alternative is to delay the stopping service by about 5 minutes by putting it into the loop between Wantage Road and Challow.  With both services then running late there is almost inevitably another conflict at Severn Tunnel, and I recently saw a Taunton to Cardiff service put into the Pilning loop to let a late running IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) get past.   

[ellendune]

It's a pity that westbound non-stop services can't make use of the middle road at Swindon while another train is stopped at platform 4.    

It hasn't been a middle road since 1966 and after that someone built a tower block too close to put a platform loop back in.

Before they put platform 4 back there were huge delays as all the down services calling at Swindon had to cross the up lines. 

[Adrian]

It's a pity that westbound non-stop services can't make use of the middle road at Swindon while another train is stopped at platform 4.    

It hasn't been a middle road since 1966 and after that someone built a tower block too close to put a platform loop back in.

Before they put platform 4 back there were huge delays as all the down services calling at Swindon had to cross the up lines. 

OK - call it the up fast line, then.  I think it does have bidirectional signalling, but what speed are the crossovers from the down line?

[IndustryInsider]

I think it does have bidirectional signalling, but what speed are the crossovers from the down line?

Bi-di signalling, yes, but very slow crossovers - 30mph at the eastern end and 25mph at the western end.

You could route the down stopping service over to platform 3 if it's not going to conflict with something.  I've seen the possibility of doing that a couple of times since the December timetable, but not actually seen it happen as yet, so the non-stop train ends up getting checked badly.  That would be the most efficient way of getting a down fast around a stopper at Swindon.

Speaking of platform 3, there seems to be a real aversion to using it these days.  Up services more often than not get put into platform 1 which is a less efficient way of operating as the eastern and western points and speed through the platform are only 20mph rather than the 30mph of platform 3.

A good example of that is in the evening where 1L27 the 17:51 to Paddington is put into platform 1 - usually running a couple of minutes late, with 1H52 running fast through behind at 17:56 and then another stopping train due to leave platform 1 at 17:59 from Cheltenham.  Nothing uses platform 3 at that time of the evening, but the 17:51 going through 1 often means the fast doesn't get a clear run through and the 17:59 has to wait its departure.  Seems something very easy to resolve?

To be honest, the whole station approaches could do with a remodelling.

[ellendune]

To be honest, the whole station approaches could do with a remodelling.

The current design such as it is with Platform 4 wasn't so much as a design as an add-on.  Even then when P4 was done there were virtually no non-stop passenger services through Swindon so stopping then on the down fast was not an issue.