On Saturday and Sunday 10th and 11th October, buses replaced trains on the "TransWilts" service through Melksham. This was advertised ahead of time, and from what I heard the buses ran as scheduled.
The line was due to re-open for the 05:33 call at Melksham on the morning of Monday 12th October, but a full service was not restored until three days later - the morning of Thursday 15th October. Over the three days (Monday though Wednesday), 51 services were due to call at Melksham but according to our records, only 11 called, with the other 40 either cancelled completely or diverted via Bathampton so not calling at Melksham.Information to customers at Melksham was poor, and for much of the three days indicated that there would be "disruption until [time]" where the time given was some 2 to 4 hours into the future, and it then slipped. At times it was even more immediate than that. I went to catch the 05:33 on the Monday morning (more that 24 hours after the cable damage had been done, I now understand) and it was showing as "on time" at about 05:30. Which changed to "delayed", with the person the passengers reached via the help point saying he didn't know how long the delay would be, and if the train didn't turn up, the next service would be at 07:21, and that was running. Our train
DID» run - 45 minutes late - it was one of the 11 over the three days, but ironically the 07:21 did not.
Provision of road replacement services is perhaps best described as "sluggish" - understandable perhaps on Monday morning as it was "only" 24 hours after the damage had been done, but it would appear that the undue optimism that talked of a service up and running in a few hours also lead to a failure to book buses and taxis for more than a few hours ahead. We do have a known problem in the area that very few of our taxis will accept
GWR▸ customers. Cabbies telling us it's because it takes them so long to get paid.
Road replacement ran from Chippenham to Melksham and Trowbridge - sensible because there are plenty of other trains from Swindon to Chippenham. The idea was that passengers at Swindon be told to get on the Bristol train and change at Chippenham onto the bus. This worked for some passengers, but others waited for the train at the Swindon bay platform as usual, and they were not advised to catch the other train, so it left without them.
30 minutes later into Chippenham and the rail replacement bus for these passengers from Swindon had long since left...In the month since the disruption, there has been no explanation or apology to the passengers significantly impacted through no fault of their own. ... the various rail industry organisations have apologised to each other, mind you!
The TransWilts
CRP▸ raised the ongoing issues with Great Western and Network Rail, and Network Rail sent them a letter with an explanation of what had happened and an apology. However, this letter was marked
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and because of that, the explanation and apology was not passed on either to the Rail User Group or the passengers who had been inconvenienced and let down by the service failure, the poor alternatives, and the lack of information.
I attended the GWR Stakeholder's meeting on the Friday ( 16th October ) and followed up on a general invite by the Network Rail person present to get in touch should any of us at the meeting have issues to raise; I dropped him a note that afternoon and got a personal reply (with that same disclaimer) promising a separate reply from [name redacted] which never came. This suggests that Network Rail's stated intent to engage fully with the people who use its services is more words than deeds.
At the TransWilts Stakeholder and member meeting last Monday, the audience was briefed on what had happened, and bearing in mind these slide was shared with the 20 or so people at that meeting, including members from the public, I felt they might at long last be available to share with the railway's users. I also wrote to [name redacted] from Great Western -
In my view, the passengers who were put out that week deserved an explanation (and apology?). Apologising to the Community Rail Partnership in confidence is not apologising to the customer, and if they can?t pass the message on does no good in restoring passenger confidence. As you have now spoken and shown slides at the wider meeting, may I share those slides with our user at the Melksham Rail User Group meeting on Wednesday, and as a public post on our social media?
. Having not heard back before the meeting (and indeed not since either), I included the slides on Wednesday and am now posting them on social media.
Here's what actually went wrong
Better late that never, it is my belief that passenger deserve an explanation (which they now have, above)
and an apology (which is singularly missing from the industry's slides and was only given to TransWilts in confidence, and not passed on).
On a more positive note, it does look as if lessons have been learned - with attention being given to better information especially for passengers waiting at Melksham, to improving rail replacement services, and to safeguarding key services should the line need to be thinned out again (all too regular with diverted
IETs▸ going through. To give readers an idea of key service... the 07:21 from Melksham was reported as loaded to 452% of what is should be (further north on its run) on day earlier this month when the 3 cars were reduced to 2 - popped up as the most overloaded train on GWR, and of course the percentage is measured against the new social distance norm. For most of the day, TransWilts traffic like everyone else has taken a huge hit this year - but a lesser hit than most.
For next year, (starting December 13 2020) we're back to full TransWilts service as was planned for 2020. The extra late train that's in the "DA3" franchise that was superceeded by events is not yet happening, and the first morning train on a Sunday to Swindon will be replaced by a bus for the winter. That is a good story compared to some other lines, but then our services are so sparse that a single loss can have a major impact, and we have key worker traffic seven days a week using that Sunday train.
Regular readers will appreciate how reluctant I am to post the above, much preferring to work with professionals. However, having hit three walls - at the CRP, at Network Rail and at GWR when asking that the passengers be informed, I am left with little option but explaining it to people I inform in spite of that lack of usable feedback.
