South Western Railways Waterloo - Bristol services axed

[whole diary]

[froome]

Have just seen this thread. The point about connections is:

a) They depend on services running to schedule.
b) Passengers having confidence in the services running to schedule.

On this particular line (Cardiff to Portsmouth to connect at Salisbury) neither of those factors currently exist, and I cannot see any likelihood of improvement.

[Clan Line]

Have just seen this thread. The point about connections is:

a) They depend on services running to schedule.
b) Passengers having confidence in the services running to schedule.

On this particular line (Cardiff to Portsmouth to connect at Salisbury) neither of those factors currently exist, and I cannot see any likelihood of improvement.

 

[froome]

Not when the train before it is running after the train you hope to catch, as happened to me this week.

[Surrey 455]

Not when the train before it is running after the train you hope to catch, as happened to me this week.

Also doesn't work when the following train after the missed one is cancelled. 

[Mark A]

OK, to their credit, South Western Railways responded quickly to my request for information and this can now feed a request for a response or preferably action from Passenger Focus.

SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) have in the main echoed the paragraph from the 2022 document though - citing 'Any changes are based on the fact that the route between Salisbury and Bristol Temple Meads has historically been served by both South Western and Great Western Railways... duplicating services between the two operators doesn’t provide good value for the taxpayer.'

It's difficult not to think of the SWR services Yeovil - Castle Cary - Westbury - Salisbury - London Waterloo as they share a few qualities with the Bristol to Waterloo through trains - including the suddenly reviled 'One route, two TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company)'. Whenever I've caught one of those (anecdote not data) they doesn't seem to attract nearly as many passengers as did the Bristol to Waterloo trains. Perhaps there are planned changes for these too. Not that the travelling public is in a position to know. At the moment, we're 15 weeks out from an entire rail service being axed and there's essentially been no information provided to the people who use them. I suggested to SWR that they put out a press release...

[Clan Line]

Whenever I've caught one of those (anecdote not data) they doesn't seem to attract nearly as many passengers as did the Bristol to Waterloo trains. Perhaps there are planned changes for these too. Not that the travelling public is in a position to know. At the moment, we're 15 weeks out from an entire rail service being axed and there's essentially been no information provided to the people who use them. I suggested to SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) that they put out a press release...

My (previously mentioned) daughter caught the 1148 from WMN^» (Warminster - next trains) (ex Pen Mill) to WAT today - wasn't exactly busy, but certainly wasn't empty !

[Timmer]

It's difficult not to think of the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) services Yeovil - Castle Cary - Westbury - Salisbury - London Waterloo as they share a few qualities with the Bristol to Waterloo through trains - including the suddenly reviled 'One route, two TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company)'. Whenever I've caught one of those (anecdote not data) they doesn't seem to attract nearly as many passengers as did the Bristol to Waterloo trains. Perhaps there are planned changes for these too.

The difference being between the two routes is the first you mention is used as a diversion line when engineering work is taking place between Salisbury and Yeovil. To maintain driver route knowledge (hope that’s the right term) of this diversion line, services are being kept between Salisbury and Yeovil via Westbury. Remains to be seen if it’s the same level of service seen at present. I agree, it’s not has heavily used as the SWR route to Bristol.

[Mark A]

Thanks for that insight.

[WSW Frome]

The current SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) Yeovil to Westbury/Salisbury services (and v/v) are surprisingly frequent in the current timetable. No doubt all down to ambition and ORCATS^▸ (Operational Research Computerised Allocation of Tickets to Services) raiding in a previous era. Still very useful for those who live along the route.

We must remember that this service was built on the back of ecs movements due to the congested single line Salisbury to Yeovil Junction. They also served as route-learning opportunities for diversions.

The SWR proposals for December 2022 envisage only an hourly service Salisbury to Exeter, with no extras to Yeovil Junction. Whilst I expect there may be some peak hour extensions to Yeovil, the single line congestion is reduced.

This leads to a likely reduction in the requirement for Yeovil to Westbury routings and hence a reduction on the current frequency. No doubt some services will be retained and the through journeys to/from Waterloo are probably commercially attractive for SWR

 

[ChrisB]

No doubt some services will be retained and the through journeys to/from Waterloo are probably commercially attractive for SWR^» (South Western Railway - about)

Not a consideration these days as SWR will not benefit from any extraction as all fares now go to the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)

[Mark A]

For good measure, the remaining SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) trains to Bristol, already bustituted between Bath and Bristol 'cos no track at the moment, haven't run since before last weekend, and are announced as not running over the bank holiday weekend either.

[Clan Line]

"Full and standing"

Remember the promises ?     "5 cars, more seats".    What are they doing now ? removing trains from the timetable. At least everyone seems to believe the latest utterings !!

[Mark A]

Presumably their stock is spread thin, covering for the ongoing shortfall in supply of IEPs^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project. This will offer more capacity on routes, save money, give a consistent and safe service and meet customer requirements. Intended to replace HSTs.), and will be for some time. Making this especially not the time to pull the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) Waterloo to Bristol trains.

Off topic: at Swindon and walking past the Saturday c. 1.30pm departure from Swindon to Cheltenham, it was two carriages sitting noisily on one of the through lines for 40 minutes, but from a couple of connecting services was then fed with about 5 carriages worth of passengers, more than the average amount travelling with luggage, a few pushchairs and a wheelchair user. No replacement buses in sight outside the station though by the end of the afternoon there were three or four as various trains were still cancelled.

[ChrisB]

I thought the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) trains weren’t being withdrawn until December? Likely the IEPs^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project. This will offer more capacity on routes, save money, give a consistent and safe service and meet customer requirements. Intended to replace HSTs.) will be sorted by then

[Lee]

I thought the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) trains weren’t being withdrawn until December? Likely the IEPs^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project. This will offer more capacity on routes, save money, give a consistent and safe service and meet customer requirements. Intended to replace HSTs.) will be sorted by then

Depends what you mean by "sorted" really. Until they are reassigned to regional routes where they belong, and replaced by proper "express" trains on "express" routes, then they wont be "sorted" in my book.