Late service reductions - 29th to 31st December 2021

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

And we now have a list of altered and cancelled services for today. From what I can see these are not listed on Journeycheck but I haven’t checked every train listed:
https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates/live-network-updates/disruption-information

Amended services - 30 December 2021

(listed in time order)

11:45    Bristol Temple Meads to Weymouth terminates at Westbury

11:50    Penzance to Plymouth is cancelled

12:00    Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington is cancelled

12:10    Weston-super-Mare to Severn Beach is cancelled

12:13    Par to Newquay is cancelled

12:28    Plymouth to Gunnislake is cancelled

12:42    Bristol Temple Meads to Brighton terminates at Westbury

13:00    Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington is cancelled

13:00    Severn Beach to Bristol Temple Meads is cancelled

13:10    Newquay to Par is cancelled

13:15    Plymouth to London Paddington is cancelled

13:19    Gunnislake to Plymouth is cancelled

13:25    Warminster to Bristol Temple Meads start at Westbury

13:38    Gloucester to Worcester Foregate Street is cancelled

13:43    Exeter St. Davids to London Paddington is cancelled

14:18    Plymouth to Penzance is cancelled

14:20    Paignton to Exmouth is cancelled

14:37    London Paddington to Paignton is cancelled

14:55    Weymouth to Bristol Temple Meads start at Westbury

14:56    Worcester Foregate Street to Gloucester is cancelled

15:02    London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads is cancelled

15:55    Plymouth to Penzance is cancelled

15:55    Exmouth to Paignton starts at Exeter St. Davids

16:25    Westbury to Swindon is cancelled

17:00    Plymouth to Liskeard is cancelled

17:02    Brighton to Bristol Temple Meads starts at Westbury

17:04    London Paddington to Penzance is cancelled

17:29    Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington is cancelled

17:36    Swindon to Westbury is cancelled

17:40    Gloucester to Worcester Foregate Street is cancelled

17:52    London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street is cancelled

17:58    Liskeard to Plymouth is cancelled

18:34    Westbury to Swindon is cancelled

18:57    Worcester Foregate Street to Gloucester is cancelled

19:05    Paignton to London Paddington is cancelled

19:15    Penzance to Bristol Temple Meads starts at Plymouth

19:33    London Paddington to Weston-super-Mare is cancelled

20:30    Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour terminates at Bristol Temple Meads

20:32    London Paddington to Weston-super-Mare is cancelled

20:47    Swindon to Westbury is cancelled

21:00    Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington is cancelled

21:30    Cardiff Central to Frome terminates at Westbury

22:10    Weston-super-Mare to Bristol Temple Meads is cancelled

22:50    London Paddington to Worcestershire Parkway (High Level) is cancelled

[IndustryInsider]

Better late than never.

[grahame]

From the East Lothian Courier - an example of how it should be done.

A NUMBER of temporary rail service suspensions will hit East Lothian next month as a result of staff shortages caused by the rising number of Covid-19 cases.

The 5.56pm and 7.05pm North Berwick to Edinburgh trains and the 5.15pm and 6.17pm Edinburgh to North Berwick services will be suspended from Tuesday until January 28.

A ScotRail spokesperson said: “The rapid spread of the Covid-19 Omicron variant has resulted in a large number of absences at ScotRail, with colleagues testing positive, awaiting results or having to self-isolate.

What seems to be good notice, and thinning out alternate services - still an hourly train running.

From the Swindon Adveriser - of how it should not be done

In a statement the company said: "With rising numbers of staff being unavailable to work due to self-isolation requirements we've taken steps to maintain service levels across the network.

"Unfortunately this incldues planned cancellations designed to minimise the impact on as many customers as possible. As a result of the cancellations some services may be businer than normal.

The services it cancelled this morning were 7.40am Penzance to Cardiff Central, the 9.50am Penzance to Plymouth, the 9.59am Cheltenham Spa to London Paddington, the 11.01am Swindon to Westbury and the 11.10am Newquary to Par.

Telling people what's been cancelled after the cancellations have passed ... some way out of the region of the newspaper, and overlooking busy missing trains such as the 17:36 Swindon to Westbury

[TaplowGreen]

Attached tweeted by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) in the last 15 mins - a link to Journeycheck was included which at the time of trying didn't work.

[Timmer]

Today’s list:
https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates/live-network-updates/disruption-information

[grahame]

Today’s list:
https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates/live-network-updates/disruption-information

Information from that page:

With rising numbers of staff unavailable to work because of testing positive for covid and having to self-isolate, we have taken steps to maintain services levels across the network, including cancelling all non-safety critical staff training.

Unfortunately, this also includes planned cancellations designed to minimise the impact on as many customers as possible. Some services may be busier than normal.

Online journey planners have been updated to reflect planned cancellations for the rest of today, please check your journey before you leave home for the most up to date information.

Customers with booked tickets are able to travel on an earlier or later service should their booked train be cancelled.

Customers who choose not to travel can claim a full refund. Please visit gwr.com/refunds for more information

[TaplowGreen]

A lot of people struggled getting home from London Paddington last night as a lot of late evening services were cancelled at short/no notice due to signalling staff testing positive, and (apparently) the only remaining healthy chap needed to take a break.

According to a friend who was there after a theatre trip, no trains left Paddington for a while, and a lot of people struggled to get further than Reading even when things got moving again - suffice to say, a lot of taxi drivers will have paid for Christmas thanks to last night.

[ChrisB]

Attached tweeted by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) in the last 15 mins - a link to Journeycheck was included which at the time of trying didn't work.

Today’s list:
https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates/live-network-updates/disruption-information

Information from that page:

With rising numbers of staff unavailable to work because of testing positive for covid and having to self-isolate, we have taken steps to maintain services levels across the network, including cancelling all non-safety critical staff training.

Unfortunately, this also includes planned cancellations designed to minimise the impact on as many customers as possible. Some services may be busier than normal.

Online journey planners have been updated to reflect planned cancellations for the rest of today, please check your journey before you leave home for the most up to date information.

Customers with booked tickets are able to travel on an earlier or later service should their booked train be cancelled.

Customers who choose not to travel can claim a full refund. Please visit gwr.com/refunds for more information

The link to journeycheck might not have worked but there were many of these that did appear, but I haven’t doneva check for completeness.

I did complain yesterday both on twitter & to management that the cancellations that they listed for 30th hadn’t beenbput on journeycheck & suggested that ALL & any same-day cancellations should appear there as that is the main source that travellers do check before setting out. Hopefully it achieved something as more certainly appeared today, if not all of them

[TaplowGreen]

Hopefully the late night service will prove to be resilient tonight of all nights.

I got a TfL^» (Transport for London - about) service to Taplow earlier and they seem to be pretty much unaffected (so far), which may ease the London-Maidenhead-Reading pressure.

[Timmer]

Looks like all cancellations and service alterations are listed on Journeycheck today of which there are quite a few.

[phile]

TFW have been operating similarly adopting a Special Timetable but without any copy available.   Queries re train enquiries are directed to Journey Planner so this enabled TFW to change willy nilly.   One punter queried with TFW regarding removing trains frrom the system in this manner and that all cancellations should be listed in Journey Check with the reason.  This forced some change

[grahame]

TFW have been operating similarly adopting a Special Timetable but without any copy available.   Queries re train enquiries are directed to Journey Planner so this enabled TFW to change willy nilly.   One punter queried with TFW regarding removing trains frrom the system in this manner and that all cancellations should be listed in Journey Check with the reason.  This forced some change

From the outside (England) looking in (to Wales) The National reports

Rail passengers are being asked to check before they travel as Transport for Wales updates its emergency rail timetable from Monday 3 January.

TfW and Network Rail have continued to see a significant increase in staff absences as a result of the latest wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and this has impacted rail services in recent weeks.

As a result, TfW introduced an emergency rail timetable from 22 December, which equated to a reduction of between 10-15% of the standard timetable introduced on 12 December. However, with staff absences continuing to increase, the decision has been taken to further reduce services to ensure the company can provide a reliable service throughout this latest stage of the pandemic.

and it goes on considerably further.  Not a good situation, but (I would argue) much better than "see what does and doesn't turn up on the day" which is what we appear to have in our GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) parts today.