South Western Railways - new timetable from 17th Jan 2022

grahame

Administrator
Hero Member

Posts: 43018

Re: South Western Railways - new timetable from 17th Jan 2022

« Reply #30 on: February 07, 2022, 07:03:12 »

An update to say "there is no update" on my query to SWR^» of 17th January, concerning removal of the last train of the day from Westbury to Salisbury, and SWR failing to offer their own trains by default for Exeter St Davids to Waterloo journeys, but (rather) higher priced alternatives using GWR^▸ services.

Bradford-on-Avon and Trowbridge to Waterloo / South Eastern destinations
Former users of the SWR services that the ceased to run after 10th December also report booking engines no longer offering journeys via Salisbury, but rather higher priced ones with multiple changes at Bath, Chippenham, Swindon or Westbury, and at Paddington. Yes, people "in the know" can usually find a "via" or "avoid" option to select their routing, but xx% of people won't know that, where xx is a not insignificant number.


	Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member

Mark A

Global Moderator
Hero Member

Posts: 1790

Re: South Western Railways - new timetable from 17th Jan 2022

« Reply #31 on: February 07, 2022, 14:42:39 »

Is that because the booking engine's optimised to pick the quickest available journey and the connections at Salisbury/Basingstoke/both are so miserable that it avoids them.

It's making me think of journeys after six pm from Waterloo to Bristol via Salisbury. For all but one, the system flags connections via Southampton and can fail to mention that for the past... whenever, that's not been a valid route, though if one's looking to buy a single, there *are* actually advance purchase fares via Southampton, which sort of adds insult to injury.


	Logged

ChrisB

Transport Scholar
Hero Member

Posts: 13013

Re: South Western Railways - new timetable from 17th Jan 2022

« Reply #32 on: February 07, 2022, 16:50:11 »

Yes, that’s correct


	Logged

stuving

Transport Scholar
Hero Member

Posts: 7367

Re: South Western Railways - new timetable from 17th Jan 2022

« Reply #33 on: February 07, 2022, 22:37:30 »

From SWR^» South Western Railway - about)'s timetables page:

Quote

These temporary timetable changes will remain under review going forward. Journey planners will be updated on a week-by-week basis, with updates taking place towards the end of each week.

I'm not sure if that's new wording, or I just missed it before. Of course we already knew it, and it did happen again last week.


	Logged

grahame

Administrator
Hero Member

Posts: 43018

Re: South Western Railways - new timetable from 17th Jan 2022

« Reply #34 on: February 11, 2022, 10:46:10 »

Back to through services from Exeter and Weymouth and (though not explicitly confirmed) the vital last Westbury to Salisbury train from 21st February - see http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=25879.msg318383#msg318383 (as the two threads are coming together).


	Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member

Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

Pages: 1 2 [3]

« previous next »