Revised Timetable

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

Commencing 8/1 GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) will be operating a revised timetable details of which can be found here:
https://www.gwr.com/~/media/gwr/pdfs/plan-journey/timetables/2022/changes-to-train-times--8-to-14-january-2022.pdf

Because of higher than usual levels of staff being absent or self-isolating due to Covid, a reduced temporary timetable comes into effect from Saturday 8 January, ensuring that we can provide the majority of our usual, planned trains, and drastically reduce the number of short notice cancellations.

The temporary timetable will be updated on a weekly basis and is only expected to be in operation for a short time - until the impact of the Omicron variant has reduced.

[bobm]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have taken a different approach with this timetable change.

This maximises the use of crew by taking out whole diagrams rather than on a train by train basis. 

[brooklea]

Commencing 8/1 GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) will be operating a revised timetable details of which can be found here:
https://www.gwr.com/~/media/gwr/pdfs/plan-journey/timetables/2022/changes-to-train-times--8-to-14-january-2022.pdf

Because of higher than usual levels of staff being absent or self-isolating due to Covid, a reduced temporary timetable comes into effect from Saturday 8 January, ensuring that we can provide the majority of our usual, planned trains, and drastically reduce the number of short notice cancellations.

The temporary timetable will be updated on a weekly basis and is only expected to be in operation for a short time - until the impact of the Omicron variant has reduced.

Updated version released on 6th January;
https://www.gwr.com/~/media/gwr/pdfs/plan-journey/timetables/2022/changes-to-train-times-8-to-14-january-2022-v2.pdf?la=en

For the 10th-14th January;

Update as of Thursday 6 January:
• The 0652 Westbury to Weymouth will now run as normal (initially cancelled)
• The 08:50 Weymouth to Gloucester will start from Weymouth as normal
(initially due to start at Westbury)

[PhilWakely]

For the 10th to 14 January...

London Paddington the South West:
• 05:49 and 15:15 Plymouth to London Paddington will be cancelled
• 11:04 and 20:04 London Paddington to Plymouth will be cancelled

The 05:49 actually ran this morning

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

So did the 0734 Didcot Parkway – Reading, which is also shown as not running all week on page 8 of the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Changes to Train Times document.

Incidentally, can anyone explain how reducing the St Erth – St Ives shuttle to hourly saves traincrew?   

[grahame]

From GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - the temporary timetable with service reductions running this week (10th to 14th January) will also run next week (17th to 21st January). GWR write:

Thank you for your understanding and for helping us to spread the message about our temporary timetable.  As Mark noted we initially introduced the changes for one week.  It is clear now that we will need to maintain a temporary service for a further week.  We will review again after that, but for now the weekday (Monday to Friday) timetable in place for this week will roll over to next with a few minor changes for Didcot and Gunnislake services. 
 
We will also roll forward the timetable from Sunday 9th to Sunday 16th and Sunday 23rd January, with no change.
 
There are more changes planned for Saturday 15th compared to Saturday 8th which reflect improvement work.  These changes will appear in journey planners from tomorrow (Tuesday 11 January), so that customers are able to see accurate times, and will also be available to view on our webpage www.GWR.com/timetables as a pdf. 
 
Our key message remains to check the timetable before travel for the very latest position and we will continue to do all we can to keep customers, and communities informed about the changes.

[IndustryInsider]

They certainly seem to have finally gotten round to providing a reasonable level of communication about services temporarily removed.  A shame it took so long.

[jamestheredengine]

I'd question the identification of services to plan to cancel. The first choice should always be to cancel the West Ealing to Greenford service and arrange ticket acceptance with London Buses (which provide a much superior service to the vast majority of potential passengers in any event on that utter basket case of a line). The second choice should be to cancel the diagram that includes the 0742 Oxford to Paddington, which has a Marylebone train one minute behind it and another fast Paddington train 11 minutes later – this is exactly the commuter market that has collapsed due to WFH^▸ (Working From Home).

[IndustryInsider]

I'd question the identification of services to plan to cancel. The first choice should always be to cancel the West Ealing to Greenford service and arrange ticket acceptance with London Buses (which provide a much superior service to the vast majority of potential passengers in any event on that utter basket case of a line). The second choice should be to cancel the diagram that includes the 0742 Oxford to Paddington, which has a Marylebone train one minute behind it and another fast Paddington train 11 minutes later – this is exactly the commuter market that has collapsed due to WFH^▸ (Working From Home).

Those services have been identified with more in mind than just which impact on passengers the least. 

Other considerations include how well staffed the depot that works a particular train is, what the crew do before and after, and what the train does before and after.  I guess it could be optimised more given time, but there wasn't much time in which to draw up this plan. 

Greenford services are crewed by Paddington GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) drivers (the former LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) depot) and if you look at what other routes those drivers sign there are hardly any other cancellations they could possibly cover anyway, as the former LTV depots are in the best shape of all in terms of being able to cover the current shortages.

Taking your 07:42 Oxford to Paddington service.  That train is formed off a diagram that stables at Oxford overnight, which has previously done a quick trip to Didcot at 05:40.  You could probably justify cancelling that Didcot run as well as the 07:42 to Paddington, but what do you do with the set that has stabled overnight?  It then goes on to form the 08:50 Paddington to Great Malvern.  I suppose you could look at starting that at Oxford with the stabled set, but then you would have to find a driver to bring it out of the sidings for it.  Also the Train Manager (and Customer Hosts) both work it from Paddington to Great Malvern, so you would have to find a way of getting them on another train to Oxford (which might not be possible due to breaks) or find another Train Manager from somewhere.

It's not easy.