2023 - Train update and amendment log - Swindon <-> Westbury

[whole diary]

[brooklea]

Train services between Swindon and Westbury via Melksham may be cancelled, delayed or revised.
Due to heavy rain flooding the railway at Swindon all lines are blocked. Disruption is expected until 15:00 20/10.

Unfortunate that the TransWilts service hasn’t been kept running between Westbury and Chippenham, then a reversal to Bath Spa and back, before picking up its return working from Chippenham.
Would have kept some local journey opportunities available (including Chippenham to Bath, albeit limited) - I guess not everyone wants to take the train to Swindon, or beyond?

[grahame]

Train services between Swindon and Westbury via Melksham may be cancelled, delayed or revised.
Due to heavy rain flooding the railway at Swindon all lines are blocked. Disruption is expected until 15:00 20/10.

Unfortunate that the TransWilts service hasn’t been kept running between Westbury and Chippenham, then a reversal to Bath Spa and back, before picking up its return working from Chippenham.
Would have kept some local journey opportunities available (including Chippenham to Bath, albeit limited) - I guess not everyone wants to take the train to Swindon, or beyond?

Indeed.

I suspect that in these days of limited human resources,  there simply aren't enough people to sort out such things. Even a sort working from Westbury to Chippenham would help, with passengers from Chippenham to Bath Spa and beyond allowed ticket acceptance with a change at Trowbridge.

With the "one in a hundred years" (ha, ha?) flooding at Swindon now happening twice in a week, is it time for there to be a contingency timetable that turns TransWilts into an hourly Westbury <-> Chippenham shuttle?

[brooklea]

Oh..

12:17 Westbury to Swindon due 12:59 will be terminated at Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Swindon.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 will be started from Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Swindon.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

[brooklea]

With the "one in a hundred years" (ha, ha?) flooding at Swindon now happening twice in a week, is it time for there to be a contingency timetable that turns TransWilts into an hourly Westbury <-> Chippenham shuttle?

No, because this week has taken accounted for both the previous and next hundred years, so it’s surely guaranteed not to happen again until 2123…? 

[grahame]

Oh..

12:17 Westbury to Swindon due 12:59 will be terminated at Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Swindon.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 will be started from Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Swindon.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

I think that was wishful thinking

13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 
14:19 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01
15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:59
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:08
17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20
18:37 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21

18:37 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21 will be cancelled.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

From earlier ...

Disruption is expected until 15:00

I guess it only tells us about the period up to 15:00 - it doesn't actually tell us it will be OK thereafter ...

[grahame]

Cancellations to services between Swindon and Westbury via Melksham

Due to heavy rain flooding the railway at Swindon all lines are blocked. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
Train services between Swindon and Westbury via Melksham will be cancelled, delayed or revised.

[ChrisB]

TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) ought to refund the (likely more expensive) train ticket rather than just the bus ticket in situations like this, such that the customer only pays whichever is cheapest

Yes, or both?   I am helping out on social media someone who's stuck down in Westbury trying to get to Swindon and - well - he's going to be VERY late into Swindon.   If the bus is on time he'll get to Swindon at 11:05, where the train was due there at around 08:30

The other is subjected to Delay/Repay - so in that instance, both.

[grahame]

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05 will be started from Swindon.
It will no longer call at Westbury, Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

[TaplowGreen]

Looks pretty grim (Wootton Bassett)

[grahame]

Trains now running normally between Swindon and Westbury via Melksham

Due to heavy rain flooding the railway at Swindon some lines are blocked.
Train services between Swindon and Westbury via Melksham are now running normally.

Overnight news ... I suspect still in the process uf being updated live because it goes on to talk of "sorry about the delay" etc. 

Yesterday was too much for one of our regulars, who posted on Facebook that he'll be learning to drive and buying a car for his commute.

[GBM]

Out of curiosity.
This line needs passing loops/more signals/dualling.
Do GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) go to Network Rail and advise of the delays/cancellations/unreliability to all current service users, or do Network Rail do the works themselves without prompting from GWR.

With the Network Rail budget and staff being being reduced, surely any improvement is likely to light years ahead.

Pressure from local M.P's might speed up the progress perhaps.

Just wondering who initiates the process to who, and how do Network Rail schedule it in their already long list of "to do's"

[grahame]

Out of curiosity.
This line needs passing loops/more signals/dualling.
Do GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) go to Network Rail and advise of the delays/cancellations/unreliability to all current service users, or do Network Rail do the works themselves without prompting from GWR.

With the Network Rail budget and staff being being reduced, surely any improvement is likely to light years ahead.

Pressure from local M.P's might speed up the progress perhaps.

Just wondering who initiates the process to who, and how do Network Rail schedule it in their already long list of "to do's"

You ask some wonderful questions and the answers are much more important than just curiosity!

Even without staff reductions, significant improvements always feel light years ahead and often they are.  I look back to when I first took an active interest in 2005 and note that it was only eight years after that we got the service to be approaching an appropriate level. It was around five years later that the platform at Melksham was lengthened as were the trains, so that we were no longer single door / single carriage.   And now after another five years we have a timetable of trains all day every day - current major efforts to change a timetable into a reliable timetable.

Good to have MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) on board, and actually it was good along the way to have a marginal constituency.   I am aware that the Chair of TransWilts has done a great deal of work with the planners and policy makers in the rail industry and government to raise the profile of rail growth hereabouts, and thank him for that.  I look forward to learning how the CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) will take that forward following his retirement from the role.  I am also aware that the Wiltshire Local Plan and Melksham Neighbourhood Plan, both of which look forward to 2038, have transport as a key evaluator and certainly in the Neighbourhood Plan, site selection for residential growth is sinaificantly effected by distance from the station.

[grahame]

Today ... 97 minutes

Bus:
07:53 Westbury
08:46 Chippenham
Train:
09:18 Chippenham
09:30 Swindon

Normal Sunday ... 43 minutes

Train:
08:20 Westbury
09:03 Swindon

There is an 08:35 bus from Chippenham to Swindon today and I am being asked why there's such a long wait at Chippenham - no connection to the bus to Swindon which is scheduled to leave a few minutes before the bus from Westbury arrives. If the bus from Westbury is a couple of minutes early, chances are the passengers will be treated to the site of the Swindon bus turning out of Station  Hill as they await the traffic lights to go up there.

[grahame]

11:44 Swindon to Weymouth due 14:01

11:44 Swindon to Weymouth due 14:01 has been delayed at Swindon and is now 23 minutes late.
This is due to a points failure.

[grahame]

13:44 Swindon to Weymouth due 15:57

13:44 Swindon to Weymouth due 15:57 has been previously delayed, has been further delayed at Melksham and is now 44 minutes late.
This is due to trespassers on the railway.