Big THANK YOU to GWR▸ for arranging the Central Timetable briefing and news update earlier today.
We were being INFORMED of these changes and ASKED FOR INPUTS about December changes.* Cardiff to Portsmouth Main LineStock changes
4 of the 8 diagrams will now be 4 car 158s
Remaining diagrams will be 5 car or 3 car turbos.
Services to intermediate stations will be 3 or 2 carriages
No changes to timings at Salisbury - so Bradford-on-Avon / Trowbridge to London Waterloo and back
on these trains remains dire. However, the MetroWest extensions to Salisbury (see below) give an 20 to 30 minute change which is much better. (GWR came pre-armed with this answer ;-) )
* Metro West - up from 1 local train an hour to 2 from Bristol to Westbury
Really good news for Keynsham and Oldfield Park
most hours 1 train continues to Warminster and many to Salisbury
Good news for Dilton Marsh and Warminster
every 2 hours 1 train continues to Weymouth
- up from 1 local train an hour to 2 from Bristol to Gloucester
[edit to correct]
: - once every hour, one of these trains continues to Cheltenham and Worcester* London express services- reduction in early services from Hereford (starting now Oxford and Gt Malvern)
- London to Bristol services extended to Weston-super-mare every 2 hours (NLS, YAT, WOR calls)
- Many more London / Carmarthen services (something to do with noting opportunity highlighted by open access proposals?)
- The 06:37 / 3 hour superfast
PAD» to
PLY» is replaced by an 06:00 via Swindon, Bath and Bristol
(sensible change - 06:37 for a high speeed service had become inappropriate)
- The 10:04 Paddington to Plymouth (and beyond?) will no longer call at Taunton
- Some 10 car (5+5) services reduced to just 5 car
This releases trains to replace Castle class trains which are being withdrawn because they are old and expensive to run.
* Thames Valley- Revisions of some Paddington to Didcot services as Elizabeth line taken over urban stops
- Some 12 car formations reduced to 8 cars
* North Downs line- proposed additional services (up from 2 to 3 per hour) will NOT be happening
Reason given is lack of rolling stock. GWR is not leasing 769s
* Heart of Wessex- Becomes two-hourly and that means
Extra late train from Weymouth to Bristol
Extra morning train Bristol to Weymouth
Concern that the well-timed off peak service Bristol to Weymouth that has been ideal for day trips has been replaced by trains an hour earlier and an hour later. Concern expressed that the train an hour later reduces the attractiveness for day trips, and the train an hour earlier is too early. GWR were unable to tell us if off peak tickets would be available on the earlier train (I think I heard "I do timetables - don't know about fares"!)
Concern has also been expressed (away from the meeting to GWR) that day trips from Freshford and Avoncliff to Weymouth will now require a change of trains with a wait of around 30 minutes at Westbury.
Finally, questions asked about connections at Castle Cary from Yeovil to Tauton (and the other way too); none of the folks at the meeting knew, so open question
* TransWilts (Swindon to Westbury line)- 4 journeys on Saturdays are being withdrawn
Said to be for "better stock utilisation"
Mark Utley of GWR says changes are to "protect core services"
(Thank you for the "heads up" that we are not "core" in Melksham!)
- An additional summer Saturday service Swindon -> Weymouth and back is added
It is unclear ("will let you know") whether the Swindon -> Westbury -> Swindon runs all year - IT SHOULD
- Not announced, but noted that the 05:17 Westbury to Swindon, Mon to Fri is withdrawn
- Not announced, but noted - extra evening round trip Westbury -> Swindon -> Westbury
Personal View Provided the extra evening services happen 6 days a week all year, this is net positive from a passenger viewpoint and the changes should be welcomed.
The connection off the 08:44 from Swindon to Westbury for day trips to Weymouth on Mondays to Fridays is no more; there is now a 1 hour wait at Westbury. The previous train (06:11 from Swindon) misses a Weymouth train at Westbury by 2 minutes. There is no longer a marketable day trip on Monday to Friday from Melksham to Weymouth.
The key issue which was only partially addressed through the meeting is reliability. GWR put up some graphics to show this, but in my view the data was incomplete showing only short term cancellations - the industry standard which GWR follow is to massage the figures by excluding from their cancellation logs services which are in the published timetables,
but then withdrawn because of industrial action Edit - I have struck through that element as it has been challenged by GWR or because a line is required for extra freight and long distance trains when other lines are closed.
There was talk of staff numbers available being "better than has been" in a long time - good, but that seems to disregard again the fact that is they are on strike they are NOT actually available. And also talk of clever better use of rolling stock with a suggestion of improved availability / fewer stock shortages due to breakdowns and standard maintenance. We were not told how these improvements will be achieved, and I hope it's a concrete plan that will work.
Passenger journey numbers are still a bit below pre-covid numbers. Income is down more than journey numbers - suggesting that income per journey is less. Whether that's because more people are travelling off-peak, or journeys are shorter, is not clear to me.
In Summary - generally I am positive; if we get the reliability and the all year evening services in Wiltshire, we can market this. I need to look at connections at Chippenham into the new Weston-super-mare services for day trips to there. If GWR want to provide decent connections to Weymouth only at weekend - sure, we can market those until they are rammed ;-)
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