2024 - Service update and amendment log, Swindon <-> Westbury

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47 is being delayed between Swindon and Chippenham.
This is due to a problem currently under investigation.

[TaplowGreen]

12:17 Westbury to Swindon due 12:59
12:17 Westbury to Swindon due 12:59 will be cancelled.

This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident.

13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57
13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 will be cancelled.

This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident.

[bobm]

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47 is being delayed between Swindon and Chippenham.
This is due to a problem currently under investigation.

I was on it.  Reports of a disturbance at Chippenham.   It seems those involved then got on a train to Bath where police are trying to resolve the issue.

[grahame]

12:17 Westbury to Swindon due 12:59 will be cancelled.
13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 will be cancelled.

This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident.

One wonders if it's this incidents:

Cancellations to services between Reading and Westbury
Due to the emergency services dealing with an incident between Reading and Westbury all lines are blocked.
Train services running through these stations will be cancelled, delayed or revised. All stations between Reading and Westbury will not be served. Disruption is expected until 13:45 28/05.
Customer Advice
We're sorry for the delay to your journey.
-
Due to a person being hit by a train at Midgham trains are not running between Westbury and Reading in either direction until further notice.

or this one - which has been dropped from JourneyCheck (at Bath) as I wrote.

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47 is being delayed between Swindon and Chippenham.
This is due to a problem currently under investigation.

I was on it.  Reports of a disturbance at Chippenham.   It seems those involved then got on a train to Bath where police are trying to resolve the issue.

Notable to me that neither incident is actually on the Swindon to Westbury line any yet here we are - yet again - with services apparently distruped from outside.  My guess is that our line has been commandeered and local train brushed out of the way for more important expresses to go through.   Such events are frequent - when will they add the capacity that's frequently needed to be able to run the published timetable reliably?

[grahame]

14:19 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01

14:19 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01 will be cancelled.
This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident.

[bobm]

Congestion at Westbury and crew out of place I understand.

[grahame]

15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:59

15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:59 will be cancelled.
This is due to the emergency services dealing with an incident earlier today.

[grahame]

Congestion at Westbury and crew out of place I understand.

That sound probable.

Rather confirms that we have a "fair weather railway" - so tuned to work if nothing goes wrong but falls apart all to easily if anything does.   And over such a very wide area, things fall apart far too often and there isn't the resource in place to deal with and recover from such things.   

We are usually fed a "yes but" in answer to today's incidents (person hit by train on the Berks and Hants, disruptive passenger Chippenham to Bath, and crew shortage) ... and for one day thats's fine.  Problem is that you look back at any of the last 3 days and you find thumping great gaps in service.  I don't envy the people have to sort this mess out - it would be much easier is there was common cause.

[bobm]

Buses to and from Chippenham laid on for the cancelled peak services. 

[grahame]

Buses to and from Chippenham laid on for the cancelled peak services. 

Ah yes ...

18:15 Chippenham to Westbury due 18:58
An additional bus service has been planned to operate as shown 18:15 Chippenham to Westbury due 18:58.

Hope people hear about it - it's not mentioned in the cancellation section which still says

17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20

17:36 Swindon to Westbury due 18:20 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Further Information

If you arrive at your destination 15 or more minutes late because your GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) train was delayed or cancelled, you can claim Delay Repay compensation. Please keep your ticket and visit GWR.com/DelayRepay
Last Updated:28/05/2024 07:22

I would expect that train, if running normally, to carry perhaps 60 passengers as it leaves Chippenham (half term week);   I wonder how many will be on the bus.   Others will not have travelled today, will have driven to Chippenham and park there, will have called up lifts from Chippenham, will reroute via Bath, will await the 18:44 of Swindon (first train since this morning?), will travel on an earlier IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) to Chippenham to catch the last Faresaver bus of the day.

[bobm]

It turns out this morning's disruption stemmed from an abundance of caution.   The people involved in the incident didn't in fact get on a train.

From Wiltshire Police

Three youths have been arrested following a report that a male had been seen with a weapon in Chippenham this morning.

At approximately 10.50am, we received a report that a group of three youths had been seen in the Monkton Hill area with one of the youths described as waving around what was believed to be a firearm.

Armed Response Officers attended the area and extensive searches were carried out – as part of these searches, trains in and out of Chippenham Railway Station were held and a train at Bath Spa was searched.

Shortly before 2pm today, following diligent work by PCSOs, three males matching the descriptions were located in the underground car park in Chippenham town centre. Response officers attended and an imitation firearm was located and seized.

The three males, who are aged between 14 and 15, were all arrested on suspicion of possession of an imitation firearm.

They have been taken to Melksham - in the back of a police van no doubt.

[bobm]

Of course it is not just Melksham that suffers with its two hourly frequency.



Pewsey.

[grahame]

Of course it is not just Melksham that suffers with its two hourly frequency.

Pewsey.

Agreed - though the tendency is that where the semifasts on that line get cancelled, the expresses that are usually still running through make extra stops - in fact that's happening today

15:15 Plymouth to London Paddington due 18:24

15:15 Plymouth to London Paddington due 18:24 will be diverted between Castle Cary and Pewsey.
It will call additionally at Castle Cary, Westbury and Pewsey.
It will be delayed due to the diversion and is expected to be 12 minutes late.
This is due to the train making extra stops because a train was cancelled.

That's projected as a 17:39 call at Pewsey to replace the 17:02 cancellation - not ideal, but - well, I'll go back and post the comparative Melksham gap overnight.

[grahame]

That's projected as a 17:39 call at Pewsey to replace the 17:02 cancellation - not ideal, but - well, I'll go back and post the comparative Melksham gap overnight.

Two out of 23 trains due to call at Pewsey cancelled yesterday, and one on Real Time Trains a "no show" - a train from Paignton that disappeared off tracking at Cogload and I suspect ended up in Bristol.  At least one extra call, but I don't know how to (or if I can) look back seriously at that.

Looking back at Melksham:



We need to note that a bus was provided - but with limited publicity - for the last two cancelled trains. It ran over part of the route including Melksham; changes from bus to main line trains at Chippenham for Swindon passengers.  For the record, security incident in the late morning at Chippenham and Bath, diverted main line trains during the afternoon because the Reading to Westbury direct line was closed, and train crew shortage in the evening peak.  The first of those issues is understandable, the second and third should not be happening and causing the chaos that they do. And those two are very much under the control of the wider-defined "rail industry".

[stuving]

Two out of 23 trains due to call at Pewsey cancelled yesterday, and one on Real Time Trains a "no show" - a train from Paignton that disappeared off tracking at Cogload and I suspect ended up in Bristol.  At least one extra call, but I don't know how to (or if I can) look back seriously at that.

From livetrain:

1A81 on 28/5/24 off route from Taunton	Arr	Dep
Bridgwater	12:35	12:33
Highbridge & Burnham	12:38	12:36
Yatton	12:47	12:45
Nailsea & Backwell	12:49	12:47
Bristol Temple Meads Platform 2 Motorail	13:07	-

Final status:
28/05/24 14:15:03   Cancelled   At Bristol Temple Meads. Reason XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) [Fatalities/injuries caused by being hit by train] OUT OF PLAN

I don't think these (from TRUST^▸ (Train Running System TOPS)) can show pass vs. call, but a negative dwell time suggests a pass.