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

[whole diary]

[grahame]

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 is being delayed at Swindon.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.

[grahame]

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 is being delayed at Swindon.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.

and then

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 a shortage of train crew.

[grahame]

17:44 Swindon to Salisbury due 18:55

17:44 Swindon to Salisbury due 18:55 will be terminated at Westbury.
It will no longer call at Warminster and Salisbury.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Hmm. 

Even to me, as someone from outside the area, I can see that a train from Swindon to Westbury isn't much use if someone is trying to get home to Salisbury on a Sunday evening.  That's barely half the journey. 

[grahame]

Hmm. 

Even to me, as someone from outside the area, I can see that a train from Swindon to Westbury isn't much use if someone is trying to get home to Salisbury on a Sunday evening.  That's barely half the journey. 

The 18:26 from Westbury is followed by a train at 19:01.  Far from great, but a thinning out that is less disruptive to people's journeys than a cancellation where there is NOT another train along about half an hour later.     Had the 17:44 section and Swindon to Melksham been canned, the next train would be at 19:43.   Comparison is a 35 minute delay to passenger journeys versus a 119 minute delay.

[brooklea]

Snip
Had the 17:44 section and Swindon to Melksham been canned, the next train would be at 19:43. 

Or not, as the case may be…

19:43 Swindon to Westbury due 20:25 will be cancelled.

This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Further Information
Customers are requested to check the stations Onward Travel Information poster and wait for replacement road transport at the designated stop. Customers are advised that the replacement road transport may run later than the advertised train times owing to the additional time taken by road between stations and the time required for loading and unloading at each stop.

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:13/10/2024 12:44

And the balancing working;

18:11 Castle Cary to Swindon due 19:33 will be terminated at Westbury.

It will no longer call at Trowbridge, Melksham, Chippenham and Swindon.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Further Information
Customers are requested to check the stations Onward Travel Information poster and wait for replacement road transport at the designated stop. Customers are advised that the replacement road transport may run later than the advertised train times owing to the additional time taken by road between stations and the time required for loading and unloading at each stop.

If you arrive at your destination 15 or more minutes late because your GWR train was delayed or cancelled, you can claim Delay Repay compensation. Please keep your ticket and visit GWR.com/DelayRepay
Last Updated:13/10/2024 12:46

[grahame]

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07 has been delayed at Westbury and is now 12 minutes late.
This is due to train crew being delayed.

10 minutes recovered at Salisbury where it is timetabled to wait anyway and just 3 late at Southampton where it has just arrived.   This is not the first time this has happened and for train connections at Salibury it was non-fatal; the only connection it to the Exeter train which left 4 minutes late and gave people time to connect.

Original delay at Westbury probably waiting for crew arriving at (theory) 06:40 from Fratton but 07:03 in practise from where it left at 07:07 rather than 06:55.   

Why was the train from Fratton delayed?  Don't know, by Real Time Trains fails to track between Southampton  and Romsey and I suspect it was re-routed via Channdlers Ford.  It was 19 late at Dilton Marsh but not into Westbury until 25 late - waiting a platform no doubt - and suffered a further wait there for the signal section towards Trowbridge. Avoncliff and Freshford stops both longer than timetabled and it dragged into Temple Meads 43 minutes late.

An interesting learning exercise in what went wrong..  The delay to the TransWilts train was recovered and no great shakes.  The delay to the train from Fratton shows how a problem can mushroom and have consequences far wider.   Learning points are
1. Time critical crew changes are a risk
2. Westbury has a platform shortage problem
Neither of these is a new lesson ....

[grahame]

06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47

Facilities on the 06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47.
Will be formed of 3 coaches instead of 2.

Recorded just for "form" ... in fact this train should normally be 3 carriages to avoid overcrowding during school terms; it is at its very busiest from Kemble to Stroud, or used to be.

[brooklea]

Just to pick up on some of your points here grahame

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07 has been delayed at Westbury and is now 12 minutes late.
This is due to train crew being delayed.

Original delay at Westbury probably waiting for crew arriving at (theory) 06:40 from Fratton but 07:03 in practise from where it left at 07:07 rather than 06:55.   

That does make sense.

Why was the train from Fratton delayed?  Don't know, by Real Time Trains fails to track between Southampton  and Romsey and I suspect it was re-routed via Channdlers Ford.

It definitely ran via Redbridge - I’ve gleaned this from the trackit website which I have mentioned previously (www.trackit.uppyjc.co.uk), which sometimes provides information when it’s lacking on RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website), as is the case here.

It was 19 late at Dilton Marsh but not into Westbury until 25 late - waiting a platform no doubt - and suffered a further wait there for the signal section towards Trowbridge.

Without a doubt waiting for platform 3 to be cleared by the 06:59 to Cardiff Central. There’s also leaf fall season to consider, which requires drivers to approach red signals with extra caution; this will cause some time to be lost for the probable red signal at the Trowbridge end of platform 3.

An interesting learning exercise in what went wrong..  The delay to the TransWilts train was recovered and no great shakes.  The delay to the train from Fratton shows how a problem can mushroom and have consequences far wider.   Learning points are
1. Time critical crew changes are a risk
2. Westbury has a platform shortage problem
Neither of these is a new lesson ....

Agreed.
(But who’s gonna pay for it )

[grahame]

13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57

13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 has been delayed at Swindon and is now 12 minutes late.
This is due to a late running train being in front of this one.

[grahame]

21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58
22:31 Swindon to Westbury due 23:12

22:31 Swindon to Westbury due 23:12 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Last train of the day ... no alternative offered just

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

[Mark A]

Realtimetrains has it that the first of these services stayed cancelled. (The second is marked as cancelled too but has not departed Swindon yet.)

Mark

[grahame]

Realtimetrains has it that the first of these services stayed cancelled. (The second is marked as cancelled too but has not departed Swindon yet.)

Mark

Neither ran in the end.

[grahame]

Again today

20:08 Westbury to Swindon due 20:56
21:10 Swindon to Westbury due 21:52

21:10 Swindon to Westbury due 21:52 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Words of Daryn McCombe, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)

...  To be stark, we have far more drivers and guards in the business than we need to run the service. The challenge we have is to make sure that they have all the training they need. Every time we make a change to the railway we have to brief drivers on signalling layout.    Two broad issues with train crew - make sure they can do all of their training and then the second is around Sundays because ...

But yesterday was a Friday, today is a Saturday, and I'm not sure when signalling between Westbury and Swindon was last significantly changed.  So the answer washes very poorly.

[grahame]

So we now have ...

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05 
17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:18
18:35 Westbury to Swindon due 19:17
19:45 Swindon to Westbury due 20:26
20:08 Westbury to Swindon due 20:56
21:10 Swindon to Westbury due 21:52

21:10 Swindon to Westbury due 21:52 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

which I would describe as "abandoned for the rest of the day".   Very poor show - 4 round trips out of a very thin service in the first place of just 7 - abandoned, and remember that they have "far more drivers and guards in the business than [they] need to run the service".