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

[whole diary]

[grahame]

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07 is being delayed at Swindon.
This is due to engineering works not being finished on time.

13 minutes late from Swindon, 9 minutes late from Chippenham, 2 minutes late from Salisbury to Southampton.

[grahame]

12:17 Westbury to Swindon due 12:59
13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57

13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 will be cancelled.
This is due to a lorry colliding with a bridge.

[grahame]

Due to a lorry colliding with a bridge between Bath Spa and Freshford the line is blocked. Disruption is expected until 12:45 21/11.
Train services between Bristol Temple Meads and Westbury via Bath Spa may be delayed.
Customer Advice
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We're sorry for the delay to your journey.
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A vehicle has struck a railway bridge in the Limpley Stoke area between Bath Spa and Freshford. Network Rail have specialist staff on their way to the bridge to inspect it for any damage. Until this has been done we are unable to run trains over the bridge.
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To help you complete your journey you may use your ticket on CrossCountry services between Reading and Southampton Central and South Western Railway services between Basingstoke and Southampton Central and Portsmouth Harbour, and their services between Southampton Central and Portsmouth Harbour.
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If you are travelling from South Wales, Bristol or Bath towards the South Coast please take a Great Western Railway service to Reading and change their for CrossCountry services to the South. You can then change again at Basingstoke for South Western Railway services towards Fareham and Portsmouth stations.
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If you are travelling from the South Coast towards Bath, Bristol or South Wales you may use CrossCountry services between Southampton Central and Reading and South Western Railway services from Portsmouth stations to London Waterloo, changing at Basingstoke for services to Reading. Change at Reading for services to Bath, Bristol and South Wales.
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We will update this message with more information when we have it.

Err ... not disruption until 12:45, but until 13:57 - see previous post declaring a cancellation on the TransWilts.  And yet ... again ... trains cancelled due to issues elsewhere ...

[grahame]

12:17 Westbury to Swindon due 12:59
13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57

13:15 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 will be cancelled.
This is due to a lorry colliding with a bridge.

THANK YOU for the extra Melksham and Chippenham calls in the 10:23 Portsmouth to Cardiff - or rather 12:12 Westbury to Cardiff.  Makes sense.

10:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central due 13:48 was started from Westbury and will be diverted between Trowbridge and Bath Spa.

It will no longer call at Portsmouth Harbour, Portsmouth & Southsea, Fratton, Cosham, Fareham, Southampton Central, Romsey, Salisbury, Warminster and Bradford-On-Avon but will call additionally at Melksham and Chippenham.

It is being delayed between Trowbridge and Bath Spa and is now expected to be 20 minutes late.

[grahame]

11:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour due 14:52

11:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour due 14:52 will be diverted between Bath Spa and Trowbridge.
It will no longer call at Bradford-On-Avon.
It will be delayed due to the diversion and is expected to be 11 minutes late.
This is due to a lorry colliding with a bridge.

Pity no Chippenham or Melksham stop on this one, though I appreciate it would have been well early for the normal train.

[grahame]

07:45 Westbury to Swindon due 08:34

07:45 Westbury to Swindon due 08:34 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:22/11/2024 07:36

Someone was asking yesterday why our passenger numbers at Melksham are down.   It's because of things like this - train cancellations due to lack of crew are routine and it puts people off for ... a very long time.

This one is the pits though - at ten minutes notice!   

[grahame]

08:45 Swindon to Westbury due 09:26

08:45 Swindon to Westbury due 09:26 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:22/11/2024 07:36

So that's a gap off Swindon from 06:02 to 11:05.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Strictly speaking, it's actually at nine minutes notice.  That is an appalling way to treat their customers by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway). 

[grahame]

Strictly speaking, it's actually at nine minutes notice.  That is an appalling way to treat their customers by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway). 

Indeed.  If it is something like a train driver or manager being taken ill, it can be occasionally understood but they have a separate code for that, haven't they?   And just to confirm, that *was* a late cancellation and not just an update to a notification that had been there much longer.

[bobm]

There was a slightly different message at 07:31

07:45 Westbury to Swindon due 08:34 will be starting late from Westbury.

This is due to a late running train being in front of this one.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Hmm. 
 

There was a slightly different message at 07:31
This is due to a late running train being in front of this one.

This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:22/11/2024 07:36

... seems to me to be entirely inconsistent. 

[TaplowGreen]

20:08 Westbury to Swindon due 20:54
20:08 Westbury to Swindon due 20:54 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

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.

[brooklea]

Hmm. 
 

There was a slightly different message at 07:31
This is due to a late running train being in front of this one.

This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Last Updated:22/11/2024 07:36

... seems to me to be entirely inconsistent. 

It does rather.

Noting that the previous service of the train to form the 07:45 from Westbury to Swindon is the 06:13 Bristol Parkway to Westbury, according to RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) this had a unit swap at Bristol Temple Meads from 158767 to 166218. The 158 arrived at Temple Meads 12 minutes late, but the 166 left 63 minutes late at 07:43! I wonder if the “shortage of train crew” could relate to needing a driver to bring 166218 from a siding somewhere to form the onward working to Westbury?

In any event, clearly the 07:45 to Swindon would be, at best, a late start when the train to form it had only just left Bristol at 07:45. Unfortunate that it couldn’t have run as far as Chippenham, even with a severe delay, in order to start the return working to Westbury from there, but I suppose a decision was made that the risk of delay to other services was too great?

[TaplowGreen]

Early warning....

Sun, 24 November 08:10 Warminster to Swindon due 09:02
24/11/24 08:10 Warminster to Swindon due 09:02 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Sun, 24 November 09:12 Swindon to Westbury due 09:53
24/11/24 09:12 Swindon to Westbury due 09:53 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[TaplowGreen]

16:43 Frome to Swindon due 17:34

16:43 Frome to Swindon due 17:34 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.