I was looking at most recent published figures, and cancellations for group EF13 South Wales - South Coast is 13.06%
Is it just me, or is over 1 in 8 trains cancelled a pretty abysmal statistic.
The bare answer is "yes - that is an abysmal statistic". And yet I even question the basis of the statistic - "Lies, damed lies and statistics".
The period involved was 17 days of "normal" working, 2 days of Christmas shutdown, and 9 days during which the line was broadly split between Trowbridge and Salisbury with rail replacement buses running, with just one train on some days running from Trowbridge to Swindon (replacement bus again) and Westbury to Weymouth becoming Frome to Weymouth.
It appeared to me that the buses were reliable to their limited timetable, and in the habit of making up time by missing out Dilton Marsh according to my contacts there - even on the thinned service. Frome to Weymouth - supposed to be every 2 hours - looked like alternative cancellations on far too many days so it became a 4 hourly service. And slower buses meant that for some journeys they were far from "replacements" - the dictionary say that a replacement "does something in place of something else" - which they weren't as people couldn't get to work on time [Melksham to Southampton commute]
So - some things better, some things worse and for this month a pretty useless statistic. I suspect buses do not have its timekeeping included ... and as the table is number of services, did it double or triple up when services were split?
Click on the map to explore geographics
