Extra trains between Bristol and Bath for Bath Christmas Market this year?

[whole diary]

[XPT]

The last few years GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have put on additional trains on SATURDAYS during the period the Bath Christmas Market is on.  As often as a train every 7 minutes last year apparrently! https://news.gwr.com/news/a-train-every-seven-minutes-for-bath-christmas-market

No news about this yet from GWR.  Though I guess they might still announce it within the next few days.  Though with the ongoing "shortage of train crew" I wouldn't be surprised if they don't put on these extra trains this year!

[grahame]

Press release from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)

A train every six minutes for Bath Christmas Market Saturdays

GWR will operate 142 trains to/from Bath next Saturday, but customers reminded to expect queues at the busiest times.

A train will serve Bath Spa station every six minutes on the three Saturdays of this year’s world-famous Christmas Market taking place between Thursday 28 November and Sunday 15 December.

On top of the normal Saturday service, GWR will run an extra 21 trains stopping at Bath Spa to help shoppers get to and from the city. 

[UstiImmigrunt]

Looking at the station boards at BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) last Saturday the question that has to be asked.

With what crew?

[Timmer]

Looking at the station boards at BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) last Saturday the question that has to be asked.

With what crew?

The end of the press release does warn of services being revised because of crew availability:

Due to crew availability on Sundays, further timetable changes may be needed; because of the late-notice changes, and the complexity of updating timetable systems, journey planners will not show changes correctly before the Sunday morning of travel.

I think it should say Saturdays as well going on the past few weeks and previous years when some Christmas market extras have been cancelled due to train crew shortages.

If you have to go to the Bath Christmas market, best go during the week. It’s awful at weekends and difficult to get anywhere near the sheds in some of the narrow streets.

[Red Squirrel]

It could all turn into a bit of a shed-show, by the sound of it…

[XPT]

Thanks Grahame.  I'll look out for when these extra services show up on the journey planners or realtimetrains.  I'm going to Bath on Saturday 14th December, though not to visit the Christmas Market(way too crowded for me).  On the journey back, I'd prefer to get on one of the extra trains that either start at Bath, Chippenham/Swindon or Westbury, rather than one of the usual services from London Paddington or Portsmouth Harbour which will already have loads of passengers already on them travelling to Bristol or beyond.

But yes, with all this ongoing "shortage of train crew", all these extra trains/a train every 6 minutes may well not go as well as it should do!  I wouldn't be atall surprised if a number of them are cancelled.

[johnneyw]

If you have to go to the Bath Christmas market, best go during the week. It’s awful at weekends and difficult to get anywhere near the sheds in some of the narrow streets.

I concur, although in recent years the stalls/sheds have been a little less densely packed together in the open spaces around the Abbey allowing more space for the visitors to move about. 

Edit:  As a brief aside.  Cardiff lays on quite an impressive Christmas offering in addition to the market which has become a recent favourite with some of the wider family and it's a fairly short hop from Bristol.... especially Parkway station.  I'm in the process of sorting out a visit for half a dozen of us right now.

[grahame]

But yes, with all this ongoing "shortage of train crew", all these extra trains/a train every 6 minutes may well not go as well as it should do!  I wouldn't be atall surprised if a number of them are cancelled.

I will be very inserted to see how the Westbury - Swindon service fares during on these Saturdays - whether GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) choose to run extra trains for there special seasonal traffic, run trains for their loyal all-year-round customers on the nearby (but not through Bath itself) line, or succeeds in doing both. They should be able to do both as this is an annual thing and they've had plenty of time in the planning.

Looking back at the press release I read out of context

GWR will operate 142 trains

and thought for a moment that we had a return of the pacers!

[ChrisB]

I will be very inserted to see how the Westbury - Swindon service fares

You *really* need to turn your predictive text off you know!

[ray951]

I will be very inserted to see how the Westbury - Swindon service fares

You *really* need to turn your predictive text off you know!

Surely the predictive text on Grahame's phone would be saying 'Not very well' 

[UstiImmigrunt]

One of my former colleagues did say to me why don't you help out?

Unfortunately I am rest day not available, out of competence and around 860 miles away.

Besides that I could assist.

[XPT]

Just 2 days now before the launch of these extra services.  But they're still not loaded onto the journey planners and realtimetrains websites yet.  Are they not loaded on them until the actual days they're running?

[ChrisB]

Possibly not, until the staffing is found for certain

[Timmer]

Possibly not, until the staffing is found for certain

Wise.

[grahame]

Possibly not, until the staffing is found for certain

Wise.

Manchester has been in the new over its handling of some aspects of their Christmas Market with people arriving at the main train stations turned round and put back onto outgoing trains.  From the Manchester Evening News

The arrival of hundreds of young people from traveller communities from all across the country to enjoy Manchester's Christmas markets has become an important date in the social calendar of those communities.

[snip]

GMP later clarified the order was 'due to intelligence' that groups of people were en route to Manchester on trains 'causing antisocial behaviour', with similar reports of trouble in the city centre already coming in.

The order was signed and the effect was that cops were dispatched to Victoria and Piccadilly railway stations under instruction to stop the groups and send them back.

Mobile footage shared widely online showed uniformed officers escorting young people into trains at Victoria, with many of them clearly unclear where exactly they were going to end up.

One girl, aged 13, who had come from Doncaster, ended up in Grimsby.

Could GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) be awaiting assurances about police behaviour.  What happens with penalty fares if the police escort people against their will  onto a train for which they don't have a ticket?