2025 - Service update and amendment log, Swindon <-> Westbury

[whole diary]

[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.

Happy with that ... and if it weren't school holidays that would be very welcome indeed beyond Swindon

[grahame]

13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57

13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 has been delayed at Swindon and is now 20 minutes late.
This is due to a points failure.

14:18 Westbury to Swindon due 15:00

14:18 Westbury to Swindon due 15:00 will be starting late from Westbury and is expected to be 5 minutes late.
This is due to a points failure.

[grahame]

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05
17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:19

17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:19 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[grahame]

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05
17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:19

17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:19 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

At around 08:45, re-instated, I notice.

Damage already done - day planned and planned without a return to Melksham on those trains, comment made in public at https://www.passenger.chat/t30162.html and onto Facebook.

[grahame]

11:41 Swindon to Weymouth due 13:53

11:41 Swindon to Weymouth due 13:53 will be terminated at Westbury.
It will no longer call at Bruton, Castle Cary, Yeovil Pen Mill, Thornford, Yetminster, Chetnole, Maiden Newton, Dorchester West, Upwey and Weymouth.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

18:11 Castle Cary to Swindon due 19:33

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.

19:43 Swindon to Westbury due 20:25

19:43 Swindon to Westbury due 20:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Stay-at-home Sunday for me then ... on an 8 out of 15 FOSW^▸ (Freedom of (the) South West Rover) ticket and Sundays have the advantage of the early start being allowed, but I'me replanning for this to be a day of rest.   Yes, I know that evening round trip might get re-instated but there's no comfortable "Plan B" for Sunday evenings

[snip]

Damage already done - day planned and planned without a return to Melksham on those trains, comment made in public at https://www.passenger.chat/t30162.html and onto Facebook.

[TaplowGreen]

08:06 Warminster to Swindon due 09:02
08:06 Warminster to Swindon due 09:02 was terminated at Westbury.
It will no longer call at Trowbridge, Melksham, Chippenham and Swindon.
This is due to engineering works not being finished on time.

09:08 Swindon to Westbury due 09:49
09:08 Swindon to Westbury due 09:49 will be cancelled.
This is due to engineering works not being finished on time.

[grahame]

Oh goodie - 4 out of 14 (28% cancellation rate) not calling at Melksham on what's probably going to be the first really busy Sunday of the year. Just taken a look at the two morning cancellations and there's nothing helpful there about buses or taxis - just an offer to give you your money back ...

[bobm]

Over running engineering works have also done for the first service from Swindon to London Paddington (starts Didcot Parkway) and first westbound service to Bristol and Exeter St Davids (starts Bristol Temple Meads).

[grahame]

Over running engineering works have also done for the first service from Swindon to London Paddington (starts Didcot Parkway) and first westbound service to Bristol and Exeter St Davids (starts Bristol Temple Meads).

Oh dear ...  From Swindon to London, there's an 08:00 bus (change Reading) and an 09:40 train ... first train to Westbury now 2 hours after that. Passenger volumes are of course very different, but it's also a reminder of just how serious cancelling even one train on an infrequent service is.

Nearly 4 hours to wait for public transport home to Melksham now if you miss the 17:44 (and on a Sunday, the evening buses from Bath don't run so even those of us in "the know" would struggle)

[grahame]

15:15 Swindon to Westbury due 15:59 will be started from Chippenham.
It will no longer call at Swindon.
It will be delayed at Chippenham and is expected to be 9 minutes late.
This is due to a passenger being taken ill on this train.

[grahame]

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury via Swindon:

This service is cancelled.

This service was cancelled due to a problem with the train (M8).

Very late cancellation - hasn't made it to JourneyCheck.

[grahame]

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury via Swindon:

This service is cancelled.

This service was cancelled due to a problem with the train (M8).

Very late cancellation - hasn't made it to JourneyCheck.

Oh - it's just appeared on the map

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 has been cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.
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:21/04/2025 19:20

What, if anything, would delay / repay get me on an FOSW^▸ (Freedom of (the) South West Rover) for a delay of 72 minutes (projected). No, I probably won't bother - pragmatism over principle!

[grahame]

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05 has been cancelled.
This is due to train crew being delayed.

The 17:50 from Gloucester via Melksham was cancelled at 18:05 (the train sitting in the platform with passengers in it waiting to go - so I did not get into Melksham at 19:09 as per plan "A"

I took the 18:10 from Gloucester which also runs via Trowbridge to Westbury (via Bristol, this one) with the intent of changing into the 20:12 from Trowbridge back to Melksham - however that was cancelled at very late notice (about 5 past so I did not get to Melksham at 20:21 which was plan "B"

The help point told me that I should wait for the 21:22 train which would bring ne into Melksham at 21:32 - plan C.   As far as he knew it would run but he couldn't promise anything.   He suggested I call GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) if I wanted to be more certain.  I did, but they were unable to give me any re-assurance.  They told me to wait and see if it ran - and if it was cancelled, I should then take a taxis and try and claim for it.    They were unable to explain why they only told the public that they had no staff for the 20:12 a couple of minutes before it was due ...

[grahame]

I ended up getting home last night at around 21:15 when I had planned to be home around 19:30 (very last minute cancellation ) and then - plan B - at around 20:45 (another very last minute cancellation). 

I made a thought out but quick decision in Trowbridge to take a taxi that was sitting on the rank; there are NOT always taxis there, and I've had to wait up to 90 minutes during the evening before.  I spoke to both the help point gentleman and a lady at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), and both told me that the final train could not be guaranteed but at the time of speaking it was still showing as running.  That would have got me home at 22:00 if it ran. 

Having had two trains cancelled in succession on my, in both instances at or after the time they were due to leave, and seeing a taxi available - pragmatic decision.  There was no fall back bus via Bath as it was a Bank Holiday bus service, and I was disinclined to take up the GWR suggestion to wait over an hour to see if that final train ran, and if it didn't then set about finding a taxi.

"Small beer" perhaps in yesterday's chaos across the GWR area, but cancellations - especially ones that are very late in the day, and advise which is not customer supportive (saving them money over customer's time / comfort / peace of mind) really don't help promote the railway.   And cancellations because of a faulty train, and because of a lack of available crew, are not the sort of reasons that well up mounds of sympathy in the same way that a passenger being taken ill on a train does.

[grahame]

A week is a long time in politics ... a quarter hour is a long time in a train service. 20:02, 20:10 and 20:14