Incident at Trowbridge station - 13 February 2025

[whole diary]

[infoman]

being reported by Radio Bristol at 07:00am,knock on effect causing issues at Bath and Chippenham stations

Anyone listening to BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Wiltshire?

[GBM]

Cancellations to services between Westbury and Chippenham via Melksham
Following the police dealing with an incident at Trowbridge all lines are now open. Disruption is expected until 07:30 13/02.
Train services between Westbury and Chippenham via Melksham may be cancelled.
Customer Advice
Due to ammunition being discovered near the railway in Trowbridge, no trains can run until the police say it is safe to do so.

[grahame]

Cancellations to services between Westbury and Chippenham via Melksham
Following the police dealing with an incident at Trowbridge all lines are now open. Disruption is expected until 07:30 13/02.
Train services between Westbury and Chippenham via Melksham may be cancelled.
Customer Advice
Due to ammunition being discovered near the railway in Trowbridge, no trains can run until the police say it is safe to do so.

Just pulling in to Trowbridge on the 06:32 from Melksham - it's now 07:22.   Missing the 07:00 connection at Westbury to London for the Rail Innovation Conference and exhibition.  Information was lacking (!!) at Melksham and not even a train manager coming through to check tickets and help people.

[grahame]

From home at 6 a.m. for the 06:32 train ... and only just on my way from Westbury now at 08:00 towards London. That's an hour late and I will probably walk in during the Peter Hendy keynote.  Information sources poor along the way ...  good illustration of how poorly the customer is informed, even if the operational recovery of services was probably done as well as might be expected.

[bobm]

Surprised they didn't offer ticket acceptance on the London Waterloo service.   A slower train but would have cut your wait at Westbury and got you nearer the venue.

[grahame]

Surprised they didn't offer ticket acceptance on the London Waterloo service.   A slower train but would have cut your wait at Westbury and got you nearer the venue.

They sorta-did - they said I could use SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) services. Then in the same breath (I assume they breath in call centres) said my ticket would only be accepted if I dropped back to the next train on the same route, and I could not take the 07:21 and travel via Swindon - which (had the 07:21) been on time) would have put me in London 20 minutes down and not nearly 60!

I *had* considered going into Waterloo in the first place but chose to gain the extra few minutes earlier arrival (ha, ha) by going the more expensive way.

[Mark A]

Sorry the day started like that, hope it hasn't cost you an arm and a leg.

Mark

[grahame]

Sorry the day started like that, hope it hasn't cost you an arm and a leg.

Mark

A superbly informative day and such a contrast in many areas.    Home a few minutes ago

Rail Innovation Exhibition, Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, 13.2.2025

Plan
06:32 Melksham to Westbury arrive 06:55
07:00 Westbury to Paddinton arrive 08:35

18:36 Paddington to Westbury arrive 19:58
20:06 Westbury to Melkshan arrive 20:21

Actual
06:36 left Melksham late at 07:15 arrived Westbury 07:30.
Connection not held so ...
Dropped back to 07:57 from Westbury, arrived Paddington 09:24

18:36 Paddington to Westbury left on time but 20 mins late as Westbury
Connection not held so ...
Dropped back to 21:16 from Westbury, arrived Melksham 21:31

So that's
Outbound - 49 minutes late arrival
Homeward bound - 70 minutes late arrival

I will write up the conference and exhibition tomorrow.

[LiskeardRich]

That looks like almost a full reimbursement through delay repay?

[grahame]

That looks like almost a full reimbursement through delay repay?

Indeed - I was putting that in this morning but the web page jammed on me on step 3 - uploaded the picture of the ticket, which it accepted, clicked on confirm but it would not go on to the next screen.   Need to waste even more time trying again 

[grahame]

That looks like almost a full reimbursement through delay repay?

Indeed - I was putting that in this morning but the web page jammed on me on step 3 - uploaded the picture of the ticket, which it accepted, clicked on confirm but it would not go on to the next screen.   Need to waste even more time trying again 

Very very curious - this time it knew what my ticket was and the claim was submitted much more easily (it knew during the night but had still insisted on a picture and then jammed).

It will be interesting to see how the claim goes. 

The morning train I was schedule to take from Westbury into London got there 17 minutes late, but my arrival was 49 minutes late due to the drop back. 

The train I took in the evening was just 15 minutes late into Westbury and the train I was supposed to carry on from there to Melksham got there 1 minute early, but because I had to drop back failed connection, I was 70 minutes late.

[LiskeardRich]

I’ve had it Jam before…. On a complex split ticket journey with 6 of us travelling… 24 coupons in total 

[grahame]

That looks like almost a full reimbursement through delay repay?

Indeed - paid out £95, received back £62. Would still rather have had on time trains.

From the local news feed at Somerset Live

The bomb squad was called after ammunition was found on a train track this morning, Thursday, February 13. The ammunition was discovered by a Great Western Railway employee near Dursley Road, in Trowbridge, at around 3.30am.

Emergency services rushed to the scene and the ammunition was removed from the track. Train services between Westbury and Bath Spa, and between Westbury and Chippenham were delayed as a result.

Wiltshire Police said: "We responded to reports that suspected ordnance had been found on tracks near to Dursley Road, Trowbridge, around 3.30am this morning (13/02) by a Great Western Railway employee. As a precaution, a bomb disposal team from Tidworth was called to remove the ammunition and make the area safe."

All train services have since returned to normal. Traffic and travel monitoring site Inrix said: "Delays have eased on Great Western Railway between Westbury and Bath Spa, and between Westbury and Chippenham following earlier emergency services dealing with an incident at Trowbridge."

which leads me down a rabbit hole of discovery to https://inrix.com