As well as the exciting news that IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) may now call at Melksham, I have noticed a recent use of extra stops on long-distance services to cover cancelled (local) trains. Unsure if this is a new effort to provide a better service or has been commonplace before.

Two weeks ago I returned to Westbury from Fratton to find the PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) (1808) to Frome service cancelled. The connection was instead provided by the following PAD (1837) to PLY^» (Plymouth - next trains) which had also called at the Kennet Valley stations. This only incurred an 18 min delay for my journey - which I am still contesting on Delay Repay!  Tonight I notice that the early evening service from Bruton and Frome will be provided by extra stops on a Paignton to PAD service. This is to cover a missing local service which is frequently canned on Sundays.

So at least Control is now considering these missing services which can only be a good thing.   

It makes sense to add "stop" orders and indeed to call diverted trains during engineering works at various stations. 

It does happen - as an example,  during the recent closure of the St Denys to Fareham line, the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) Romsey 6 was pulled between Southampton and Romsey via Eastleigh, with the diverted long distance Cardiff to Portsmouth train making the calls at Chandlers Ford which would otherwise have been unserved.

Dilton Marsh also sets stop orders added in at times when local trains are cancelled and that makes sense. However, reports suggest that sometimes these stops are added, sometimes they are not, and that unpredictability there is off-putting and inconvenient to people wanting to use the station.

The XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) train is due to call at Gloucester from 22:00 to 22:05 which (I would presume) is the train that Infoman is talking about in his comment (no date given, so no ability to look back). As far as I can see, that should connect into a 22:13 last train to Cam and Dursley, and to Yate.    OK - it may have missed if there had been severe delays further north and it makes huge sense to arrange something from Parkway as it's far closer to Yate than is Gloucester, even though it's a double-back.   Adding further delay with a Yate stop would be novel for XC staff, and could (for we don't know how late the service from the north was) have solved one problem and created another with connections on to other places just missed.  Real solutions?  (a) put up with these things occasionally, (b) look to have a more robust system with longer recover holds and a more reliable and more money spent on problems system and (c) avoid the final service of the day when long distance connections are involved.