10 years on - what improvements has a privatised railway brought to the west?

[whole diary]

[Steve Bray]

I agree with Moonrakerz. The extension of these services to and from Gt Malvern is 'nice', but there has never been a massive demand, or public campaign for trains to Bristol etc. In priority terms, Malvernians want to travel to Worcester & Birmingham, and Oxford and London. They would be quite content to change at Worcester, so long as it was a decent connection. You mention high demand for commuters and schoolchildren, but this is the same on any route anywhere. In fact having more trains between Malvern and Worcester can be a bit of a nuisance, with the single working in Worcester liable to cause congestion and delays.

[Btline]

But the FGWs^▸ (First Great Western) provide Malvern with a link to Worcester. An extra train every few hours which is useful.

There is always high demand between the stations. The more trains the better.

[moonrakerz]

But the FGWs^▸ (First Great Western) provide Malvern with a link to Worcester. An extra train every few hours which is useful.

There is always high demand between the stations. The more trains the better.

I'm afraid I don't see this "high demand" when I go there, as I said before 8 trains in 2 "off peak" hours is totally bizarre.
To say "the more trains the better" really is totally simplistic, I would have thought there were plenty more deserving routes than Great Malvern to Worcester - Swindon to Salisbury, via Melksham, perhaps ?

[IndustryInsider]

Route 24 - Cardiff Central and Bristol to Weston-super-Mare and Exeter St Davids

This route can be broken down into several different sections.

The core trains are the hourly services operated by FGW^▸ (First Great Western) between Cardiff Central and Taunton via Bristol TM^‡(resolve) and Weston SM. Ten years ago this was a much more irregular service that went to destinations further into the West Country - Paignton and Penzance being two examples. Whether you favour a regular, more frequent service or a less frequent service to a wider range of destinations really depends on your personal needs I suppose, but in many routes I have covered so far, the former appears to be prevalent.

The busy stretch from Bristol TM to Weston-Super-Mare sees services operated almost exclusively by FGW these days. Arriva Cross Country make token stops once or twice a day, but most of their trains run the more direct route to/from the South-West Coast. This means quicker journeys, but is a blow to the tourist pull of Weston which 10 years ago saw four or five trains a day from places like Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle and Edinburgh.

Total numbers of trains on the busy Weston to Bristol TM route now total 43 per day. In 1999 when FGW, Arriva and Virgin XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) provided a mix of services that total stood at 40, so there's been a modest increase.

Services on the other main section of this route from Bristol Parkway and Bristol TM down to Taunton and Exeter have fallen, despite the Operation Princess which saw services running roughly twice as frequently on the XC network at certain times of the day. There's now 24 per day between Bristol TM and Exeter SD - this was 31 per day in 1999, though a lot of these extra trains were slower. Through trains between Bristol and Taunton have remained fairly stable, though the disparity in journey time via the Weston route would be off-putting to many through passengers.

[John R]

The local services to Weston and intermediate stations have now stabilised as a regular half hourly service, with gaps removed and services running half hourly with good connections to London services. So that is an improvement. Also, morning commuter services are much better, with an extra London bound service arriving in Bristol around 8.20.   

As you intimate, the Operation Princess debacle has not been kind south of Bristol. The original plan to make services half hourly south of Bristol was soon reversed, with the result that in some hours a 7 coach HST^▸ (High Speed Train) (pre 02) is now a single Voyager unit. And that's with 7 years of passenger growth in the meantime.

 

[Btline]

Yes, Operation Princess did not necessarily increase frequencies!

And at the extremities of the network, capacity was halved, as there were the same number of Voyagers running as there were HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train).

Why can't XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) extend their Bristol terminators to Weston? I suppose they don't have enough stock to facilitate this.

[devon_metro]

There isn't any capacity at Weston. They'd be far more suited extended to Exeter.

[IndustryInsider]

Routes 25, 26, 27 and 28: Cardiff Central, Bristol and Swindon to Southampton, Portsmouth and Weymouth (incl. Melksham!)

Again, these routes can be split up into different core routes.

1) The premier route is the busy service between Cardiff and Portsmouth which runs via some busy towns and cities including Bristol, Bath, Salisbury and Southampton. There's a basic hourly service throughout the day, which doesn't increase in frequency for the peak hours, but certain other services running on sections of the route do provide for extra capacity (details below). Back in 1999, the same core service operated by Wales & West - the only change being that services now stop at Bradford-On-Avon, but journey times have slipped slightly in the last 10 years with the through trip now taking 3h 24m which is 7 minutes slower than most services in 1999.

2) There's also an hourly service on the Bristol Parkway to Westbury route - many of these trains start from Gloucester or Malvern, and run through to Weymouth a total of 8 times a day to give Weymouth (and several other stations, including Dorchester and Yeovil) a direct link to Bristol at least every three hours. When there isn't a through train to/from Weymouth, there is a train to/from either Southampton, Warminster, or Brighton which gives the central part of the route between Westbury and Bristol with an hourly off-peak service. These trains slot in with the Cardiff-Portsmouth services above to give 2tph at 30 minute intervals between Bristol and Westbury. A couple of extra trains feed the Bristol commuter market to provide a 15-20 minute frequency into Bristol in the morning and back in the evening.

Ten years ago there was a very similar service to/from Weymouth, with exotic sounding train names like the 'Weymouth Sand & Cycle Explorer', but they usually only ran as far as Bristol TM^‡(resolve), and the pattern of trains on the core central part of the route was much less ordered.

For comparison the number of trains from Trowbridge to Bristol TM per day is now 42. Back in 1999 it was 35. There are so many different stations to compare, so you'll have to forgive me for not getting to in depth with them, but I would say in general most stations have seen a slight increase in the number of services, and some have fared well such as Bradford-On-Avon, Freshford and Avoncliff.

Whilst the timetable is much more ordered and regular than it was 10 years ago, there are still a couple of interesting anomalies caused by the extension of some services north of Bristol towards Gloucester and Worcester and Malvern. For example, you can travel direct from Great Malvern to Weymouth three times a day at 12:51, 14:51 and 18:51, but there are no direct trains in the other direction, with all the trains that reach Malvern starting at either Southampton or Warminster!

3) Finally, I'm sure Graham wouldn't forgive me if I didn't give some details of what has happened to the service through Melksham over the past ten years! Well, despite the service increasing to five trains a day each way in the intervening years (until 2006) the current service of two trains per day each way each weekday and one southbound service on a Sunday evening is actually more frequent than it was back in 1999! There was no Sunday service then, and only one train per day heading northwards during the week.

However, that doesn't tell the whole story! The timing of the trains is now much worse. Melksham to Swindon commuters need to leave at 07:17 and return at 18:44. With a just under 30-minute journey time, that is a long day for anyone and so not surprisingly the train isn't considered an attractive prospect. Back in 1999 the times were 08:05 and 18:36. Still not ideal, but much better! Now and then, the potential shoppers market on a Saturday from/to Swindon and Salisbury is completely ignored.

The Melksham service is one of the main reasons for the existence of this site, and I'm sure Graham won't mind me directing you towards the http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/index.html sister website for those that haven't read up on the details of what happened in 2006 to the TransWilts service.

[Zoe]

There isn't any capacity at Weston. They'd be far more suited extended to Exeter.

I would run them through to Paignton calling at Weston, Bridgwater, Taunton, Tiverton Parkway, Exeter St Davids, Dawlish, Teignmouth, Newton Abbot, Torquay and Paignton.  This would give many of the stations a 30 minute rather than 60 minute service.  I used to live in Teignmouth and it was frustrating only having 1 train per hour through most of the day.  This is just a suggestion though, I know we will never see it.

[grahame]

I have been really enjoying reading this series ... and, yes, wondering what IndustryInsider would have to say about the TransWilts. 

So a big "thank you" to him, and encouragement to carry on to the final clusters of lines that are yet to be covered.  It's a very special "thank you" because I know only two well how much a statement of fact thread such as this is read by many, yet draws comments from few;  I know I feel the same way sometimes with the important but boring admin stuff, and that's usually one post and not into double figures.  So - we're very grateful for you stamina, and the real resource it's adding.

[IndustryInsider]

Thank you, Graham.

Route 29: Bristol Temple Meads to Avonmouth and Severn Beach

This is a bit of a strange one for me, as I think it's the only stretch of FGW^▸ (First Great Western) operated track that I have yet to travel over.

The service has changed since 1999. Now, you can travel between Bristol TM^‡(resolve) and Severn Beach on a total of 11 through trains a day. These trains operate on a 2-hourly basis throughout the day with an increased service at peak times. Back in 1999 there were only 6 through trains a day running in the early morning and late evening with an extra through service at 16:30 from Bristol returning at 17:12. However, the actual off-peak service from Severn Beach was more frequent back in 1999 as there was an hourly bus service running from Severn Beach to Avonmouth where it connected with the train. Do any of these buses still run? If so, they're not shown in the timetable.

Between Bristol TM and Avonmouth the service has improved over the last ten years. Back then there were a total of 15 trains a day from Avonmouth to Bristol - that now stands at 24. This means a rather odd frequency of three trains every two hours.

The Saturday service used to run pretty much every hour from Temple Meads through to Severn Beach. Now you can still do the trip on an hourly basis, but every other hour the last leg from Avonmouth to Severn Beach is by a replacement bus. Again, the route between Avonmouth and Bristol TM has seen an increase in the number of daily trains; 22 compared with 15 back in 1999.

Finally there is an hourly Sunday service running between 10am-6pm operating on the Bristol TM to Avonmouth route, although none of these extends through to Severn Beach. Back in 1999 there was no Sunday service at all on the route though.

[John R]

A good summary, and of course these were the changes put in place last year with the support of the local council. I hope the increase in passengers is enough to encourage the council to continue supporting the improvments, as I understand the original commitment was for a limited period (3 years comes to mind, but I couldn't be sure about that.)

[bemmy]

A good summary, and of course these were the changes put in place last year with the support of the local council. I hope the increase in passengers is enough to encourage the council to continue supporting the improvments, as I understand the original commitment was for a limited period (3 years comes to mind, but I couldn't be sure about that.)

Yeah it was originally an election commitment to provide a half hourly service for three years from April 2007. After they'd actually discussed it with First, it became a forty-minutely service from December 2007, which eventually materialised in May 2008. So as I understand it the funding lasts till the end of March next year. Bristol City Council has had to make spending cuts every year of my adult life, so we can't take a continued subsidy for granted. However I'm hopeful that the political benefits of being seen to be green will motivate whichever party is in power to keep finding the 100k a year, which isn't really a lot of money in the scheme of things.

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

i realise that it is not a fgw line and that i go on about it alot but living in sidmouth i have two options one is fgw the other is swt on the west of england main line
  are we going to talk about that one 

[Mojo]

Yeah it was originally an election commitment to provide a half hourly service for three years from April 2007. After they'd actually discussed it with First, it became a forty-minutely service from December 2007, which eventually materialised in May 2008. So as I understand it the funding lasts till the end of March next year. Bristol City Council has had to make spending cuts every year of my adult life, so we can't take a continued subsidy for granted. However I'm hopeful that the political benefits of being seen to be green will motivate whichever party is in power to keep finding the 100k a year, which isn't really a lot of money in the scheme of things.

Unfortunately it's not that low, it's more like ^450,000 per year. We can hope that the more frequent service is included in the Service Level Commitment for the new franchisee.

Just a few comments:

Route 28 -
services from Filton are now much improved with up to 5tph to Temple Meads and a basic service of 4tph during the day, although they are quite poorly spaced; 3tph leave Temple Meads within 13 minutes and then there is a gap of 27 minutes. Filton to Parkway also has 2tph but rather uselessly they are both within 10 mins of each other, in both directions! Annoyingly though the trains start rather late - the first departure to Temple Meads is the 07.02, I don't know what it was 10 years ago, but even back in 2006 it was still possible to arrive at Temple Meads before 7am. There is also an hourly direct service between Parkway/Filton and Stapleton Rd/Lawrence Hill.

Route 29 -
services from Stapleton Rd/Lawrence Hill are much improved with up to 4tph to/from Temple Meads, helping to relieve crowding on trains coming off the branch in the mornings.