What a shame ...

[whole diary]

[grahame]

14:40 Westbury to Swindon due 15:32

This train has been cancelled.This is due to an earlier train fault. Last Updated: 02/01/2010 11:14

What a shame that my first post on "TransWilts" in this decade is a cancellation.   Never mind ... there's another Westbury to Swindon service at five O'Clock tomorrow afternoon 

P.S. Yes - that's right - next train is in 26 hours.   The GWRUS^▸ (Great Western Route Utilisation Strategy) and Wiltshire Council reports have concluded that an appropriate future service for this line is one train an hour ... not the one train per day of yesterday and today!

[Phil]

This is really quite appalling. A wait of 26 hours!

Just out of interest, is there anywhere in Devon that gets an even worse service than the Trans-Wilts line?

I was reminded of this on seeing Henry's post from a few days ago in the "Big Boom for Paddington" thread, describing Devonshire as a "third world county" (based on what evidence?)

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=6010.msg58299#msg58299

 Meanwhile you can understand why us in the 'third world' county of Devon get the hump.

[grahame]

This is really quite appalling. A wait of 26 hours!

I wasn't planning to travel today ... but in the past when a train has been cancelled on me and I have phoned up to ask for alternative arrangements, I have been told to wait (overnight) ... I only hope that anyone 'caught' today got more practical help, though when I was down at the station earlier in the week, the information system was out of order again.

Just out of interest, is there anywhere in Devon that gets an even worse service than the Trans-Wilts line?

I don't believe so (but I stand to be corrected).  The closest I can find to a service as sparse as the TransWilts is at Chapleton, which has 2 trains in one direction and three in the other on Mondays to Saturdays - that's 25% more than the TransWilts. On Sunday, it has 4 each way (v 2 northbound and one southbound on the TransWilts), so that's 266% of the TransWilts service.

Footfall at Chapleton was just over 200 journeys per annum for the year 2007/08 - the latest I have figures for it.  I don't know the place iteself, and can't find much useful on line.  I suspect it's quite small.

[grahame]

P.S.  Commuters from Chapleton to Exeter St David's have an 08:16 arrival in Exeter, and then leave again at 17:57, whcih strikes me as excellent timing ... doesn't it seem odd that such timings are possible in Devon to Exeter, but not from West Wiltshire into Swindon?

[Lee]

Its interesting to note that Chapleton has also suffered service cuts in recent times - in December 2008, their 8 services per weekday were reduced to 5, with both evening peak services from Barnstaple being removed.

[John R]

Last 5 years' stats on the Tarka^▸ (Line from Barnstaple to Exeter) Line, to put Chapleton's service into context.


                        2002-03 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08
Newton St Cyres 1,147        702     780       889    1,662
Crediton              21,607 22,478 22,550 24,021 27,422
Yeoford               7,993     6,883   6,848    7,701   7,445
Copplestone       1,231      356    1,090     2,283   4,563
Morchard Road    4,676     3,442   2,712    2,341   2,904
Lapford               4,912     2,104   1,658    2,208   1,967
Eggesford          11,430    14,152 16,009 18,184 18,658
Kings Nympton    4,013      2,400   1,781   1,009   1,033
Portsmouth Arms    614        372      510       667 1,012
Umberleigh         7,951       8,301 10,408   12,564 13,811
Chapelton               734        472      161        120     208
Barnstaple        176,682 194,474 210,846 238,082 261,174


Looking at the OS^▸ (Ordnance Survey) map, it's another station that's well and truly in the middle of nowhere, with the only conveivable use being for a few passengers who might prefer to drive south from Bishop's Tawton to pick up the train there than north to Barnstaple.

Not really comparable to Melksham really!

Interesting to see the growth of Barnstaple use, which underlines the posts elsewhere about the performance of the West Country branch lines.

[Lee]

Still doesnt explain why 2 of the Chapelton service calls that were removed were among the most likely to be useful to passengers...

Chapelton village, although small, is near the station.

[grahame]

P.S.  Commuters from Chapleton to Exeter St David's have an 08:16 arrival in Exeter, and then leave again at 17:57, whcih strikes me as excellent timing ... doesn't it seem odd that such timings are possible in Devon to Exeter, but not from West Wiltshire into Swindon?

I have received a message to tell me that I'm leading people stray again - it's Chapelton and not Chapleton.  My apologys to those people who notice every mis-spelling of mine and cringe ... and to the people I lead astray.

[grahame]

So we had problems at the start of the year ... then we were shut down for two days last been.  Here we are, 10th January, and most of the service is cancelled:

Affected trains:
18:19 Swindon to 19:05 Westbury
17:30 Westbury to 18:12 Swindon

And, no, it's not blamed on the weather ... it's crew shortage this time.

[inspector_blakey]

It's possible that the crew shortage may be weather-related - could be that road conditions mean some staff can't get to work.

[grahame]

It's possible that the crew shortage may be weather-related - could be that road conditions mean some staff can't get to work.

Hard to tell, but I would doubt it; weather much improved in these parts.   Also some odd thinhs in the full reports:

20100110   18:19   Swindon   19:05   Westbury   
Full report: "This train has been cancelled.This is due to train crew having been unavailable earlier. Last Updated: 10/01/2010 16:44 "


20100110   17:30   Westbury   18:12   Swindon   
Full report: "This train has been cancelled.This is due to a train fault. Last Updated: 10/01/2010 16:36 "

Fault on the way up, crew on the way back?  And the two updates were posted 90 minutes + in advance, with just 8 minutes between the postings.

We don't / won't know the whole story ... but these were the only full cancellations around (there were a few shortened workings).  "As usual, TransWilts goes first" people might say, and indeed cancellations were between 25% and 100% on the line 4 days put of the first 10 this year.  And just half of those days could be described as weather related, but even then as a result of a strategic decision, it seems, to abandon the TransWilts service and concentrate on keeping others running.  I am not saying whether or not that was the correct operational decision to make ...

[Phil]

Interestingly, according to FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s automated email alerting service there are "no known disruptions" this morning

----- Original Message -----
From: First Great Western Alerting Service noreply@nexusalpha.com
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Mon 11/01/10 7:46 AM
Subject: Fwd: No known disruption:Melksham to Swindon
Dear Phil,

There are no disruptions reported at this time affecting services between your selected stations Melksham to Swindon.

Further Information is available at http://www.fgw.co.uk.