Tomorrow ... 6 Jan 10

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Westbury and Melksham to Swindon services

 
Train services on this route will be suspended in both directions.

[Phil]

Because..... ?

[devon_metro]

Presumably prioritising crews on more popular services.

Severn Beach also apparently cancelled.

[Mookiemoo]

Keep up at the back


http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=5938.60;topicseen

[grahame]

Because..... ?

There's about an inch and a half (4 cm / half a finger length) of snow on the ground this morning. I drove in to work as I may need the car today ... not a problem at all. For the TransWilts at least, it's the old story of "a dusting of snow and there's travel chaos".  The 05:19 Gloucester to Southampton has been rescheduled to terminate at Swindon, at 06:06, and doesn't even show up as a service alteration.

We have a guest scheduled to leave on the 06:40, which is a continuation of this train. A phone call to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) last night to ask if there were alternative arrangements (the web site listed alternatives for most other lines, after all) told me that there were none that they knew of, that it was definite that the train would not run, and that they would be re-opening for phone calls again at 7 a.m. - we should call in again shortly thereafter.  And it really gives you confidence when the folks say "can you spell that" when you ask about Melksham.  I expect I'll be giving the guest a lift to Trowbridge or Westbury; taxis probably will be busy as the pavements are slippy.

I appreciate this may not be the general picture and there may be far bigger problems elsewhere, so I'm limiting the details to the TransWilts thread rather than the more global "across the West" one.  But from here it looks rather like 'overreaction, big time'.

[Phil]

Agreed. What I was trying to highlight really was that they suspended the service because of a PREDICTION of snow, not as a reaction to what was actually happening. Shockingly bad form not to provide an alternative. MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post - a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London, depending on context) need to be made aware.

[Lee]

In case you are wondering, I am said guest. Original plan was to check out the early morning TransWilts southbound, then do some research on morning peak Westbury-Bristol corridor services...clearly not.

Had some fun on the Stroud Valley line yesterday. A fair bit of snow, but everything pretty much working nonetheless. Stonehouse is probably best described as "white minimalist" in this kind of weather, but Stroud looked pretty, especially with the old goods shed.

Ironically, I will be attempting Brucey's journey in reverse later. By the look of reports from him and my missus, I appear to have been better off here than there...

[grahame]

  17:02 Worcester Foregate Street to Southampton Central due 20:48
This train will be terminated at Swindon and restarted from Westbury at 19:40. It will no longer call at: Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge. This is due to poor weather conditions.
Message Received :06/01/2010 16:27

  19:32 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 21:29
This train will be started from Swindon. It will no longer call at: Westbury, Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham. This is due to poor weather conditions.
Message Received :06/01/2010 16:13

I have been out and about today ... and I don't think the weather here has been worse than elsewhere.  I went down to Melksham station and even the track fittings could be seen - the snow was THAT thin.  Is there something technical about the Severn Beach and TransWilts lines that makes them more vulnerable than others - or are they vulnerable because none of the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) managers live on them 

[devon_metro]

Graham, see my post in the snow thread in Across The West, should help explain it better.

[grahame]

Graham, see my post in the snow thread in Across The West, should help explain it better.

That's also the most feasible explanation yet ... and I suspect also explains the lack of Warminster terminators today.  Severn beach, hourly, tomorrow - all from one platform at Clifton Down?

And I note "Swindon to Melksham" not running .... so wonder if the problem will be down to Thingley only, and we'll have a train coming up empty from Westbury, to form the 06:40 to Southampton ...

[grahame]

Amended at 06:40 this morning (Thursday) to read

Swindon to Westbury  via Melksham - Services between Swindon and Westbury  will not operate

and indeed this morning's services were cancelled.


And ... just checked again ... same message for tomorrow.   And yet   Live departures for Swindon shows a 17:30 from Westbury calling at Trowbridge (17:41), Chippenham (17:52) and arriving Swindon 18:15.   Return service 18:35 from Swindon, 18:47 (Chippenham), 19:00 (Trowbridge) and 19:25 (Westbury). I'm ... err ... scratching my head on this one!

[John R]

Just a thought, but maybe the evening services were reinstated to provide extra services to Chippenham tonight given there are no trains running through to Bristol from Swindon.




_{Edit note: With apologies for editing this post, and just to put this into context, here is a link to a new topic which I have set up, giving the reason for the lack of through trains between Swindon and Bristol.  Chris.}

[Sion Bretton]

looks like Melksham is having an extra service at 22:05 to Westbury.

[Oxman]

You could have a very good service for the next 24 hours, with the line closed between Bath and Bristol. Normal service was already planned to resume tomorrow.