TL/DR: An account of last weekend's travels, now I've had a chance to cool off (literally and figuratively), perhaps a bit of a rant, some things the industry got right, and many more things that they need to do better if we're to encourage rail travel!

For context, conditions were best described by the term 'heatwave'. Air Con working correctly on CDF-PMH: 0/3. (I think some of the Southern trains had AC issues as well, but focussed on the GWR ones here!)

I travel from Wales to SE England several times a year, and often have to make the choice between Reading/London (quicker) and Salisbury (cheaper). I have a reputation for telling people about cheaper, more esoteric routings, but over the last couple of years I've tended to go via London, because of time constraints on the outward journey, or simply because it's convenient using the 'proper' retail outlets at Paddington on the way home, rather than the more basic offerings at interchanges on the other routes, or having to make a late night shop when I get home. But this weekend I had a bit more time to spare on both legs, so I went for the Salisbury option. I don't begrudge the London route being somewhat more expensive (intercity speed/frequency premium through Swindon and cross-London transfer) but I think the the absolute cost of all options is something to be berated, especially as I don't want to mess around with advance fares. The Salisbury option is a bit annoying because only certain journeys have a via Salisbury fare, so a split is often needed, although in way that's not a huge issue as I can split at Salisbury to use a Network Railcard.  Interestingly, some of the Salisbury splits seem to be so esoteric that the fare-splitting sites don't find them!

On this occasion I went for a split at Salisbury followed by an NSE-railcard route Barnham fare - significantly cheaper (but still much more that I'd like to pay) but very slow compared to going via London!

When travelling via Salisbury I prefer to take the 2x158 diagram (I think 1330 CDF-PMH) but in order to arrive at the right time I needed the train before it (3 car 166). The day before I read of issues with stock availability and made sure to check for issues on the day, and considered running an hour earlier for more leisurely connections (but a very long overall journey) - which actually pushed me back onto a journey that appears to be another 2x158 booking. 158s are a bit long in the tooth but I quite like them for long-distance travel, as long as the formation is long enough!

Note all these little choices and inconveniences that I'm fairly happy to make, but an uninitiated traveller certainly wouldn't want to deal with.

That morning (or possibly late on the evening before) I saw the preceding 2x158 had become 1x158, so I decided to give that a miss. I still left SWA half an hour earlier, subject to the TFW offering being 5 car. As it turned out the 1230 CDF-PMH was part-cancelled, and now a BRI-WSB journey. I decided to aim for it anyway, by taking the planned earlier connection from SWA, giving me time to travel to BRI. I would probably end up stuck at WSB and waiting an hour, but at least that breaks up the waits, and creates a buffer, and may offer options via SAL (but in the end didn't - given need to travel via Barnham funnelling my route options).

More little pieces of planning that 'normal' travellers don't want to make!

A side point re the TFW journey. 5-car (great improvement on a few years ago) 197. Quite busy - I dread to think how it would have felt on the 2/3 car diagrams that were normal not long ago. I ended up mis-planning (should I need to plan with this granularity?) which door I used to board, and wasn't by a luggage rack, so I had to drag my luggage to the next vestibule, where the luggage racks are. Two big issues with the 197s as long-distance trains are toilet provision and luggage rack provision. A big advantage of single-saloon express stock is that there is generally a luggage rack at every saloon-vestibule interface. WIth 1/3-2/3 door stock, there's a choice of two sets of seating from each vestibule - annoying if available seats are one way and the luggage rack is the other. I could make more comments on the 197s but back to the bigger issues of the day!

Went to BRI for the remnant of the CDF-PMH train. It was a 3-car 166, and being reduced to BRI-WSB was lightly loaded. Great! Nice and comfortable... but sweltering. Windows were open, as the dreaded tell that air conditioning wasn't working.

Got to WSB and waited the hour (hour and a bit in the end, IIRC) for the next train. 4 car 158 - win some (preferred formation), lose some (now an hour later than planned). I thought I might end up standing with luggage as the rack was fairly full, but I found some space and also found a pair of seats.

Several announcements apologising for lack of air conditioning. Apparently this car was the only one where it was working, but the guard had opened one window as it wasn't really coping well; he left the rest shut so the AC had some hope of achieving something. It was made clear that bottles of water were to be found at end ends of each car.

Original plan was to make a connection into Sussex at Fratton, but with a bit of additional delay it looked hairy, so I went with a connection at Southampton, as connection was still in platform - bit of a rush. Fortunately the GWR train being signalled through pushed enough delay onto the Southern connection to make the race over the bridge work. Late afternoon type journey so busy 4 car - stood for a bit, then found a seat, but it was a variant of 377 without much luggage space, so I hogged a seat for my bags. With leisure travel being such a big part of demand these days, luggage rack provision needs to be looked at, even on 'local' trains - only 'proper' suburban journeys don't need it as much! Ended up reaching destination over an hour late, so nice financially, but meant I had to re-plan pickup. I realised I could have made a slightly better connection with a change at Brighton, but it was tight, so I didn't risk it.

Return journey on the Sunday... bustitution on part of the Brighton Main Line, so it turns out that this was a good occasion to be going the other way! However Journeycheck was crawling with crew-shortage cancellations and part-cancellations, especially on the Westbury axes. Weymouth a no-go but some Portsmouths sort of running - but most part-cancelled, leaving a patchy set of usable trains. Fortunately crew-related cancellations are often set in stone early in the day, so I was able to plan reasonably well.

Typically connecting onto the PMH-CDF service means a change at Fratton or Fareham/Southampton, but sometimes I go right down to Portsmouth Harbour if there's time (subject to RTT showing the working to Portsmouth going through without disturbance), so I can tgake a seat before departure, rather than scramble on at Fratton or wherever, especially if its likely to be busier. I planned things so that I'd connect at PMH with what looked like the only viable train - even this terminating at BRI, requiring a long wait for a connection via BPW. It turns out that the GWR train *to* Pompey was starting at Fratton (ironically described on Journeycheck as Reinstated - but with almost all stops removed!); RTT showed an ECS running, so looks like it had a driver but no guard on that journey, with guard joining at Fratton. It seemed to be 'sticking' at Fratton when I checked RTT, but that worked out well; my Southern train was a bit late (such that I nearly reverted to a Fratton change to avoid risk) and terminated at Fratton, and the GWR train provided the connection to PMH. So it worked out perfectly.

The GWR train was a 3-car 166. The CIS was saying it had terminated, which caused confusion with passengers who had just been kicked off of the Southern train. The simple touches of communication often irritate me more than the actual delays/cancellations. Surely it's better to turn it off than let it display wrong information!

The air conditioning didn't seem to be working. The train had 'caught the sun' and felt like it had heated seats!

Down to PMH, picked up passengers there, and the PMH-BRI journey commenced. THings were looking a bit better. It was well-used but not too crowded, but that's often the case before SOU, where it was likely to pick up a lot of passengers displaced by previous cancellations. Which it did. Then the anncouncement came from the guard... back cab at 40°, "I'm seeing double", unable to take the train further. Passengers gradually left hte train (at least the CIS was now accurate in saying it wasn't going anywhere) and crowded the platform. Next PMH-CDF cancelled, and even if it ran I'd have been wary of more issues arising (and it being severely crowded), so I went to look for staff to authorise travel via Reading. (I don't think I'd have accepted 'no' by this point, of course!) When I passed the back cab, the guard was in bad way, with platform staff (I assume) supporting as he staggered, before appearing to collapse. I wasn't too impressed by at least one nearby passenger pointing the phone camera that way.

It might have been helpful to send passengers to the other side (Plat 1?) - both to provide some space for the guard, and to direct people to travel via BSK (for SAL) and RDG (for BTH/BRI/CDF).

Very crowded XC train to RDG, followed by OK GWR journey back to SWA. By the time the incident had played out and connections had been made, I ended up on the last PAD-SWA train (bearing in mind a bit earlier on Sunday) - so it's a good thing I hadn't tried to travel later! Ended up at SWA after midnight - manageable as I don't live far from the station, but meant I lost sleep and wasn't at my best at work the next day; passengers needing to find a bus/taxi home, relying on someone to be awake to pick them up, or simply not comfortable with late night walking would have been caused more than a touch of inconvenience.

Not many options for buying additional food and water for the extra 2-3 hours' travel on a Sunday evening. From SOU to RDG the only in-station shop I found (didn't want ot mess around with finding a local shop, esp carrying luggage) was the WHSmith on the RDG station bridge. 

The RDG-SWA train was diverted SWI-BPW, and had an order to make an extra stop at BTH and BRI. I assume this was to plug a gap in the local trains on the WSB-BRI axis, which were now essentially suspended.  The CIS wasn't aware of this, but the TM made an effort to make an announcement following auto-announcements to ensure passengers had correct information. This should be the default action! I'm not sure this was announced at RDG when the XC train arrived (or even if it had been decided at that point); it would have been a nice touch as it meant a shorter wait for displaced BTH/BRI passengers who had come up from Southampton.

I made my bed that weekend when it came to my route choice, but that's not really the point! I know the network and was able to make contingency plans on the fly, but as my phone's battery level showed it means a lot of time spent keeping an eye on things and thinking about best options. For me the main stress was the possibility of missing a last train home, but for many the whole thing would have been an ordeal.

It worked out well financially though. I claimed 1hr Delay Repay on the outward journey, and was awarded 2hr for some reason (presumably I'd made a connection that was officially too tight); for the return journey I claimed 2hr which was confirmed, but I hit the ticket price cap and was only awarded a bit, which isn't a problem - I got all my money back in the end.   In fact, as part of the journey was on my season ticket, the amount received slightly exceeded the amount paid for the tickets bought specfically for that journey. A positive note is that the claims went through very quickly and I've received the money well within a week. It's worth noting there were consequential costs (e.g. buying additional provisions, late night arrival - some may have extra taxi costs or whatever, and being home at a ridiculously late hour) which I suppose were covered by my claim given the ticket cost was fairly high, but perhaps wouldn't have naturally been covered if someone had been compensated for a much lower fare.

This must have been a very expensive weekend for GWR. Perhaps some investment would be worth it simply to reduce these costs in future!
• Delay Repay - in many cases total ticket refunds.
• Delay minutes, performance penalties etc?
• Additional costs likely where last connections missed etc - most likely some long-distance taxis would have been provided!
• Diversion - would XC have been paid when ticket restrictions lifted, for example?
• Knock-on issues - e.g. passengers at BSK told to wait for next train to RDG if they couldn't board XC train - possible Delay Repay costs for XC there.
• Any costs associated with staff member being taken ill.
• I understand some taxi cover was provided that evening when it became clear that evening travel wasn't going to happen.
• Intangible costs - reputation damage etc.

As a little aside, the Southern trains on the Coastway were rather busy. Most 4/3 car as either locals or split of London trains. I think Coastway service is somehwat reduced post-Covid, but key centres like Brighton and Chichester mean there's a lot of demand. Obv I was travelling late afternoon outward and SUnday afternoon on return, so busy times anyway, so may not be totally representative of daytime trains, but it still seems there could be improvements there.