| Dilton Marsh - request stop and status Posted by grahame at 11:40, 20th November 2025 |     |
Almost every time I travel on a train through Dilton Marsh that might stop there, it actually does stop there. That's not withstanding that the in-train display may say "next stop Warminster" or "next stop Westbury". And I hear of trains not calling because the train manager has called though "are you for Dilton Marsh" and a chorus of "No, thank you"s has rung out, drowning out the "yes please" of one or two people, or indeed his call has not been noticed by people with EarPods or limited hearing. When a train is cancelled through Dilton Marsh, a stop order should and, patchily, is put on the Portsmouth <-> Cardiff train that follows, but there's no indication of that at Dilton Marsh and it requires a certain cheek to stick your hand out to try and stop the express if you don't know there's a stop order.
Request stops have there place. They make sense at Thornford and Chetnole - but that's no longer the case at Dilton Marsh. What was once a station set amongst the rural fields of Wiltshire and - let's face it - a unusual survivor of the Beeching era cull - is now set in amongst the houses of Westbury Leigh which has grown across to the railway, with Westbury's main primary care medical facility just a few minutes walk away, and the houses of Dilton Marsh itself which has blossomed and now presses against the edge of the railway.
Is in not time to remove the "stops by request" status and have all trains which currently may call there do so automatically?
| Re: Dilton Marsh - request stop and status Posted by matth1j at 12:30, 20th November 2025 | |
Slightly OT - do the schedules that include Dilton Marsh assume that the train will stop ie. there will be a bit of hanging around at the next stop if it doesn't?
| Re: Dilton Marsh - request stop and status Posted by grahame at 13:43, 20th November 2025 | |
Slightly OT - do the schedules that include Dilton Marsh assume that the train will stop ie. there will be a bit of hanging around at the next stop if it doesn't?
There never seems to be a problem with lack of time - I think the assumption is that they will stop. They have to slow down anyway. Until a few years ago, we were given to understand that the 08:05 Westbury (a Portsmouth train) could not stop at Dilton Marsh because of delays it would cause, but the engineering changes team put in a stop there for three weeks and it worked perfectly. We logged that and persuaded GWR to make the stop permanent in the next timetable; it has now been adjusted by a couple of minutes so that might be to allow for the stop, which always happens during term time as it's a signifiant school train.
On trains into Westbury .. they often hang around between Dilton Marsh and Westbury to await a platform anyway ;-)
