Friday December 19

1W01 09:52 London Paddington to Hereford (12:46) : departed +28 (late arrival of incoming stock), arrived Great Malvern +28 and cancelled thereafter.

 
PART 2

I bought the tickets from GWR (mad panic to post them to him ........ONLY paper tickets available for this trip - but the tickets have a QR code printed on them ?) the more I look at this, the more I scratch my head. The itinerary I was presented with when I bought the tickets has 4 changes shown, not 2 that I got originally from GWR a few days back.

Examination of RTT shows that the (original) through train from Crewe to Swansea is running......
The new itinerary tells him to go from Liverpool to Crewe on an Aviva train - which goes on to Rugby. Ten minutes later he has to board another Aviva service to get to Stafford - this train starts at Manchester and also goes to Rugby. Even closer examination of RTT shows that BOTH of these trains stop at Stafford !

I have told him to get the through train to Swansea from Crewe...........luckily I kept a screen grab of the original itinerary to give him, in case anyone queries why he is on that through train.

I can, perhaps, understand the 4 change route - it is marginally quicker, but 3 of the 4 changes are not overly generous with the time - room to lose that benefit by a missed connection. ............but to tell you to get off a train which goes to where you need to go and then get onto a different train to the same place, that one escapes me completely

I was bored..........the 4 change route is 31 miles longer too.

 
Best part of 1000 timetables now out there with Melksham residents - https://grahamellis.uk/blog1815.html

Lots learned - very much a two way thing - listening to the public transport users - and those who don't use it - is the MTUG lifeblood.

 

Agreed, Bobm, and there are other specific operational reasons for that particular train to be in trouble - "Rumour Mill" stuff  because it's not confirmed.

I have highlighted your alternatives statement. Totally agreed, and those services need to be reasonably close to the time that the train was due too - waiting for a bus or taxi which is so late (when it turns up) that it's only going to get to destination after the next train - and that's over a hour on the 17:35 from Swindon is a good way to turn passengers off.    These days, when I talk to people about the service it's not so much "good to have" but much more "don't use it - it's unreliable".

But yet, while campaigning, I'm desparately trying not to rubbish the operator / service to the extend I p*ss them off, and with publcitty that's so bad it puts people off too.  A fine balances.   I remember past concerns at the campaigning style of SHRUG - https://www.passenger.chat/r4949.html and their Hogrider which veered far to much on the negative side for my liking.

 
I suspect if a member of crew can operate a number of routes including the TransWilts and there are two services which need operating, the TransWilts will be the one to fall away.   

Nothing to do with passenger numbers but for operational reasons.  It is much easier to deal with a service which doesn't leave the sidings to make a return trip than cut, for example, a Cardiff-Portsmouth service.  Depending when the cancellation is decided the train in question may already be on its way, but even if not you are still left with a train clogging up Westbury after terminating short.  If you don't have the staff to shunt it out of the way, it is going to block a platform for a few hours until it can pick up the return working.

Whether it is passenger numbers or operational constraints, the end result is the same for travellers but I suspect it is the latter that leads to cancellations when there is a crew shortage.  More importantly we need to keep pressing for sufficient crew and in the short term the need to arrange and publicise alternative road replacement when services are cancelled.

 

Thank you, Chris - so it is down to GWR.  Who, however, deny the short straw stuff.  I am of the somewhat-informed opinion that the imbalance of cancellations has other planning factors involved and - in school report terms - "could do better"

 
I very much doubt that the DfT (or even GWR when presenting to DfT) singles out any particular line of service, (unless the MP(s) in question take the DfT to task) - so overall at drivers depot level, yours are likely the least used of services that Westbury drivers drive. So you catch the short straw to disadvantage the fewest customers at drivers depot level.

 

Hmmm ... busiest train of the day (I take it you are referring to passenger not trains?) ... and the only evening peak train home when there are two morning peak trains ...

Do the Dft dictate shift patterns - not only numbers of staff, but also which hours they are to work?  Sorry to repeat my original question but in another form, Chris.

I would also suggest that cancelling a train disproportionatley on the day when the next one's over an hour later puts people off rising the opposite and reliable two train commute in the morning, whereas pulling one of the (say) six peak hour trains from a frequent services and having a sixth of the customers delayed by 20 minutes does far less damage in the evening, and virtually no damage to the morning.

"I don't use the train any more - too unreliable" - (former) customer this morning..  The train operator is failing us, whether through his own company's doing, or those who provide the backup / backroom environment.  The liability is with GWR, just as when I buy something in a shop the liability if it's not delivered or doesn't work is with them and it's legally up to them to sort in out with their source.

 
One of the items that GWR consider when short-staffed is which services should we run, and which are our most popular services of those that will be affected in the time-slots that we are short?

I suspect that your services carry the fewest of trains in those time periods, and thus cancelling yours is affecting the fewest number of overall travellers wanting to travel at those times.

 

Not sure how that DfT stuff controls which trains are the ones dubiously staff diagrammed and so keep failing though.   You have done a good job, ChrisB, of addressing a different issue to the one I raised.

 
Staffing levels are down to the DfT....as is recruitment over & above the 'agreed' number of operatives.

So you have crew taking  time of year - possibly using up annual leave if the leave year end equates to the calendar year-end, and no change of 'borrowing' drivers from another depot as they are unlikely to have the route knowledge.

So yes, long-term & short-term, its the DfT

 
6. Ickenham. I'll admit I found the exact picture online, but I did do it by working out the location from clues and then trying it - first guess, honest!

 
8 Templecombe, around 1964 when 2218 was allocated to Templecombe

https://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=locodata&type=S&id=2218&loco=2218

 

Yes, but...

A while back there were plans to terminate London trains in the old Midland Shed. Those plans are very dead.

However with the removal of the signal box (for which, as I understand it, there are no concrete plans) it will be possible to extend Platform 1 to accommodate 5 car trains, and there is also scope to build a new Platform 0 alongside it. These platforms are well-suited to local services to Severn Beach, [Henbury and] South Wales, given that these tend to use the relief lines which are on that side of the station.

Details (such as they are) are here: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/ask/projects/temple-quarter/temple-meads and click on "Southern Gateway, Midland Shed and Eastern Entrance: masterplan proposals"

Whether or when this will happen is moot. But the plans for the Northern Entrance do not preclude it.

 

I am so glad you added the "?" there.   That's the line I've heard quoted so many times and there's truth in it many times.  But I think there are other key issues within the realm of GWR which are perhaps dominant in this case.

Here is the ontimetrains graphic for weekdays for the last four weeks (top) and last six months (lower)





and you'll note that there's no consistency through the day - some trains are pretty reliable and then others have a black armband at the top of their columns.   Either the sort of panning needed to sort our specifics can be being done by GWR, or why do they have managers to look after these things and fix issues if such managers aren't able to be effective?  Does the DfT really sign off daily crewing rotas and decide that the 17:35 from Swindon will be cancelled today?    Where the DfT does get involved, and I accept, is the overall staffing levels ...

 
5. Carmarthen

 
DfT?

 
05:03 Penzance to London Paddington due 09:54
Facilities on the 05:03 Penzance to London Paddington due 09:54.
Will be formed of 5 coaches instead of 10. There are no reservations on this service

 
7 had to be Birmingham New Street.

Mark

 
On the CMN-PAD. Front set attached at last minute so rear set is busy and front set probably empty. I wonder if there's enough joined-up thinking and communication for announcements to be made at the next few (staffed, not operated by same TOC as train) stations advising passengers that the front set has plenty of room...

 
Sat, 20 December 06:55 Liskeard to Looe due 07:25
20/12/25 06:55 Liskeard to Looe due 07:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to flooding.

Closed all day it seems

 
4: Garsdale - or Hawes Junction as it was.

 
Alterations to services between St Erth and St Ives
Due to a points failure at St Erth disruption is expected until 10:00 19/12.
Train services between St Erth and St Ives have been suspended.
Customer Advice
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What has happened?
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There has been a points failure at St Erth, which means we are unable to get our train onto the line to St Ives. A points failure is a fault with the movable pieces of track that enable trains to change tracks.
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What are we doing about it?
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We have had to suspend our service between St Erth and St Ives. Network Rail will send engineers to site to investigate the problem.
-

 
1. Fort William

 
10 is Eastleigh, and as photo is during laying of conductor rail, must be about mid 1966.

Home and distant banner repeaters on the footbridge too

 
or a Mackem accent when the trains cross the border into the Sunderland area?

 
Brings to mind an occasion at Basingstoke. Things weren't running to time, one of those situations where the platform information screens keep changing what the next train is. The next train pulls in, a mass of people jump on, some time after Worting Junction somebody surfaces from their headphones and says when do we get to Southampton when we are on Salisbury train.

Stay awake, take your headphones off and stick you mobile in your pocket?