Which leaves me wondering what is now on the cards for the signal box once all it's original functions have been transferred elsewhere (has that been done yet?).

 

 
From Waterford Whisperer News

 

Interestingly, with the current cancellation I have just logged, I read:


Which tells me that if (on next year's Interrail trip) I get delayed into London, miss my Eurostar and am unable to reach Prague that night, they won't leave me stranded in Dresden.

 

 

Indeed ... hoping to go beyond guesses.  Layover is 13 minutes in Westbury.  I have asked the GWR managers if they can assist us in letting us know why the service was withdrawn from passenger use, how customers were asked and told, and what alternatives they suggest people use.  I will follow up here to let members know the answers.

 
I am sure you have worked this out but:

the service WMN to BRI still runs but the first portion WMN-WSB is ecs and runs earlier to then lay over in Pl 2. My guess would be something to do with crewing and end of shifts etc. 

 
A couple of recent posts here have indeed been split off, moved and merged with our ongoing Portishead reopening topic.

See https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=231.msg369669#msg369669 

 
4. Barry

The other three have a ‘Bridge’.

 

Ah, this has helped. I think. Though the page doesn't seem to allow deep linking in to the 'Bristol Temple Meads, City Gateway and Friary North: masterplan proposals'.

https://www.bristol.gov.uk/ask/projects/temple-quarter/temple-meads

But it's that section that has the explanatory sentence: A dispersed approach to transport is proposed.

An issue might be that many changes between bus and train are going to be an even bigger hike than they are at present. But this might be mitigated in that there will be surprising new routes to walk between various nodes. Signage is going to be a thing, isn't it (and it's going to be key...)

Mark

 
I have - always - been an pragmatic advocate and user of public transport. By which I mean using it where appropriate and available, but accepting that it's not always available or practical.

Which leads me to question things like "what is available", "how good is it for the customers" - both in comparisons across the UK, and what we should expect.  Of particular recent concern has been the reliability of our train service at Melksham, with cancellation rates reaching double figure percentages - five times worse than the target "worst case" under franchising.  Is it like this all over the UK, or are we being shabbily treated?

I was born in Merseyside and my nearest station and first railway memories were of Ainsdale.  Our family moved to North West Kent just before I started school, and I have many memories of travelling by train to school and then to Uni and to temporary jobs by train from Petts Wood. After Uni, I moved to take a permament job in Harpenden, and although I didn't commute from there, I did use the train for work and leisure travel.  And more than half a lifetime ago, I moved to Wiltshire.

I have taken Ainsdale, Petts Wood, Harpenden and Melksham stations and used onTimeTrains to compare the four very different regions.

Populations (estimated station catchment) Ainsdale - 13,000; Petts Wood - 18,000; Melksham - 26,000; Harpenden - 31,000 - However, Melksham only has a fraction of the timetabled services, which means that every cancellation hurts.  On the other had, we laugh off a ten minute delay in Melksham but at Petts Wood we would have already switched (I used to do this!) from the Charing Cross train to the Victoria train ... to get to my temporary job in Whitehall.





First image - last four weekends, ranked by the ontimetrains measure of reliability and cancellations. We noted a couple of good weekends after a "crisis" meeting with GWR but - oh dear - they have slipped back and are significantly worse, again, that the other stations elsewhere in England.

Second image - all days of the week, back to nearly the start of the year.  I have blanked out January because the train service at Melksham was virtually non-existant due to the month long closure of Westbury which makes the figures at onetimetrains statistically insignificant.   The scale on this second diagram are absolute scales and not relative ones - so everyone should be close together near the top of the scale.

 

Yes, ditched many moons ago now.

 
This presumably means that intentions for terminating platforms in the former train shed have been parked.

Thinking of parking, is it known what the plans mean for the train shed car park?

Does anyone have a link to an overall map of this please?

Mark

 

Darn it, you are right.  One of the others is also an odd one out for a different reason.


Yep - Hull, Glasgow and Brighton

 
7. Severn Tunnel Junction

All the others are request stops

 

You mean the one via Oxford?

 
In the new timetable that started this Monday, there's no longer an 18:30-ish train to Bristol - a well used service ("it always stops" - local report) but rather a gap from about half past five until twenty to eight.

This means the people who live in Westbury Leigh and Dilton Marsh can no longer easily attend some evening meetings / events in Trowbridge, Bradford-on-Avon and Bath.   It means that people returning home from Southampton (at 17:15) or Salisbury (at 17:45) to Westbury Leigh and Dilton Marsh no longer have a connection at Warminster, but rather don't arrive home until over an hour later.

I saw nothing in any of the online or other briefings to reflect this change, I saw and heard of no consultation, and I have seen no explanation nor customer alternative offered.  At a West Wiltshire Rail User Group committee lunch yesterday, it seems the cutting out of this train has come as a surprise to the users of Dilton Marsh Station too.

Before throwing a "wobbly" - either from myself or others - does anyone here know of a explanation for what appears to be the culling of a popular train without any process of asking, informing, or perhaps thinking of the customers?

 
More short-forms today.

JourneyCheck is showing the 11:52 London Paddington to Hereford, 15:18 Hereford to London Paddington and 18:57 London Paddington to Great Malvern services as five car short-forms.

Not on mentioned on JourneyCheck but showing on RTT is that the 19:53 Paddington to Hereford train will again be five cars (802015) so expect tomorrow's 05:23 Hereford to Paddington service to be short-formed yet again.

 
There are well-develped plans to improve access to Temple Meads.

The main car park will be at the new Southern Entrance, accessed via a new walkway across the New Cut starting near the old Cattle Dock and Platform 2. This will also have a pick up/drop off facility for people coming by car. This entrance has received planning approval.

Buses will access the station via Friary and the new Northern Entrance. There has been some resistance to this from bus operators as the planned highway design is too restrictive, but this will hopefully be improved. Terminators such as the 8, 70, 71, and 72 will very likely stop here.

The Western Entrance - what we currently think of as the Main Entrance, despite the fact that most people use the (currently rather modest) Northern Entrance - will be for taxis.

The Eastern Entrance will be mainly pedestrian, though there has been talk of buses serving it. The how, why and who of this does not seem to have been fully explored. This entrance is complete but will not be opened until the Bristol University buildings open.

 

Three hours from Bletchley to Didcot - isn't there a shorter and quicker route?

 
9 - Sheephill

The others were the locations of engine sheds.

 
Looks like a 150 is returning from Wolverton on Saturday

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:K49382/2025-12-20/detailed

 

Yes - that's what I had as my planned answer. Yet 


An excellent answer - correct, though not the one I had in mind!


Oh yes - hadn't notices that - correct, but again not the answer I had in mind


Please feel free to personal message me though ... happy to answer in private.

 
3 - Liverpool Lime Street - not served by Cross Country trains?

 
From the BBC:

 
1,  Westbury - has no platform 0 (yet)

 
Think I know 4 as well but will wait my turn tomorrow.

 
10 - Shipley.  The only town of those four which didn't previously have two stations.

 

Yes - that was what I had


Yes - the "parly connection" is what I had - though I think Snaith has two in one direction and one in the other.  I recall being there on the daily train to Goole and it being very quiet by the time it left the Leeds commuter route it extends, carrying on alongside a trunk road where one train a day is hardly likely to compete.


A good connection / exception - very much along the one I had in mind, but there's another connection I had which makes one of the others the exception.

 
5: Dilton Marsh - it receives more than one 'parliamentary' train per day