Even concerning advance fares, looking a week ahead an advance single is £53 (compared to £86 for an anytime single, both with a railcard) so the advance offer doesn't exactly shine, and neither is persuasive unless someone really needs to be somewhere and at that time of the morning.

I seem to recall the DfT chaps and to some extent GWR made plenty of hay with this service though, at the time they axed the services that *did* run at a time that met people's needs.

Mark

 

During previous closures, Portsmouth to Cardiff service have routed to Swindon where you can change for Bristol (Parkway, and Temple Meads via Parkway) and for Cardiff.   With 2 local trains an hour from Westbury to Bath, such an arrangement might make sense again.

The early service from B-o-A and Trowbridge to London, frankly, picks up very few passengers indeed at either of those stations and could for a few days be substituted by a local train to Westbury, with a change there onto the Bristol to Paddington via Wilts and Berks service, running from Bristol via Taunton and picking up its normal route at Westbury.   A side question as to why this service in normal times is underused is worthwhile; my educated guess is that it's too early in the day, too expensive, relatively slow, little publicised, and there are no equivalent direct services in the opposite direction ...

 
Didn't they close line for few days last week of October last year too.

Maybe school half term week is week of choice

However the wording of trains that will run, doesn't seem to mention the trains that go to Salisbury, Southampton, Castle Cary, or Yeovil from Bristol, or early service to London from BoA and Trowbridge.  Suggests to me that these are all quietly being axed for duration.

 
Early warning: https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates/planned-engineering