20:08 Westbury to Chippenham due 20:34
20:08 Westbury to Chippenham due 20:34 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 
Moving on from bikes eaten with Branston pickle ...

The staff connection off the London to Exeter train at Westbury once again triggered ongoing disruption ...
33 minutes late
66 minutes late
60 minutes late and terminated short
18 minutes late and started short
... major disruption all afternoon.

Naughty thought - if we had an hourly train, couldn't it have simple been a single train lost - one wait of 60 minutes rather than a a total of 177 minutes lost even before you look at extra delays and missed connections with a change of trains along the way.

 

I knew it rang a bell.........

https://historicflix.com/michel-lotito-the-man-who-ate-everything/

 

Ketchup or brown? I had a pasty for lunch myself, but chacun à son goût as they say.

 

And the next round ...

 
The return working, the 13:15 from Swindon, left just over an hour late.

 
The freight struggled to get up the bank at Dauntsey trapping the Melksham service behind it.  Both now on the move.

 

Oh dear ....

Due out at 12:17, but the crew didn't arrive on the express from London until 12:35 and the Swindon train left at 12:37 (20 minutes late).  But then it got held up at Bradford Junction awaiting the single line to Chippenham, and was no less that 33 minutes late at Melksham. Why the extra delay?

A freight train due to follow the 12:17 at 12:30.  It was at Westbury early, and was allowed to leave at 12:21 - 9 minutes early.    Which should have been OK - except that it got held on the single line awaiting the other main line at Thingley and from being 11 minutes early at Melksham it was 3 minutes late by Chippenham - 27 minutes from Melksham to Chippenham.   And while it waited for the line to Swindon, the passenger train sat waiting for the single line,

A suggestion was made at one time to have an intermediate signal on the single line, and that would have helped today. Better is the more recent favoured plan of an intermediate loop which implicitly lets trains follow each other at a closer headway that a whole-single-line solution.

 

Sorry, as typos go - this is one of the best.   

 

It ran ... not sure where the rolling stock came from, 158745 whereas it had been 158767 on the service in the morning. nice sprinting of passengers - I guess there were 20 into Melksham and (I did not walk through as I ate my bike) and perhaps a third got off. Not sure how many joined.

For today.


There's a shock - it's because the 10:35 Paddington to Exeter is late and the crew due off that at 11:56 at Westbury are not expected until 12:30.

 

I am hoping the 21:16 from Westbury runs (selfish  ) as I'm connecting into it from Portsmouth.  As the connection train from Portsmouth has 5 carriages (2 + 3), GWR could split it at Westbury if the train that would normally go to Swindon is in need of fixing.    That late of the evening, 5 carriages not needed all the way to Cardiff?

 
Some sort of problem on the 17:50 Chippenham to Melksham as well - stopped at Melksham on time I think but then doors didn't open for over 5 minutes. Train was still sitting there as I headed back to Whitley over the railway bridge, although I believe it did eventually continue on to Westbury.

 

 

Reinstated as a result:
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05
17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:19

 

Oh dear - https://www.wiltshire999s.co.uk/person-dies-struck-train-pewsey/?


Hugest sympathy and thoughts with relatives, friends and staff involved.     Not for immediate consideration, but we really need to allow diverted trains to double up for local ones when diverted.

 

 

 
Line re-opened at 4pm.

 
Still saying disruption expected until 17:00, although just noticed that the 17:50 from Swindon is cancelled (I go Chippenham-Melksham). I start at Bristol so I'll be taking the normal bus to Melksham from Bath.

 
Person hit by the 13:03 London Paddington to Plymouth near Pewsey.

 

 

 


... which supports grahame's suggestion: how many potential passengers on that service were put off by that original report, and made (subsequently proving to be unnecessary) alternative travel arrangements, such as taking the car instead?

 

 
In the end it left on time,

 

and now ...


I guess that it was re-instated?  Not sure where the service disruption is - could it be the disruption caused by engineering works that mean the is bustitution from Westbury in the Frome direction?

I'v said it before but rather than a frightening will be cancelled from the earlier report which has a degree of finality about it, and suggests it's not even with checking back later, could we have a may be cancelled early caution system - rather like signals are not just red and green, but red, amber and green?

 

Not sure - there is "can't" and there is "CAN'T".

Trowbridge is a classic example - you can't turn a train arriving from the north there but yet it HAS been done when line to the south was blocked by an "incident".

 

A few years back there was a Sunday train from Westbury which was timetabled to terminate at Melksham and then return.  However in the end it was extended to Chippenham as it was reported you couldn't turn a train at Melksham as it "confused" the axle counters.   Perhaps that is no longer the case.

 
Alterations to services between Westbury and Swindon via Melksham

Due to engineering works not being finished on time at Swindon all lines are closed. Disruption is expected until 10:30 23/02.

Train services between Westbury and Swindon via Melksham may be delayed by up to 45 minutes or revised.
Customer Advice
As a result of engineering work not being finished on time there will be severe delays / disruption to services on this route this morning. Please accept our aplogies for any inconvenience this may cause.

 

 

Nothing on journey check about what passengers should do - purely "feature" not "benefit" which I was taught was not the way to do it in my sales training.

There is an x34 bus at 08:48 from Melksham to Chippenham (railway station if required) that goes past the top of station approach in Melksham - doesn't actually stop there normally, but it [sh/c]ould.

There is an x34 bus at 09:25 from Chippenham railway station to Melksham and Trowbridge (on Sunday, of course, it does not go to the stop near Trowbridge station, and even by the time it reaches Melksham and passes close to the station, the train will have left.

Lots of things illustrated by these goings on ...

 

 

 
2M24 (see above) is running. 

 

On RTT, it has acquired "VCN" status, so you need to select the "CAN" option to view cancelled services. The reason given is ZW - unknown cause.

Also bearing a VCN status and ZW code on RTT is 2M34, the 20:14 Swindon-Westbury. There's nothing on Journeycheck about this service, and it is currently (at 19:22) shown on TIGER as "on time". Watch this space! 

Incidentally, the 18:37 Westbury-Swindon was delayed at Trowbridge for about 25 minutes (due to a "broken down train"). It lost a further 5 minutes due to missing its slot on the single line through Melksham.

 
Strangely, it seems to have disappeared from Real Time Trains altogether.

 

Busiest train of the day ... no alternative suggested except "get your money back and have a free journey on the next train" as it's over an hour later.  Why chose this train to cancel if you're short of crew?

 
Clearly not telling public the truth.

Train is announced as terminating early at Westbury (but the alleged fault allows it to continue from time of announcement through to Westbury, so if it could continue that far, could have got to Southampton).

Train is miraculously fixed at Westbury, and can be used to form another service missing a train. 

2V58 the return train from Southampton is showing as cancelled for reason M8 (problem with the train), ie it's not available, although codes YR or YU (tactical unit swaps) sound more likely

 
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:19
17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:19 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

That is very odd indeed ...



So it was capped at Westbury due to a fault on the train, but then 5 minutes later conveniently able to form a train to Weymouth?   Yes - there is a fault on the train (no loos reported on the Weymouth train) but it very much looks to me that "this is due to a fault on this train" is NOT why it didn't continue to Southampton - it was "hijacked" to form the Weymouth service.  Am I reading this wrong?   Are we being fed porkies?

 

 
And again ....

 
Here we (don't) go again


At least it says "this" train - so it's not been theived off the Southampton service to run the Weymouth train from Westbury this time

 

 

 

Still connected with the Paddington train at Swindon - which looks like it might have been held back a few seconds. Good - no problem here.

The 05:11 from Gloucester in reality is a chaining together of a series of separate workings and through passengers from Gloucester to Southampton must be rare as hen's teeth.  Even the crew changes along the way. It is scheduled to stop longer than is needed purely to drop off and pick up passengers at Swindon, Chippenham, Westbury and Salisbury and paths allowing could (and has been know to) make up much more time.   Good - whilst extended station dallies are not to be encouraged, a margin of time in schedules to ensure that trains turn up and connect on time even if held up earlier in their or a previous journey makes sense - especially where though passengers at "pause" stations are a minority of passengers.

 

Rather than just criticise, I should offer an alternative.   The x34 bus now runs on a Sunday from Trowbridge to Chippenham, and tickets should be accepted on that and it should be included in the journey planner.  Passengers who normally travel through Melksham should be allowed to travel via Bath Spa, changing trains there, and be advised they can do so at the same price which should be offered by the online booking applications once the cancelled train is removed from them. You will note than none of this "looking after the passengers" results in extra vehicle or staff miles on the ground - it's helping people use what's already there!

---

Looking wider (and not just for a solution this Sunday morning) in terms of train and bus interconnection at stations, the x34 is a fascinating case.   The service runs seven days a week, daytime only; the Sunday service was revived quite recently after a gap of many years.  Evening services, provided by a competing operator, were lost a decade ago when that operator pulled out of the route.  Further study to follow ....

 

Zero information about any alternative ... but you are told about delay/repay.   Another micro example of the macro failure to look out for the passengers - the customers?

 

 
Out of order - from yesterday:



The railway was closed at Trowbridge "at the request of the police due to ammunition being found near the line" and these things happen.   The ongoing information at Melksham was AWFUL - for the longest time the 06:32 just said "delayed"  and the 07:21 was on time.  Even when the southbound train was stated with a time again - estimated 07:18 - the northbound train at 07:21 still said "on time".   That makes a mockery of the "system knowledge" as it's predicting an impossibility on the single line and I found myself chatting with other passenger and telling them "not before 07:33" for the Worcester train.

"Delayed" on a 3 line screen is useless; there IS a big screen there (facing the car park) and all that was saying was the same thing with 2 lines each for the following 3 or 4 services.   Could have been more descriptive.   When I eventually got to Westbury, the screens there were showing distrupted train departures alternating with a desciption of what the problem was and why.   Why on earth could the same not be done - automatically share across stations big and small with responsive design so there's no need for human input on a. station by station business at the time of extreme re-organisation?   

I was at the Rail Innovation Exhibition yesterday (ironic) and lots of clever stuff. BUT there could be so much basic stuff done getting information right for passengers at the time of disruption - accurate (and not afraid to say "don't know"), consistent, and perhaps with interactive tools.  Lots of things being displayed but frightening on the information display side as to how fragmented, partial and at times embryonic it is - leaving passengers literally out in the cold.   I did a better job in Melksham reading my phone and helping to explain roughly what was going on from scant evidence.

Yes, I did try the help point.  It was obvious to me that the 06:32 would miss the connection at Westbury on into the 07:00 to Paddington with my "this train only" ticket, and if that misses the next fastest way to London in the 07:21 change at Swindon.   The nice chap on the help point told me that my next train was the 07:58 from Westbury and my ticket would be accepted on it, but that my advanced ticket was for that route only and would not be accepted if I took the next alternative which happened to use a different route (via Swindon) even if it got me there quicker. He then told me that I COULD use my ticket on SWR trains such as one that was running from Yeovil Pen Mill because "ticket acceptance is in place".  I got the impression that his geography was not great and he was of the understanding that Yeovil is just a short walk up the road from Melksham.

2O19 "adjusted" to not run beyond Salisbury (it was so late that the school traffic it normally carries south of there would have gone on the following train operated by SWR if they could all get in!)

2M81 got to Westbury on time, and sat there until the line re-opened ... and for some considerable time thereafter.  It was still there when I arrived at 07:30 when it should have left at 07:05 ... and stayed even longer as trains via Bath Spa were displatched out of order - perhaps because it was so late that "what's another 10 minutes?".  There were hard decisions to make here - a backlog of trains and a limited line.

Net result ... 2M81 ran only just ahead of the path of 2M13, probably took much of its traffic, and delayed 2M13 as well.   Two trains at Melksham, 14 minutes apart, to Swindon must be close to a record.   Interesting to see it can be done, and perhaps just a gentle warning of how NOT to do it if we end up with competing Go-op trains - they need to be spaced out!

 

 

Perhaps it always should - with a train starting from Westbury forming the Southampton service a few minutes later.  Discussion point but the failure of the train from Swindon (and Trowbridge) to connect onwards to Weymouth is one of life's frustrations ... not on the same scale as war and famine, but still a frustration ...

 
Yes, it went to Weymouth at 06:50.

 

If it can get to Westbury - am I to read it / can I guess that the train is being raided off the Southampton service to go somewhere else instead?

 

Restored (hope not too many people have replanned their journey) but now


Edit to add ... 7 minute delay, mostly made up by a quick reversal at Swindon

 
Journey Check reports just 3 cancellations (and no short runs and  just one delayed train) across the whole of the GWR network as I write.


and in case you wondered

 

 

Sensible.  On schooldays should always be 3 carriages - otherwise it overloads in the Stroud Valley. During covid was the "most overcrowded train" on GWR ...

 

 

Good - makes sense

 

Not a problem of the early part of the route though it may get cosy into Southampton.  At least it's running now - giving s Southampton arrival at ten past 8 rather that ten past 10 as it was a month ago.

 
A*week* between entries? Strewth!!

 

 


Indeed.   With the engineering hand we were dealt this year, thiough, a comparison to previous years can only be a distant one.

 
Appreciate there have been fewer trains so far this year, but by this stage of 2024 we were on page six of the disruptions topic.

 
Woohoo - my 07:21 Melksham-Chippenham this morning was on time, and I was able to catch the 07:34 Weston service at Chippenham without 'sprinting' (I use the term loosely) across the platform. All those upgrades have worked

 

Ah  - it must be this


And they are economic with the truth there - disruption is expected until 13:57 and not just until 13:00 ...   

 

Those are the "clever" services which are crewed by staff coming off the 10:35 London to Exeter at Westbury which has been cancelled due to flooding ... not sure flooding where ... and our fair weather railway fails again!

 

 

Celebration!    The triains are back and running again.   Lots of  2 <-> 3 carriage swiches today and in this queter season that won't make a huge difference (2 carriages on "The Weymouth" in the summer WOULD)

Running time 52 minutes, Warminster to Swindon.  What a wonderful contrast to the last month.  Buses have performed well, but the journey has taken twice as long.

 
During the Westbury closure the 17:35 from Swindon has been operated with the unit which worked the morning service from Trowbridge.    The unit has spent the day idle in Platform 2 at Swindon.

Whatever the fault with it was, it left Swindon at 17:00 today to head to St Philips Marsh depot in Bristol.

As far as I am aware it is the only train, or bus replacement, not to operate for passengers over the duration of the works.

 
Oh dear ...

 
Slightly confusing message in that there were no *train* services planned through Melksham today in any event due to the engineering work.

 
Cancellations to services between Trowbridge and Chippenham via Melksham

Due to heavy snow at Westbury disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Train services between Trowbridge and Chippenham via Melksham will be cancelled.

Customer Advice
Due to engineering works in the Westbury area, rail services are already disrupted.

Rail replacement road transport was in operation, however due to the snow, some coach operators are standing down and therefore the advertised rail replacement road services may not run.