From First Great Western JourneyCheck:


... breath? 

 
...hats? ...copy of The Times? ...counsel?

 
... noses? 

 
...hands in the air like you just don't care?

 
The service at Dilton Marsh is "erratic" and "curious" - words used in the spring consultation by the local councils, reflecting local opinion.   For example after the 07:00 (isn) southbound train, there's nothing to take you to Salisbury for many, many hours.

This morning, even the 07:00ish didn't run ... so the 06:28 Cardiff to Portsmouth picked up the call at what would be a rather good Salisbury commuter time.


The effect of the extra stop on the schedule?  Looks like that train may have the slack needed!
1 late from Westbury
2 late from Warminster
on time from Salisbury
1 early from Romsey (WTT - public timetable it was late)

Dilton Marsh is no longer a 'halt' for a little village.   Dilton Marsh itself has grown, and the large residential area of Westbury Leigh covers what were once green fields on the other side of the line.

 
Agreed the service to/from Dilton Marsh needs looking at since the vast increase to housing in the Westbury Leigh area. Something an extension of the Transwilts to Salisbury would solve nicely.

 
I agree - having distributed updated railway timetables to every household in Dilton Marsh on two occasions in the past (working together with Lee), I found there is a great deal of enthusiasm and pent up demand for improved train services.

 


Are the schools still in?   The 15:28 typically takes around 30 school children home from Warminster to Dilton Marsh. Looks like they'll be on the 15:58 to Westbury and then back round in taxis.  And they aren't a very patient bunch ...

 
From Journeycheck


Following up from http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=20898.105 - early discussions on this topic when changes to TransWilts extended services to Southampton were amended

 

OK - Train Manager can't get through to operate the front doors, I suspect.   

Train not due to call until 10:54  (it's only 10:00 as I write) - so surely that would be time enough for them to plan for the train manager to dispatch at Warminster from the front door?   Next northbound train scheduled at 14:50.

 
"This train will call at Warminster, Salisbury, Romsey an Southampton Central" says the accouncement on 166202 as it stands in Westbury.  But then soon after leaving Westbury, it comes to a stand at the platform at Dilton Marsh, and passengers get off and on before it proceeds.  A hidden, unadvertised station - perhaps small wonder that so few people use it when - amongst other reasons - people aren't even told about trains that call there.

---

With time in hand on my way from Melksham to Taunton (scheduled to be at Westbury form 06:53 to 08:27 due to infrequent and disconnected services!) I took a side trip to Dilton Marsh to update myself and picture library.  Just myself off the train that called at 07:01; it also picked up one person.  With the next train at 10:12 (just as far as Warminster) or 11:13 (for Salisbury and Southampron) this one passenger departing is probably the total current southbound commuter flow.

Better on the 07:28 headed for the Bath and Bristol area - 7 passengers joined that train, and as an educated guess a higher number would have joined the 07:44.  No-one got off the 07:28 arrival.

Come December, the 07:01 goes 5 minutes earlier - the only commuter train soutbound now leaveing before 7 a.m..  The 07:28 goes to 07:32 and the 07:44 creaps earlier to 07:42; not huge changes but a drift, and not in a direction that I would expect to encourage (m)any more passengers.

Having arrived at the hidden station (I checked at Westbury with the train manager), I had to find the times of my train back.  OK - I knew, but just as there was a "need to know" to get there, so there was to get back. A Portsmouth to Cardiff poster is situated at the bottom of the ramp up to the northbound platform, but the print is tiny, the data overloaded.  Before 07:30, a lack of lighting makes it impossible to read ... and condensation would mean it was still impossible even with a torch.

On the well lit and modern platform, the information point has no display, there is no overhead display, and no notice of when trains call at all.  A clue of people arriving provides a clue that ther's a train due soon ... not sure that even that clue would be present at other times of day (after the morning peak).

At the southbound platform - the 07:01 calls









At the northbound platform - the 07:28 calls


My camera has adjusted light levels and makes it look far more readable than it was!









Seconds after the very first train from Dilton Marsh has arrived into Westbury (that's it in the foreground), the last (of two) commuter trains to Chippenahm and Swindon leaves (that's it in the background).  No chance what so ever of making a connection, next train to Swindon not for more than two hours ...

 
With the loss of the Westbury to Southampton 'locals' from December (with the exception of the early morning one) I took a look at what the Dilton Marsh service will look like ...



* A gap from 06:57 to 13:34 in trains to Salisbury, then nothing direct until 22:07
 - just 2 stops down the line, though a good connection off the 09:54

* 8 southbound and 13 northbound services. 
* 5 of the 8 southbound services go no further that Warminster
* 7 of the 13 northbound services only start from Warminster (and one expires at Westbury)

In looking at this, I also looked at SWR services at Warminster after the Bristols cease - I will commend in a separate thread on these;  my interest here is that these could likely provide those 5 extra DMH southbound stops - filling the morning gap so services to Salisbury and beyond in some cases are 06:57, 07:40, 11:40, 13:34, 14:15, 15:45, 22:07 and 23:12

 
Looking at easements ... I think these both say more or less the same thing - that passengers fro Dilton Marsh to Westbury or beyond there may travel via Warminster.  They do NOT say that passengers from Dilton Marsh to stations to the south can travel via Westbury, which would seem to be even more useful and a much shorter double back


Can anyone suggest why there's this imbalance of easements?

 
It's really good to see the southbound call at Dilton Marsh at 08:05 on 1F05 last week, and to see it scheduled again for next week.  The West Wilts Rail User Group and others have been asking for this service to make the additional call for some time, to pick up an identified flow to school in Warminster; at present, many parents drive pupils to school in the morning and then they (pupils) get the train back in the afternoon.

The team at GWR have been concerned that a Dilton Marsh stop by this train would impact unacceptably on its timekeeping, and I appreciate that's something they need(ed) to consider. However, looking at the service last week, it actually gained time between Westbury and Wishford on four out of the five days.  I have chosen a monitoring point after Warminster, but before Wilton and the Salisbury area to record, in order to get the full effect of the extra stop in the frame, but not add any complications from other traffic. Obviously, the train cannot leave Warminster early, so we should never see Wishford more than 1 minute early.

Day   ex Westbury   pass Wishford   max lateness before Westbury
14   On Time      1 early
15   On Time      1 early
16   1 late      On Time      (was 5 late at Keynsham)
17   On Time      On Time      (was 4 late from Cardiff)
18   On Time      1 early

I was almost hoping to see the service "under stress" - more delayed from Westbury - to provide more data. I will keep my eyes open. However, it appears to have slack in the schedule anyway before it leaves Westbury (see 16th and 17th notes), which is an even better prognosis for how this train will do with a permanently timetabled Dilton Marsh Stop.

 
21st - 7 late at Westbury, 5 late at Wishford (Delay at Bathampton; 2 late Southampton, on time Portsmouth)
22nd - on time at Westbury, 1 early by Wishford

Evidence so far suggests that a Dilton Marsh stop does not cause timekeeping problems!

 
No brand new railway station has been opened in Wiltshire for 85 years! Dilton Marsh station opened on 1st June 1937.  At that date, set in the rural countryside but now sitting between the major residential area of Westbury Leigh and the very much expanded Dilton Marsh, there are only a few fields left in the immediate area of the station.

The train service at Dilton Marsh has been sporadic and appalling over the years and remains so to this day - it seems very much an afterthought in the train planner's work and there are some real failures to provide a decent service for customers - both in terms of the timetable and in terms of the reliability of those trains. 

At present, it's a request stop on trains that are run more at operationally convenient times than to meet the station's potential customers needs. I speculate that hourly calls on the Cardiff to Portsmouth services - which call at all other stations from Bradford-on-Avon through to Salisbury - would quickly elevate it way above being a request stop.  And I note the three week trial just before Easter in which an extra call was made by one of the Cardiff - Portsmouth trains just after 8 O'Clock in the morning; the train was still on time at Salisbury (so no timetable issue) and I'm told there were passengers picked up every day - remarkable for something that received no publicity - just appeared on the online timetables.

As a statement of the obvious - trains in the reverse direction (Portsmouth to Cardiff) should also stop.  Actually much easier to timetable, as the gradients near the station make it downhill to Westbury.

A very great deal of investment has been put into Dilton Marsh Station in recent years, and the station is now in excellent condition.  Come on, GWR, SWR, DfT - please provide that final piece of the jigsaw to make Dilton Marsh a success story over coming years.

 
The most famous resident of DM would be very pleased,Bristol City footballer John Atyeo.

 
Had to be done !

 
From a correspondent in Dilton Marsh (by email, reproduced with permission):

Just a quick update on the abysmal service we are having to endure on a daily basis: short formations, overcrowding and air conditioning that generally doesn’t work.

I’m sure I remember GWR stating that withdrawal of the Brightons would enable them to run the 5 coach trains we are supposed to have on the Portsmouth to Cardiff line. Since their withdrawal, I have seen the short formations of 2 and 3 coaches become more prevalent with yesterday morning being nothing short of a disgrace.

As usual on a Sunday I caught the 1052 from Dilton Marsh to Keynsham to visit my mum. It turned up a few minutes late as an already overcrowded 3 car. I managed to get on as did the other Dilton Marsh passengers and while there were no seats, I was able to move into the carriage away from the numerous suitcases blocking the doorways because there was nowhere else for them to go. A number of passengers got off at Dilton Marsh. I did ask if they actually wanted Dilton Marsh as they were laden with suitcases. Their English was poor and I don’t think they understood me. As we started moving they looked at the station sign and moved back towards the train but as the guard was by the front door he wouldn’t have seen them and as we were already moving, there was nothing he could have safely done anyway. Why can’t the automatic announcements give out Dilton Marsh, rather than when the door opens at Dilton Marsh state, “This is Westbury” with the monitors “confirming” this?

Also on this train, it was so overcrowded that people were left behind including a wheelchair at Bradford on Avon due to not only there being no room on the train for it but it was physically impossible for the guard to get to the cupboard which stored the ramp. This isn’t the only train that is regularly short formation. While the 1105 is a welcome addition at Dilton Marsh to replace the old 1111 from Westbury, it is only ever a 3 car with standing room only. This is the train that connects with the cruise ships so it is vital with no 1111 relief it is a 5 car.

 
We visited friends on Sunday who are only occasional train users. They told us that they had recently used the Cardiff to Portsmouth service to travel to Southampton, and then on by SWR to Poole to catch a ferry to the Channel Isles. Their journeys there and back match all the comments made in this correspondents ones, and they specifically mentioned the issue of the cruise passengers pretty much swamping Southampton Central's platforms to the point that when the train our friends had hoped to catch back towards Cardiff came in, they couldn't get on, and they had to wait an hour for a similarly overcrowded train to arrive to squeeze onto. They did also note with surprise how different the SWR trains were, where there was plenty of space and none of the issues highlighted here about the GWR service.

 
From another local correspondent - another day, another train, a similar problem




 

 
As so often seen in journeycheck "More trains than usual needing repairs"!

 
There's a 2 car 165 doing the rounds again on the CDF-PMH line today.

 

On its own?  No parent??

 
On its own:

0803 BRI-PMH
1023 PMH-CDF
1430 CDF-PMH
1824 PMH-CDF
2230 CDF-BRI

 

Thank you - interesting to note it's not flagged up as a short form on journey check ...

 
It’s booked for a 3-car 166.  Is it possible that the night staff that do entries for journeycheck were on strike last night, so some entries have been missed?  It’s also quite possible that it’s just another journeycheck inaccuracy.

Either way, it’s good that the much more accurate data on realtimetrains can be used to find out such things.

 
RTT was where I found out that there was a diagram down as a 2 car 165. Coming up on departure boards as such as well.

 
For the last few weeks I have been helping out in an allotment alongside the railway line at Warminster - at various times of day. From my totally unscientific observations 5 car trains are very rare. Out of curiosity  I had a quick look at RTT.
Last Monday, out of 32 Cardiff/Portsmouth trains just 6 were 5 cars.
Today (Sunday) out of 29 Cardiff/Portsmouth trains 18 were 5 cars.
This seems to tell me something - but I am not quite sure what ...............

Be interesting to see what tomorrow brings.

 

According to RTT: this Monday 12 trains are shown to be 5 cars.  Double last Monday - but a third down on yesterday.

 
 9 today !

 
Please remind me when the 19 x 769 units have been promised to come into service to release turbos from the North Downs line and  to bring trains in our area up to the appropriate length.

 

Shortly after the first commercial fusion reactor starts up.

 

Today's score:   ZERO !!!   

 
10 today.
Couldn't believe my eyes at the 0912 - a 5 car 158............. Wonder if it had a trolley too !

 
Oh dear !!!!!  Have I upset/embarrassed GWR by logging the (small) number of 5 car trains passing through Warminster over the past week ?? 

This morning only one train's length is shown - and that is the solitary SWT service passing through today.

 
Looks like 7 carriages down today as admitted on the industry feeds



Checking real time trains:
12:23 - 5 cars (only train that long from Portsmouth to Bristol)
13:23 - 3 cars
16:23 - 3 cars
17:23 - 4 cars

So 25 carriages out of 40 if all the trains were to run as the 5 carriages promised from December 2019 as I recall

And the cycle rolls around

 
Today, starting with the 10:23 from Portsmouth Harbour, hourly to Cardiff
3-5-3-3-4-3-3-4 = 28 carriages out of 40 today
That's the cycle of the 8 trains ... start repeating 3-5-3-3 thereafter

 
The cooperation between most TOC’s and RealTimeTrains with unit allocations now makes keeping an accurate log not only possible, but relatively straightforward.

 
I remember seeing some "loading along the way" graphics from Cross Country showing how a Plymouth - Glasgow service at 4 carriages could not be increased to 5 just because it was crammed from Taunton to Temple Meads.

How are loadings along Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff?  Are there sections of the route where a single unit would be adequate?    "Obviously", Portsmouth Harbour to Portsmouth and Southsea is unlikely to be crammed, for example - but no point in splitting off 2 carriages for just that short part of the journey.      Would five carriages Cardiff to Salisbury and three onwards to Portsmouth work?   

 

Yep - here we go today, staring with the 10:23 from Portsmouth Harbour plans are:

3-3-5-3-3-2-3-4 = 26 carriages out of what is supposed to be 40

 
I was on the 08.34 train this morning from Oldfield Park heading to Southampton, which was 3 carriages. It not only had many commuters in it, but apparently there is a festival in Winchester, which explains why it was completely rammed with people with very large rucksacks for the whole journey.

The trains I caught coming back were both 2 carriage trains, and busy.

 
3-5-5-3-3-?-3-4 today (12.8.2022)

"?" not yet defined. The incoming train starts off as a 2 car from Cardiff to Bristol (165130) but ther's no report beyond Bristol.  I suspect a late decision as to whether or not 165130 continues, is strengthened, is replaced, or the service terminates.  So probably somewhere between 28 and 31 carriages out of 40.  In context, looks like it will be zero tomorrow.

 
From the 11:08, hourly off Portsmouth Harbour, Sunday 14th August 2022
2-5-5-cancel-4-5-cancel-cancel
No "short formation" reports on JourneyCheck
Following train (the 19:08) also 2 carriages like the 11:08 - same little train going round

After the 16:08 Portsmouth - Cardiff, 4 more trains in the timetable but the 19:08 is the only one running - the other three all cancelled.  Our guests were looking for a day out to the seaside this weekend; relieved we didn't ...

 
Today (15.8.2022) scheduled off Portsmouth Harbour hourly from 10:23 as 3-5-4-3-2-2-3-4 carriages. (2 cars also on the 06:01, 07:21 and 20:23).  Only one cruise liner today at Southampton (AIDAPRIMA) so should not be too crowded because of that.  Saturday with Iona, Ventura, Norwegian Prima ans Sky Princess should be fun!

 
Today’s 16:08 from Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central is six coaches!  Only the last coach is locked out. Not sure if it’s a fault with the internal doors or the aircon.

It also left five minutes late which was handy as my catamaran from the Isle of Wight arrived on time at 16:08 but I was able to catch the train with a couple of minutes to spare!

 
5-3-3-3-3-3-3-3 today ... 26 carriages on a service that should have 40.
(Portsmouth Harbour departures for Cardiff every hour from 10:23)

I suspect the 6th carriage was locked out yesterday because some of the platforms along the way can only take 5 these days, and I'm not sure that 166s have selective door opening?

 

Is that a ‘should’ that’s based on…

1) A pledge from GWR post-pandemic?
2) A pledge from GWR pre-pandemic?
3) The current unit allocations as per the plan?
4) An aspirational number based on daily demand?

 
Wasn't a good day at all yesterday on the Cardiff-Portsmouth line with numerous cancellations and short workings. The worst it's been for quite sometime.

 

A pledge and plan for all daytime services to be 5 cars made some time back, and never to my knowledge revoked.  We were told that it was delayed because delivery of 769 units was late - not sure how we're doing on that, but I note it was a statement that linked it to their delivery, and not their entering service though that would have been more logical.   All the 8 trains on the service are supposed to be a 3 car 166 coupled to a 2 car 165, with longer distance passengers (as I recall) encouraged to use the 166 part of the train as those units are longer distance ones.  All a bit hazy - yes - it was some time back.

I have no problem with trains running shorter than 5 carriages, provided they can cope with the passenger numbers wishing to travel.  Sadly, there are numerous stories of the trains on the Cardiff-Portsmouth line being full and standing, and even that they're so busy that people can't get on. To my knowledge, none of those "denied boarding" stories has related to a 5 car train.

 
Perhaps time to seek an official update on whether that is still the plan when 769s eventually release more turbos? 

It’s clear there isn’t the stock for it currently and the pandemic and massive delays to the 769s have muddied the waters and we’ve had three changes of contract since COVID hit.

 
Quoting back 'upthread' ...


Yes, and old commitment - but part of it still very much there in today's Journecheck feed that acknowledges shortforms to this day, even if the reason feels odd and has us all scratching our heads and wondering if someone has plonked in the wrong code.

 

Will yet another "official update" throw any more light on the subject ? On past performance the answer has to be a resounding NO !  It is more than 5 years since we were promised "more seats"  (disingenuity or lies ?) on this route with cascaded 165/6s - don't hold your breath................

Today's pathetic effort by GWR shows just 4 five car calls at WMN. There do also appear to be 4 four car calls - but these all accounted for by a reversing service from WSB crossing over. ALL the remaining services are 2 and 3 cars.......................disgraceful !!!

Update: On closer examination even the (solitary) 5 car train appears to be a 158 ...................

 

I’d have thought it would be very important to seek clarity given the seismic changes to rail travel and life in general that we have seen over the last few years.  The only constant during that time is the failure to get 769s into service!

 

I’ll have a look at the planned formations for each train in detail later if I get chance.

 

From what I have unearthed...
...the following are currently booked as 3-car throughout:  15:23 and 16:23 PMH-CDF
...the following are currently booked as 4-car throughout:  10:23 and 17:23 PMH-CDF
...the following are currently booked as 5-car throughout:  12:23 and 14:23 PMH-CDF
...the following I am unsure about:  11:23 and 13:23 PMH-CDF

The return gets complicated.  For example it looks like the 14:30 CDF-PMH is booked as a 4-car throughout, yet today it was a 5-car from CDF-BRI and then a 3-car forward. 

I guess that evens itself out?!  I now have a headache!

 

Very interesting, thank you.  Very interesting to take a look at where the 3 car sets are at peak times - which of these diagrams is consistently "contraflow" in rush hours and so can be gotten away with.

 
Here's today's cycle of 8 trains, 4 declared as shortformed by GWR on JourneyCheck:





According to Real Time Trains, other departures from Portsmouth Harbour:
12:08 - 5 cars
14:08 - 5 cars
15:08 - 5 cars
18:08 - 5 cars

34 carriages on the services out of 40 which by the rail industry's own systems there should be; actually much better than it has been of late, though half the trains shorter than they "should" be is hardly good news.

 
Thought I'd have a count of the 5 cars trains at Warminster again today - just in case they have found some more ..................FOUR !  Pathetic.............

 

From PHM today - 4-4-2-5-3-4-3-3 carriages according to Real Time Trains (hourly from 09:23).  12 carriages short from the 40 needed for full 5 car. So I suspect that's 4 services at Warminster again.

 
Success!   As from December, there is a permanent extra "request" call at Dilton Marsh at 08:04 in the morning, filling the southbound gap between 06:57 (to Southampton) and 09:54 (to Warminster).  This extra call on a train that passes through has been requested for many years, as it will allow school pupils from Westbury Leigh (close to the station) and Dilton Marsh to use public transport both to and from school, ending the current situation in which children are taken to school by car and come home on the 15:30 from Warminster.

In the past, GWR have been concerned that the extra stop would damage timetable robustness, but a 3 week trial this spring (rather forced on them because the 06:57 was suspended) showed it working well every day, and even though unadvertised locally up to 10 passengers joined the train southbound each day.   It is also going to be a useful service for people who want to commute to Salisbury, or have the day out in Salisbury and beyond without having a very early start indeed.  Thank you GWR - a small change that will make a big difference

(Written for RailFuture newsletter / old news on the forum ;-) )

 
Follow up at http://www.passenger.chat/26809 - I have split the topic which has gone a lot further than Dilton Marsh.  Looking at the whole issues of the future of the Wessex Main Line's services and rolling stock.

 
With Dilton Marsh's anniversary coming up "on this day" today, it's opportune to record the success ⁽¹⁾ of the extra stop added there last December at 08:04 in the morning to take young people to school.  Something "we" had requested for many years. 

How has this been achieved? By working together.  Our community has
(*) a deep local knowledge of flows, including those not using public transport because they weren't suitable services,
(*) some analytic skills to understand what is practical and the consequences of a request,
(*) an understanding of what motivates the key decision makers, and
(*) a continuing demonstration by the community to the public transport industry can work with us - that we are here for the long term, that we will support their sensible though sometimes tough decisions, that we know our community, and that they can trust us as we work together.

Sometimes it comes down to taking advantage of unexpected opportunities to ratchet services in the right direction; in mid-May, the Metro-West service from Bristol to Keynsham and Oldfield Park increased from 1 to 2 trains per hour.  That's totally a totally correct change from WECA, and I expect to see passenger numbers going "through the roof".  But where to turn those extra trains?   It turns out that the chosen option is Westbury, Frome, Warminster or Salisbury.  The extra services - now 3 trains an hour - to Bradford-on-Avon, Trowbridge and Westbury are more than welcome.  The lack of a track at "platform 0" at Westbury limit that station's operational capacity to turn trains, and so they go on.  A big consequential advantage to Dilton Marsh and Warminster ... and now there's a service that's frequent and complete enough for that station to be the start / end point of choice for people to leave and join the rail network - especially for journeys such as commutes / day trips to Trowbridge, Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads. 

Are passengers going to "offer" at Dilton Marsh?  The people are there.  As well as Dilton Marsh, the suburb of Westbury Leigh is in easy walking distance of the little station, whereas those residents would have a trek or need to get their cycles out to get to the main Westbury station.   But crucial in the choice of "do I take the car" or "do I walk / cycle / get a lift to Westbury" is reliability and information systems. Will the train actually be running?  Will the information be correct and complete if the train is delayed?  What will happen if a connection misses?   

We are in a heartbreaking phase at present. Not just Dilton Marsh but all over West Wiltshire and indeed across much of the UK, with reliability in tatters through a combination of frugality of provision, adaption to changes brought about by such as covid, Brexit and technology, the ongoing battle (it seems) between government, unions and train operators, and more extreme climate and environmental events. 

However - this heartbreak should be just a glitch - we still have our community strength.  We still have our local knowledge. We have climate, and congestion-busting rail use on our side.  We have really good professionals in the rail industry with whom we can work, and indeed experts on "our team" who ave retired from a life in public transport and who know a thing of three.  It all sounds a long way from Dilton Marsh, but yet that's just part of a story.

A huge "Thank You" to Bryony Chetwode from TravelWatch SouthWest who came to the West Wiltshire Rail User Group's meeting last night to talk to us on what (as passengers) we have to look forward to on public transport over the next decade, and how we (as a user group) can help tune that for the mutual benefit of the passengers, the environment, the paymasters and the operators.  Unusually, I have put passengers first in that list - at times, it feels like the passengers aren't exactly top of the list when so many other businesses have a "customer is King" mantra.

 ⁽¹⁾ - By "Success", I mean not only in getting the train to stop there without impacting journey times for through passenger, but also in getting a significant number of passengers joining it on a daily basis, and also in getting their business on trains home later in the day which were already running!

 
Further writing inspired by that - http://grahamellis.uk/blog882.html

 
Delighted to arrive at Dilton Marsh at 09:35 this morning ... update my photo library ... and leave again on the 09:55.  Several people off when we arrived at 09:35, and 11 got on at 09:55 so neither was a special stop made just for me.   Good to see it busy - perhaps busier than I've seen it before except for the afternoon school train.  Most of the joiners on the way back stayed on the train beyond Westbury (from observation)

P.S. Reports are that the new morning school train is doing rather well too.

 
Two cheers for Dilton Marsh - THANK YOU GWR. Three cheers reserved for the days that the regular trains don't get cancelled and there's no need to add "stop" orders.



Dilton Marsh was an unlikely survivor of the "Beeching" Era but these dsys a station set beside a village in pleasant rolling fields has residential developments on a all sides.  Sporadic services over many years - long gaps and many trains only going one stop (to Westbury or Warminster) limited its use, as has the reliability issue of the local service.

 


Should Dilton Marsh be a request stop?

Passengers report that most trains they're on that have an optional stop there actually end up stopping, and nearby residents talk of most of the trains stopping too.   The West Wiltshire Rail User Group put in a request to GWR to remove the request nature and have all the trains that might call actually do so.  We were very surprised that GWR came back telling us that only a third of trains in the timetable actually call, adding that they have other busier request stops.  A whole load of questions spring to mind ...

1. Timetabled trains - 33% call - so why don't the other 67%?  Could it be that some of them simply don't run at all, so of course they can't call.  Looking at on time trains on another matter, Dilton Marsh was reported as the station being 2599th out of 2619 for performance, and reporting 20% cancellations on the metric I was looking at (Weekends over six months). Could it be that a third of the trains that don't call at Dilton Marsh are not calling there because they're not running at all?

2. When trains are full and standing, there is a tendency for them to miss out stations where the rear of the train sticks out from the platform because the train manager can't get through. In our area, that applies to Avoncliff and to Dilton Marsh.  There are also occasions when trains are running late and stops are skipped - even Trowbridge and Bradford-on-Avon get left out sometimes. Could it be that some of the trains not calling at Dilton Marsh are due - well - not too few passengers, but too many?

3. Engineering works are not uncommon, and within the period that's probably been used to work out the "only a third call" there have been planned train losses from those engineering works and from industial action where (typically) trains are withdrawn days of weeks ahead, so don't show up in the cancellation figures that relate to on-the-day changes for the most part.  Could it be that some of the trains not calling at Dilton Marsh are because the line or GWR's service is closed?

4. From time to time (and I don't know the proportion of time or logic) when a train is cancelled we hear of a stop order being added in onto a through (Cardiff - Portsmouth) service.  Good - but - the information about the extra stop often appears in a different place to the cancellation and the train that stops is 15 to 30 minutes later. People probably don't know about the extra even when they have heard of the cancellation, so it's likely to get only minimal or no use.  Could it be that such a situation is reported as "there was no-one for Dilton Marsh".  And when I was last there, there was no live screen on the platforms that would have alerted me to the extra train.  Could it be that people who turn up at the station for a train give up before the unadvertised extra arrives?

5. Automate systems such as the trackers sometimes show "no report" for Dilton Marsh, although local passengers report that the train HAS stopped. Could it be that such "no report"s are taken as erroneous "no stop"s?

6. As is not uncommon elsewhere too, there are travel flows to and from Dilton Marsh which are ticketless. Sadly, DMH probably has a significantly higher proportion of these due to [redacted]. Could it be, as I suspect, that GWR's "busier request stops" assertion is based on ticket sale numbers and not on numbers of passengers,

I am aware that trains run from early in the morning to late in the evening and passengers at some times of day are thinner than others.  And that the busy times are the times the trains will stop and also the times that people will report as seeing them stopped. So passenger reports will tend to have a bias towards thinking more stop than actaully do. On that basis, I would find "only a half stop" believable, but "only a third stop" stretching it unless some or all of my concerns above are valid.

A couple of further points:

A. GWR talk of "some busier request stops". Do they measure on passengers per train, or passengers per month? If it's passengers per train, I can quite believe that there are more passengers per train at stations which have very few calls even optionally. And if it's passengers per month, we should bear in mind that on a frequent service line where many more trains may stop, the request status may remain valid because of those more passnegers being spread over a much larger number of trains.

B. Would removal of the "request" status give people more confidence and help boost numbers, and/or is it a bit of a red herring and we should be asking more for ... a reliable servive ... real time information about the trains ... ticket machine to inspire confidence ... a better timetable (read that as "even" better, because it has improved)

 
Is the main reason or benefit (or at least a significant factor, for in the real world things don't come down to single reasons) in this case the short platform – so the need to request the stop means passengers are more alert to instructions to reposition themselves, and the conductor is aware of passengers planning to alight. But this doesn't really add up as there are other such stations in the region that aren't request stops - in fact Avoncliff stopped being a request stop because of other operational needs.

I wonder how much fuel and break wear are actually saved by the final segments of braking and accelerating. The time saving is 30 seconds or whatever. It seems to me that the benefits of it being a request stop are marginal, at least when compared to the disadvantages of having a 'one off' case. Also being so close to Westbury means the conductor may not make it through the train after the previous 'main' stop, and therefore sometimes it might have to stop because they haven't had time for a full check, and passengers may worry that they won't have time to inform the conductor in those 2-3 minutes.

It strikes me that request stops work best where there are several of them on the same line – as seen on many more rural routes. There the time recovery benefits are greater, train crews aren't having to deal with a non-standard case, and passenger awareness is higher. This gives greater benefits both for routes where individual stations have low stop rates (as seen on the Scottish highland routes) and in cases where the stop rate is actually high (as seen on many GWR & TFW routes) as it will be a different one or two non-stops each time. I do wonder if it's really worth it where there's just one request stop, unless it's a super low-use station, which DMH isn't.

 
 

 
I wondered in public last night ... more follow up


Guard not seriously injured, I understand.

No indication yet of the length of the closure.

 

 

Was this a new platform? Any others built the same way?