I think it probably depends which part of their network you use. I find the service that covers Reading to Bournemouth is generally acceptable. One improvement could be if the looked at the number of cruise ships/passengers scheduled at Southampton. It is published a year in advance I believe, putting a 4-car train on when there five cruise ships scheduled is a likely recipe for disgruntlement.

 
10 car 800 series trains, as most of cross country is under the wires anyway, capacity, toilets in one go...

 

Currently 11 trains per day, Pewsey to Paddington. Here are the morning timings.
06:15 - 07:36 (Makes 8 intermediate stops)
06:40 - 08:01 (Makes 8 intermediate stops)
07:18 - 08:35 (Makes 4 intermediate stops)
08:15 - 09:21 (Makes 4 intermediate stops)
09:27 - 10:29 (Makes 2 intermediate stops)
11:04 - 12:06 (Makes 2 intermediate stops)
13:08 - 14:17 (Makes 3 intermediate stops)

I would envisage an update clockface semifast service to make 5 intermediate stops (Bedwyn, Kintbury, Hungerford, Newbury and Reading) and take perhaps 70 minutes - the 08:15 pattern with 1 extra stop. The 07:18 has slack in its timings - it is scheduled to sit at Reading for 9 minutes,.  This morning it left Pewsey 7 minutes late but was on time on departure from Reading.

I would agree that if all the trains also called at stations such as Thatcham, Theale, Reading West and Maidenhead (all are calls in at least one of the above) then the running time would rise to 80 minutes. But then the current early "8 stop" trins can be characterised as Kennet Valley commuter semifasts extended out.   You see similar in the evening peak, where the 18:08 from Paddington also calls at Twyford (personal experience it disgorges a high proportion of passenger there) and is scheduled to take 76 minutes - calls at Theale and Thtacham too in addition to London - Reading - Newbury and all stations onwards.

In the days of slam door HSTs, the outbound evening services that made lots of stops felt like an eternity. Perhaps memories have not faded and there is a fear of a return to similar timings?   In 2015, the 18:07 (as it was) took 90 minutes from Paddington to Pewsey; there is no suggestion as far as I know of a return to those timings.

 
I have had the misfortune of having to use/rely on CrossCountry trains 5 times in the last month.

I managed to secure my pre-booked seat on just one of those trains.
Every single train was late departing - from as little as 15 minutes to 50 minutes.
Every single train was ‘full and standing’ - actually overflowing with people standing in the toilets on one mid-morning Reading to Birmingham New Street service (we actually bailed at Birmingham International as we worked out out TfW connection commenced there - and we just wanted off the Class 221 tubular hell hole.

Given passenger levels the need from some kind of non-London routing to get around the country is definitely needed and desired. But - given recent experiences (and previous) I wonder how GBR should look at revisit the whole cross country design.

Better trains (and longer) trains - 4 or 5 car 221s just don’t seem to cut it ?
Faster trains, better acceleration )- less station stops, moving to a major centre to centre service ?
Consider an alternative hub than Birmingham New Street (trains just seem routinely to sit for 5 mins outside waiting for a platform - and a discussion on Wolverhampton station with a staff member indicated the development of the West Midlands Metro is only going to make things worse) ?
Mandate pre-booking only - no turn up and go tickets for sale (radical I know) ?

What ideas have YOU had to solve the Cross Country issue(s)?

I fully admit that my experience has been limited to the south and west routes of CC - is it equally as bad elsewhere on their network ?

 

As things currently stand, some of the fastest trains that run between Pewsey and Paddington (and vice versa) only call at Newbury / Reading giving a journey time of just under one hour. Many passengers from Pewsey are concerned that these fast trains will no longer call at Pewsey if Devizes Gateway is built and/or Bedwyn trains are extended to Westbury which would result in longer journey times between Pewsey and Paddington (and vice versa)

 
Blimey what was it? An albatross?

Delays to services between Newbury and Bedwyn

Following a broken down train earlier today at Kintbury all lines towards Taunton have now reopened. Disruption is expected until 16:15 15/06.

Train services between Newbury and Bedwyn are returning to normal.
Customer Advice
-
What has happened?
-
A train had broken down near Kintbury, after striking a bird.

 

Looks very similar to Ashley Down, albeit without the brickwork extending all the way up the lift shaft and the railings coloured rather than galvanised.

 

At my children's former primary school, the majority of the children being dropped off/collected in a car had parents who were taxi drivers, or a divorced parent who was living some distance away.

My daughter is taken to secondary school in a lift share by a parent driving past to work at a location which is not accessible by public transport.

Some parents are driving anyway, but that won't be reflected in the stats.   

 
I don't have a source for the following obscure 'Possible fact' - I recall reading somewhere, something about an overbridge way down south on the GCR route to Wales/the South West/London: it may have been the one on the following link - and there's no opportunity to check on the ground as its deck will have gone for scrap.

If, in 1971, as teenagers, we hadn't reneged on an ambition to leave the skiff by the site of the (span lifted) bridge taking the GCR across the Grand Junction Canal to walk south to Catesby Tunnel and hopefully back, it would have been the first bridge that we would have passed beneath and we could have checked the following factoid first-hand.

https://www.railwayarchive.org.uk/record?rnum=L2330&os=1

... by the mid 1950s that bridge's steel deck needed replacing - and the replacement included Woodhead-style supports for the overhead electrification that would surely be making its way south.

Mark

 
From the BBC:

 
Hello again and many thanks Graham and all of you for your kind words and good wishes,

That model of Penryn that you helped operate, Chris, back in 2009 to publicise what had happened there and the doubling of the Maritime Line train service was just one example of the many things I was able to get up to in my time at the Partnership.   Fabulous and I was very lucky.

 

Indeed - and I have updated our own logging system to reflect / highlight the percentage running more strongly than the percentage cancelled.  Page from https://www.wellho.info/sh5.php



Still being aware that customers are being advised that there are cancellations but then trains run.  From my inbox from Saturday """  ... arrived back at Chippenham station at about 19:50 having cycled to Calne and back and swung by the Chippenham pride event.. to be told 'no trains'. Checked RTT and open train times and could see the 20.00 to Westbury sitting in P2 at Swindon. Crossed fingers and yes, it ran, quite busy too """ - fortunately a knoweldgable user.

 
June update - also shared from RailExpressNews

 

Try this one. I did put public.https://youtu.be/tEtpOlcXywA

 
Another decent week last week for Melksham, with one cancellation each way on the Saturday and Sunday giving a 96.6% reliability score from the Monday to Sunday.  100% of weekday services ran.

 
Video link says it is private, so can't view it!

 

Current headlines concern a government plan to ban under 16s from Social Media.  Whether the Coffee Shop is, or is not, social media is an interesting question.  I have seeded a discussion in our moderator's area so that we are aware of what's going on; it may be peripheral to us, but we should be aware.  I cannot recall any young age related issues for at least a decade, but never the less it needs to be on our radar even if the conclusion is that we're good as we are.

 
In the case of Exeter and Oxford it's easy.

Evensong starts at 6.05pm* at Oxford's cathedral, and 5.30pm at Exeter's. Allow half an hour to walk from station to cathedral. So the Exeter evening returns should begin with the latest service that gets you in for 5pm, and the Oxford ones for 5.35pm.

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0YO9ZzSpZA

First 175 into Paignton.

I did not use hyperlink. May work now.

 
The first locomotive was built in 1941 prior to the electrification of the Woodhead Route which was put on hold due to WWII. The prototype was lent to the Dutch Railways from 1947 until the completion of the electrification in 1952. The Dutch railwaymen gave it the name of "Tommy" after the British soldiers that served in the Netherlands during the war.

 
"At the coal face" - on Saturday (13.6.2026) I took the train for a short journey - Melksham to Chippenham and back - and observed so much that tells me that my mind - and our local thoughts on what we are doing and should be doing - are headed in the right direction.  Reminders noted:
1. Line capacity
2. Station/railway information in the event of delay
3. Service frequency
4. People needing travel support
5. Onward public road transport from the station
6. Regional Campaign group priorities

I will detail each then step to conclusions (7.)

1. Line Capacity ...

West Country expresses were diverted through Melksham.  As I travelled at lunch time, a late running London bound express passed through at 11:55, a Penzance bound express at 12:10, and then the northbound TransWilts train due at 12:10 called at 12:23.  On my return in the afternoon, the Newquay to Paddington train passed at 15:40, the Paddington to Penzance train at 15:55 (I was at Chippenham which it had passed slowly, waiting for the single line) and the local Swindon to Westbury service that had left Chippenham on time at 15:51 had to wait for the single line at Thingley and reached Melksham at 16:18 - that's 14 minutes late.

On current infrastructure, I have no complaint that the scheduled times had been adjusted very well ahead of time, nor that there were delays of up to 15 minutes.

An intermediate signal or two, allowing a second train to follow from Chippenham towards Trowbridge, would have allowed the local train to Westbury to arrive at Melksham closer to the 16:04 time scheduled, and would have meant it did not have to wait on the main line where it blocked a Bristol bound express for four minutes. It would also have allowed the local train to clear Bradford Junction quicker and allow train in the other direction though there were none waiting - a "recovery" gap in the timetable?

Intermediate signals would not have helped at lunch time, as trains were running in alternate directions. To increase the capacity in alternating train scenarios, you need a loop (or two) where trains can pass each other, and / or double junctions at the ends where trains can wait for the single line - to enter it promptly and to be clear of blocking the main line.  Since these extra track elements require signalling, it becomes a "given" that intermediate signals would be provided too. 

2. Information on the day

I got to Melksham station at 11:50 and the information board told me the 12:10 was "on time". I didn't believe it, having seen from public information that two expresses were running late at due first.  The information board should really use this information and not give people false re-assurance.  My own guess was that the train would call between 12:20 and 12:25 based on available information to me.

At 11:58, the display changed to tell us the 12:10 was "delayed". And that's without any indication of how long the delay might be; past experience of "delayed" has been that it sometimes becomes "cancelled", but I was fairly sure that in this case it was simply that the train hadn't left Westbury.   The rather vague / untimed message does nothing to re-assure passengers - rather it promoted a concern and panic which could be mitigated using the information available online to both the reporting system and to the human reader.  The RealTimeTrains site can come up with a better solution automatically - so why can't the national system that feeds the public displays?

At 12:07, the display came up with an estimated time of 12:21 which then fluctuated by a few minutes - as late as 12:24, settling back and the train arrived at 12:23.   All totally reasonable.

On the return journey, I rather knew / suspected we would be held at Thingley for the single line, but no indication n the board that "the train may be delayed after ..." which I have seen and heard for main line trains.  That's an observation and not much more.   The train manager was good in making announcements as we were help up, telling people that we were awaiting the train ahead to clear at Bradford (yes, I agree) and that was being delayed by a signal issue / engineering at Bradford. I saw no evidence that was the case; more like just late running congestion because engineering works had the line through Pewsey closed. I suspect the commentary / explanation was simplified for the customers to the extent it was misleading / inaccurate / wrong.

A report later - "Chaos later on Saturday.. signalling fault apparently, arrived back at Chippenham station at about 19:50 having cycled to Calne and back and swung by the Chippenham pride event.. to be told 'no trains'. Checked RTT and open train times and could see the 20.00 to Westbury sitting in P2 at Swindon. Crossed fingers and yes, it ran, quite busy too.". More incorrect / perhaps oversimplified information?

3. Service Frequency

Joining my friend on the train (he came from Trowbridge), with it being 15 minutes late he commented "at least we have plenty of time" and indeed we had so much time that we were able to walk down to the Revo Lounge and get ourselves an all day breakfast (each) before walking back up to the Rotary Hall for the meeting we were attending.

On our return, the 15:51 train was just about perfect for me after a 15:30 meeting end.  My friend was tempted to join me, but fancied a look around on a lovely afternoon in Chippenham - next train normally at 17:59, 18:05 yesterday, was imperfect but he chose it. I see it was cancelled and as far as I can see the next train that ran was at 20:18.   It could be that an intermediate express made extra stops (good if it did) but the online history gives no suggestion of that happening.   The express that went through Chippenham at 17:59 would have been ideal - but I suspect that GWR short term planning staff were already stretched in dealing with an issue at Bath.

In both directions, a train that ran every hour - and at the same times in each hour - would have made a very big difference. Perhaps such a difference that doubling the number of trains would double the number of passengers, or even more. But that does require some work to be done on reliable capacity provision - as seen in element no. 1 of this report. A further big changed would be seen if the service ran every 30 minutes each way; issues with connections and non-quite-right times would melt away too.

4. People needing travel support

On return, standing at Chippenham Station at the base of the stairs on the disused platform, a group approached the barriers on their way to catch a train.  They were directed around the to the front of the station by the chap on the barriers because this is an "exit only" set.  Let me explain - there are 4 sets of barriers at Chippenham - 2 are for both arrivals and departures and one each for just departures (and closed late at night) and this one on the disused platform for arrivals only, except it's both ways when the departures-only is closed.  They - and their luggage - did the circuit of half the staton building, and appeared beside us.  I and a different friend was chatting with the GWR bloke, and observed them then discussing where their train was; clearly visitors. They could see a big "1" over the bridge, but no indication of platform 2.   I broke away, proactively asked if they needed help, and they did.  Explained that there's a single operational island platform at Chippenham - with tracks on both sides, known as platform 1 and platform 2 which is on the far side of it.  Really a single platform and the trains call on "track 1" and "track 2" but we don't describe it like that in the UK. My mind turned to Poland where they DO use track numbers, but these passengers had a north American accent, so I didn't use that comparitor.

And then I got to Melksham - off the train, crowd thinned out leaving a couple "looking lost" outside the station gate. I asked if they were OK.  "Yes - but where's the bus or taxi for Devizes?"   Not sure if it was from the sign or from other research, but they (or did I first?) mention the 272 or 273. They were happy to be advised - indeed I walked with them down to the bus stop on Broughton Road, learned more about where they were headed, and left them at the stop for (!) the 271 which - at that time of the afternoon only - carries on beyond Bowerhill to Devizes.  Warned them to stick a hand out as the bus approached to have it stop.  Couple from London and Belgium, boat hire next week from Foxhangers, spending a couple of days based at the TravelLodge first. Asking what to see / where to go from Devizes on a Sunday and which is the best stop for the travel lodge. And amazed that stations have friends in the community that help them.

5. Onward public road transport from the station

I have touched / commented, somewhat, on that just above, but be it noted.  Lots of people walking and a couple cycling to the station - over 20 people for the 12:10 train.  No-one parking and riding, perhaps half a dozen dropped off there. Perhaps a dozen off the train coming back. A mea-lay of people around the station entrance and a handful of car pick ups; no obvious hired car-and-driver (taxi, Uber, etc) at either observation.  On my way out, I walked to the station - with heavy luggage these days I take the bus and cut my walk these days from 25 minutes to a third of that, but then have what is typically a substantial wait at the station.  On the way back - that 271 does a loop around that avoids my local bus stop, and in any case a nice day to walk through the Town Centre.

6. Regional Campaign group priorities

The meeting in Chippenham was of the local branch of Railfuture, looking to revitalise what has been a rather null branch since the passing of Nigel Bray.  It has always - and remains - difficult but (IMHO) important to have community and passenger groups that take a regional interest (i.e. beyond individual line of station) and this is a vacuum that Railfuture looks to fill. However, activists are focussed on their own line / station / group, or on the national picture, and the regional stuff is hard to motivate.

About ten of us at the meeting - 90% men, and I would classify most of us - myself included - as being there to support but not actively, being of an age where we have to be winding down.  For a 13:30 meeting, we were all waiting outside at the time the meeting was due to start; the key-holding member had nipped off to pick up the key he had forgotten and we got it and started at 13:45.  Noting that the venue was wheelchair accessible, and that there were trains running to a nearby station - both unlike the previous meeting (good points learned). But also noting that no-one came who needed the wheelchair access, and neither was there anyone there from the town's Station Friends group, the local CRP, the local train operator.  Anyway - first "A"GM in a number of years - very informal, with Bruce now confirmed in the chair, Wendy as his vice, and John as secretary - the three of them forming the complete ongoing committee, and looking to hold a further meeting in the Autumn, perhaps toward the west of "Severnside", send out quarterly newsletters, and looking to continue (as Bruce has done) press engagement in campaigning and (as John has being doing) membership encouragement.  We had talks from Wendy updating us on Portishead, and Richard from WWRUG giving a Wiltshire update.

A key outcome - though - was a "top 5" hit list around the room of campaigns that are practical for the foreseeable future for the RailFuture branch to notably and usefully support.  They are:
* Electrification to Temple Meads
* Resolving the bottleneck at Westerleigh Junction
* Capacity in Wiltshire - platform 0 at Westbury and associated works
* New station at Stonehouse (Bristol Road)
* Lengthening of Cross Country services to routinely 8 carriages

7. Conclusions

Here in Melksham - at MTUG - we are basically right and joined up in our thinking.  We have a (rail and bus) system that is basically joined up in parts, but very thin or lacking in others, and it is not friendly to the newcomer.  Goals that include:
* Better information, including manned at the station
* An improved train service
* Bus improvements, including to and from the station to connect with trains
* Better station access
are all confirmed by these real live examples from just a single short journey.  Lisa suggests logging all of the things that come up that would / will benefit from us working for these goals.  Really I try, but there are so many incidents just like the above six that I would spend all day writing them up.  The snapshot from Saturday is appropriate, and is such a valuable confirmation to me that we are thinking in the right direction.  The big question is are we being as effective as we could be, and can we help better achieve those goals?