I'm seeing report of flooding outside The Bear here.   Wondering if I should go down there, stick my nose in when there's nothing I can do like a councillor, or let the those who can help do something.

 
It's been raining steadily here in Nailsea for the past 48 hours - and, no, I haven't ventured outside just to measure it. 

 
There has been 1.75 inches of rain since midnight in Swindon (2 inches in the last 24 hours) - and it is still raining.

 
I have just spent the past 20 consecutive (well, almost) weekdays travelling from Warminster to Southampton General Hospital for Radiotherapy treatment. It has been one of the most miserable, soul destroying experiences of my life.

I am not talking about the superb, professional service I got at the hospital, with ultra modern equipment – I am talking about the abysmal GWR excuse for a rail service on the Portsmouth to Cardiff route.

It is difficult to know where to start - or finish:

The rolling stock is well past its sell by date – but I don’t think anyone would take it as a gift, let alone part with good money for it.  The so-called internal “refresh” is best likened to “polishing a t**d” – from a distance it doesn’t look too bad, on slightly closer inspection it is a complete waste of money. These seats are a complete disaster, they seem to have taken the original “cushions”  and just recovered them with new fabric. Even the new covers look as though they were made by someone who didn’t know a sewing machine from a sausage filling machine. The old filling inside the new covers has long since collapsed and has no cushioning effect whatsoever.

Many of the windows have broken down and are full of condensation - did they ever replace them anyway ?

The trains themselves are just not long enough: They are grossly overcrowded for much of the time - especially when there is a cruise ship (or 2) in.  I only travelled once on a five car train, the vast majority of trains are 3 car with the odd 2 car thrown in to liven up the platform scrums ! How much money was wasted lengthening platforms to 5 cars !!! Time keeping was just about acceptable (usually within 10 mins) – if the train turned up at all. I was lucky in only having one cancellation – but there were plenty on the boards around me.

I often used the “Hampshire 6” as far Salisbury on the return trip, just to avoid GWR – bliss ! How old are SWRs’ 158s ? The seats are still fabulous – the cushions still live up to that description.

I just hope my treatment is a success – I’m not sure if I could take that experience again !

(It took me a long time to get photos of those empty seats)

 

This is the post I was referring to - directly above mine, so reasonably obvious - and IS weather-related.

 
Exactly 5 years on, I'm simply going to 'bump' this topic, to offer that information again to our more recent readers - and to encourage them to register.

Chris from Nailsea. 

 

Direct quote from GWR "We had a reduced timetable in place due to engineering work and crew shortages and severe weather has affected the remaining services I am afraid" - so a bit of everything.

They are also telling their customers that they won't be rearranging replacement transport but if you can arrange your own they will reimburse, and whilst not being quite so explicit, suggesting that hotel bills will be met for those stranded. Apparently Paddington is predictably appalling.

What arrangements will be made for any vulnerable customers, or those who don't have the means to make upfront payments, God knows.

 
1.  Reading, transfer deck.

Blimey!  I'd forgotten I was there on that day. 

 
'Heavy rain flooding the railway' is perhaps understandable - Storm Bert and all that. 

But such a litany of 'cancellation due to a shortage of train crew' shows that GWR are now merely providing a 'Monday to Friday' train service. 

CfN. 

 

Yes - lots of "and"s.   

I have put a calculator at https://www.greatwesternrailway.info/fairfare.html and you can experiment from there. Please forgive the poor formatting so far.

 
I have mentioned FOI before Mark's URL because the abbreciations system has "got at it".  The original link probably worked initially for those of you with "expand off" selected.

 
Maybe for the DfT - GWR aren't able to do much about the problem currently

 
Does for me!

 
Nope. Shortened link doesn't work either.

 
Convenient weather for GWR.

 
Ah, sorry, let's try a shortened link.

Mark

https://tinyurl.com/4ypmuhf6

 
Weather-related, it must be clarified

 

Ah, OK, thanks. That explains the absence. I wasn't disappointed not to see Minør; foolishly I thought it would make for a more challenging 'Where was Red Squirrel'!

 

And demonstrate to the DfT that they won't lose a shed load of income as a result.

And fend off the press when they find the fares that will go up significantly as a result.

And... 

 
Can't get that link to work Mark.

 

Getting complicated


 
-

 

21:15 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:05
21:15 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:05 will be cancelled.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

23:50 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:54
23:50 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:54 will be cancelled.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

 
13:42 Swindon to Weymouth due 15:57

13:42 Swindon to Weymouth due 15:57 will be started from Westbury and terminated at Yeovil Pen Mill.
It will no longer call at Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Thornford, Yetminster, Chetnole, Maiden Newton, Dorchester West, Upwey and Weymouth.

This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

 

The second link worked for me - including a lesson in the correct pronunciation. 

The other engine is pictured there:



CfN. 

 
Further changes:

 
Now reporting that all trains between Plymouth/Cornwall to London are cancelled

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/trains-plymouth-cornwall-london-cancelled-9740819?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0l7rev06oErhJt_UhQ0Kn-CZzMUfqwGwKvX58hM0aKKtAU4aHqUvFOtxc_aem_wH6PWkvCEX59WFuDKklasw#Echobox=1732458165

 
One of the fascinating things we have available these days which we did not have when the fares were set is computing power to allow much more complex dynamic calculation - for the calculations to be more complex but the algorithms simple.

Let's start with routing for walk-up tickets:
1. The shortest route is always allowed. And It is the basis for fare calculation.
2. Direct (through) services are always allowed
3. When you walk up the train combination that will get you there earliest is always allowed.

If it does not add more than 10% to the distance, this route too is treated as the shortest route
If you are following a route according to 1, break of journey is allowed, otherwise not.

Pricing. For an anytime single ticket

1. Each station to station leg has a price based on the distance between stations - in other  word "x pence per mile".  However, there may be a quality of service and infrastructure factor applied to that, somewhere (bar exceptional circumstances) between 0.8 and 1.2. A "for instance" might be that the Pilning to Severn Tunnel Junction factor is 1.2 and looking at the other end of the scale, some northern legs already mentioned (Hammerton to Cattal) might come in at 0.8.

2. Add a fixed fee - call in "station use" if you like - of "y pence"

3. Add up the grand total and it's a base fare of "z".

4. Actual fare charged is the full base fare up to amount "a", then discounted by 20% up to amount "b" and discounted by 40% in excess of that.  Sort od inverse way that taxation works.

You ARE allowed to chose your own "via"stations in which case it's price that way

For a return ticket - work out the distance in just the same way - except it's double.  So when you come to step 4, a return ticket will be cheaper than 2 singles because of the discount levels.   Return ticket validity based on distance - valid for out and back journeys completed within 50 hours.

First Class, plus 40%

Off Peak - valid for travel except at any time 07:30 to 09:00 and journeys starting between 16:30 to 19:00 on Monday to Friday - minus 20%. 

Season tickets - based on a fare cap of 7.5 single journeys per week; Rangers and rovers based on a fare cap within the areas covered. 

All I need to do now is to define the factors and write a script to work out your fare.