Cancellations to services between Westbury and Swindon

Due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time between Westbury and Swindon fewer trains are able to run on the line.

Train services running through these stations have been cancelled. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice
Due to a shortage of trains this evening, we have unfortunately had to suspend our Westbury to Swindon service, meaning Melksham station will not be served.

 

 
Alterations to services between Reading and London Paddington

Due to a speed restriction because of high track temperatures between Reading and London Paddington fewer trains are able to run on all lines.

Train services running to and from these stations may be running non stop between Reading and London Paddington. Twyford, Maidenhead and Slough will not be served.

 Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

 
Hopefully catch 18:45 from Swindon, Melksham 19:09. Although the speed we're going at the moment I'm not sure whether that's likely either...

 
Ha if only - broken down freight train between Bristol and Bath. So 17:29 first stop is Swindon - that's the only option really I think, and come back from there. Just departed Bristol.

 
Confirmed along with its return running......

17:12 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 18:29
17:12 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 18:29 has been cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time

19:04 Oxford to Bristol Temple Meads due 20:16
19:04 Oxford to Bristol Temple Meads due 20:16 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

 
Catching 17:12 from Bristol for first time today - well I was, but it's been cancelled (showing 'on time' at 17:12). Now on the 17:29 Paddington, was originally hoping to continue to Chippenham to still connect with the 18:00 Melksham service (just), but it's now 17:35 and we're not moving - 'delayed'.

So looks like plan C - get off at Bath, assuming we ever get there, and catch 18:15 Melksham bus, after walking/running up to the Hilton to catch it.

 
Being a resident of the Limpley Stoke area I was reading the most recent parish council meeting minutes and saw this:

Unitary Councillor for Winsley and Westwood Report- Mr Nigel White (NW) 
 
NW is still in discussion with Network Rail, Wiltshire Highways and
National Highways regarding the railway bridge problems. Signage on
the A36 needs to be bigger as vegetation is covering the very small
HGV warning sign.

Hopefully if enough people raise the issue with Network Rail they may act.

 
Sorry - post deleted
 
 

 
It is hard to get accurate figures for many stations on the route.   Looking back to Graham's post a few months back, Warminster is also served by trains to Gloucester.   Those services also call at Bradford-on-Avon alongside those to and from Weymouth.

Based on ticket sales the Cardiff/Portsmouth line as a whole is attracting around 57 to 61,000 passengers a month.    Since the turn of the year it has failed to reach pre-Covid levels.    Easy to speculate on reasons while sitting at a keyboard but are people put off by the prospect of standing?   We saw that in the days of the class 153s on the TransWilts.

 
For some strange and inexplicable reason, I do indeed happen to be in Melksham this evening.  

I'll be at the film viewing, dispensing some excellently produced public transport related timetable brochures to anyone else who is there, as well as watching the film.

Melksham Assembly Hall is just behind the Town Hall, on Market Place.

Chris from Melksham.

 
sounds a worthwhile cause. Do they propose any sensible solutions to the many problems we face.

 
Agreed - but would *still* be well below the previous highest customer number on other routes....

 
Although shortened to just Bristol Parkway to Fareham due to engineering work at both Severn tunnel and Portsmouth area, seem to be struggling to find sufficient units.

1F06 started with 165137, had to be swapped to a 158
1F09 just a 2 coach 158 (158747)
2F12 Bristol-Warminster cancelled due to unit being swapped
1F15 and 1F22 just a single 2 coach 158 (158766)

Roll on getting decent number of 175s in service, so some extra stock can be moved to Bristol area

 
Agreed although my somewhat unspoken point was that if the service is reliable people will use it.   There were less than 20 cancellations in April (with eight on one day).  This was preceded by a reasonable February and March where barring a car on the line and several attempts to demolish the bridge at Limpley Stoke, the reliability was markedly better than pre-Christmas.

 
That is still *way* down on total customers mentioned by Graham on other routes - and the operators WILL take number of customers affected into account when cancelling/altering services. Of course those services carrying the fewest customers will suffer the biggest brunt of cancellations

 

Dangerous to read too much into one month's figures - but in April TransWilts passenger numbers were up on April last year and April 2019.   I think that is the first time it has got above pre-pandemic levels.

 
And now:

 
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 21:46
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 21:46 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

 

Believe me, they're neither that devious...nor that clever!

 

With 26% cancellations and nothing else for a number of hours, are we surprised that passenger numbers are so low - though they are typically way, way above the target numbers when the service was introduced  .

Not looking for the lowest common denominator.   Looking for an operation that runs well over 95% of the services it promises in the timetable rather than 74%

 
It also carries at least half of the number of customers of te other routes mentioned.

 
I did the same thing last month. Highly recommended

 

Oh - I agree with you ... I was imagining the cascading that might go on ...

 

It's a good question.   I would argue that the ability to handle extreme heat is actually better than it was 5-15 years ago, despite that heat arriving more often.  I don't recall any really major issues* over this heatwave so far, and my memory of 5-15 years ago was that whenever the temperature hit 30 degrees there was a high likelihood the service would collapse completely.

You could spend a whole heap of money replacing things with higher tolerances, but does that offer good value for two to three spells over 30 degrees each summer?

And is Chicago or Vienna much more immune to weather related incidents?  Or do we just not hear about them?

I don't have much experience of either, other than a visit to Vienna in the early 1990s, but a quick Google brought up the following...

https://metra.com/Service-disruptions

https://www.visahq.com/news/2026-01-13/at/bb-issues-nationwide-travel-warning-as-ice-storm-knocks-out-inter-city-rail-links/

* By which I mean complete cessastion of services on the trunk GWR routes


Much too early to draw any conclusions either way. 

In terms of comparisons with the TransWilts I don't think there is any interface with either the trains or the staff that work each route, so the only impact they might have on each other is the shared tracks between Thingly Junction and Swindon...and obviously more trains running over a route increases the chances of knock-on delays.

 

With so many problems on other services that show resources stretched, reasons like "not enough working trains" and "not enough working staff" for cancellations of the service that's just ten days old brings something of a wry smile.   Issues which are hightened by extreme weather are more forgiven.

But yet ... the Bristol <-> Oxford service has been doing very well compared to certain others ...

... and I can't help wondering if some of those cancellations which were cause by lack of a working train or lack of working staff would have actually been cancellation if GWR wasn't so stretched to make the new service reasonably reliable. Are they trying to spread things too thinly?