Why is it, and why ever was it, possible for people and bots to buy-up driving tests slots for resale?

This train has run 89 times in the last six months, in which there have been 130 weekdays.  28 of those days it was cancelled because of planned engineering, 2 because it was Christmas / Boxing Day.   So 100 "should" have run. 11% cancellation rate - a very high percentage for a weekday.

It's in "Oh no - not AGAIN" territory ...  known as being a risky train. I will look at putting some numbers on it some time.

Cancelled as the guard for those services is booked to arrive at Westbury on the 1C77 10:35 Paddington to Exeter St Davids service which is currently being diverted via Swindon. Not the first time that problems or delays with 1C77 see the Swindon services cancelled.

For the record, the points failure at Westbury yesterday caused the cancellation of the 2M28 15:15 Swindon to Westbury and 2M21 16:23 Westbury to Swindon services. The unit stayed in the bay platform at Swindon and became the 17:35 departure to Westbury.

I shall await you posting here about a how a big smash on the M25 prevented you from catching your flight....

Only 2 trains in GWR area cancelled through lack of crew ... guess where

Not sure what you mean by a Sunday issue. Are you thinking about there being less demand because it’s a Sunday?

A few years ago, I’d have said yes. Now a lot more people travel on Sundays and later in the evening.

It stops at these stations Monday to Fridays, why not on Sundays?

12:17 Westbury to Swindon due 12:59
13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57

13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

I'm pretty certain that I've heard talk of a service to and from Swansea over the years.... perhaps from Ilfracombe?  Whether there would be sufficient customers for the service.....well, there's been nothing happening so far.
I would venture that any service further east would find it difficult to demonstrate cost or time savings over existing road and rail options.

Pat the seat next to you and grin gormlessy at the person looking to sit on it. They'll very likely move on, not wanting to sit next to the weirdo!

Walk from Severn Beach to Pilning - Lunch at the Plough - then getting the parliamentary train service back  from Pilning station Saturday 3rd May 2025

Ann invites you to join her on Saturday 3rd May for a walk from Severn Beach station to Pilning, followed by lunch at the Plough and then catching the afternoon ‘parliamentary train service’ from Pilning Railway station back to Temple Meads.

(A parliamentary train service nowadays means a token service to a given station, thus maintaining a legal fiction that the station is open, whereas in reality the train operating company in question has almost completely abandoned the station. These services only run at all because it is much cheaper for a train operating company to run a parliamentary service than it is to go through the full legal process of applying for a station to be permanently closed).

       *Catch the 09.46 from Bristol Temple Meads to Severn Beach, arriving at 10.24.  (This train is from Weston Super Mare)
       *Walk is along quiet roads with only one busy road to cross – it should take about 1.5 hours.
       *Lunch is at the Plough in Pilning  (Pilning Street, Pilning, BS35 4JJ) – the pub opens at 12 noon and does food from 12 noon to 2 pm
       *Then the short walk to Pilning station for the 15.32 departure to Bristol Temple Meads.  There are no facilities at Pilning apart from a shelter
. 
      * The cost for this journey (Pilning to Temple Meads) is £5.80 without a railcard or £3.85 with a railcard - either buy tickets in advance or take a chance of buying them on the day.

For For those who do not wish or are unable to do the walk but would like to meet up for the social at the Plough – catch the number 12, Stagecoach bus from either Bristol Parkway or Severn   Beach.  It is an hourly service in each direction.  From Bristol Parkway direction, the best stop is Swanmoor Bridge which is about a 20 minute walk from the Plough.  This stop is also the best option if coming from Severn  Beach direction too.

To get a rough idea of number please e-mail me on ae.light - at - btinternet.com

This is run in conjunction with Bristol Rail Campaign - and it is open to everyone

I'm pretty certain that I've heard talk of a service to and from Swansea over the years.... perhaps from Ilfracombe?  Whether there would be sufficient customers for the service.....well, there's been nothing happening so far.
I would venture that any service further east would find it difficult to demonstrate cost or time savings over existing road and rail options.

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:09

Facilities on the 05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:09.
Toilet facilities are not available. Disabled toilet facilities are not available.

'Driving test waits are so long because examiners don't earn enough'

Clearing the backlog in driving test wait times relies on improving pay and conditions for examiners, industry professionals have said.

The government has pledged to provide 10,000 extra practical test slots each month, after transport secretary Heidi Alexander said the average wait time of six months was "totally unacceptable." She promised to double the capacity to train new examiners.

Yet Craig Harris from the Sheffield and District Driving Instructors Association said the difficulties in recruiting and retaining examiners had arisen because they could make more money teaching learners than assessing them. He said: "Examiners used to make a decent wage. Now, instructors make their wages in 14 hours, so why would anyone go and work 37 and a half hours?"

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), a government body, recruits examiners, who are classed as civil servants and therefore unable to speak to the media. Some of them are represented by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, which said there needed to be "long-term investment into training and staffing" to achieve manageable waiting times.

"A long-term solution to mitigating driving test waiting times can be achieved through proper investment into DVSA resources and employees," a PCS spokesperson said. "These include a return to a substantive [permanent or long-term] contract where weekend working is optional and paid properly, at an overtime rate."

The DVSA announced last week it would reintroduce overtime pay, and said it would ask staff in other roles who are qualified examiners to hold tests. It is all in an effort to clear the backlog of test-ready learners by summer 2026 and get the average wait down to seven weeks.

Mr Harris said similar attempts to reduce waiting lists have failed previously, as a "big area of recruitment has gone".  "A heck of a lot of instructors used to be recruited to be examiners, as we thought we'd have an easier life there, but that's changed now," he said.

A quick search for examiner roles through the DVSA shows a typical salary to be just above £28,000 before tax.

Driving instructors tend to be self-employed and work a range of hours, but full-time instructors typically earned up to £40,000 and "even exceeded that" in 2023, according to the AA.

The DVSA did not comment on its working conditions and pay. It noted customers were "not seeing the immediate effect" of measures announced last year, which aimed to recruit 450 examiners and give higher penalties for short-notice cancellation.

Pauline Reeves, DVSA's director of driver services, said there had been "significant progress" on the original plan and the recent announcement would help "accelerate" that plan.

Some learner drivers are taking tests elsewhere in the country due to a lack of slots available in their area.

Gwydion Elliot, a biosciences student at the University of Sheffield, is set to take his practical test in Wakefield in late September. "If it's past six months they don't list it, and there was nothing available for Sheffield test centres at all," he said.

Learners can only book practical tests six months in advance, and they wait on average 22 weeks and three days to secure a test.

"The pressure has really mounted," Mr Elliot added. "It's hard to sit in a test with the knowledge that if you fail, you might be waiting another six months". He said he hoped to find work as an ecologist which would involve visiting field sites far from public transport links. "I'll have a much easier job finding a job in that sector once I can drive," he said.

Instructors are also feeling the pressure of supporting their students through such a difficult challenge, Mr Harris said. "I consider our prices below average at around £35 an hour, but that is still not cheap. If they then choose to only take occasional lessons while they wait, that makes it hard for us to fill our diary. The worst thing is, if they fail a test, they've got a six-month wait again."

While some flights are running as normal, the issues impacted the roads and public transport is likely to be a problem for travellers trying to get to airports.

Spain's Transport Minister Oscar Puente said it was not likely that medium and long-distance trains would resume normal service on Monday.

He said the plan was to resume shorter-distance commuter services as soon as electricity supplies had been restored. Work is also under way to rescue people trapped on stranded services.