Early warning....

Sun, 24 November 08:10 Warminster to Swindon due 09:02
24/11/24 08:10 Warminster to Swindon due 09:02 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Sun, 24 November 09:12 Swindon to Westbury due 09:53
24/11/24 09:12 Swindon to Westbury due 09:53 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 
It does rather.

Noting that the previous service of the train to form the 07:45 from Westbury to Swindon is the 06:13 Bristol Parkway to Westbury, according to RTT this had a unit swap at Bristol Temple Meads from 158767 to 166218. The 158 arrived at Temple Meads 12 minutes late, but the 166 left 63 minutes late at 07:43! I wonder if the “shortage of train crew” could relate to needing a driver to bring 166218 from a siding somewhere to form the onward working to Westbury?

In any event, clearly the 07:45 to Swindon would be, at best, a late start when the train to form it had only just left Bristol at 07:45. Unfortunate that it couldn’t have run as far as Chippenham, even with a severe delay, in order to start the return working to Westbury from there, but I suppose a decision was made that the risk of delay to other services was too great?

 
20:08 Westbury to Swindon due 20:54
20:08 Westbury to Swindon due 20:54 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

21:10 Swindon to Westbury due 21:52
21:10 Swindon to Westbury due 21:52 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 
Hmm. 
 


... seems to me to be entirely inconsistent. 

 
There was a slightly different message at 07:31

 

Indeed.  If it is something like a train driver or manager being taken ill, it can be occasionally understood but they have a separate code for that, haven't they?   And just to confirm, that *was* a late cancellation and not just an update to a notification that had been there much longer.

 
Strictly speaking, it's actually at nine minutes notice.  That is an appalling way to treat their customers by GWR. 

 

So that's a gap off Swindon from 06:02 to 11:05.

 

Someone was asking yesterday why our passenger numbers at Melksham are down.   It's because of things like this - train cancellations due to lack of crew are routine and it puts people off for ... a very long time.

This one is the pits though - at ten minutes notice!   

 

Pity no Chippenham or Melksham stop on this one, though I appreciate it would have been well early for the normal train.

 

THANK YOU for the extra Melksham and Chippenham calls in the 10:23 Portsmouth to Cardiff - or rather 12:12 Westbury to Cardiff.  Makes sense.

 

Err ... not disruption until 12:45, but until 13:57 - see previous post declaring a cancellation on the TransWilts.  And yet ... again ... trains cancelled due to issues elsewhere ...

 

 

13 minutes late from Swindon, 9 minutes late from Chippenham, 2 minutes late from Salisbury to Southampton.

 
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:07 is being delayed at Swindon.
This is due to engineering works not being finished on time.

 

 
Points were fixed around 09:30.

The 08:45 from Swindon arrived at Westbury around 10:00.   

 

No - disruption is expected until 11:47 ...
... and even then passengers who would have been on that train won't be there.

Those nice people at GWR / online ticket purchase are offering you a journey from Swindon at 11:22, changing at Bath Spa, getting to Westbury at 12:28.    And they're asking you to pay £18.90 for your ticket on that service, versus the normal price of £9.40 of the direct train they have cancelled within the last hour.

 
Now extended to 1000hrs.
Cancellations to services between Westbury and Pewsey
Due to a points failure between Westbury and Pewsey the line towards Reading is closed.
Train services running through these stations will be cancelled, delayed by up to 15 minutes or diverted between Westbury and Reading. Pewsey, Hungerford, Bedwyn and Newbury will not be served. Disruption is expected until 10:00 20/11.

 

Sure enough ... sacrificed again by the looks of things


If cancellations were only occasional, the passengers would be more forgiving.

 
09:46 Westbury to Swindon due 10:29
09:46 Westbury to Swindon due 10:29 will be cancelled.
This is due to a points failure.

11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47
11:05 Swindon to Westbury due 11:47 will be cancelled.
This is due to a points failure.

 
Cancellations to services between Westbury and Pewsey
Due to a points failure between Westbury and Pewsey the line towards Reading is closed.
Train services running through these stations will be cancelled. Disruption is expected until 08:00 20/11.

1A70 0454 Plymouth to London Paddington diverting via Melksham.
Possibly also 05:33 Plymouth to London Paddington due 09:21
05:33 Plymouth to London Paddington due 09:21 will be diverted between Westbury and Reading.
It will no longer call at Pewsey, Bedwyn, Hungerford and Newbury.
It will be delayed due to the diversion and is expected to be 4 minutes late.
This is due to a points failure.
Anticipate disruption to your local service!

 
18:37 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21
18:37 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time



20:14 Swindon to Westbury due 20:58
20:14 Swindon to Westbury due 20:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58
21:16 Westbury to Swindon due 21:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

22:31 Swindon to Westbury due 23:12
22:31 Swindon to Westbury due 23:12 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

 

 
Agreed as the issue with Melksham is surely not the number of services, it's the woefully inappropriate infrastructure provision. Without the infrastructure, pushing more services onto that single line (and through that three platform junction station) will actually make things worse not better.

Mark

 

I remain to be convinced.  Done right and with everyone pulling in the same direction, it could be wonderful for  all parties but there's one H*** of a risk of it not being done right, of people failing to co-operate for the mutual good, of obstancles being placed in the way, of forecasts being overoptimistic, of advantage being taken of a new player for a more established player to give up / deprioritise, etc.

Perhaps someone can tell us what the Community Rail [Partneship] view is ...

 

Go-op will solve all that.   

 

Thank you ... let's see.    But yet whilst it's normally "three cheers" for a train, for a train that's cancelled or flagged as such, confused in reporting sources, but then runs it's just one cheer.  Better than no cheers at all, I suppose.

The conflict of information from multiple official sources is a wider topic.   Try Melksham to Taunton on the GWR booking engine, and Melksham to Taunton on the A to Z at the station and marvel at the wild inconsistency even on days not affected by engineering works or staff shortages or trains that need repair.

 

Looking just now on RealTimeTrains, this train is now showing as starting from Westbury at 13:09. I grant that the source is unofficial, but someone somewhere on the railway must have input the information that feeds RTT, seemingly at 09:13 this morning.
RTT also shows the line:

Not a good way to encourage custom if the official sources of information aren’t kept up-to-date, but it seems likely this train will run between Westbury and Chippenham, and therefore the return at 13:57 from Chippenham to Weymouth also likely to run.

 

 


13:57 Chippenham to Weymouth due 15:57
13:57 Chippenham to Weymouth due 15:57 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

19:43 Swindon to Westbury due 20:25
19:43 Swindon to Westbury due 20:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

20:38 Westbury to Swindon due 21:23
20:38 Westbury to Swindon due 21:23 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:16
21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:16 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

 
Indeed: just look at the map - and it's only Saturday 



 

 
Shambolic. Across the network.

 


 

 
And:

 
Also:

 

 

 

 

75 late into Westbury.   I wonder why it was late off Swindon - it appears to have been 158767 which arrived on today's only up trains from Swindon at about half past 8 and was parked in platform 2 all day?

 
The reinstated train departed Swindon 51 minutes late, was 69 late departing Chippenham and is, as I write, waiting at Thingley East Jn for the 16:50 Plymouth-Paddington IET to vacate the single line.

 

Let' say 100 people use(d) that train off Swindon and Chippenham to and via Melksham on a normal day.   That used the be the figure when I had my finger on the pulse and monitored it more officially in 2018.

I would like to think that the effects of Covid would now have been out of the system but with other local changes and a general malaise over reliability, I would go for a figure more like 70 these days on a full service midweekday.

Who uses this train?  The majority are people who are commuters and have travelled up earlier in the day on trains that arrive into Swindon at 07:47, 08:34, 10:29 and 12:59. But this week, only one of those is running - the other three are replaced by buses and trains connection at Chippenham.   You loose passengers off 3 of the 4 services because they are buses - jerkier, slower, less tracked - people don't like that. And of those who might have made it onto the bus, you loose perhaps another 40% - a know figure for the losses if people have to change.    So let's say 70 becomes 35 because of the buses, and becomes 25 when you take in the dislike of connections.

So - as I went to sleep last night, I would have suggested that rather than the 100 I was used to counting, I would have expected tp count just 25 tonight.   And then I woke to see it cancelled.   The hard core 25 are regulars who know how unreliable the service is, and most of them have defensive planning with an "option B".  And they tend to look in the morning and see if they have to activate that plan B.   I would estimate that two thirds did so today, with perhaps half of them keeping an eye on things and reverting to the train that's now running.

So ... yes - it's good that the train is running.   Less than a dozen would have used a bus, and but in the circumstances less than two dozen will be on the train tonight.  It' a far cry from 100 and, sorry, I have to thank the wider rail industry for most of this appalling drop.  And the restoration of the service tonight ain't going to do much for the bottom line. 

Yes, that sounds a bit depressed and negative.   Now if I could make a suggestion ... oh ... wait ... that needs to be made to GWR, the DfT, Network Rail, and their agents.  Job for tomorrow morning.

 
Was re-instated half an hour ago.

 

 
With 88% of trains cancelled this week (thank you GWR) I thought we would have a quite week on this thread


In some ways that's good news - it's right that the only train of the day (insulting service, eh?) waits for connecting passengers.

 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg50lq9j4vo


Yeah - down from 9 each way (appropriate service would be 16) to 1 each way.  'Fewer Trains" would be a good example of an understatement for a GCSE English exam.

 

Appreciate that - but we have speculated in the past whether it could run in passenger service when other services are cancelled.

 

There is no need for a train manager on the empty train so that's fine. 
2M40 arrived from Swindon at platform 1, Westbury in service so with train manager at 20:25
3M31 left for Swindon at 20:31 from platform 1, arriving these at 21:07  at platform 2
2G31 left platform 2 at Swindon for Cheltenham Spa at 21:30 in service so with a train manager.
All are shown as 158767  and as an educated guess there is no crew changes in there; I don't have the rotas to confirm that, and it could be that the train manager gets a personal needs break or there's a changover.

 

Thank you ... and the first train has yet to run - 12:09 to Westbury (it has just left Chippenham)  and 12:53 to Swindon

 
For those struggling to keep up with the cancellations today, as it stands the last northbound departure from Melksham is at 15:03, and southbound at 16:09. Last three round trips all showing as cancelled on JourneyCheck “due to a shortage of train crew”.

 

17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25
17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:17
21:34 Swindon to Westbury due 22:17 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

I know the week you witnessed it at Westbury, there was both a driver and a guard but the last two weeks it has been shown as driver only operated.  No idea if that is accurate.

 
16:52 Westbury to Swindon due 17:34
16:52 Westbury to Swindon due 17:34 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

The 08:11 Warminster to Swindon is replaced by a bus this morning as far as Chippenham.  Would it be too joined up for the bus to turn around at Chippenham and provide a service back to Westbury, and customers to be told of that option on Journeycheck?

 
09:12 Swindon to Westbury due 10:05
09:12 Swindon to Westbury due 10:05 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

10:46 Westbury to Swindon due 11:31
10:46 Westbury to Swindon due 11:31 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

 
Yep, I meant an empty passenger train.   The 20:08 that should have carried passengers and been the last train of the day was cancelled due to lack of crew, but the 20:38 ran (actually early) as a "class 3" - passenger train not actually carrying passengers - starting at 20:31.   It sat in Swindon for 20 minutes then as scheduled left for Cheltenham Spa, with passengers on board.

 
(Possibly this?)
https://www.rail-record.co.uk/understanding-a-headcode/
Understanding a Headcode
23 Comments / UK Rail Information / By matt
All trains which run on the UK Rail Network are allocated a headcode – a 4 digit alphanumeric code used to identify a train service.

Before we look at example headcodes, it is important to know how they’re broken down.

1. The first digit is the train class category.
.............
3 is a priority ECS (empty coaching stock) train, parcels, or a seasonal / weather related vehicle used to spray the rails or weeds.
...........

 

Class 3? What does that mean?

 

It will be very interesting to see if they find train crew to run the 20:38 (class 3) Westbury to Swindon.

 
Yes - you always need a 'Plan B'. 

 

Personal plans to be in Chippenham curtailed and I came back much earlier.  That's a story in itself for tomorrow ...

 
Especially if you're needing to return to Melksham.

Mark

 

I'm sure that people who would normally catch the 17:35 will be delighted to read that alternative arrangements were made for people who would have travelled on the incoming train. Let's hope there are alternative arrangements the other way too.

 
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be started from Swindon.
It will no longer call at Gloucester, Stonehouse, Stroud and Kemble.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 
Greetings from Chippenham ... coming home to Melksham later if I can ...

About 50 people on the 10:02 up here this morning, and another 12 joined at Melksham as 9 got off.

 

and now


And chance of assigning the crew that is not available to the train that is not working and run at least one of the two successive cancelled trains?

 
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:05 will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Kemble, Stroud, Stonehouse, Gloucester and Cheltenham Spa.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

 

Only 4 late off Westbury ...held on the approach to Thingley to let a late running London to Bristol train cross its path, and so about 8 late into Chippenham.  In the great scheme of things not a problem.  Not sure if it will connect to London "correctly" as Swindon, but there are plenty more onward trains.

 
Outcome



And I have to wonder that with lines and a depot for express trains closed why there still not enough to run (drive and/or manage)  the local service. 

 

Sure enough;

 

Makes more sense like this, unfortunately for TransWilts

Seems more likely that the 16:43 Frome to Swindon message has a similar error, and should probably read “will be terminated at” rather than “will be started from” Westbury, given that there are no updates for the journey to Frome, and the return from Swindon has been cancelled.

 

And as we wake, more gone  .... I am trying to make sense of this.

08:18 Warminster to Swindon due 09:10
03/11/24 08:18 Warminster to Swindon due 09:10 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Warminster and Dilton Marsh.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

** 10:46 Westbury to Swindon due 11:31
03/11/24 10:46 Westbury to Swindon due 11:31 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

** 11:42 Swindon to Dorchester West due 13:52
03/11/24 11:42 Swindon to Dorchester West due 13:52 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

11:09 Dorchester West to Swindon due 13:22
03/11/24 11:09 Dorchester West to Swindon due 13:22 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Dorchester West, Maiden Newton, Chetnole, Yetminster, Thornford, Yeovil Pen Mill, Castle Cary, Bruton and Frome.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

** 13:42 Swindon to Dorchester West due 15:47
03/11/24 13:42 Swindon to Dorchester West due 15:47 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

16:43 Frome to Swindon due 17:34
16:43 Frome to Swindon due 17:34 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Frome.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

** 17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25
17:44 Swindon to Westbury due 18:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Services marked "**" are not running between Swindon and Westbury - the others are through services which are disrupted south of Westbury.   Some oddities such as the train into Swindon at 17:34 arriving, but the 17:44 departure being cancelled and I wonder if there are some complex crew rosters today.

And I do find it frustrating that GWR have a very much reduced service today with many trains replaced by buses due to engineering works and trains locked in depots as a result ... so not being staffed ... and yet they can't have those staff available to run the other services that are not blocked.   Yeah, sure, traction and route knowledge - still frustrating!

 
Sun, 3 November 10:46 Westbury to Swindon due 11:31
03/11/24 10:46 Westbury to Swindon due 11:31 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

Sun, 3 November 11:42 Swindon to Dorchester West due 13:52
03/11/24 11:42 Swindon to Dorchester West due 13:52 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 

Gap now extended, and advertised as such, to 12:33 to 20:25 northbound and 13:38 to 21:35 southbound. From JourneyCheck;

Curiously, RTT shows these two trains as cancelled from the timetable today - pre-planned at short-notice (I.e. the previous night). Thus they might not be expected to trigger JourneyCheck alerts, and may be considered ineligible for DelayRepay or alternative transport?

The cancellation of one round trip justified a “Line Update” yesterday; but today three consecutive round trips not running doesn’t 

 

Almost inevitably - unless a sudden, mysterious epidemic has coincided with the arrival of back pay?

 

Dunno - but this is far from the first time this has happened ...

 
Statement Question of the bleeding obvious? Half-term holidays - have GWR permitted too many frontline staff to take leave?

 

Gap in trains at Melksham - a tiny hamlet with a population of only 25,000 - 12:33 to 18:50 northbound and 13:38 to 20:09 southbound.

Today is NOT a Sunday, and to my knowledge there have been no signalling changes around here in a very long time.

 
14:19 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01
14:19 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:57
15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:57 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.


17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:18
17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:18 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew

 

My local "rule of thumb" is that if a train in replaced by a bus, the passenger numbers for the bus are only around a fifth of the number that would use the train.   Furthermore, on a regular / commuter run such as these, through passengers will change at Bath Spa / double back.    So if there way (say) 90 people on the train - and that's a high figure for a post-covid Friday, 60 would go via Bath Spa.   Of the remaining 30 headed to or from Melksham it's unlikely that more that 10 would use the bus - lots will call up friends / family. So, yes, a minibus will do.  GWR drive away most of their normal customers and only need to provide for the awkward squad.

 

Only mini passengers permitted on board.

 
Minibus? Are there enough seats for that train replacement?

 

Further travel information has since been provided;

 

The 17:35 is the busiest train on the day ... (obviously not today) ... no alternative advice offered as I write, and the cancellation has been announced AFTER the busiest up train to Swindon has run and gotten people to work.

The final bus from Chippenham to Melksham and  Trowbridge, which used to be late in the evening, now leaves Chippenham Station just before this train, so no bus fallback.

 

 

 

Would-be passengers do at least get this alternative offered today

 

No problem -  it ran and at least at the TransWilts end it will have capacity

 

 

That's how to run a modern railway. 

 

 

 

It won’t show on JourneyCheck because it’s a pre-planned change to the timetable for this week. From the GWR Engineering Summary for this week;

Unfortunate indeed that the ECS from Bristol to form the 06:02 from Swindon to Weymouth was, to quote from RTT and the same reason attributed to the Bristol to Bath Spa ECS which should have formed the 05:16 Bath Spa to Portsmouth Harbour.

Eventually a nine-car lash-up of Turbos arrived at Westbury from Bristol (via Swindon) at 09:45 to provide some rolling stock to run the service.

 
22:31 Swindon to Westbury, Real Time Trains reports


but not showing as cancelled on JourneyCheck.

So that's Melksham calls at 06:32, 21:29 and 22:56 lost - first train of the day southbound now 09:10, last northbound train at looks like it's at 18:53 and last southbound train at 20:40.  Real Time Trains shows a southbound bus at 23:06.

 
I note that one of the Facebook GWR enthusiasts groups has suggested that members photograph and publicise this unusual working.  Sadly, it has been moved from the "reference" to the "fiction" section. 

 

This is astonishing and sad.

Due to engineering works, GWR have rejigged and rearranged the train services ... and even for this one-off special setup done that replanning in such a way that they don't have the resources to run it ...

EDIT to add ... for today, this was a through train from Swindon to Weymouth rather than two separate trains that fail to connect at Westbury - the 05:11 Gloucester to Southampton and the 06:55 Westbury to Weymouth, and it sorta-shows that the planners think that (if they have the crew) an onward train works.

There is also a cancellation this morning of an 06:42 Frome to Southampton which was supposed to pick you the path of the Swindon (normally Gloucester) train at Westbury, with an official 5 minute connection st Westbury.   What was supposed to be this morning is better that the norm in so many ways - pity it has been consigned to the fiction shelf.

 
06:02 Swindon to Weymouth due 08:23
06:02 Swindon to Weymouth due 08:23 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 
I KNOW OF TO WHOM YOU REFER.

CfN.