Instead of carrying a train full of people looking forward to a day on the beach, it will be carrying a train full of fresh air! Sad.

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:C27682/2025-06-29/detailed

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:91846/2025-06-29/detailed

 
Until (relatively) recently: a loco + 7 carriages to meet a reliable demand from the travelling public.

Now: a multiple unit with the possibility that the provision is 2 carriages on that service - and a strong possibility that it is cancelled at short notice. Travelling public making other plans. Many miles of expensive rural inter-regional railway doing not very much at all.

Mark

 

Similar to the 08:42 from London Paddington to Carmarthen.    Running empty to Swansea to pick up the return working, starting at Swansea, later today.

 



Which sums up my reasons for dislike of DMUs. Very often shorter, often less reliable, put passengers off.

 

Following up from the weekend just gone ... the Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham to Weymouth through service ran ... as far as Westbury! Offputting to the public who had planned a day out, and it does long term damage to the railway's reputation, use, and whether people will risk it again for a very long time.

 

What of the frequent cancellations, due to rolling stock issues, of the loco hauled Weymouth services in the days of Wessex Trains? FGW didn't do much better on the reliability front with their 'Weymouth Wizard' HSTs. I bet all those cancellations did a lot to put passengers off taking the train to the seaside.

 
Do you happen to have the cancellation data from those years?

Mark

 
The service was pretty reliable when the service was operated by 37s and Mk2 coaching stock in the days of Regional Railways and later by Wales and West who ended the loco hauled era trumpeting that more modern DMU rolling stock would improve the service.

I was at Bath Spa on the first summer Saturday of the new timetable when the replacement for the morning Weymouth loco hauled service, a 2 car 158 with a 153 attached rocked up almost full from Bristol.

It left absolutely wedged with passengers down the line standing no chance of boarding. This was at the time when Wales and West had reduced the Summer Saturday morning Bristol to Weymouth trains to just one train leaving Bristol around 9am. Next train not until around 12pm.

This was fine when you had a full rake of loco hauled Mk2s operating the solo morning service but not a when it was a 2 car 158 with a dog box attached! Some improvement not!

Many fond memories of day trips to Weymouth from Bath when it was loco hauled. Comfortable Mk2s with plenty of seats for everyone. Sadly the appeal of going to Weymouth on a 165/166 just doesn’t do it for me.

 

A good question ... very little history for the Weymouth Wizard, but memories of Saturday runs to Weymouth were not of services being disrupted due to cancellations or short runs on the day, so it wasn't the major concern it is now.

We did have very serious cancellation issues indeed on the TransWilts at the time that the new FGW / GWR regime took over on 1.4.2006 and slashed services that December.  I remember one manager (no longer with the company) assuring me that they were running the right number of carriages - but at times combining them into one train a day rather than two shorter ones.

Memories of Weymouth trips a decade ago are of controlled marketing to ensure we didn't overcrowd, and of 5 and 6 car dmu-s with a mixture of 15x stock ... splitting on the return at Westbury.  With Melksham being a single carriage platform in those days, our volunteer team helping to get people out for the day at Weymouth into the correct part of the train on the return trip.  Front carriage for Chetnole, Thornford and for Avoncliff, front 3 carriages for Bradford-on-Avon and beyond, 4th carriage for Melksham, rear 3 carriages for Chippenham and Swindon.  Any carriage for other stations to Trowbridge.

Then there was the day that for operational reasons the front and rear portions were switched around as the train was underway, and we had to shift everyone travelling beyond Trowbridge from front to rear and rear to front.

 

I recall that it was necessary to kill the weekend demand using... techniques. Slowing the through journey times, breaking the through train at Westbury with a ~20 minute connection there, and of course for much of the spring and early summer... when is it that the timetable switches to 'Summer' services?

Mark

 

Indeed - there were people who absolutely slammed me in Melksham for poor publicity for the through trains to Weymouth. "You should be ashamed of yourself and have got professional help - we only heard about them after they had finished".   Ah yes, but the trains were busy all the way, and full and standing beyond Yeovil. The marketing was tuned to be enough to get a darned good load on a sunny day without having trains too full for comfort or even unable to board.

Only once did it go really wrong when there were too many passengers on the return at Westbury and taxis had to be arranged for the excess.

Clearly, different approaches were used when we had a 153 versus when we had a full length HST!