Hmm. I'm not sure it's a case of 'the wrong type of crew' - more a shortage of the right type of crew - those who have the necessary training and therefore ability to carry out that duty, on a diverted service.

Sorry for being a pedant - but at least it bumped this topic.  I can do that, because I'm an admin (with my greatest respects to grahame). 

CfN. 

 
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:05 is being delayed at Westbury.
This is due to train crew being delayed by service disruption.

 

A crew member was telling me very recently that he does not sign Westbury to Chippenham (in the context of not being able to staff diverted services because of one of the bridge strikes at Limpley Stoke).  Has me wondering if it's not o much a simple "crew shortage" but rather the wrong type of crew.

 
I have e-mailed a link to that post to Andy Burnham MP,  Heidi Alexander MP and Peter, Baron Hendy of Richmond Hill.

Let's see where that gets us. 

Chris from Nailsea. 

 

What it comes down to, and it's evidenced time and time again, is a total lack of a customer service culture from top to bottom in the rail sector which is decades behind the curve in this area - that doesn't mean that there aren't pockets of excellence and staff who go the extra mile, but overall it's a systemic failure in an industry which in this respect is still stuck in the 1970s with an attitude that customers should be grateful for whatever they are offered, and where negative feedback is treated with scepticism and defensiveness rather than "how can we learn from this and make it better?"

Hopefully the onset of GBR will do something to address this, but culture is the hardest thing to change in any organisation, and as a monopoly supplier there is even less motivation other than a commitment, which will need to be addressed, to put the customer at the forefront of everything they do - the taxpayer and the customer (more often one and the same) deserve this at least.

 





I don't think that "GWR" condsiders all of its passengers to be idiots.  However, there is a lower standard of provision of data than one might wish at times, whatever that's due to.   Sometimes the staff operating the system day to day may be taking the easy way out, but very often they are frustrated themselves.  And at a management level, there are frustations too and the inability to manage as they could if there weren't other tiers.  This is compounded by the systems which seem to be crude, fairweather only, and designed to keep cost down rather than service up and thinking customers undertanding and informed.

I too have been stopped at Chippenham and have missed rail replacement options because I did not seek out staff and they were not running to an announced timetable, to then have to await others to share a following vehicle. 

The system is not clever there.  The real solution would not be to send off the train that had been running the service to Portsmouth, of course. It's just possible there was a cab fault and it could only be driven from one end, or that it was running out of fuel and had to be put on a diagram that got it back to base.  It's also possible that 2 cars on 1F19-  the Cardiff to Portsmouth train - with the local trains cancelled too - was a bit of a problem, and so the TransWilts train was commandeered and the service cancelled for the rest of the day.   That of course is a scurrilous suggestion bearing in mind that senior GWR managers informed us and our MP in person that this does not happen, so it must be cab fault or fuel level?

 

Been there - and does it still not help you by highlighting the problem characters, leaving you to search and find them within your explanation.  Get a feeling of "we really don't want your feedback in spite of what we say, so we will make it as hard for you as we can". It is also (I believe) commonly appreciated that if you have to rewrite / revise a letter of complaint multiple times, you will become less angry and will be exhausted into toning it down with each rewrite / revision.

I am reminded ...

 
Yesterday was another day when the service started OK but fell apart, and so badly that this thread got confusing, and I'm sharing the summary from the official open data feeds, as interpreted by Real Time Trains.



A summary like this does not show the disruption cause to people's lives, the frustrations to them when they are trying to travel on an advertised service, and the effect on the communities that should have been served of the failures to so do time and time again.

 
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:10
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:10 has been delayed at Swindon and is now 20 minutes late.
This is due to passengers causing a disturbance on a train.

06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47
06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47 is being delayed at Westbury.
This is due to a late running train being in front of this one.

 

Thankyou Alan Partridge! 

 
Complaint form submitted. Avoiding "special characters" such as brackets and semicolons I've submitted another form about that. Gemini sums it up pretty well:

 
Well... good news and bad news...

Bad - there was no coach. Or a bus. That was despite the National Rail app showing it, and the email from Great Western Railway Alerting Service alerting me to it.

The bus had been scheduled to depart at 18:15. When I sauntered over to the station entrance at about 18:05, the helpful member of Chippenham station staff informed me that buses were only organised to handle planned outages eg. engineering work. He wasn't aware of the one promised by GWR. However they were running taxis; each time a train arrived they rounded up people that looked like they wanted to take the TransWilts line and off they went. As I'd just been happily sitting on the platform, I'd missed this. I'd have to wait for the next train arrival and taxi collection.

Good  - but fortunately at that point another taxi turned up looking for passengers. So me and one other person (headed for Westbury) were whisked away in a very nice/cool Merc E-class. (And he kindly dropped me at the bottom of Westlands Lane - about the same distance from home as Melksham station but saved about 5 mins journey time and saved him having to detour off the A350.)

So it wasn't too bad in the end - could have been a lot worse.

But I will be complaining to GWR:

• It's ridiculous to say a replacement bus will be running when it won't.
• Why wasn't there any communication between GWR and Chippenham station about the bus?
• It would have been helpful if there had been an announcement at the station about the taxi arrangements.

 
...and the bus replacement will hopefully be an air-conned coach, and take quite a bit less time than the ventilation-only x34 to get to its destination.

 
Ha - actually I took the 17:00 Bristol-Paddington to be safe (the 17:12 has been cancelled a few times, and typically not until after the 17:00 has departed), so I probably could have caught the x34 if I'd been awake.

But never mind - I've got a shady spot on Chippenham platform and it's a good 4G+ signal here so working isn't too unpleasant.

 

Yep ... that train arrives at Chippenham 7 minutes after the last alternative (not RRB) (x34) bus of the day to Melksham has left. A very early time for a last bus of the day - makes working day commutes from Bristol or Swindon to places like Lacock impractical.

 
The last TW service to run was operated by 158762 according to Real Time Trains.

It arrived at Westbury at 11:46.

If the same source is to be believed, it was then attached to 158767 and worked the continuation of the 11:30 from Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour from Westbury scheduled at 13:03 but left at 13:16.

It is currently, again according to RTT, on its way back from the South Coast and is due to be uncoupled at Bristol Temple Meads at 17:53.

 
Well I was going to take the 17:29 Bristol-Paddington to Chippenham (17:57) and get that bus, but the 17:29 has been cancelled (shortage of train crew). So might as well take my usual 17:12 Bristol-Oxford (Chippenham 17:42) and hang around for half an hour.

 
A series of replacement buses in both directions between Chippenham and Westbury via Melksham and Trowbridge have now appeared on Journeycheck.

Leaving Chippenham at 15:41, 18:15 and 20:41

Leaving Westbury at 16:23, 18:37 and 21:16

Plus one from Swindon at 22:31 to Westbury.

 

EDIT that's a bus

 
Looking at Bristol-Melksham options on the National Rail journey planner it's still offering the 18:30, which includes the 19:00 Chippenham-Melksham train (not bus replacement)

I was thinking about taking that as it's the first option not showing as cancelled; I'd normally take the 17:12 Bristol-Oxford service to Chippenham. Plan B is usually just get to Bath then hop on the Melksham bus, but I did that yesterday (to get home in time for the eclipse) and it was pretty unpleasant without air con. And I like the hot weather.

 
Cancellations to services between Swindon and Westbury

Due to a fault on this train between Swindon and Westbury the line is closed.
Train services running through these stations have been cancelled. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
Customer Advice

What has happened?
-
The train used on the Westbury to Swindon service has broken down and no spare is available. Therefore the service has been suspended for the rest of the day.

As no train is available, we cannot run a service. Customers travelling between Swindon, Chippenham, Trowbridge and Westbury can use GWR services to Bath Spa and change for connections. For Melksham customers, we are arranging arranging road transport.

 
Not based on anything more than a hunch, but with the reluctance to move as few sets of points as possible for fear they will fail, I wonder if that applies to those used to get sets off a depot?   They tend to be used most first and last thing when temperatures are, relatively, lower.

 

So it would seem


Has the reason turned into an excuse??

 

Looks like someone's still not looking outside the box!


If there's a fault on this train, use another.  There should be plenty of spares today NOT running from Bristol to Salisbury!

 
The service now cancelled for the rest of the day with the exception of the through services to and from the Stroud Valley.  

 


I would have thought that with the Bristol - Salisbury service canned for the day, there would have been been stand in available.  Granted - there wasn't a train available at short notice for the train 2 hours earlier, nor for the one 4 hours earlier ... but by this time ...

 

I would have thought that with the Bristol - Salisbury service canned for the day, there would have been been stand in available.  Granted - there wasn't a train available at short notice for the train 2 hours earlier, but by this time ...

 
I came on to the Coffee Shop a few minutes ago to record / summarise yesterday's performance or lack thereof ... but find myself again reporting on new cancellations.


For the record, from yesterday ... train summary. Only replacement flagged to be provided was a late pair of buses.

 
21:20 Westbury to Chippenham due 22:01
An additional bus service has been planned to operate as shown 21:20 Westbury to Chippenham due 22:01.
Further Information

Due   Station   Status
21:20   Westbury   21:20
21:32   Trowbridge   21:32
21:45   Melksham   21:45
22:01   Chippenham   22:01

23:20 Chippenham to Westbury due 00:03
An additional bus service has been planned to operate as shown 23:20 Chippenham to Westbury due 00:03.
Further Information

23:20   Chippenham   23:20
23:36   Melksham   23:36
23:51   Trowbridge   23:51
00:03   Westbury   00:03

 

 
Would have been a problem if I wasn't going home early (via bus) to watch the eclipse

 
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:06
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:06 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

17:45 Swindon to Westbury due 18:26
17:45 Swindon to Westbury due 18:26 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

 
Hey....at least you'll keep your local train paths if they can't find staff to divert trains!

 


I know, I know ... but don't you just wish that where there's a shortage of trains, the crew that would have driven them could be redeployed to where there's a shortage of staff.

Apparently, from a very recent discussion, one of the problems with closing the line at Limpley Stoke because os bridge hits is the problem that creates finding enough staff who actually know the diversion route via Melksham, Chippenham, Corsham and Box.  "Fair weather railway" planning has thinned out route knowledge such that dealing with the sorts of problems that happen too-often becomes difficult.

 


Our old friend the 18:36 Paddington to Plymouth, due Westbury at 19:58, didn't arrive there until 20:09.  Sensible hold on the 20:06 which left 6 minutes late. 

 
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:06

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:06 will be starting late from Westbury.
This is due to the train departing late to maintain customer connections.

 

 
Thanks, as ever, for your useful 'insider' information here, IndustryInsider.

CfN. 

 

In that particular case I don't think the data can be believed.  Though it doesn't say First class is full, as the majority of First class seating is in coach K which has 'many' seats available.

From experience, recordings 'on train' are usually correct or very accurate about 95% of the time, but there's an extra level of data transfer to get loadings from the Train Management System on the train to the app, so I don't know how often that might fail.

 
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:06

20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 22:06 will be terminated at Gloucester.
It will no longer call at Cheltenham Spa.

It is being delayed at Westbury.
This is due to a fault on this train.

 
Intriguing.

So if this data is to be believed, a Friday afternoon train leaving Paddington headed for the Westcountry for one of the busiest event weekends of the year, with the previous train having been cancelled, has "many" seats available throughout with the exception of First class which is full (at those prices there must have been some very rich people on board, or perhaps the GWR management surfing team travelling on staff passes?)

I'd say either the data has a whiff of fertiliser about it - a case of "more sensors than usual requiring repair at the same time?", or perhaps if accurate and the train was as lightly loaded as the data indicates suggests that people have given up on relying on the train and have gone by road instead - or perhaps surfed all the way? 

 

In the light of information from II, maybe Mr Creosote was travelling first class that day. 

 

I would say it's pretty accurate most of the time.  If you have a sensor failure then it can lead to erroneous readings, but that's not too common.

 
Well you learn something new every day 

 
It’s data available from IETs derived from sensors on the coaches. 

 
Is that based on seat bookings, or actual 'live' occupancy?

 

I'd say "if" is doing some phenomenally heavy lifting there!

 
Surprisingly, if the GWR app is to be believed, the 17:36 appears to have seats as it approaches Castle Cary.



The preceding 17:03 to Penzance seems to only be congested in first class.

 

Maybe not, but in the context of (for example) the 1636 Paddington-Plymouth having already been cancelled due to said track defect, it being a summer Friday and the weekend of Boardmasters the 1736 was undoubtedly rammed and needed to be prioritised via this diversion.

Inconvenient for customers who were planning to travel on either of those cancelled Transwilts services, but in the context of the number of customers impacted, without doubt the lesser of two evils.

 
Another diverted freight 6V70 was briefly checked at Thingley East waiting for 1C91 to reach Bradford Junction.   Fortunately the following 1C28 18:30 London Paddington to Weston-super-Mare was already over 10 minutes late so was not delayed any further at Thingley.

 
Another reason for capacity improvements on the Melksham line.

Congestion at Thingley Junction as trains wait for the single line.

6C57 A freight to Whatley Quarry went onto the single line at 18:43 (booked route)
4W99 A freight from Oxford to Westbury was delayed for around five minutes waiting for the above to clear Bradford Junction (booked to go round the west curve at Reading but diverted)
2O99 The 17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury was 1 minute early at Chippenham but then delayed 11 minutes waiting for the single line (booked route)
1V01 An excursion from London Victoria to Bishop's Lydeard was held up for several minutes behind 2O09 and then headed towards Bristol (diverted from the B&H)
1C91 The 17:36 from London Paddington to Plymouth was delayed for five minutes behind the two above before taking the single line (diverted from the B&H)
1C27 The 18:01 from London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads was stuck in the queue for 11 minutes at Chippenham before going on towards Bath. (booked route)

 

and


Is it fair to take it that a safety inspection in Berkshire on the Berks and Hants is the case of cancellation of trains in Wiltshire on the Transwilts line?

 
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06 will be terminated at Swindon.

It will no longer call at Stonehouse, Stroud, Kemble, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury.

It is being delayed at Gloucester.
This is due to a broken down train.

 

Driver's cab has cooled off enough as temperatures drop in the evening to make it bearable? 

 

 

We will probably never know ... and in the great run of things it was just (yet) another cancellation leaving a four hour plus gap in services at short notice without easily-forgiven external explanation or alternative advertised.

 

I considered that. Not impossible, although there were no obvious rail-related causes such as cancellations or short-forms at Bath in the relevant time period.

 

Perhaps "congestion" was passengers at Bath Spa and they needed an extra train from there to Bristol?

 

Hmm...

The stock for the 1404 Frome-Swindon (1M11) comes from Westbury as an ECS (5M11), departing Westbury sidings at 1325.
Today, it appears not to have run.

Instead, there was a Very-short-term-planning (VST) passenger service from Westbury to Bristol TM, scheduled to depart from Westbury at 1330. Coincidence that its reporting code was 1Z11?

It returned from Bristol to Westbury as 1Z12, arriving a little earlier than the scheduled 1523 at platform 2.

This suggests it was in the right place to form the rump end to Frome of the otherwise cancelled 1544 Swindon-Frome.

The only thing I can see that might be termed "congestion" is that trains between Paddington and South Wales are running via Chippenham today (and are also a bit off booked times due to yesterday's fire west of Newport).

 
You have no idea what congestion there can be, at Melksham station. I''ve seen it - five cars in the parking area there, all at the same time! 

 
I'd love to know what GWR's definition of 'congestion' is.
So many questions around one word, which to me, doesn't say anything!

 
14:04 Frome to Swindon due 14:57
14:04 Frome to Swindon due 14:57 will be cancelled.
This is due to congestion.

15:44 Swindon to Frome due 16:38
15:44 Swindon to Frome due 16:38 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge.
This is due to congestion.

 



Err ... is this what they are talking about?


Surely not  ...
* This is disruption well after 19:45
* Westbury to Swindon is not "in the Gloucester area"
* The problem is reported to be causing delays, not short runnings /part cancellations.

 

 
Here is summary from yesterday



One thing I did not see was any suggestion of alternative(s) transport ... but then I'm out of area this week.   Did GWR offer of suggest anything other than "you can get your money back"

 

and

 
Lines have reopened around 16:00

First trains are the 1F20 Portsmouth-Cardiff, which was held at Westbury until 15:59; now about 44 minutes late.
Southbound, 6S83 Avonmouth-West Drayton stone train
First southbound passenger, the 2F14 Bristol-Warminster, departed Temple Meads at 16:04.

... and an Appleford-Whatley freight is heading down the Melksham Line.

The 1604 Westbury-Portsmouth has been un-cancelled at short notice.

The 1623 Westbury-Swindon and return still showing as cancelled. I wonder where the stock for the Melksham services went?

 
The information on Journeycheck and National Rail has been a bit vague about the problem. Originally points failure "east of Bath" and then "near Bradford on Avon".

The last trains * through Bradford Jn seem to have been:
Swindon-Westbury passing at 09:16
Bristol-Warminster passing at 09:24
The Portsmouth-Cardiff arrived Trowbridge 09:20 but was terminated there. (Where the stock went after that I have no idea).

* However, there was a 1Z73 Westbury-Bristol via Melksham and Chippenham that passed Bradford Jn at 10:56. It was booked to call only at Chippenham and Bath. This appears to have been the IET that formed the 1J73 Paddington-Westbury.

 
Cancellations to services between Westbury and Swindon

Due to a points failure between Westbury and Swindon some lines are blocked.
Train services running through these stations will be cancelled. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice
-
What has happened?
-

We've had reports of a points failure in the Bradford-on-Avon area. The line between Swindon to Westbury will be suspended until further notice.

 

 
There seem to have been some issues with the display of GWR allocations today.   There was a Taunton to London Paddington service this morning shown on the app and on RTT as 18 coaches.

 

Real time trains is showing trains at Bradford on Avon cancelled, for at least 3 hours after 09:18,

first train currently is 12:24 (Portsmouth-Cardiff) operated by a pathetic 2car 158 (3 trains worth of passengers on a 2car, GWR are mad)

 

 

 
National Rail has a bit more

 
Congestion causing problems in Salisbury area


https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates/live-network-updates

 
Same happened with those pair of services last week, only it was crew shortage then. 

 

 
20:12 Swindon to Westbury due 20:56
20:12 Swindon to Westbury due 20:56 is being delayed at Swindon.
This is due to congestion.

 

 
12:17 Westbury to Swindon due 13:05
12:17 Westbury to Swindon due 13:05 is being delayed at Westbury.
This is due to this train being late from the depot.

13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57
13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 will be starting late from Swindon.
This is due to this train being late from the depot.

 
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:10
05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:10 was terminated at Salisbury.
It will no longer call at Romsey and Southampton Central.
This is due to a points failure.

 

 

 

 
 

 
14:18 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01
14:18 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01 has been cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.

15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:58
15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:58 will be cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:06
16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:06 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

17:45 Swindon to Westbury due 18:26
17:45 Swindon to Westbury due 18:26 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

 

 

 

 

If it's growing on Network Rail land, it's their responsibility to address it - had a similar issue a year or two back with overgrown vegetation near Taplow station making it virtually impossible to use the pavement, and people were having to walk in the road - to their credit, once they were made aware of it they cut it back quite quickly - I would suggest you drop them a line with all the details, location etc - it tends to be very reactive rather than proactive.

https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=25289.0

 

I have just asked for advice from a friend with a foot in multiple camps as to the best / most effective way of bringing the very real issues this is causing rail passengers across the whole area to attention to get appropriate attention.

 

Actually it was open by Saturday afternoon (my sat nav said it was closed, but all the closed signs had been removed, and D1 bus was running normally)

However during the closure, a lot more vegetation has sagged from Network rail land towards the road, making any signage harder to see, but there is now a height restriction warning sign on blue background about 150m before the bridge, which I think is new (although the overhanging vegetation partly hides it as driving towards it)

 
Now, that 'b' road wasn't a through route for around ten days - closed for works to a gas main on Winsley Hill. That would have been a good opportunity to improve the signage and sightlines to the bridge - was this done? On the first day it reopened, it was struck again... It can't be that there's more income to be made from the constant risk and disruption of bridge strikes here than there is from simply operating the railway can it?

Mark

 

Spoiler alert: it was the bridge at Limpley Stoke.

Mark

https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/26275694.live-a36-closed-gwr-trains-cancelled-crash/

 
That's probably what held up the 15:00 Bristol Paddington service I was on - it stopped shortly after Box tunnel, before Thingley junction. At the time the 15:26 Swindon Westbury was showing as Delayed on the National Rail app for all stops, but then it changed to departed on time, and the train manager I was chatting with thought that was why we'd stopped - to let it through. But perhaps it was the diverted train. By the time we got to Chippenham they were announcing the 15:26 had been cancelled; all very odd.

Anyway rather than wait another 2 hours for the next Melksham train I caught the X34 bus - got home about 45 mins later than planned but not too bad considering.

 


Passengers from Bristol - through train to Melksham,  Looks like it left Temple Meads at 14:26, reached Melksham perhaps an hour later. Sadly, it probably wasn't advertised as such ... so not usable as a through service for passengers.

 
Journeycheck says nothing about services via Melksham, but the Real Time Trains site declares for the 14:18 WSB -> SWI


And the departure board offers

 
The 15:14 Swindon Westbury hasn't departed yet, still shown as Delayed.

 


It could be a boat on the canal - Avoncliff or Dundas aqueducts, or a canoe beneath the bridge over the River Avon.  But somehow I would vote for Limpley Stoke rather than any of those three, even though it is not confirmed to be a road vehicle.