SWR Cancels Saturday Salisbury-Waterloo & Bristol service

[spyinthesky]

Saturday services cancelled to Waterloo till 11th Dec and completely withdraws Bristol service due to staff shortages.

Salisbury Journal

SOUTH Western Railway has cancelled all Saturday trains between Salisbury and Bristol and Salisbury and London for the next few months.
This is because of an "ongoing shortage of traincrew".
The company said the underlying cause of these issues is a shortage of available drivers, due to the "extensive disruption Covid restrictions have caused to our new driver training programme over the past year

 

[Nova1]

Could you please put the actual station names in before using CRS codes as I and probably many others have no idea what those stations are.

 

[Horizon22]

The Bristol service that was going to be removed going forward in the next timetable (or 2022)?

 

[spyinthesky]

Apologies, Salisbury-Waterloo & Bristol.

Could you please put the actual station names in before using CRS codes as I and probably many others have no idea what those stations are.

And others may not know what CRS means

 

[306024]

And others may not know what CRS means

Which begs the question, what does CRS mean?, apart from Carstairs.

 

[Horizon22]

Which begs the question, what does CRS mean?, apart from Carstairs.

Originally, Computer Reservation System. Bit off-topic though.

 

[Western Sunset]

Originally, Computer Reservation System. Bit off-topic though.

Learn something new every day. Ta.

 

[Kite159]

Yay said everybody wanting to travel to Overton or Whitchurch from London as they face a 30 minute wait at Basingstoke for the stopper having travelled there on an overcrowded Exeter service...

(As unless the timetable gets changed the last connection to the Basingstoke - Salisbury stopper is the Exeter train, meaning Andover & Salisbury are effectively reduced to 1tph from London)

(I assume the Exeter trains will still run to/from London)

 

[Bletchleyite]

What exactly will be operated to Salisbury? Are we talking about it being cut back? If withdrawn entirely, isn't that going to leave some stations totally unserved?

 

[nw1]

What exactly will be operated to Salisbury? Are we talking about it being cut back? If withdrawn entirely, isn't that going to leave some stations totally unserved?

I don't know, but I'm guessing an hourly Basingstoke-Salisbury shuttle, with the Exeter running as normal.

By the sounds of it, the particular issue is the poor connection at Basingstoke from London.

 

[swt_passenger]

What exactly will be operated to Salisbury? Are we talking about it being cut back? If withdrawn entirely, isn't that going to leave some stations totally unserved?

The majority of Bristol services were split/joins of Waterloo to Exeter services, the latter continue. The Bristol portions cease completely in December 2021. The question is what the stock will be used for, strengthening of more Exeter portions to 6 car is apparently proposed.

here’s a link to the local rag:

Saturday trains from Salisbury to Bristol or London impacted by shortages

SOUTH Western Railway services between Salisbury and Bristol and Salisbury and London have been impacted by staff shortages.

www.salisburyjournal.co.uk

I think they’ve misreported the situation at the start of the article, suggesting that there’ll be no trains from Salisbury to Waterloo, but later on they report correctly that the Exeter services still run through…

 

[306024]

Originally, Computer Reservation System. Bit off-topic though.

Thank you.

What exactly will be operated to Salisbury? Are we talking about it being cut back? If withdrawn entirely, isn't that going to leave some stations totally unserved?

Well looking at Real-time Trains the next three weeks buses for part of the journey to Waterloo on a Saturday. The Salisbury Journal may well be correct, but a local newspaper reporting accurately would be novel.

 

[Kite159]

I don't know, but I'm guessing an hourly Basingstoke-Salisbury shuttle, with the Exeter running as normal.

By the sounds of it, the particular issue is the poor connection at Basingstoke from London.

Heading towards London isn't the worst as there is a ~6 minute connection into the Weymouth - London service (other than if you want Woking when you are waiting for 30 minutes for the Exeter - London train).

Coming back from London the last departure someone can catch is the Exeter services, which gives a 30 minute wait at Basingstoke for any passengers for the villages. Effectively meaning London - Andover & Salisbury are hourly.

Other than putting a Basingstoke stop on the XX:35 Waterloo - Weymouth services there isn't much else that can be done.

-----
Edit (at 17;55)
At Grateley station now and I've just heard an announcement about the cuts, so at least they are attempting to communicate them.

 

[miklcct]

Can anyone explain to me what's the new timetable? Booking website still shows direct train from London to Whitchurch on a Saturday in November?

Does that mean the xx:50 from London will be truncated to depart at xx:38 at Basingstoke? Which means, if I don't consider overtaken trains, the next train after the xx:20 from London which stops at Brockenhurst will be the xx:05 45 minutes later?

Also, I have booked an advance of 15:47 from Salisbury to London Waterloo on 6/11, alighting at Basingstoke at 16:28 on a Saturday to connect to another advance on 16:35 service to London Waterloo (which arrives at the same time as the direct train). (I booked the journey in such way was that my trip starts at Salisbury and returns to Bournemouth and found out that splitting manually at Brockenhurst is cheaper for that particular combination of advances). Will my schedule be affected?

 

[swt_passenger]

Can anyone explain to me what's the new timetable? Booking website still shows direct train from London to Whitchurch on a Saturday in November?

Does that mean the xx:50 from London will be truncated to depart at xx:38 at Basingstoke? Which means, if I don't consider overtaken trains, the next train after the xx:20 from London which stops at Brockenhurst will be the xx:05 45 minutes later?

Also, I have booked an advance of 15:47 from Salisbury to London Waterloo on 6/11, alighting at Basingstoke at 16:28 on a Saturday to connect to another advance on 16:35 service to London Waterloo (which arrives at the same time as the direct train). (I booked the journey in such way was that my trip starts at Salisbury and returns to Bournemouth and found out that splitting manually at Brockenhurst is cheaper for that particular combination of advances). Will my schedule be affected?

You are probably seeing the normal full May-Dec 2021 timetable for dates in November, because they haven’t reduced the services yet. That only happens at short notice.

 

[ABDeltic]

I saw a poster about this at Overton this morning, but can't find anything on the SWR website. The trains to Waterloo are still showing on journey planners, but as has been mentioned they were terminating at Basingstoke the next 2 weekends for engineering work. The London - Basingstoke service will be only 2 'fast' trains 4 minutes apart at xx05 and xx09. I think the end of the Bristol service isn't until Dec 22. It is unfortunate that the Saturday service has become so poor as a lot of people are travelling at weekends now and any goodwill is being thrown away.

 

[Bishopstone]

Why don’t they stop the Exeter services at the intermediate stations between Basingstoke and Salisbury, strengthening these services with the units that would have gone to Bristol and worked the ‘villages’ shuttle?

 

[Watershed]

Why don’t they stop the Exeter services at the intermediate stations between Basingstoke and Salisbury, strengthening these services with the units that would have gone to Bristol and worked the ‘villages’ shuttle?

The line is mostly single track from Salisbury to Exeter. If you stopped the Exeter services at additional stations it would arrive at Salisbury about 7 mins later and thus you'd have to completely rewrite the timetable for where trains meet at the various loops. It's not an overnight job.

 

[Bishopstone]

The line is mostly single track from Salisbury to Exeter. If you stopped the Exeter services at additional stations it would arrive at Salisbury about 7 mins later and thus you'd have to completely rewrite the timetable for where trains meet at the various loops. It's not an overnight job.

But wouldn’t you recover those 7 minutes in not splitting/joining units at Salisbury?

Also, bearing in mind these changes are indefinite and not just for a couple of weeks, rewriting the timetable appropriately might be advisable even if it is a bit of an effort.

 

[221129]

a bit of an effort.

A bit of an effort is an understatement.

 

[zwk500]

But wouldn’t you recover those 7 minutes in not splitting/joining units at Salisbury?

Doesn't help when you're 5 minutes late for a crossing move before getting to Salisbury

 

[Watershed]

But wouldn’t you recover those 7 minutes in not splitting/joining units at Salisbury?

SWR splits and joins only require 3/4 minute IIRC. That still gets you onto the single line late. With 2 minute margins at most passing loops (i.e. one train arrives at xx00, the next train can depart at xx02) that's still going to cause problems for most services.

Also, bearing in mind these changes are indefinite and not just for a couple of weeks, rewriting the timetable appropriately might be advisable even if it is a bit of an effort.

It might well be what ends up happening, but I'm sure you can appreciate that there isn't an unlimited amount of time available to work out all these kinds of things. Sometimes compromises have to be made and this is one of them.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

But wouldn’t you recover those 7 minutes in not splitting/joining units at Salisbury?

Many trains on weekends still would have to split at Salisbury whether there is a Bristol portion or not at they are 8/9 cars and only 6 go on to Exeter.

 

[davetheguard]

Why don’t they stop the Exeter services at the intermediate stations between Basingstoke and Salisbury, strengthening these services with the units that would have gone to Bristol and worked the ‘villages’ shuttle?

I think there's quite enough stops already between Exeter & Basingstoke/Waterloo without adding any more thank you!

 

[Johnny Lewis]

I saw a poster about this at Overton this morning, but can't find anything on the SWR website. The trains to Waterloo are still showing on journey planners, but as has been mentioned they were terminating at Basingstoke the next 2 weekends for engineering work. The London - Basingstoke service will be only 2 'fast' trains 4 minutes apart at xx05 and xx09. I think the end of the Bristol service isn't until Dec 22. It is unfortunate that the Saturday service has become so poor as a lot of people are travelling at weekends now and any goodwill is being thrown away.

SWR are definitely pulling out of Bristol from December 2021. It IS on their website, albeit buried in the December 2022 consultant documents. The limited Yeovil - Castle Cary - Frome - Westbury - Salisbury - London Waterloo services WILL continue running beyond December 2021, but SWR's plan is to only run these between Yeovil and Salisbury (via Westbury) from December 2022.

 

[swt_passenger]

I saw a poster about this at Overton this morning, but can't find anything on the SWR website. The trains to Waterloo are still showing on journey planners, but as has been mentioned they were terminating at Basingstoke the next 2 weekends for engineering work. The London - Basingstoke service will be only 2 'fast' trains 4 minutes apart at xx05 and xx09. I think the end of the Bristol service isn't until Dec 22. It is unfortunate that the Saturday service has become so poor as a lot of people are travelling at weekends now and any goodwill is being thrown away.

I found it on the website “plan my journey” page, scroll down to “network updates”. I think it’s been there since at least a few days ago:

Live Train Times & Travel Information | South Western Railway

Our journey planner provides live train times and train disruption information. Plan your journey and check for changes that might affect your journey

www.southwesternrailway.com

 

[louis97]

The line is mostly single track from Salisbury to Exeter. If you stopped the Exeter services at additional stations it would arrive at Salisbury about 7 mins later and thus you'd have to completely rewrite the timetable for where trains meet at the various loops. It's not an overnight job.

It doesn't need to require timetable amendments all the way down to Exeter, the timetable has been able to accommodate additional peak stops at Overton, Whitchurch and Grateley for years. Switching which train uses the loops at Tisbury can put the down train back into the right path after Tisbury for the remaining single line sections. This does require a revised path for the up service through to Waterloo, however certainly a lot easier (especially with the reduced SWR timetable now) than tinkering with the single line timetable.

 

[AndrewE]

Given that GWR are continuing to run between Salisbury and Bristol (from what I can see) is this such a problem?
Granted, losing a portion off the trains from London will probably slow up some journeys, but if the service remains relatively useable without the connections being too bad it might be better in the long run if it makes the remaining trains more financially viable.
A

 

[anthony263]

Given that GWR are continuing to run between Salisbury and Bristol (from what I can see) is this such a problem?
Granted, losing a portion off the trains from London will probably slow up some journeys, but if the service remains relatively useable without the connections being too bad it might be better in the long run if it makes the remaining trains more financially viable.
A

Problem is that the SWR services from Bristol are well used especially for customers going to Basingstoke and south London


Hasn't helped Swr didn't put the 0851 service back on which was popular and leaves a few towns with no direct london.services.

This is only going to push more customers onto GWR s Portsmouth services.

I've used the service regularly as its cheaper than.GWR even used it since wales and borders days. Personally would be nice if it ran more clockface on.a 2 hourly timetable and possibly extended to Cardiff. Yes its a long journey but I'd rather a 158/159 over the class 800s

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Hasn't helped Swr didn't put the 0851 service back on which was popular and leaves a few towns with no direct london.services.

I don’t think the service reduction actually removes any direct services to London but obviously reduces frequency:

Keynsham still has some direct IET services
Bath and Westbury have regular IET services to London
Bradford on Avon and Trowbridge retain the morning IET service to London
Warminster still has the SWR services which have run via Frome and continue to London