Engineering works Westbury to Bristol - advice requested

UrsulainCadiz · 26 Mar 2019

Hello lovely expert train people! Thank you in advance for your help with my question.

I want to travel from Romsey to Bristol on Saturday 13th April, on which date most of the trains are showing part replacement bus service from Westbury which is adding an hour to the journey. However, two of the trains: specifically the 8:21 and the 13:21 out of Romsey don't show the RRB and have the normal journey duration of an hour less. I was trying to book on trainline, but having read some of your knowledgable posts, moved over to NRE and GRW sites which seem to say the same. I've tried opening the journey details and comparing the stops, but the apparently non-RRB trains seem to go through places that the RRB is trying to avoid. I am finding it hard to imagine that there would be a time gap allowing trains through in the problem area (during a lunch hour, for example!?), but what do I know? If anyone can fathom it out, I'd be grateful for your insight. I looked at other routes to travel, but heading down to Southampton and up to Taunton to change again, though an option, will add the same extra time to the journey as the RRB, so maybe not worth it.
Obviously, I don't want to count on the 13:21 getting in at x, to then discover it'll be an hour later, especially as I'm heading for a plane back to Spain the same day. Should I just count that the RRB is inevitable on that route?

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ForTheLoveOf · 26 Mar 2019

UrsulainCadiz said:
Hello lovely expert train people! Thank you in advance for your help with my question.

I want to travel from Romsey to Bristol on Saturday 13th April, on which date most of the trains are showing part replacement bus service from Westbury which is adding an hour to the journey. However, two of the trains: specifically the 8:21 and the 13:21 out of Romsey don't show the RRB and have the normal journey duration of an hour less. I was trying to book on trainline, but having read some of your knowledgable posts, moved over to NRE and GRW sites which seem to say the same. I've tried opening the journey details and comparing the stops, but the apparently non-RRB trains seem to go through places that the RRB is trying to avoid. I am finding it hard to imagine that there would be a time gap allowing trains through in the problem area (during a lunch hour, for example!?), but what do I know? If anyone can fathom it out, I'd be grateful for your insight. I looked at other routes to travel, but heading down to Southampton and up to Taunton to change again, though an option, will add the same extra time to the journey as the RRB, so maybe not worth it.
Obviously, I don't want to count on the 13:21 getting in at x, to then discover it'll be an hour later, especially as I'm heading for a plane back to Spain the same day. Should I just count that the RRB is inevitable on that route?

I suspect this is all down to issues with the relevant train companies upload a correct timetable, and journey planners loading updates to said timetable.

As shown here, GWR added the 08:21 from Romsey to Bristol to the timetable on the 21st of December. However, on the 8th of February they curtailed the service at Westbury.

I wouldn't hold out any hope of there actually being any train services through the affected areas, and it appears that most journey planners are correctly reflecting the reality of the situation with the GWR services. However SWR are well behind on publishing timetable alterations and their train service from Salisbury to Bristol is still showing as running (even though one can be quite sure it won't be). If it fits your plans, you could buy a ticket with an itinerary on an SWR train and then claim back the entire cost of your fare when (inevitably) the train doesn't run and you take a replacement bus instead, with a delay of approximately an hour.

UrsulainCadiz · 26 Mar 2019

Thank you @ForTheLoveOf . Interestingly, that link shows the train as stopping at Westbury, i.e. before the engineering works, and not getting to Bristol at all!
Looks like I'm going to be unlucky then *sigh* . Despite the horrific delays, and I mean some total nightmare journeys, on nearly every train journey I've made on trips back to Britain over the years, it's so easy to forget that it's not Spain, who appear to have managed to absorb Swiss regularity with their trains, even though the rest of Spanish life is still completely mañana-led :rolleyes:

ForTheLoveOf · 26 Mar 2019

UrsulainCadiz said:
Thank you @ForTheLoveOf . Interestingly, that link shows the train as stopping at Westbury, i.e. before the engineering works, and not getting to Bristol at all!
Looks like I'm going to be unlucky then *sigh* . Despite the horrific delays, and I mean some total nightmare journeys, on nearly every train journey I've made on trips back to Britain over the years, it's so easy to forget that it's not Spain, who appear to have managed to absorb Swiss regularity with their trains, even though the rest of Spanish life is still completely mañana-led

Yes, this is but one of the frustrations of the current system. Problems like this (with respect to providing inaccurate information) are down to nothing beyond a lack of care on the part of the train companies. If they wanted to fix it, they could do so, but alas, they can't be bothered to invest sufficient resources into ensuring that accurate and timely information is provided.

UrsulainCadiz · 26 Mar 2019

I always feel that a train system run by train enthusiasts would do it so much better!! (goes for most jobs in life, probably) At least they would WANT to iron out the kinks...
Meanwhile, I didn't say thank you for the idea of buying a ticket which I could then claim compensation for. Don't know if that works if I've bought a return (given that the price is not much more than the single, would any compensation be worth it?) Let along trying to work out if its a SWR ticket; I think it's a GWR and I'd have to book the 13:21 which would definitely get me there later than I want, so then travel on an earlier train. Oof! Sounds complicated

ForTheLoveOf · 26 Mar 2019

UrsulainCadiz said:
I always feel that a train system run by train enthusiasts would do it so much better!! (goes for most jobs in life, probably) At least they would WANT to iron out the kinks...
Meanwhile, I didn't say thank you for the idea of buying a ticket which I could then claim compensation for. Don't know if that works if I've bought a return (given that the price is not much more than the single, would any compensation be worth it?) Let along trying to work out if its a SWR ticket; I think it's a GWR and I'd have to book the 13:21 which would definitely get me there later than I want, so then travel on an earlier train. Oof! Sounds complicated

Compensation for delays is based on a proportion of the ticket, or of the relevant portion of a ticket. Confusingly, whilst for the purposes of a refund (i.e. don't want to travel any more) the cost of a single ticket is used as the basis of what you get back, often meaning there is either no refund or an immaterial one, for the purposes of compensation "relevant portion" is worked out with a return ticket being effectively two identically "valued" singles.

That is to say, if you are 1 hour late on a return ticket, with the operators that use the Delay Repay scheme (which, from April onwards, will be all companies except Chiltern Railways, who also nevertheless use the same compensation scale) you will get back 50% of the value of a return ticket in compensation.

The 10:21 departure from Romsey is another option if you want to use an SWR service (from Salisbury) that's still in the timetable.

UrsulainCadiz · 26 Mar 2019

"The 10:21 departure from Romsey is another option if you want to use an SWR service (from Salisbury) that's still in the timetable."

@ForTheLoveOf Goodness, you are THE BIZ!!

And great explanation about how the compensation works; might be worth it after all then.

Thank you so much again for sorting me out. I will think of you when I'm on that train/bus!!

father_jack · 27 Mar 2019

ForTheLoveOf said:
Yes, this is but one of the frustrations of the current system. Problems like this (with respect to providing inaccurate information) are down to nothing beyond a lack of care on the part of the train companies. If they wanted to fix it, they could do so, but alas, they can't be bothered to invest sufficient resources into ensuring that accurate and timely information is provided.

The SWR trains from Bristol TM to London Waterloo all that day show WTT (Working timetable) set up on 21st December so they've clearly been missed out. http://timetablehistory.com/times.aspx?uid=W90764&date=20190413 ,possibly though by Network Rail and not noticed by SWR.

Envy123 · 27 Mar 2019

UrsulainCadiz said:
Thank you @ForTheLoveOf
Looks like I'm going to be unlucky then *sigh* . Despite the horrific delays, and I mean some total nightmare journeys, on nearly every train journey I've made on trips back to Britain over the years, it's so easy to forget that it's not Spain, who appear to have managed to absorb Swiss regularity with their trains, even though the rest of Spanish life is still completely mañana-led

I really have to disagree here. The train services aren't entirely better than UK.

Metro and regional services - yes. It is amazing how well-served some small villages are, including some which have nothing to them (from first glance). Commuter services from Barcelona are also structured really well, more so than London.

But inter-city? What a joke. If I want to go from Barcelona to Figueres, I end up taking the slow train because it has a frequency of 2tph. The fast train which takes you there is only once every 3 hours and it's faster to take the slow train, unless the fast train is close to arriving. I kept thinking about the frequencies we have on the WCML, ECML, even the MML and wished that Spanish inter-city trains were as frequent.

father_jack · 27 Mar 2019

Not in work to get my SWT train planning contact's details so sent them a tweet https://twitter.com/feck_fr_jack/status/1110871961515769857. Let's see.

sonic2009 · 27 Mar 2019

If you want to get to Bristol Airport, consider taking the RRB and getting off at Bath Spa, and taking the A4 bus service direct from Bath to Bristol Airport, this may save you some time.

father_jack · 5 Apr 2019

All rectified now..........http://timetablehistory.com/times.aspx?uid=W90764&date=20190413

South Western Railway service to London Waterloo on 13/04/2019
Train added to timetable on 21/12/2018
Schedule was changed on 03/04/2019

Station Arrive Depart Notes
Westbury
09:39
Warminster 09:46 09:46
Salisbury 10:09 10:21
Andover 10:37 10:38
Basingstoke 10:55 10:57
Woking 11:15 11:17
Clapham Junction 11:36 11:37
London Waterloo 11:49

Headcode: 1O32, Service ID: SW623202, Train ID: W90764. Reservations available. First class available. Trolley service.

Engineering works Westbury to Bristol - advice requested

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