GWR Reduced Timetable 26 July

[PHILIPE]

GWR are introducing a reduced Timetable from Monday 26 July due to the volume of train crew absent from duty due to COVID and the large number self-isolating

Heatwave travel update

www.gwr.com

Revised timetable from Monday 26 July​

GWR will be operating a revised timetable from Monday 26 July due to a reduction in the number of available staff. A significant number of staff are having to self-isolate following notification from test and trace.
Where possible customers will be contacted and advised of cancellations affecting their journey.
Customers wishing to travel can choose to travel on alternative services immediately before or after their booked service or claim a full refund with no admin fee if their service is affected.
Find out more about claiming a refund or rebooking your journey.
Where services can operate, they are expected to be busier than normal. Please check before you travel.

Services affected are:
Bristol Area
Bristol-Weston-super-Mare-Taunton. Weekdays and Saturdays. Monday 26th July to Friday 13th August Inclusive.

• Bristol-Weston-super-Mare local services will not run, instead the Bristol-Taunton services will call additional at stations between Bristol and Weston-super-Mare.
• High Speed train services between London/Weston-super-Mare/Taunton will continue to operate as planned.

Lawrence Hill-Severn Beach. Saturday 7th August and Monday 9th-Friday 13th August Inclusive.

• A Rail Replacement Service will be in operation on these dates.

London Paddington-Bristol Parkway. Weekdays. Monday 26th July to Friday 6th August Inclusive.
The following services will NOT run

• 09:18 London Paddington-Bristol Parkway
• 14:15 London Paddington-Bristol Parkway
• 12:24 Bristol Parkway-London Paddington
• 17:28 Bristol Parkway-London Paddington

London Paddington-Plymouth.
Mon 26th July- Fri 20th August.
The following services will NOT run

• 05:49 Plymouth-London Paddington
• 17:36 London Paddington-Plymouth

Saturdays from 31st July-21st August

• 06:55 Plymouth-London Paddington

Sundays from 25th July-15th August

• 19:04 London Paddington-Plymouth

Devon and Cornwall
Looe Branch. Mon 26th July- Fri 20th August.
The last train service from Liskeard will be 17:46 and from Looe 18:17. A Rail Replacement Service will then operate the evening timetabled services.
Newquay Branch. Mon 26th July- Fri 20th August.

• 16:15 Par-Newquay will be operated by a Rail Replacement Service
• 17:19 Newquay-Par will be operated by a Rail Replacement Service

Gunnislake Branch. Mon 26th July- Fri 20th August.

• 21:30 Plymouth-Gunnislake will be operated by a Rail Replacement Service
• 22:22 Gunnislake-Exeter will be operated by a Rail Replacement service between Gunnislake and Plymouth with a connecting train onwards to Exeter

Plymouth-Penzance. Mon 26th July- Fri 20th August.

• 09:50 Penzance-Plymouth will NOT run, however alternative services are available
• 12:17 Plymouth-Penzance will NOT run, however alternative services are available

 

[irish_rail]

Cancelling the 1736 Padd to Plymouth is a strange one seeing as the Plymouth driver for it works up on the 1215 ex Plymouth which IS running. So said driver will now just travel back on the "cushions" to Plymouth from London, yet I thought this was all about driver shortages caused by covid???

 

[Ianno87]

Cancelling the 1736 Padd to Plymouth is a strange one seeing as the Plymouth driver for it works up on the 1215 ex Plymouth which IS running. So said driver will now just travel back on the "cushions" to Plymouth from London, yet I thought this was all about driver shortages caused by covid???

...presumably they've devised something different to cover.

Or its another crew member that's the issue, such as the Train Manager.

I'm sure they're not just picking trains at random to annoy people.

 

[Timmyd]

Cancelling trains though Cornwall at the height of staycation Summer doesn’t feel like an ideal plan

 

[berneyarms]

Cancelling the 1736 Padd to Plymouth is a strange one seeing as the Plymouth driver for it works up on the 1215 ex Plymouth which IS running. So said driver will now just travel back on the "cushions" to Plymouth from London, yet I thought this was all about driver shortages caused by covid???

Cancelling the evening service is a direct result of cancelling the 05:49 ex-Plymouth, as it is the same set (it does a return trip to and from Paignton in between).

The Paignton trip is obviously covered by another set, but you'd have no set available to do the 17:36, and if you did you'd end up with a set in the wrong place.

Presumably the issue is with having sufficient drivers to cover the 05:49 ex-Plymouth.

Cancelling trains though Cornwall at the height of staycation Summer doesn’t feel like an ideal plan

If there aren't enough drivers to drive the trains due to Covid isolations, there's not a lot they can do!

 

[irish_rail]

Cancelling the evening service is a direct result of cancelling the 05:49 ex-Plymouth, as it is the same set (it does a return trip to and from Paignton in between).

The Paignton trip is obviously covered by another set, but you'd have no set available to do the 17:36, and if you did you'd end up with a set in the wrong place.

Presumably the issue is with having sufficient drivers to cover the 05:49 ex-Plymouth.


If there aren't enough drivers to drive the trains due to Covid isolations, there's not a lot they can do!

Yes I can see the 5.49 is harder to cover, again its a Plymouth driver for the first bit then I think an exter driver onwards. I think its a fairly poorly patronised train which is no doubt why it was chosen to be culled.

 

[Rich McLean]

Will the 1706 or 1806 pick up the B&H calls?

 

[PHILIPE]

Will the 1706 or 1806 pick up the B&H calls?

I think we will have to wait until train schedules are in systems to learn the detail

 

[sk688]

Compared to GTR/Avanti , that's surprisingly few services cancelled, doesnt feel like a wholescale reduction as other operators have done

 

[Johnny Lewis]

Cancelling trains though Cornwall at the height of staycation Summer doesn’t feel like an ideal plan

Only one return trip between Plymouth and Penzance is cancelled. All branchline services that are cancelled will have replacement buses provided. It's nowhere near as bad as it could have been!

 

[SeaKing]

I already have booked Mon & Wed from Taun 07.09 ex 05.49 Plymouth what do i do regarding reservations. Booked at Taunton Ticket Office.

 

[PHILIPE]

Will the 1706 or 1806 pick up the B&H calls?

Any B & H stations are catered for by the Bedwyn local services apart from Pewsey at which the 1706 calls anyway

 

[father_jack]

The xx26 Bristol TM to Weston Super Mare have bitten the dust as well so only an hourly which is the circa xx53 Bristol TM to Tauntons except for the trains from Paddington to Bristol TM that extend in the evenings which isn't much good because the passengers are going in the opposite direction. Hope the daytime trains don't start turning up as 2 cars....

I already have booked Mon & Wed from Taun 07.09 ex 05.49 Plymouth what do i do regarding reservations. Booked at Taunton Ticket Office.

The "mandatory" or so called reservations are no longer required. Turn up for 0719 and claim 15 minutes delay repay or go back into Taunton and I can't see them not rebooking you on the 0617.

 

[SeaKing]

Thank you will go into Taunton especially for Wednesday as already booked on to Manchester from Euston.

 

[sonic2009]

Thank you will go into Taunton especially for Wednesday as already booked on to Manchester from Euston.

You may want to check your train is running from London Euston to Manchester as Avanti are reducing their service on Monday also.

 

[Max]

I've made a couple of trips from Cardiff into Bristol this week for work. The cancellation of the Parkway-Temple Meads shuttle is making things quite problematic, with very heavy loadings on the hourly XC services. Although the Dr Day diversion is a nice novelty, I am looking forward to resumption of the normal timetable in September.

 

[WelshBluebird]

I've made a couple of trips from Cardiff into Bristol this week for work. The cancellation of the Parkway-Temple Meads shuttle is making things quite problematic, with very heavy loadings on the hourly XC services. Although the Dr Day diversion is a nice novelty, I am looking forward to resumption of the normal timetable in September.

I'm sure it's not so bad when XC run a double voyager or HST, but yeah when it's a single voyager it's a massive pain. The one I was one this morning was basically as full as you could get. One poor women travelling to Aberdeen was stuck in the vestibule - she had a seat reservation but there was no hope in hell of her getting to it. Hopefully she did after Parkway! I'd like GWR to be putting more replacement buses on to be honest (one and hour is somewhat poor) but I'm not sure if people would bother to use them!

 

[irish_rail]

Seen a LOT of double voyagers on the Reading XC route this week, but very few on the south west axis. Seems the Reading route is being prioritised. Kind of a strange move in late July IMHO. And yes I know some go to Bournemouth, but the ones for the south west service Devon and Cornwall which are rather a bigger draw this time of year....

 

[Ianno87]

Seen a LOT of double voyagers on the Reading XC route this week, but very few on the south west axis. Seems the Reading route is being prioritised. Kind of a strange move in late July IMHO. And yes I know some go to Bournemouth, but the ones for the south west service Devon and Cornwall which are rather a bigger draw this time of year....

One explanation is that Manchester-Bournemouth-Manchester is a shorter round trip than Edinburgh-Plymouth-Edinburgh, so it takes fewer units to double up the entire service group.

Plus, arguably, Edinburgh-Plymouth has more duplication by other operators (e.g. LNER north of York, GWR west of Bristol, etc)

Also, the Edinburgh-Plymouths are currently reversing at North Somerset Jn, which is presumably easier done in a single Voyager than a double.

 

[Peterthegreat]

One explanation is that Manchester-Bournemouth-Manchester is a shorter round trip than Edinburgh-Plymouth-Edinburgh, so it takes fewer units to double up the entire service group.

Plus, arguably, Edinburgh-Plymouth has more duplication by other operators (e.g. LNER north of York, GWR west of Bristol, etc)

Also, the Edinburgh-Plymouths are currently reversing at North Somerset Jn, which is presumably easier done in a single Voyager than a double.

But the basic level of cross country on this axis is
2 hourly Edinburgh to Plymouth
and
2 hourly Newcastle to Bristol

 

[Bikeman78]

I'm sure it's not so bad when XC run a double voyager or HST, but yeah when it's a single voyager it's a massive pain. The one I was one this morning was basically as full as you could get. One poor women travelling to Aberdeen was stuck in the vestibule - she had a seat reservation but there was no hope in hell of her getting to it. Hopefully she did after Parkway! I'd like GWR to be putting more replacement buses on to be honest (one and hour is somewhat poor) but I'm not sure if people would bother to use them!

I had a pair from Bristol Parkway Tuesday last week. There were a lot of people waiting to get on. Most rammed into the front four carriages, quite a few in the next three carriages but the eighth carriage had just me and one other passenger.

 

[Annetts key]

1C22 1632 London Paddington to Taunton cancelled between Bristol Temple Meads and Taunton.

And the return working, 1A37 1957 Taunton to London Paddington cancelled between Taunton and Bristol Temple Meads.

Both due to a lack of train crew.

Realtime Trains - 1C22 1632 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads

Realtime Trains is an independent source of live realtime running information for the Great British railway network.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Realtime Trains - 1A37 2100 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington

Realtime Trains is an independent source of live realtime running information for the Great British railway network.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

The result was that the Castle class 2+4 HST, 2C87 1853 Bristol Temple Meads to Plymouth, was very busy on leaving BTM. And as more passengers got on than left at the next three stations, people were standing.

Realtime Trains - 2C87 1853 Bristol Temple Meads to Plymouth

Realtime Trains is an independent source of live realtime running information for the Great British railway network.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[43055]

Seen a LOT of double voyagers on the Reading XC route this week, but very few on the south west axis. Seems the Reading route is being prioritised. Kind of a strange move in late July IMHO. And yes I know some go to Bournemouth, but the ones for the south west service Devon and Cornwall which are rather a bigger draw this time of year....

Other than the some (2 to 3 services a day) early/late services everything to Plymouth is showing as a HST or double set on RTT. Today one of the HSTs was not out so there has been some single sets and swaps to save cancellations and balance the HSTs for tomorrow.

 

[geoffk]

The cancelled trains are due to resume next Monday, 23rd and they appear to be shown in RTT, although I've not checked everything. Today I picked up two GWR timetable booklets from Teignmouth station, the first I'd seen since pre-Covid. They are dated 16th May to 11th December and of course include the cancelled trains - perhaps they have only been put back in the rack today. Anyone know?

 

[43055]

The cancelled GWR trains are due to resume next Monday, 23rd and they appear to be shown in RTT, although I've not checked everything. Today I picked up two printed GWR timetable booklets from Teignmouth station, the first I'd seen since pre-Covid. They are dated 16th May to 11th December and contain all these services subsequently cancelled - perhaps they have only been put back on display today. Anyone know?

At Paddington about two weeks ago there were some timetables out but the rack at Chippenham had none.

 

[davetheguard]

Today I picked up two GWR timetable booklets from Teignmouth station, the first I'd seen since pre-Covid.

Pocket timetables certainly seem to have reappeared in this part of the GW empire: they're available at Exeter St. David's & Dawlish too.

 

[D9006]

Only one return trip between Plymouth and Penzance is cancelled. All branchline services that are cancelled will have replacement buses provided. It's nowhere near as bad as it could have been!

It’s just as well drivers of the buses provided don’t get COVID or pinged by PHE, COVID must just effect train crew and not those involved in bus/coach industry’s

 

[Ianno87]

It’s just as well drivers of the buses provided don’t get COVID or pinged by PHE, COVID must just effect train crew and not those involved in bus/coach industry’s

Bus and Coach companies will have spare capacity at present due to it being the school holidays.

 

[D9006]

Bus and Coach companies will have spare capacity at present due to it being the school holidays.

I run a bus and coach company, must of our drivers are off throughput the summer period as they are pro ratio, perhaps it’s something government should think more about with these branch lines, if the buses can cope this summer covering for trains, could be a long term possibility for permanently being buses

on note of spare capacity I would have thought railways would too as the demand on peak hour travel has drastically reduced

 

[geoffk]

All these journeys reinstated I believe, but there have still been some daily cancellations.