GWR Service from London Paddington (1C96 20:04) to Plymouth has had an additional stop at Frome added, anyone know why?

[Diedinium]

Currently on said service, and we are making this diversion off the Castle Cary line to the small loop for Frome - hasn't been explained why. Passengers for Frome were loaded on at Westbury as well, waited for at least 10 mins here while they ensured all Frome passengers were on.

Only the front three carriage doors opened at Frome, the sight of a 9 car class 802 at such a small station is pretty entertaining to say the least.

Does anyone here happen to know what's happened? No information on what's going on has been given to us.

Is it just something boring like a broken train and this one is making up for it? Or is something more interesting happening here?

How often does this even happen?

 

[superalbs]

What's IC96?

 

[Diedinium]

That's the head code that RTT gives for the train?

Realtime Trains | 1C96 2004 London Paddington to Plymouth | 16/07/2022

Real-time train running information for 1C96 2004 departure from London Paddington to Plymouth on 16/07/2022. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Ah nevermind, it's "1" not "I" lol

 

[AlterEgo]

That's the head code that RTT gives for the train?

Realtime Trains | 1C96 2004 London Paddington to Plymouth | 16/07/2022

Real-time train running information for 1C96 2004 departure from London Paddington to Plymouth on 16/07/2022. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

That’s 1C96, not an I. I assume something boring like the cancellation of two services at Frome this evening was the reason.

 

[Busaholic]

Looking on train times and 21.47 dep from Frome to Weymouth showing as delayed at 22.05.

 

[Watershed]

Currently on said service, and we are making this diversion off the Castle Cary line to the small loop for Frome - hasn't been explained why. Passengers for Frome were loaded on at Westbury as well, waited for at least 10 mins here while they ensured all Frome passengers were on.

Only the front three carriage doors opened at Frome, the sight of a 9 car class 802 at such a small station is pretty entertaining to say the least.

Does anyone here happen to know what's happened? No information on what's going on has been given to us.

Is it just something boring like a broken train and this one is making up for it? Or is something more interesting happening here?

How often does this even happen?

It's likely a Special Stop Order (SSO) due to the cancellation of preceding services. Commonly done when there has been a large gap in services or the last train of the day has been cancelled. In this case 1C96 is the last Down train of the day so it's unlikely to cause significant knock-on delays by calling it additionally at Frome.

 

[Adsy125]

Currently on said service, and we are making this diversion off the Castle Cary line to the small loop for Frome - hasn't been explained why. Passengers for Frome were loaded on at Westbury as well, waited for at least 10 mins here while they ensured all Frome passengers were on.

Only the front three carriage doors opened at Frome, the sight of a 9 car class 802 at such a small station is pretty entertaining to say the least.

Does anyone here happen to know what's happened? No information on what's going on has been given to us.

Is it just something boring like a broken train and this one is making up for it? Or is something more interesting happening here?

How often does this even happen?

9 Cars call at Frome pretty frequently, from my (anecdotal and infrequent) experience the 1808 ex Paddington is usually a 9 car IET.

 

[Diedinium]

Thank you for the quick replies, at least this isn't anything to unusual then, nothing exciting is probably a good thing lol.

Didn't know 9 car IET's semi-regularly stop at Frome though, guess that's why they have selective door opening though.

 

[Emaharg]

Looking on train times and 21.47 dep from Frome to Weymouth showing as delayed at 22.05.

83L out of Bristol

 

[Parallel]

That whole line to/from Weymouth struggles on Summer Saturdays - it's packed with services and passengers, and due to multiple sections of single line, delays snowball at certain times of the day.

I used the route a few weeks ago, there were a few minor delays in the morning, but in the afternoon, the signalling between the Dorchester stations and Upwey failed, which caused disruption the rest of the day.

Today, I saw the 17:28 Weymouth - Bristol train was shortformed to 2 coaches vice 4 coaches on JourneyCheck with the train being full and standing from Weymouth, and had to miss some subsequent stations out due to the crowding. I'm sure GWR wouldn't shortform that train unless it was essential but it is a shame as it'll probably just encourage passengers to drive next time if they have a bad experience. There also looks to have been delays earlier in the day due to a weather related speed restriction.

EDIT: It looks like only 1 return trip to Weymouth was formed of 4 coaches, so GWR must be short of units...

At least they added Frome as an additional stop in on the IET service!

 

[Envoy]

GWR need a new fleet of trains for all their non London services.

 

[The exile]

GWR need a new fleet of trains for all their non London services.

More old ones would do for the time being!

 

[irish_rail]

There is a daily Plymouth to Paddington morning train booked a 9 car that calls at Frome as well.

 

[peter166]

There is a daily (Mon to Fri) 0612 to Paddington which starts from Frome and is scheduled as a 9 car IET

 

[Western Lord]

Frome, with a population of 26,000, is comfortably the largest town between Newbury and Taunton. They must rue the day the GWR built the cut off.

 

[Irascible]

Frome, with a population of 26,000, is comfortably the largest town between Newbury and Taunton. They must rue the day the GWR built the cut off.

Considerably larger than Westbury!

I don't think I've ever stopped there on something that's fit the platform.

 

[yorkie]

GWR need a new fleet of trains for all their non London services.

Feel free to create a new thread in the speculative discussion section

 

[Horizon22]

Lots of speed restrictions today. London - W.Country trains normally get hammered by them, especially considering the length of journeys and volatile infrastructure in that neck of the words.

 

[WelshBluebird]

Mostly covered by other comments but worth adding there were lots of issues on west country / regional services in and around Bristol and Bath on Saturday evening which would have resulted in some of the regular Frome services being impacted too, so I suspect this was in reaction to that.

 

[Parallel]

Mostly covered by other comments but worth adding there were lots of issues on west country / regional services in and around Bristol and Bath on Saturday evening which would have resulted in some of the regular Frome services being impacted too, so I suspect this was in reaction to that.

Indeed, the 18:40 Gloucester - Frome train was terminated at Temple Meads - It was due to arrive into Frome around 20:45. And the next train an hour later ended up running around 88 mins late.

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

That whole line to/from Weymouth struggles on Summer Saturdays - it's packed with services and passengers, and due to multiple sections of single line, delays snowball at certain times of the day.

I used the route a few weeks ago, there were a few minor delays in the morning, but in the afternoon, the signalling between the Dorchester stations and Upwey failed, which caused disruption the rest of the day.

Today, I saw the 17:28 Weymouth - Bristol train was shortformed to 2 coaches vice 4 coaches on JourneyCheck with the train being full and standing from Weymouth, and had to miss some subsequent stations out due to the crowding. I'm sure GWR wouldn't shortform that train unless it was essential but it is a shame as it'll probably just encourage passengers to drive next time if they have a bad experience. There also looks to have been delays earlier in the day due to a weather related speed restriction.

EDIT: It looks like only 1 return trip to Weymouth was formed of 4 coaches, so GWR must be short of units...

At least they added Frome as an additional stop in on the IET service!

The 0904 Bristol-Weymouth failed in Bristol on Saturday and was restarted right time from Westbury but unfortunately only a 2-car set was available, hence the short form of the 1728 ex-Weymouth. There were also severe signalling problems in the Bath-Bristol area later in the evening (1828 arrived BTM 83‘ late) meaning crew displaced so the 1940 Weymouth-Swindon terminated short at Westbury.