11:32 Swindon to Weymouth due 13:45

11:32 Swindon to Weymouth due 13:45 will be delayed at Westbury and is expected to be 15 minutes late.

This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Will be formed of 3 coaches. Toilet facilities are reduced.

Additional Facilities Information
The accessible toilet is not available for use.

 

I will be there - but please don't let that put you off also volunteering to help.

CfN. 

 
Driving past a short while ago, it appears that a vehicle has demolished one of the central reservation crossing road warning light arrays. The parallel stop signal is still in place at the side of the road. That appears to be the only damage on the crossing - even the keep-left beacon on the short central reservation is still in place.

I am surprised that the crossing cannot be used with additional supervision and traffic control on the ground. There must be railway procedures in place to pass a train over a defective level crossing, especially in the long daylight of summer.

 
There are some however for later in the day, some of which were announced last night.

 
The morning after the England game.  Just one cancellation currently listed due to crew shortages this morning.

 
Next Saturday (18th July 2026) - Melksham Carnival.  This is a call and briefing for walkers to support the Melksham Transport User Group.

We have a thousand bus and train timetables to hand out and asking if YOU are available to help us.  We have a Faresaver bus promised to follow just behind us - raise awareness and helping us remind people of all the places they can go by bus and train this summer and Autumn.

"Just bring yourself" is the instruction - but please let me know ahead of time if you're coming so that I can brief you as part of our group, and have a group tabard available for you - transport group pink, or environment group green.

We rendezvous at the Central Car Park by 17:30 at the very latest for an 18:00 start.  There are no extra car parking spaces there if you're coming by car - just space for the procession including the bus.  But our team is very welcome to park at our place (48, Spa Road) - arrive there by 17:00 please - for us to walk in to the start.  And we (Lisa and I) will have a supply of cold and hot drinks afterwards.

Key safety rules - organiser's and ours.

1. No alcohol during the event (and my addition, do not drink beforehand either!!)

2. No getting on or off moving vehicles (specifically, the bus will come to a halt to pass down fresh supplies of leaflets and bottled water for the walkers)

3. Your health and safety, and the health and safety of those around you, comes first and second. Getting the message out only comes third.

4. The objective is to promote public transport to, from and within Melksham and the timetable booklet is the ONLY leaflet to be promoted / offered to people. And it should NOT be forced into their hands - only if they want it when offered. I walk the route after the event picking up any discards - historically they will be few even though we start with a darned good supply

5. If people ask questions as we walk, we have very limited time to answer. "Sorry – I don't know" is perfectly valid. I will supply each walker with some black and white sheets with contact details / QR codes so they can be encouraged to follow up for us to get them answers.  These sheets not to be promoted - they are a second level fallback; most of the extra data is in the 36 page booklet anyway.  If in doubt - please call me over; I am there to support walkers.

The weather forecast - thank goodness - is for it to be dry, and somewhat cooler than it has been of late. Excellent.

If you are retuning home from Melksham by train or bus, the parade will conclude in good time to catch the final services to Chippenham and Swindon, to Trowbridge and Westbury, and to Bath and to Devizes. 

Later that evening, the third place playoff for the World Cup takes place, and the following evening it's the final. England are going to be in one of those two matches - there will be some excitement about the forthcoming match but it should not impose on the carnival.

Big, big THANK YOU to Faresaver for the bus, leaflet help and partnership working.



Edit note: Minor typo corrected, purely for clarity. CfN.

 
No doubt not directly employed ‘Council’ roadmen but a CONtracted outfit.

At least they are repainting the white lines.
In much of Devon white lines at road junctions are worn out.
If you see a dead animal on the road consider ‘direct action’ by removing it to the hedge, as I did yesterday when I spotted a recently killed fox on a minor road.

 
"UK’s public spending watchdog to investigate Lower Thames Crossing project."

Mark

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jul/12/public-spending-watchdog-investigate-lower-thames-crossing-project

 
I think this qualifies for inclusion:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/39724143/council-paint-road-markings-over-dead-animals-horrifying-drivers/

 

I would "go" with a suggestion that 166205 became too hot to handle waiting in the Jersey or Jubilee sidings all day and was failed, with the other unit that was also waiting all day to form a Weymouth to Bristol strengthening service called in to help.   There were some interesting delays / cancellations / shunts.

The Swindon train left Weymouth 28 minutes late but was only 20 minutes late by Swindon.  Apparently the station stop at Yetminster took 6 minutes, but then the generous allowance of 15 minutes at Pen Mill was cut to 3 minutes. 

 
I am now wondering whether I should set myself yet another target, of moving and merging some various previous posts into a definitive 'barbeque' topic - perhaps 'on the lighter side', here on the Coffee Shop forum?

CfN. 

 
According to Real Time Trains the morning service from Swindon was operated by 166 205 and the evening return by 165 104.

 
See also https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=5264.msg376807#msg376807 

CfN.

 
A mobile network failure in Australia recently (around 8th July) caused multiple problems, affecting emergency calls, payment terminals and ... rail services.


This one has been blamed on faulty operation of a time server (with suggestions that an update was responsible).

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jul/08/telstra-outage-mobile-network-stark-reminder-widespread-effects-system-failures
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jul/09/telstra-outage-today-cause-vline-network-outages-update

 

May have had something to do with the preceding train, the 18:45 to Bristol, being cancelled due to unspecified fault. Both trains were being shown as "Delayed"  at around 19:45. The Bristol stock may have ended up in Jersey sidings.

For a while, the final Bristol service (2104 from Weymouth) was showing as 7 coaches on TIGER. It's now back to 3.

 

Ironic as it sits in the Jersey Sidings (cooking!) all day.

20:06 rather than 19:38 off Weymouth.

 
From the BBC:

 
Somewhat ironically, 'On This Day' reports that there used to be trams in Swindon ... 

 
The poor reliability of food chillers and freezers is a growing problem.
Measure to improve matters could be taken such as;
Design for a space temperature inside the supermarket of 35 degrees. To allow for air conditioning failures.
Design for a space temperature in an external plant room of at least 60 degrees.
Design for an external air temperature of 45 degrees.
For external pumps and fans, consider installing a bypass to the motor overload protection, that will in an emergency permit the motor to run to destruction.

 
Wellington bus station's adjacent to the railway station but on a different level. The leaflet could mention that the two are next door neighbours. There are moves afoot to improve the access and make it step-free.

Mark

https://newsroom.telford.gov.uk/news/council-welcomes-step-free-access-plan-for-wellington-railway-station

 

 

Thanks, Bob - it's an investigation machine I'll be on so I suspect I'll like something of a walk when back in Swindon rather than being too out of action to get to the station.

 
From the BBC:

 
An update, from the BBC:

 
Buses are not too bad to the hospital on a Sunday.   The 1/1A/1B and 12 combine to give three buses an hour.

Edit to add.  For the return the 12 has the advantage it stops outside the railway station after Fleming Way - but only runs hourly at 33 mins past the hour from the hospital.

 
Who OWNS the passenger trains operating in our (South West) area (RoSCo)s?
How long are their contracts? Do they include maintenance?

GWR
Classes 150, 158, 159, 165, 166, 175, 230, 800, 802 and class 57 and carriages

SWR
Classes 158 and 159

Crosscountry
Classes 220 and 221

Names such as Porterbook, Eversholt, Hitachi, Angel Trains and First.

 

Tomorrow - Sunday, 12th July, I have an appointment at the Great Western Hospital at 11:45.  So that's the 08:52 train from Melksham and a bus from Fleming Way to the hospital.  Being a Sunday, buses to the hospital may be thin - but I have nearly 3 hours from Swindon Station. The next train, on time, would give me just 15 minutes!

Yes, I *do* have a "Plan B" if things go wrong.One advantage of having to start to absurdly early is that I should have time to implement that backup plan too.

 
In this context, I have expanded the text for TG, lest he be blamed for the cancellation.

CfN. 

 

I agree, charles_uk, but that's due to limitations of the software. It can be switched off completely, or it's on - for everything.  I am constantly adding / revising such abbreviations / acronyms, and their definitions, qualifying them where necessary, without making them distractingly detailed.

CfN.