I suspect if a member of crew can operate a number of routes including the TransWilts and there are two services which need operating, the TransWilts will be the one to fall away.   

Nothing to do with passenger numbers but for operational reasons.  It is much easier to deal with a service which doesn't leave the sidings to make a return trip than cut, for example, a Cardiff-Portsmouth service.  Depending when the cancellation is decided the train in question may already be on its way, but even if not you are still left with a train clogging up Westbury after terminating short.  If you don't have the staff to shunt it out of the way, it is going to block a platform for a few hours until it can pick up the return working.

Whether it is passenger numbers or operational constraints, the end result is the same for travellers but I suspect it is the latter that leads to cancellations when there is a crew shortage.  More importantly we need to keep pressing for sufficient crew and in the short term the need to arrange and publicise alternative road replacement when services are cancelled.

 

Thank you, Chris - so it is down to GWR.  Who, however, deny the short straw stuff.  I am of the somewhat-informed opinion that the imbalance of cancellations has other planning factors involved and - in school report terms - "could do better"

 
I very much doubt that the DfT (or even GWR when presenting to DfT) singles out any particular line of service, (unless the MP(s) in question take the DfT to task) - so overall at drivers depot level, yours are likely the least used of services that Westbury drivers drive. So you catch the short straw to disadvantage the fewest customers at drivers depot level.

 

Hmmm ... busiest train of the day (I take it you are referring to passenger not trains?) ... and the only evening peak train home when there are two morning peak trains ...

Do the Dft dictate shift patterns - not only numbers of staff, but also which hours they are to work?  Sorry to repeat my original question but in another form, Chris.

I would also suggest that cancelling a train disproportionatley on the day when the next one's over an hour later puts people off rising the opposite and reliable two train commute in the morning, whereas pulling one of the (say) six peak hour trains from a frequent services and having a sixth of the customers delayed by 20 minutes does far less damage in the evening, and virtually no damage to the morning.

"I don't use the train any more - too unreliable" - (former) customer this morning..  The train operator is failing us, whether through his own company's doing, or those who provide the backup / backroom environment.  The liability is with GWR, just as when I buy something in a shop the liability if it's not delivered or doesn't work is with them and it's legally up to them to sort in out with their source.

 
One of the items that GWR consider when short-staffed is which services should we run, and which are our most popular services of those that will be affected in the time-slots that we are short?

I suspect that your services carry the fewest of trains in those time periods, and thus cancelling yours is affecting the fewest number of overall travellers wanting to travel at those times.

 

Not sure how that DfT stuff controls which trains are the ones dubiously staff diagrammed and so keep failing though.   You have done a good job, ChrisB, of addressing a different issue to the one I raised.

 
Staffing levels are down to the DfT....as is recruitment over & above the 'agreed' number of operatives.

So you have crew taking  time of year - possibly using up annual leave if the leave year end equates to the calendar year-end, and no change of 'borrowing' drivers from another depot as they are unlikely to have the route knowledge.

So yes, long-term & short-term, its the DfT

 
6. Ickenham. I'll admit I found the exact picture online, but I did do it by working out the location from clues and then trying it - first guess, honest!

 
8 Templecombe, around 1964 when 2218 was allocated to Templecombe

https://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=locodata&type=S&id=2218&loco=2218

 

Yes, but...

A while back there were plans to terminate London trains in the old Midland Shed. Those plans are very dead.

However with the removal of the signal box (for which, as I understand it, there are no concrete plans) it will be possible to extend Platform 1 to accommodate 5 car trains, and there is also scope to build a new Platform 0 alongside it. These platforms are well-suited to local services to Severn Beach, [Henbury and] South Wales, given that these tend to use the relief lines which are on that side of the station.

Details (such as they are) are here: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/ask/projects/temple-quarter/temple-meads and click on "Southern Gateway, Midland Shed and Eastern Entrance: masterplan proposals"

Whether or when this will happen is moot. But the plans for the Northern Entrance do not preclude it.

 

I am so glad you added the "?" there.   That's the line I've heard quoted so many times and there's truth in it many times.  But I think there are other key issues within the realm of GWR which are perhaps dominant in this case.

Here is the ontimetrains graphic for weekdays for the last four weeks (top) and last six months (lower)





and you'll note that there's no consistency through the day - some trains are pretty reliable and then others have a black armband at the top of their columns.   Either the sort of panning needed to sort our specifics can be being done by GWR, or why do they have managers to look after these things and fix issues if such managers aren't able to be effective?  Does the DfT really sign off daily crewing rotas and decide that the 17:35 from Swindon will be cancelled today?    Where the DfT does get involved, and I accept, is the overall staffing levels ...

 
5. Carmarthen

 
DfT?

 
05:03 Penzance to London Paddington due 09:54
Facilities on the 05:03 Penzance to London Paddington due 09:54.
Will be formed of 5 coaches instead of 10. There are no reservations on this service

 
7 had to be Birmingham New Street.

Mark

 
On the CMN-PAD. Front set attached at last minute so rear set is busy and front set probably empty. I wonder if there's enough joined-up thinking and communication for announcements to be made at the next few (staffed, not operated by same TOC as train) stations advising passengers that the front set has plenty of room...

 
Sat, 20 December 06:55 Liskeard to Looe due 07:25
20/12/25 06:55 Liskeard to Looe due 07:25 will be cancelled.
This is due to flooding.

Closed all day it seems

 
4: Garsdale - or Hawes Junction as it was.

 
Alterations to services between St Erth and St Ives
Due to a points failure at St Erth disruption is expected until 10:00 19/12.
Train services between St Erth and St Ives have been suspended.
Customer Advice
-
What has happened?
-
There has been a points failure at St Erth, which means we are unable to get our train onto the line to St Ives. A points failure is a fault with the movable pieces of track that enable trains to change tracks.
-
What are we doing about it?
-
We have had to suspend our service between St Erth and St Ives. Network Rail will send engineers to site to investigate the problem.
-

 
1. Fort William

 
10 is Eastleigh, and as photo is during laying of conductor rail, must be about mid 1966.

Home and distant banner repeaters on the footbridge too

 
or a Mackem accent when the trains cross the border into the Sunderland area?

 
Brings to mind an occasion at Basingstoke. Things weren't running to time, one of those situations where the platform information screens keep changing what the next train is. The next train pulls in, a mass of people jump on, some time after Worting Junction somebody surfaces from their headphones and says when do we get to Southampton when we are on Salisbury train.

Stay awake, take your headphones off and stick you mobile in your pocket?

 

Busiest train of the day ... on what's expected to be the busiest day of the month. From the BBC


Well Done, GWR.  What's the excuse for still not having enough staff for this train over 10% of the time?

 
Following up on the introduction - I hope you are enjoying the quizzes.  Comments made suggest that a lot of members - and guests - are looking beyond just one answer a day and spending time (and presumably enjoying) researching further.

There is a sprinkling of unanswered questions going back.  Today (19.12.2025) is the final morning of eight in Melksham at which Melksham Bus and Train timetables for the next six months will be handed out - three of us at the Kings' Arms Bus stop starting in about an hour.  Personal limitations mean that the rest of the day I'll be somewhat coasting along and thawing out.  Tomorrow - both going back and tidying quizzes and also writing up the gems of information learned on all these mornings.  Then looking ahead to Christmas - an opportunity to get ready, tidy up and make tweaks ready for 2026 at the Coffee Shop; discussion started on that "Behind the Counter" but will also be in "Frequent Posters" come Monday prior to anything being set in stone. 

Setting a consultation example here (and really listening) that GWR appear to have missed by cancelling a key train at Dilton Marsh and leaving a big hole at just the time it's needed.  We solved the a.m. southbound peak with them  and have created what's one of the busiest calls of the day - and they have now trashed the p.m. peak

 
3.  Gloucester Eastgate station from the southwest with Barton Street level crossing and the distinctive signal box in the foreground, circa 1970.  Nothing remains of these railway structures, and the route of the line at this point is now a road.

I remember the station from when my train to Cheltenham stopped there in 1973.

 
Places have changed so much over the years - can you identify where these are.  For some, I have a rough age/year too

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.


9.


10.


All sources acknowledged and will be revealed at the end of the quiz.

 

 
Big problem with these new trains, you can't play GWR driver and conduct the journey from the front righthand window. Chuffs, toots and brake sounds are to be expected - in a Geordie accent to be sure