Strengthening seaside trains in Summer

[PHILIPE]

Last year during hot weather I have seen ATW manage to scramble a couple of Pacers at short notice to go to Barry Island to bring trippers back and have seen them wedged.

 

[Parallel]

The 17:30 off Weymouth in the Summer (weekdays) is a very busy service. Trains back to Bristol leave at:
15:08
17:30
20:21

The first is too early to come home, the third too late for anyone with young children.
So the 17:30 is the one most people come home on.
Years ago the loco hauled set used to be the 17 : xx off Weymouth and there was a sprinter at 18 : xx as well. The big gap between the 17:30 and 20:21 really shouldn't even have been contemplated.

When I was younger, I remember coming back on a green train carriage via. the Heart Of Wessex on something that looked like loco hauled, my knowledge or memory of trains back then wasn't great, but maybe it was one of these services!

Unfortunately in the present day, the FGW Weymouth services leave a lot to be desired... However, I heard somewhere that there may be some investment in this line which would be great!

I think it needs an hourly service for at least the summer timetable, and it would also encourage growth in passenger numbers between Dorchester and Yeovil. Hopefully some stock will come along too with the electrification of the Thames Valley which should get the 150/1s off this line. I don't think they're very appealing trains for family days out. Maybe some mark III coaching stock can be saved in the future for the reinforcement of these services and they could be formed into 4 coach units.

Are even the five carriage trains pretty cramped on weekdays then? What is it like on the weekends? Is the HST busy? I know that the train roughly half an hour before the HST on Saturday mornings gets pretty full!

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Could SWT take over that route in the long run?

 

[Parallel]

Could SWT take over that route in the long run?

Hmm, possibly, but I'm not so sure as it mainly seems to cater for people in the First Great Western area i.e. Bristol, Bath, Bradford On Avon, Trowbridge, Westbury, Frome etc, and The Heart Of Wessex is a long line that doesn't really fit in with most of SWT's "commuter services" (apart from summer days when passengers commute to the beach) :P

 

[159jim]

Hmm, possibly, but I'm not so sure as it mainly seems to cater for people in the First Great Western area i.e. Bristol, Bath, Bradford On Avon, Trowbridge, Westbury, Frome etc, and The Heart Of Wessex is a long line that doesn't really fit in with most of SWT's "commuter services" (apart from summer days when passengers commute to the beach) :P

I suppose they could integrate it with the Salisbury to Bristol diagrams, eg. Waterloo-Salisbury-Bristol, Bristol-Weymouth vice versa.

Plus there's all the the Yeovil to Salisbury via Westbury paths that originate from the Waterloo-Salisbury 'shuttles' peak time extensions to Gillingham/Yeovil etc.

 

[LateThanNever]

I suppose they could integrate it with the Salisbury to Bristol diagrams, eg. Waterloo-Salisbury-Bristol, Bristol-Weymouth vice versa.

Plus there's all the the Yeovil to Salisbury via Westbury paths that originate from the Waterloo-Salisbury 'shuttles' peak time extensions to Gillingham/Yeovil etc.

Not great surely as SWT are all maintained at Salisbury whereas Late Western are Bristol maintained and currently there are precious few SWT Bristol Salisbury L W'loo services ?twice daily.

 

[Rapidash]

XC could save the train managers a world of stress by sending the 5 car Voyagers/HST down to Paignton/Penzance a bit more often. Damn things are full up leaving Paignton, and it just gets worse from there.

Not sure their booking system is particularly fool-proof, I ended up getting sent up to (nearly empty) first class yesterday, as the overloaded service going home had seats double booked.