Train users in our area will have noticed that many services are currently being operated by trains that are older and have fewer cars than usual.
Passengers at Keynsham and Oldfield Park have recently been refused permission to board trains because of they were overcrowded. Meanwhile on the Severn Beach Line the usual three-car trains are regularly being substituted with 2-car trains, which can be decidedly cosy in the rush hour.
This lack of trains may be a knock on effect of the government’s postponement of electrification of Oxford and the Thames branch lines. Diesel trains which were intended to be transferred to the Bristol area now have to stay put, so things are stretched rather thinly here as a result.
FOSBR continues to campaign for a resumption of the electrification programme.