I was meeting someone in Chippenham yesterday evening off a train arriving there at about 20:30, and with a chance of a lift back to Melksham too, so I thought "what better than to use the local train up".

Checked on line.  Yes, 19:51 showing "on time" when I set out for the station at about 19:35.

Station Information point was out of order, so I wan't able to check on the train from there.

19:51 and no train.
20:00 and no train
20:05 and no train .... and I didn't have a phone with me.

Got in the car and drove up to Chippenham.

The "20:02" was still showing up on the automatic board .... then it changed to "Terminates", then to "Swindon".   It was still showing as "on time" as late as 20:30, when it disappeared off the board without announcement or explanation.

At around 20:45 (yes, the train I was meeting was 20 minutes late!), a single coach 153 ran through at high speed, empty and with the lights off, heading up from Thingley junction toward Swindon.  Was this the 19:35 from Westbury?   What had happened tothe passengers?

There were a number of other strange goings-on too, with announcemnets to stand back as a fast train was approaching followed by a train slowing down, stopping, and being re-announced as a London train.  A train cancelled according to announcements that was then re-instated and - well - it didn't seem well suited to providing customers with reliable public transport and reliable information on that transport!