Great Western Coffee Shop

Received a text alert to say there might be delays this evening due to lineside problems affecting services to Maidenhead.  Arrived at Paddington to see 18:18 showing as delayed, so leapt (!) onto 18:12 which left roughly on time.  It then ran slowly for ages & stopped a couple of times before eventually arriving at Slough.  Then stayed there for a while and there was then an announcement over the intercom to say that the train had developed a fault with a door.  Short while later heard a platform announcement to say that the Bourne End train was arriving on another platform.  So, joined  the exodus from the faulty train, over the bridge, and down onto platform 2.  Not sure if everybody made it across before it departed as there was quite a lot of congestion with passengers disembarking at the same time as others were transferring over from the broken train.  Bourne End train departed....then ran slow too!

The question is, have we seen the start of the FGW Summer woes as temperatures reach completely unexpected levels for the British Summer (i.e. 20 C!) ?

......and the 1957 to Banbury  was delayed (c20min all-in). It was advertised very close to its final departure.... from 13!. The large crowd duly tried to hurry down but were baulked by the new barriers. The more nimble found the train (front 3 only!) after pushing through the already crowded platform (waiting for the rear 3 car set doors to open) with a harrassed dispatcher whistling urgently. The display inside the train said that Reading was the last stop....

The driver did make good time - exactly 40s between each 1/4 mile post - 90mph.

Glad I'd not paid full fare.

OTC