Great Western Coffee Shop

Hopefully direct services between Oxford and Stratford could feature sometime in the next franchise:

http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/9853852.Oxford_to_Stratford_upon_Avon_direct_line_could_be_restored/

I used to be a regular user of the service between Leamington and Stratford and I remember breathing a big sigh of relief when Chiltern took over - the service via Oxford was so unreliable! Chiltern brought in more services and clean, air conditioned stock which was a big improvement. It does seem odd though that two major tourist centres relatively close together don't have a direct service.

Once the 319's are running perhaps an extra Turbo or even 180's could be kept back to run some Oxford - Stratford services which could incorporate some of the Tackley, Heyford and Kings Sutton stops.

How about the following calling pattern:

Oxford - Tackley - Heyford - Kings Sutton - Banbury - Leamington Spa - Warwick - Wilmcote - Stratford

With one unit you should be able to have 1 train every 3 hours which I think would be sufficient at first. If they were narketed correctly and run at suitable times for tourists then it could be a winner.

We had a brief discussion about this a few days ago, started by 'TheLastMinute':

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=11048.msg115409#msg115409 (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=11048.msg115409#msg115409)

As I said there, I could see this being more of a once or twice a day service to complement the existing Chiltern service.  From comments made to me by FGW's MD, this would be a 'premium' tourist service from Oxford calling at Warwick (for the Castle) and Stratford - so that it can compete with Chiltern timings.  I could see this being an extension of an existing Paddington to Oxford service, say for example the 08:50 Paddington to Oxford HST which could offer an arrival at Stratford of around 10:50am, perhaps backed up in the summer by, say, extending the 10:50 Paddington to Oxford service using a Class 180 once IEP's are plying the Cotswold Line.

One of the problems is what to do with the return service though, as those trains wouldn't be utilised effectively again until the those tourists want to return again late afternoon/early evening, so you either leave them up at Stratford for several hours, or have to justify sending them back half-empty.

The transfer back to FGW of the Stratford service was part of the franchise consultation...I understand that it got a lot of positive feedback.

For info, I quoted some stuff from the Gloucester and Warwickshire website a month or two back on this topic of Stratford upon Avon trains