Great Western Coffee Shop

I'm going to be on the 09:12 from Cheltenham Spa, heading up to Birmingham on Monday.  What are my chances of getting (a) a seat, (b) space in the luggage rack for my case and (c) a cup of coffee.  Will an arrival at Cheltenham Spa at 09:05 give me enough time to connect?

I'll wave as you speed past Worcester - the worst served city in the UK. Great idea for the new topics Grahame.

a) If you are connecting from a train in the same direction (i.e. from Swindon or Gloucester) you are usually fine. There are only two platforms and they don't appear to be signalled bi-directionally, so you simply get off the train and wait for the next one.  Once you have reached the points onto the mainline out of Gloucester, the trains can only arrive and deprt in one order! In the unlikely event that you are coming from the North is only takes two minutes to go over the bridge.

b) As for seats I have usually found a seat on the 9:12 but don't expect to find two together. Can't speak for luggage as I am usually doing day trips.

c) Coffee can be a bit hit and miss.  There is usually a trolly, but it doesn't always come to you.  You may have to go and find it. But in these cases they usually announce where it is. 

If you do book a seat the problem is that the station staff never seem to know which way the train is going to be facing so there is a lot of running arround trying to find the right carriage.  I don't know if this is down to Cross Country not telling FGW or FGW not passing the information to the station staff, but it is a pain.

The 0912 ex CNM is booked a five car M-F, if it is then coach B will be fully unreserved, most passengers booked on the train will use their allocated seats so there should be plenty of luggage space in B for walk up passengers.

Pretty sure the train is booked a change of catering crew at BHM so the trolley should ideally be at the first class end ready to do a last run through before handover.

The CIS displays are in the remit of FGW, changes to train formations are emailed out throughout the day. When I was based in Bournemouth I generally found that the screens at SWT, Chiltern and VT stations were correct but calls at RDG and OXF were hit and miss whether they'd been updated.

Generally FGW don't display the formation of XC services, just show 'First Class is in Coach A'.

Well I wish they would.  It would be in their interest as it would help reduce dwell times at Cheltenham which can be quite tight at times. 

I can imagine this is only a problem in the southbound direction then? I know that XC can arrive at Cheltenham up to 2 minutes before booked arrival if on time going North, so that should allow 4 minutes for boarding/alighting!

Not sure why FGW don't put the formation information up, i'd imagine because it can change at short notice and this can result in incorrect information being displayed, be much better if XC could provide the location of First Class to FGW in the first place, because otherwise this will continue to be a problem at Cheltenham, being the first station FGW manage going south and can notice the incorrect information.

It isn't rocket science to indicate which way round a XC (or any other train) is running. The train follows a pre arranged route and once it has left the depot it is unlikely to change!

However on Thursday I travelled by XC Class 221 from York to Doncaster with the platform CIS staying "First Class towards the rear". As the train ran into the platform there was the yellow bar on the front connector - First Class at front! The train left Edinburgh ONLY two and a haf hours earlier, so why couldn't the correct information be posted?

A common occurrence with XC sadly. Communication breakdown somewhere along the line I would immagine

Only if the train is on time.

But it can still spend that 4 minutes there, and loose no further time from that station stop!

Graham, text a seat reservation! ;)
(see XC's website for details)
Then even if the train's packed with commuters, you can turf someone out of a seat by flashing your iPhone... :-\

Many thanks for the inputs thus far ... I suspect I will grab reservations (even at this stage) for the leg from Cheltenham; I know we won't need them (and can't get them) on the train we're connecting off.   A thought - perhaps Xc trains end up the wrong way round if they get switched to the other route from Birmingham to King's Norton; you can leave New Street in either direction, after all ...

Yes it's a gamble. Neither staff nor the PISs know which way round the train is. XC no longer give you the option of selecting by direction when reserving. Also check a seating plan to make sure you're not in a seat with no view.

Any changes in formation after start of service (such as diversions via Camp Hill) are individually emailed out to the relevant TOC control, catering supply centres and train managers along the booked route. Some TOCs are very bad at updating screens for XC services (East Coast and FGW are probably the worst offenders) and some TOCs are very good. For example as soon as a Voyager hits (not literally) an SWT station, so either at Basingstoke heading south or Bournemouth / Southampton heading north then the dispatch staff will inform their CIS office of any discrepancies such as the train being reversed or removing coach B from the formation of a four car.

For every XC Voyager or HST service the formation is also provided on the driver and train manager's paperwork and XC control advised of any discrepancies that way.

Funny how FGW and East Coast have the same CIS control software for controlling the screens/PA, where as SWT use a different system for telling the screens what to say, says it all about how user friendly the systems are perhaps!

Virgin Trains are trialling (at their managed stations) a CIS where the information is supplied from the Darwin system.

Darwin is a system that integrates data from the Network Rail timetable, TRUST (current train running information) and Tyrell (the system used by control rooms).  This is also the data that you see in places like National Rail Enquiries online, JourneyCheck and various smartphone apps.

Unfortunately, I am not aware of how the trial has worked or whether it has proved useful.

Grabbed some reservations in the end ... probably a good job as it gave us seats (and at a table :D ) together. Late into Cheltenham ("problem with lineside equipment") and further delayed there beyond usual station stop time (loading wheelchair which took a few minutes) ... routed via Camp Hill into Birmingham.   Coffee did make it, and got us awake enough to catch our ongoing connection ... that's a story for a later date.  Thanks for all the inputs!