Great Western Coffee Shop

Hi All,

I named myself after my favourite piece of UK railway infrastructure - it must be, as like most Thatcham residents I spend a lot of time looking at it in the down position through my windscreen.

I'm a fairly regular FGW user, although not a commuter. Most of my trips are into London, Reading and up and down the Berks and Hants, to all points between Reading and Bedwyn.

There's a lot going on in this area at the moment, what with all the Reading development, electrification, Crossrail, and I like to keep up-to-date with what's going on.

My current view of our service from Thatcham is that it's quite good - but maybe I don't use it quite enough to have more experience of when it goes wrong. I think it's good that we have regular services that, even on a 165/166 (semi-fast), can get me to Paddington in around 50-55 minutes - not bad for a journey of 46 miles.

I'm intrigued as to how the whole situation around electrification only as far as Newbury, and how future services to the likes of Hungerford and Bedwyn will pan out. Also to see what rolling stock we will get, how it will be used....all that stuff.

I am also a close follower of the airline industry, so if any subjects come up on that, I'll be interested to contribute!

Welcome to the Coffee Shop forum, Thatcham Crossing, and thanks for offering such a detailed introduction!  :)

As someone who uses Thatcham statin daily I also welcome you on board.

With a few exceptions (mainly related to overrunning engineering works) my recent experience of this line is positive - especially now ticket checks are carried out on the early services and some users realise it isn't free after all :)