Great Western Coffee Shop

After two mornings of problems boarding HSTs,commuters from Charllbury have started a petition calling for a return to the previous practice of stopping the standard class coaches on the short platforms at Cotswold Line stations, see http://www.PetitionOnline.com/cotswold/

now that one I will support.

I did not travel yesterday but this mornings service was a joke.

0632 from WOS.

Will be posting more details in the general forum to see if its just a cotswold thing or a problem all of SDO areas

It's a problem everywhere but it won't (can't) be changed now, as soon as SDO was commissioned then the "grandfather rights" for the use of the previous CDL system were withdrawn, sorry to be the bearer of bad news!  ;)

Still do not understand why they had to change in the first place.

Short platforms were announced clearly.  If one is stupid enough to get off a train where there is no platform, they deserve the darwin award if anything happens.

there had to be a better way surely than platforming first class only.

It's the old saying "if it aint broke, don't fix it"!

They really should have ensured that standard class and coach A was also on the platform. All it needs is an HST stop marker for the driver!

I hope that doesn't mean that you don't want double track on the Cotswold Line!

I do

but i think there are more important issues

on te current basis - I think there are more valuable developments over dualling the track

Got to say that dual track is actually the only thing that will fix it once and for all. The new timetable has extra minutes built in here and there (eg compare the old 17.52 off Paddington with the new 17.51), and trains standing at Oxford, Evesham and Moreton for 10-15 minutes at various points in the day to try to massage away the single-line problems, but it isn't working.

All the problems this morning, which lasted well past the peak services, were down to the knock-on effects from one train going down the single track late (the first of the Hereford-London trains I believe). It just wouldn't have happened on a dual-track route.

Loops to split the single-track sections might help a bit, but this really isn't on Network Rail's agenda from what I know of their study into options for the future. It's more double track, the issue is whether it's all the route, or, if not, which extra section(s) of double track will do most to minimise conflicts between trains and minimise delays. Options are now due to be revealed next February.

See the post I have placed in the all across the west area's thread on SDO at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=1182.0