Great Western Coffee Shop

Anyone else spotted this revamp ?

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/~/media/PDF/About%20us/Named%20Trains.ashx (http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/~/media/PDF/About%20us/Named%20Trains.ashx)

yes, it's excellent, and good to see a TOC showing interest in the tradition. Though a minor detail, the up Bristolian is a little earlier than 0946 off Weston.

I wonder if that headboard, affixed to the HST at Old Oak, on the cover of the leaflet, is the real deal.

Or is it photoshopped?

Blatantly a superimposed image.  :o ::) ;D

The picture on page 8 looks much more realistic.  ;)

The headboards were lent to First Great Western for free from a preserved railway.

Would be nice to see headboards return to running trains, although I'm sure it won't happen.

Chris,

As the man responsible, I can confirm that 43134, 43144 and 43164 all carried 'The Mayflower' and 'The Red Dragon' headboards for the 'Named Trains' photoshoot - at both Paddington and Old Oak Common.

The headboards were carried to coincide with the reintroduction of individual logos on the window labels, for each named train.

No Photoshop trickery here!

All the best,

Luke

Should not named trains have Pullman restaurants ?
AFAIR most of the named trains used to have a full restaurant before the Hatfield accident.

If FGW are trying to impress in the hope of retaining the present franchise or winning another, then more than 2 restaurants a day would be a good start.
Not that many years ago there were 7 return restuarants a day to/from the West, and a couple to/from Wales.

Well the Up Cornishman and the Down Armada and Golden Hind do - so that is a start!

GW ITT only had this:


I wouldn't expect DfT to give the catering offer much weight at all in the decision making process, IIRC it was not a factor in recent competitions for WCML or ECML either...

Paul

In which case, Luke, please accept my humble apologies: no offence intended!  :-[

Chris.

Excellent, Luke, a good idea well researched and well presented.  Please can you now turn your skills to doing a decent guide to access to (and within) Reading station over Easter.

Non taken whatsoever! Glad that folks are taking an interest :-)

Gordon,

I've taken this suggestion on board - I have forwarded it to the folks that are planning the Reading blockade publicity - will keep you posted.

All the best,

Luke

I am a bit confused about this, most mornings while awaiting the train from Didcot to Oxford I hear the announcement for the 08:29 Didcot to Paddington train (06:48 from Weston Super Mare) and it is always announced as the 'Bristolian', yet in the leaflet the Bristolian is supposed to be the 09:46 from Weston Super Mare.

Having said that I don't really see the point of named trains today. I can understand that in the past it would be used to denote the fastest/ most prestigious service of the day etc. but with today's services I fail to see any difference between the HST used on the Bristolian and any other service.
Is it even the fastest train between London and Bristol today, the 06:48 from Weston Super Mare certainly isn't ?

I hold my hands up to that - that was an error on my part. The leaflet has now been corrected to show the correct time.

Luke

Then, while we are about it KfD, Speaking from memory, I thought the Penzance sleeper was shewn in the leaflet as departing 2250 but when I accessed the FGW booking page, it said it went at 2345.  Have I made a mistake somewhere?

Also, I got some very funny blockages when filling in 'Paddington' and then accepting the offer from the system when halfway through typing.  The next page gave me an error shewing 'PAD' in the field, which was how far I got before I clicked the system suggestion.  It seemed that the acceptance did not overwrite the typing with which I began.  Could your 'web man' have a look please?  I had to have several goes before I got over the block.   

It's the wrong way round actually in the leaflet.... M-F from Paddington is 2345 and Sunday night is 2350.

Gordon,

I am led to believe there will be no changes to the access at Reading station during the blockade.
Access to the car park will be altered, with the existing overbridge closed. The walking route from station to car park will now be via the subway.
A map can be found at http://firstgreatwestern.co.uk/~/media/PDF/Reading%20Station%20Improvements/FGW-Reading-Station-Map.ashx (http://firstgreatwestern.co.uk/~/media/PDF/Reading%20Station%20Improvements/FGW-Reading-Station-Map.ashx)

All the best

Not really correct - surely the whole point of the blockade is that access to the station from the north side changes to the future setup at the very start of the Easter Weekend period of closure.  The first map you've just pointed out clearly states the route from the car park to the southern entrance via the new subway is temporary between the 1st and 28th of March.  Then overnight on the 28th/29th the new Northern entrance and transfer deck becomes available - and that is the most significant change of all.

That clearly means that for a majority of passengers using the station for the first time on the Tuesday, their access route will be completely different?

Did you actually mean it won't change again during the 10 day period following that work, because that isn't how most passengers will see it, especially if they aren't travelling between the Thursday and Tuesday...

Paul

Good, thats very good,
GW tradition kept alive there.
Keep it up.

Just as well they don't call The Cheltenham Spa Express the Cheltenham Flyer any more otherwise Trading Standards would have them.

Even the term "express" is an interesting one ...

Don't encourage him.  ;) :D ;D

Mind you, there aren't many expresses left as they all stop at Reading..............

And the Cornish Riviera can't manage to make it to Plymouth on a summer saturday without a stop.

There's the Capitals United the 0558 from Swansea, non-stop from Swindon to Paddington. And the 0640 from Bristol TM, which also skips Reading. I think those are the only ones.

The Capitals United may not stop at Reading but it evidently slows down quite a bit! ..... http://www.wellho.net/mouth/3994_On-board-Eurostar-a-running-commentary-.html (http://www.wellho.net/mouth/3994_On-board-Eurostar-a-running-commentary-.html)

It wasn't all that many years ago that the 18:00 from London Paddington to Bristol didn't call at Reading but it does now.

There's the 0714 Didcot Parkway-London Paddington as well but I don't think that really falls under the definition of express either. The Cornish Riviera is still an express being one of the fastest of the day. The Reading stop doesn't add much time really because services would be running slowly through there anyway, and it's a rather useful stop. The worst use of the term express has to be the Devon Express though, the 0706 London Paddington-Paignton, although at least the return from Paignton at 1106 never gained the name, that would be a step to far considering it calls at nearly every stop from Paignton to Reading.

Re: access to Reading station during and after the blockade, I've attached two maps which hopefully clarify what the access arrangements are going to be during and after the work.
Apologies if my last post was a little ambiguous.