Great Western Coffee Shop

From JourneyCheck this evening

The 16:35 is an HST (it's certainly not reported as anything else in the 'formations' part of JourneyCheck).

Impressive to see such loads on the Cotswold Line on Sundays...

It was booked for a Turbo today because the inbound working started at Oxford because of engineering work this morning.

Journeycheck wrong then?

No, it was always planned to be Turbo today.

Oh ok.. so Worcester_Passenger is wrong then? I was just assuming he knew... sorry  ::)

I may be missing something here.

How, as a passenger, can I tell that it was "booked for a Turbo today"?

Other than by looking at JourneyCheck, that is.

Which was also my point..

This point was brought up at the Travelwatch South meeting at the weekend.

In days gone by FGW brought out timetable booklets which provided the full, revised, timetables when services were disrupted.  Now too much reliance is placed on Journey planners which show the times of trains but not always the type of train being used.

There are exceptions - the Easter blockade around Reading has prompted the issue of timetable booklets.

Mark Hopwood, FGW MD, did say they would look at the provision of information after it was suggested that printed booklets might not be possible but PDFs on the website would be an alternative.

This would then, I assume, show which trains were Turbos and which HSTs.

But meanwhile.. We have journeycheck... If the train is usually an HST and that it isn't hasn't been communicated in another way (from what I've read here).. no harm putting it on Journeycheck surely?

And in general...if a train is turbotised for just one day..would that not have to appear on journeycheck then (that has happened lots of times...to be honest)..  Sounds like maybe not from this thread?

I quite agree with Jo and Worcester Passenger - how would anyone not in the know, know?

I had the dubious honour of being at Oxford as the first through train to London departed at 16:00 today.  Usually a HST from Hereford, today it arrived as a 3-Car Turbo full and standing and left as a 5-Car Turbo totally choc-full.  Must've been at least 500 on board and that was before it picked up at Didcot, Reading and Slough.  Perhaps a 6-Car might have been slightly better, but even then people would have been faced with no option but to stand for well over an hour?

The problem is it never would have been flagged up as a short formation to be put on JourneyCheck. There should have been some information about printed in the alterations information. A simple note under the alterations that certain services would be Turbos instead of HSTs would have solved the problem.

From Journey Check this morning


Yeah ...

Earlier this morning it was shown as being 2 cars instead of 5.

Sounds like this one could be quite cosy today:

But then that's 14 pickups cancelled and just 2 left ... 4:1 ratio on train length, 7:1 ratio on places served. And, ironically, there are more alternatives from Oxford and Reading that from any of places where it's cancelled.

2 carriages in the morning peak, even though it's the end of the morning peak, into London won't be fun though.

I notice that in the case of some stations from Hereford to Worcester you could be better off going via Newport (0525) or New St (even if the 05 28 had run).  From Hereford itself, via Newport (0525) was a better choice anyway.  I assume pax at Hereford would have been shepherded onto that one???   

Are tickets typically available by any of the three possible routes?  I put in TCR as my London destination which ends up with Beardy Rail being better than FGW as you arrive 0900 which is better than 0851 arrival at PAD.

So it shews how useful it is to know where you are going to in London.  (That's before you start looking at prices).

It may be end of peak into Paddington, but it is one of the busier trains for people commuting into Oxford or Reading, so this train is cancelled for a large number of people for which the replacement is the stopping service 20min later which will be very cosy!

The "halts" train this morning was indeed very cosy. Problem was made worse as bicycles were allowed on further down the line so when it pulled into Hanborough we had to negociate a barrier of these before we were able to squash our way down the carriage.

Abbreviations and codes!  :-\

TCR?  New one on me

And is the SW in SWRural an abbreviation for South West  :D ;D

Tottenham Court Road.  Is that not official then?   >:(

SW, yes South West.  Stretches from Tewkesbury to Christchurch and (recently) Gibraltar.   ;D

It's amazing what using TD (another abb. of mine) throws up (or is it threws up?).  You get far more choices but of course at different prices, ergo my query on via Newport from Hereford at 05 25 as substitute for the 0528.  I would have hoped that there was a reciprocal arrangement but who knows?