Great Western Coffee Shop

Rather than dilute the Reading Station Improvement topic, I thought I'd post here.

FGW have obviously gone to a lot of effort to provide diverted train services over Easter but I wonder how popular they will be.

At the beginning of February I booked myself advance tickets from Swindon to Paddington (via Banbury) and Waterloo to Newton Abbot on Good Friday.  Eight weeks later those tickets are still available for the same price. 

I know Thursday will be the busiest day and to be fair my journey to Paddington is at silly o'clock - but I would have thought the West of England services would have filled up a bit and prices risen.

I have also learned today of a family friend who is travelling to Newton Abbot as well on Friday and has, at almost the last minute, booked themselves on the only WoE from Paddington - the 10:00 retimed Torbay Express, which will take half an hour longer than me from Waterloo but is nearly ^10 cheaper.

I'm wondering of my trains will only be full of people wanting to travel over unusual routes!

I'll be one of those!

Catching that Torbay express out of PAD on Saturday, changing at TAU onto a PNZ 125. Dinner in PNZ, staying baxck up at Liskeard with friends.
Back to PNZ on the Sunday, and up on a WAT 125....

1st Class comp too....

Belay that - just looked at my train from Waterloo tomorrow and the one following and there are no standard class reservations available now, let alone advance tickets, for either service.  Obviously a rush of latecomers!  Still advances in First Class.   Think I might go for Weekend First upgrade!

Isn't this possibly related to the glitch with searching for fares to/from Paddington rather than 'London Terminals', as discussed here:  http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=12197.0

Paul

Don't think so. I searched for Waterloo to Newton Abbot and it has the train. Yesterday it had seats, today it doesn't.

Off to a good start with the Waterloo services, but the Banbury diversions have got off to a poor start with 'an earlier broken down train between Oxford and Banbury' leading to some severe delays and cancellations at the moment!

One of the Reading to Westbury shuttles was also turned back at Westbury. The 09:59 Waterloo to Plymouth well loaded so probably as well the shuttle didn't make the connection in the end.

?  Am I missing something here?   Isn't a Reading to Westbury supposed to ....

I  had a look at the real time performance (the Waterloo ones and the Bristol via Banbury ones) today and it was all ticketty boo with the timekeeping.  I started to ponder if the Waterloo to Exeter via Westbury might not be permanently exploited by.........  ;D :D

No Grahame, you are paying attention. I'm losing the plot. Was having two conversations at once. I did, of course, mean it was turned back at Bedwyn!!

Saw an HST parked in the stabling sidings at Clapham Junction around 10.30am this morning. Spare set?

Yes, one will be running ECS there from Old Oak Common every day this weekend. It would be fair to say the 11:07 Waterloo-Penzance was well loaded today. I'm glad I wasn't on for long, some of the passengers were a bit disgruntled having stood for five hours!

I was on the 1151 from Basingstoke (Heading to Hereford via Westbury and Newport) and it was still very full when  I got off at Westbury.

I came into Waterloo on the train (12 mins late arriving) that formed the 11:07 and yes there was quite a crowd waiting for this service. I suspect most FGW services out of Waterloo to the South West were very busy today. But I guess that would have been the same had they been operating out of Paddington; still just an hourly service.

Yes, it is always likely to be a busy time of year, the 11:07 did seem to be particularly busy compared to the others.

43137 waits at Waterloo, ready to head the 1459 (GBTT)/1507 (WTT) service to Penzance earlier on today.

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8507/8600546787_1ab15b1af4.jpg)

Apologies that I think this has been raised before but what is the role of the pilots on the diverted services? Do they drive the train or are they there in an advisory but essential role to the FGW driver along the diverted part of the route? And they are provided by freight operating companies? Thanks

You can either have a pilot (conductor) driver for route or traction knowledge; my understanding (and I'm open to correction) is that the driver who knows the traction will drive, and take guidance on speed restrictions, signalling etc from the driver who knows the route.

The arrangement for Waterloo is that Freightliner HeavyHaul drivers are acting as conductor drivers: I believe that they are providing route knowledge for the FGW drivers who are actually at the controls. As far as I am aware the FL drivers haven't been trained up on HST traction but I could be mistaken.

You are quite correct. The FLHH drivers are not trained to drive HST's so the FGW driver drives the train in accordance with the FLHH drivers instructions. Additionally the FGW drivers have had a 'familiarisation' run, usually in the cab of a SWT service train.

I've managed to get two weeks off so I miss all this third rail galavanting... ;D

My report from dispatching today was the early afternoon trains were absolutely rammed but the evening arrivals were dead. I guess being a bank holiday would explain why. However timing wise, all ran smoothly apart from the Riviera down our end.

Interesting about the ticketing on some of the WoE services. In the end I had a last minute change of plan and am now catching the 05:40 BTH - PAD in just over an hour (Sat in McDonalds near the station).

I booked my ticket on the FGW iPhone App at around 01:00 on Friday Morning and managed to get a First Class Advance from Bath Spa through to Southend Stations (Choice then of Victoria on GA or Central and East on c2c) for ^21.80 (Railcard'd naturally ;) ) During times when there is no blockade, I normally end up paying ^27.40 for the 20:43. So I am entirely happy with the price, and as I was already going to be up, it seemed a good use of time and sensible suggestion. Much Coffee will be consumed however ;D ;) :D

Seeing has inspector_blakey has posted the picture I was going to post  ;D, I will resort to something a little more esoteric.

Nice to see FGW has printed some special window labels for the diverted services for Waterloo.

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/wat.jpg)

However the same does not seem to have happened for the services into Paddington.  This was from Good Friday's 03:29 from Swansea (it was daylight by the time I got on!)

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/swa.jpg)

This one did not call at Didcot Parkway or Reading, but did stop at Bristol Temple Meads, Bath Spa, Chippenham and Oxford.

Marlow branch had a bus replacement service this morning

Had a nice trip on the sleeper replacement last night. I found it much easier to sleep than I had been anticipating, the extra room compared to the normal seated sleeper was much appreciated. One of the other passengers did seem a little unhappy when they asked me to ask the traincrew to turn down the lights, only for me to reply than unfortunately they were already on the dim setting.

I notice there are still ongoing problems on the Marlow branch and there have been cancellations and alterations on the North Downs line even before last night's fatality at Guildford. I assume it is not easy to get replacement units because of the closure at Reading.