Great Western Coffee Shop

A poster at Oxford lists service changes from 2nd September - the 06.40 Bristol-Paddington is withdrawn.
Does this mean en extra HST working on a morning Thames Valley service?

Hi, Mike ... long time no post  ;)

I think the answer may lie in this poster I saw at Chippenham station on Friday evening when connecting into the bus

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/less125.jpg)

It won't be returning next year either if the times appearing on Open Train Times for that time of the morning are to be believed.

Interesting wording on that poster as I would say it was the other way round: The HST normally used to operate the 0640 ex Bristol is used during the peak summer months to provide additional capacity for services to/from Cornwall as the 0640 ran for more months of the year than the additional weekday service to/from Newquay.

I know I'm being a bit pedantic here...just having a mild pop on the spin used by the FGW PR department on this poster that delivers the bad news that one of your trains isn't coming back.

Was it a well used train?

I think that the summer Newquay train is a part of the contract between the government and First (SLC2) but the extra from Bristol is not - so that you could consider that the 06:40 was use of a spare train, even though it was made more use of in its spare time that for its primary purpose.   

In the past (hearsay - no figures, I'm afraid) it's always been one of the first services to be cancelled in the event of stock shortages - the eastbound morning peak equivalent of the 07:15 Paddington to Cardiff. 

No direct loading data from me, I'm afraid - I've always found myself using earlier services to be sure to be where I'm working on time, or already being on the 07:31 from Chippenham and changing at Swindon onto the "Capitals United" where I'm closer to Paddington and can risk what's usually close timing.  These days, for the occasional traveller it can even be slightly cheaper to travel up to London on a Sunday evening and stay at a cheap hotel in the Paddington area than to lash out and buy a peak ticket from Swindon ... and that illustrates that the superoffpeak / peak pricing differential really works in terms of influencing customer behaviour.

The 0640 from Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington is part of the latest Service Level Commitment (2b) as amended in May 2013. However it does not have to call at Bath Spa or Chippenham. One can only assume that derogation has been obtained from the DfT to remove this service from the timetable from 2nd September.

From the Greater Western Franchise Service Level Commitment 2b (May 2013) (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/231990/fgw-commitment2b.pdf#page=17):


Have these maintenance issues crept up on FGW? Are they outside of the scope of planned maintenance, where  the dates of various exams are fixed by either time periods or mileage. Seems strange that printed timetables for May 2013 include the 0640, as did the latest SLC. Was the requirement for this heavy maintenance programme not known at the beginning of the year when the timetables were being printed? Or when the SLC was being amended?

The poster does rather give the impression, with the wording, "it has been our practice..." that FGW have been running the 0640 outwith the terms of the SLC. When in fact, they've had to run it 10 months of the year as part of the franchise agreement. I agree with Timmer that the poster is a little bit of spin.

I used this train quite a lot as a positioning move to get the car to Bath when I knew I was going to be late in London. It was definitely the least busy peak train from Bath  to London, helped by the fact that it didn't call at Didcot or Reading. We would often get held at a signal in the station at Reading, leaving the commuters on the platform looking enviously at our half-full train (which they couldn't board).

That said, there will still be several hundred passengers to redistribute between the earlier and later trains, both of which are usually full on departure from Didcot and very cosy leaving Reading. FGW can get away with this in July and August when passenger numbers are fewer, but I can see additional crowding resulting now that everyone is back at work. Of course it will be the Didcot and Reading commuters who suffer most, even though the cancelled train does not call at these stations. I wonder if a poster has gone up at these stations to warn of the additional overcrowding on the 630 and 700 from Bristol?

Reading certainly did see to be the problem for this train.

The Raildar site, while not official, shows it was cancelled three times between Jaunary and early July. On other days it was almost a 50/50 chance if it would be on time.  The graph below shows most of the delays were incurred in the Reading area.

http://raildar.co.uk/timetable/train?trainid=P00007 (http://raildar.co.uk/timetable/train?trainid=P00007)

The 0729 from Didcot was rammed this morning, already a few minutes late and further delayed by the difficulty getting everyone on. And there was no way all those waiting at P11 at Reading were going to get on!

This maintenance requirement was known to be needed by FGW, but needed sign-in by DfT for the derogation (as noted above). DfT dragged their feet and it got urgent as these need to all be through before the IEP arrive/electrification is complete.

You won't be seeing the 0640/1551 to the cotwolds at an HST (same diagram!) in the next three years....

An alternative would perhaps have been to hire one of the grossly underused XC sets. 
;
EMT could provide one too, although the Paxman engines might be a problem (as well as raising the question as to exactly why fGW sets have to have those dreadful seats).
;
 

I am very surprised (although perhaps I shouldn't be) that DfT has allowed FGW to take out such a big chunk of peak capacity - I wonder to what extent the potential alternatives (such as those suggested by mikestone) have been seriously explored. It seems only yesterday that we were celebrating (in a blaze of publicity) the extra peak seats delivered by the return of the Adelantes and the conversion of the buffet cars. Now we lose 500+ seats in one go.

Its the most underused HST diagram - just the 0640 in the morning & the 1551 (& its return) in the evening.

Been well explored....

When I referred to "alternatives" I wasn't referring to the withdrawal of other FGW services - the relative efficiency of rolling stock utilisation outside the peak is an operational matter for FGW and there will always be a "least worst" train to withdraw. Apologies for being unclear.

I was trying to express an expectation that innovative ideas would have been jointly worked up between DfT,  FGW, and perhaps other operators, to avoid the significant reduction in peak hour capacity into London Paddington which has been imposed. If there is genuinely no alternative such as those suggested by a previous contributor (perhaps for operational or commercial reasons) , then FGW should be honest with customers and state this, rather than issuing disingenuous publicity which suggests that they were previously running part of their contracted service level on a discretionary basis.

By blaming the DfT for taking their eye off the ball? - they knew the situation. FGW have been pressing them.

That's what upset me somewhat about the wording on that poster making it sound like the service was only run as an extra service using a set that's part of the fleet just for WofE services when in fact the 0640 or at a time similar has been running between Bristol and London for years long before the extention of a weekday Plymouth service to Newquay was introduced that this set is required for during the summer months.

As you say BandHcommuter it will be Didcot and Reading passengers who will feel the loss of this service more when Bristol-Swindon passengers make a choice between travelling on the 0630 or 0700 ex Bristol filling up these trains. Wonder how long it will be before FGW are forced by major overcrowding on these services to reinstate the 0640? I know ChrisB will come back with the answer: Never  ;)

The IEPs will get there before that happens....

This work that is going on is not the usual maintenance as far as I am aware, I believe its related to extending the life of the HSTs because of the IEP having been delayed.

I think with the length of time this work will take per set FGW have been in contact with the government with regards to freeing up a HST set to be taken out of service for a longer than normal period to have the work done, given that the usual maintenance cycle has to continue and this is an addition on top of that another set needs to be taken out of service for a period outside of the usual maintenance cycle.