Great Western Coffee Shop

With a completely new look:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Train-times-and-tickets/Train-times/New-Timetable

From a personal point of view I am glad to see South Wales/Bristol/Cheltenham-Paddington and Cardiff-South Coast back as timetable booklets than folded jobs. For those of you who do like the small folded timetables, these are still available for some routes either full service or summary timetables.

Nice to see a certain Wiltshire town starting with M appears on the front cover of Central 1.

Marlborough ? Minety? Marston? Market Lavington ? This has got me really scratching my head.... ??? ;D

Could it be Malmesbury... or possibly Mere?  ;D

Or perhaps Minehead :) through running at last ! or perhaps only the times of the connecting bus to Minehead ?

The question was



I haven't checked for a few weeks, so it may have changed, but Minehead used to be in West Somerset and not in Wiltshire

Just spotted this on page 2 of Timetable Central 3 Cardiff and Bristol to the South Coast:

This timetable shows the full service from London Paddington and Swindon
to Cheltenham Spa, Bristol and South Wales, and services between Swindon
and Westbury.

Whoops!  :o

Someone missed that at proof reading stage. Over reliance on using a template for this timetable but forgetting to change the text.

Whilst on the topic of Cardiff and Bristol. Now there is no timetable 28, which used to show all services that operated between Cardiff/Newport and Bristol, there now appears to be no single timetable that show all services unless I've missed something. You now need two timetables Central 3 and Central 4 to see all services. Need a summary timetable there me thinks.

Further December Timetables from Train companies in and around the Greater Western region:

SWT: http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/Pocket-timetables1312.aspx

XC: http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/tickets-timetables/train-timetables

ATW: Not yet available

Arriva Trains Wales winter timetables now online:

http://www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/Timetables/

Posters at some stations state that Energlyn is due to open on 8th December 2013

ATW have made some changes to the West Wales and Swanline services from December.

The current 07:09 Pembroke Dock - Cardiff service is retimed to depart at 06:59 and  arrives into Swansea at 09:07 departing at 09:10 as a swanline service to Newport.

The 1st southbound Heart of wales line service arrives into Swansea at 09:18 and forms the 09:35 departure to Cardiff.

The 07 09 Pembroke Dock to Cardiff is currently a 158 and will return from Newport at 10 40 as the 10 57 Cardiff Fishguard starting back.

Certain posters will be happy with that.

Hopefully this will sort out the general unreliability of the 09:10 swanline departure from Swansea which is also suffering from overcrowding when it is worked by a single 153 which struggles with the timings when heavily loaded.

A 158 would be great because of the higher top speed allowing it to keep to timings better alog with its faster acceleration compared to the 153's and with additional seats.

The 09:35 from Swansea is generally quiet not help because it follows 7 minutes behind the HST to London.

For anyone who may be interested the west of england timetable sees its biggest change since the hourly service past yeovil junction was introduced, with almost every service now calling at pinhoe and then alternating between feniton or whimple (the peak periods maintain all three stops as before), i believe this coupled with the new houses planned at monkerton could increase pinhoe's usage quite dramatically although it is not an ideal park and ride due to ... no parking i still think it will see better use now that its hourly 

Confirmation a week or so ago that the all-route FGW timetable book will continue into this period...it was slated for removal, but staff wanted to keep their printed copy, and the cost saving disappeared.

That's good news.  Mind you if it weren't so darned hard to get a copy they might sell a few more!!

Great new summary timetable of services between Cardiff/Bristol and the South Coast
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/~/media/PDF/TicketsAndTrainTimes/TrainTimes/December%202013%20Timetables/TTC03a_Web.ashx

But such a shame that the Saturday and Sunday timetables of services in both directions are completely wrong showing all Cardiff-Portsmouth trains going via Weymouth and not Warminster in one direction and not stopping at Westbury in the other. Doesn't someone check these things before they go to print?

Anyone who has contacts with FGW publications department want to let them know of this issue with this timetable? I cannot be bothered to use their 'contact us' service on their website to receive a standard templated reply three days later saying they endeavour to provide accurate information and thanks for letting us know.

(edit spelling and detail)

Both these issues have now been fixed with an updated Timetable 3 posted on the website. Inside front cover now reads:


Also on the inside front cover it addresses the issue of a complete timetable of services between Cardiff and Bristol and Bristol and Bath which use to make up timetable 28:

Done.

And response received.....

Thank you ChrisB for sorting that out.   :)

Yes thanks Chris. It is a useful summary timetable so good it's being fixed.

Update: Here is the corrected timetable link: http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/~/media/PDF/TicketsAndTrainTimes/TrainTimes/December%202013%20Timetables/TTC03a_Web_Amended.ashx

All Line Timetable now also available on line http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/3828.aspx

FGW's Network book is again available from major stations at a cost of ^4.  Those who heard Ian Mundy's talk at the recent WWRUG talk were assured it would be easier to obtain over the counter after problems in the past, and this was certainly my experience at Swindon yesterday.  Whole transaction took less than a minute.

Mention was also made at the meeting that those who could not get one as their nearest station did not stock it could buy it from Customer Services at ^4 plus postage.  I cannot see any mention of this on the website as yet.

However there are a number of amendments to the printed timetables.  The changes have, apparently, been made to the downloadable versions.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/~/media/PDF/TicketsAndTrainTimes/TrainTimes/December%202013%20Timetables/Errata%20DEC%202013.ashx (http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/~/media/PDF/TicketsAndTrainTimes/TrainTimes/December%202013%20Timetables/Errata%20DEC%202013.ashx)

That's the benefit of downloadable TTs....:-)

What do the pink blobs at the top of certain columns mean?

They are cycle restrictions.

Does anyone know why, following the timetable change, the train that used to be the 1818 from Reading to Cheltenham no longer calls at Reading? I'm assuming it is related to delays caused by station rebuilding etc, but it is rather frustrating for those of us travelling between Reading and Didcot as there is now a half hour gap in services.  Yesterday evening I noticed it was still showing on the departure screens at Reading, I hope no-one had a nasty surprise as it went by without stopping!

According to an explanation on twitter, it was to ease the flow of trains through Reading. Apparently it was causing congestion. No indication of whether the stop will be reinstated after Reading is complete.

A 30 minute service RDG-DID I would have thought about appropriate for the number travelling at that time.

Thanks for that. Did I miss the explanation somewhere?

The blobs mean "Cycle Reservations Compulsory". You didn't miss the explanation, because it was left out of the Worcester to Paddington timetable. However it's meaning is covered in other FGW timetables, not much help though, I know.

Thanks for that. Relieved to find it wasn't down to my inability to read the small print.

The twitterati complaints seemed to be either from people who got on the train expecting it to stop at RDG, or that its removal would grossly overcrowd all the other trains to RDG.
Trains not stopping at Reading always seemed to confuse some. Back in the days when I was a PAD commuter the sight of people getting up to get off at Reading on the then 18:15 only to see it travel slowly through was a regular occurrence.
There are actually 6 trains per hour after 17:00 and 18:00 including the stoppers (and 7 between 19:00-20:00). There is a hole though between 17:56 and 18:20.

As the 1826 overtakes the 1820 it is effectively a half hour gap. Regarding ChrisB's comment that this seems appropriate, the problem is that when people have planned their travel around an existing service pattern then the baseline for what is appropriate is the service they are used to, not a far less good service provided to somewhere with similar population somewhere else. This is particularly the case if your commute involves a change at Reading, a relatively short rail commute can suddenly become 10/15 minutes longer either end of the day, which adds up, and will shift the balance towards car travel for some people. That said, I fully understand that trying to run the normal service around a re-build on this scale is terribly difficult and there will inevitably be some inconvenience for users. I must say I can't wait until P10 is completed, as the number of missed connections in the morning while queuing outside the station for P11 is getting rather depressing this time of year!

Good to see FGW advertising their Network timetable in various railway related publications.

Printed timetable now being advertised at Swindon station (notice in the subway to the island platform).  However, as of yesterday they weren't in stock yet when I tried to buy one.  The lady suggested they would arrive today, but I'm not in Swindon  :-\ ... I expect I will be very soon!

I was told at Swindon last week (and this was later backed up on Facebook) that they would be at all major stations today (21st).

I understand some have, light-heartedly, tried to get a pro-rata refund on the three days they were unabe to use the book....  ;)

Ah - I knew I had seen comment somewhere - thanks, Bob.   I got mislead by the big advert board telling me it was available!

Reports this morning that they are not yet available at Bristol Temple Meads or Taunton

I'm glad they are still available. When I asked at Reading on Friday they were unsure if they were even still being produced.

The Network Timetable book is still being produced, but the current run is who knows where. 'Twas I that asked in Bristol and Taunton today, to no avail. This was after I'd been told through social media channels that they would be at major stations from 21st May.

I was told at Taunton that the staff haven't received their version either. The public retail version is very similar to the staff one, so I assume they share a delivery run.

Someone is on the case on my behalf chasing up these Timetable books. I already have one pint in the bank because of the delay.  ;D

You might be onto your second pint BNM - still no sign of the books at Swindon this morning.

The books are now available at Paddington and still ^4.

Apparently the staff still do not have their copies!

Do you pick these up from the FGW information desks or do you have to go to the ticket office? Thx

Ticket office - and only at selected stations. I'm still at Paddington so don't have the list to hand.

Suspect there's been a press problem. The Customer Panel have been sent copies, but mine has a staff cover, but no additional staff info contained within...it looks to me like a public copy within staff covers...