Great Western Coffee Shop

Also a reminder that there are various timing changes to services, as a new dated timetable comes into force from next week as well!!!

This is good news indeed! I look forward to using the new service.

Do you know what prevents them making the 1918 from Henley run as a passenger service to Paddington? Whilst I don't think it would be that popular it would be useful for some and direct trains help persuade non-rail users give it a try! I assume NR charge less per mile for an ECS move than a train in service?

I shall have a look for that poster at Maidenhead tomorrow morning then and report back (not seen it yet).. Paper timetable aside which is dying out, I looked on FGW sites for an advert once I read this tonight.. No sign of any advertising I could find.. Which is why I was wondering why it was a "reminder" on here..

Out of interest, does the diagram change on Fridays?

The 18.12 is typically 3 car on a Friday (and therefore overcrowded to Slough)

Will the new service similarly be 3 car on a Friday

The advertising is called a timetable....the information is made available to all freely, I think they just put posters up as an extra....might have something to do with that the person who does all FGW posters lives in the Twyford / Henley area???

Not bothered if it doesn't stop anywhere between Twyford and London! In fact as a new Twyford resident who occasionally does night shifts I'd positively welcome it. Not having to go along all the carriages turfing people out and locking the doors at Twford would reduce platform dwell time and potentially get it to London quicker!

There must be some sort of financial reason but I'll suggest it to FGW once the 2018 has settled down a bit.

This is great news!!  I'd go so far as to say the first great news that I've ever had from FGW.
The significance to Maidenhead commuters is huge as it means the final (pre-pub kickout) direct train is now 20:18 rather than 19:48.

Not bothered if it doesn't stop anywhere between Twyford and London! In fact as a new Twyford resident who occasionally does night shifts I'd positively welcome it. Not having to go along all the carriages turfing people out and locking the doors at Twford would reduce platform dwell time and potentially get it to London quicker!

There must be some sort of financial reason but I'll suggest it to FGW once the 2018 has settled down a bit.

At this stage there is some doubt as to where the ECS will come from in the longer term, so at this point I intend to wait until this is clearer, rather than introduce a service that has to be amended / removed.

Already done - and this was the answer....

It's an ideal chance to splash some posters up at Maidenhead and Twyford advertising the good news.  Hopefully that has/will happen!

Friday 31 January

Press call: Theresa May MP to launch additional train service
When: Monday 3 February, 19.45
Where: Paddington Station

Theresa May to launch additional train service

Rt Hon Theresa May MP for Maidenhead is to launch a new First Great Western train service from London Paddington on Monday 3 February.

The Monday to Friday 20.18 service will offer an extra 413 seats a day to customers travelling out of the capital directly to Maidenhead (20.40), Twyford (20.48) and Reading (20.59).

Welcoming Mrs May, First Great Western^s Deputy Managing Director Andy Mellors said: ^I am very pleased that we have been able to provide this additional train, our customers have told us they need more evening services. Today^s launch shows our commitment to securing further improvements, and we will continue to work with the DfT to provide the additional capacity we know our customers want.^

Mrs May said: ^I am very pleased to welcome this new FGW service, which is a boost for commuters in Maidenhead, Twyford and Reading. This is excellent news for all those who have felt that we needed an additional evening service out of Paddington. This is part of the work to increase capacity on the line, and I look forward to further improvements to come.^

To mark the improvement Mrs May will wave out the service, with a dispatcher^s green flag in hand, from London Paddington^s Platform 1 at 20.18. 

The direct Maidenhead, Twyford and Reading service will be formed of a five car train Monday to Thursday, an increase in capacity of 32% (between 20.00 and 21.00) and a three car train on Friday, increasing capacity by 19% (between 20.00 and 21.00). Two carriages are already committed to other strengthened Friday services.

I agree NickB.. What worries me is the lack of "advertising" means that it may not get used too much at the start and may well then be withdrawn due to....erm....lack of use...

Well quite, particularly as M'head commuters know they HAVE to make it to Paddington for the 19:48 so are unlikely to discover this service by accident.

Is there a service support / rail user group involved around?  If so, great - work with them. 

I suspect with a launch from Ms May a fair chunk of publicity will be generated.

Let me give you another idea too.   

We had a very similar issue here in deepest rural urban Wiltshire - new trains which you might only have heard about if you were at the station at the time they happened to be run.  With the problem that no-one was likely to be at the station at anytime between 07:15 and 19:15 which were the only old times.  We are well on the way to overcoming this ... with the community working with the council and First Great Western to help inform people.

Is there a service support / rail user group involved around?  If so, great - work with them.  If not, perhaps it's time you formed one. And take a positive approach and ask if you can talk to people on a train or two - perhaps on that 19:48 for a few days - and hand out flyers.  You're helping FGW, you're helping retain the service.  If there's an established group with a good working relationship, excellent;  if not, it does take time to build up the relationships needed, but it can be a real win-win ... and for other stages beyond, other service changes, feedback, etc ...



Edit note: I agree with everything grahame has posted here - and, as his typing was apparently affected by his passion, I've merely corrected a few of his trademark typos, purely in the interests of clarity. CfN.  ::) ;D

.. (with apologies for overquoting previous comments before I'm asked not to :P ::))

I wouldn't dare to do so.  :o ::) :-[

We'll see.. There are very few current fast trains to Maidenhead however where it's possible to give out flyers etc as you can't get through (or even sometimes onto the train) due to the overcrowding..

What's wrong with the 18:42 to Bourne End then?

Many thanks for posting that information, ChrisB.

Are you able to tell us who made that decision, and when?

I used this new service on Tuesday - a 2 car would have coped with the number of passengers, lets hope word spreads and so does usage over the coming weeks. Still early days.

And that was a very strange train.. 8 coach HST.. not that strange yet.. except that coach B was standard class but made up of a First class carriage with the First class head rest covers removed but branded First class other than that.. Even after the train manager announced it was ok for standard class ticket holders to sit in there, very few did.. weird but a nice journey for us as we had most of the carriage to ourselves ::)

You did well if it was an 8 car, as that particular set (the one with the Singapore Airlines advert on the power car) had been 7 car until recently (with the 1st coach B)!

I didn't see the power car but imagine it's the same train.. But yes definitely a coach A as well yesterday (or there were a lot of people who ended up with the driver  ::)