Great Western Coffee Shop

I hope to travel first class from Paddington to Taunton, on Friday the 28th, on the 18-03, or nearest available service.

I would normaly purchase a first advance ticket about now, but dont believe that advances are being sold due to the ongoing disruption.

So what is my best option ?
Full fare on the day ?

I understand that tickets via or to Dawlish are being discounted due to the disruption.
Unfortunatly my proposed journey is NOT via Dawlish, though still disrupted.


I cant forsee the rebuilding of the sea wall being completed in only about 2 weeks, but hopefully the line might be open to Exeter by then.
Might even get a meal on the train  :) though I am not very hopefull.

To be honest I'd wait.

As advance tickets are not being sold no one else can buy them at the moment so they are not going to sell out.

If, ultimately, you have to fall back to a walk-up fare you haven't lost anything - indeed you have had the money in your bank a little longer.

The plan - which may of course now change - was to re-introduce the temporary Pullman service on the 17:33 from London rather than the 18:03 - so possibly another reason to delay.

I think that you are correct, I will wait a bit.
The Golden Hind is a busy service, and although discounted advance tickets are available, the discount is modest.
IIRC the full first fare is about ^170, and a discounted first is often about ^120, worth having certainly but not a vast discount.

To pay ^170 to sit in comfort in proper first class, and hopefully be served a meal is fine, even if the journey time is extended due to the weather damage.

To pay ^170 for a bus connection would not be so good. Dont think there is even a travelling chef on the bus ?

If you ask nicely, they might stop at a Little Chef  :D

As I understand it, if subject to RRS (Rail Replacement Service), you get the difference between 1st & Standard refunded?

If they were running the Pullman, then why bother buying a first class ticket.  Second (sorry - Standard :)) class ticket holders can dine, and the journey is sufficiently short to probably allow you to spend the whole time in the Pullman.  The risk is that First Class ticket holders will have already fully booked the dining seats, and this risk is increased if there's still only one service at that time (which is likely).
Just a thought!

Think you answered your own question there!

I realised that, but ploughed on regardless  ;D

Just to let you know...advance fares are available again.

Only once the First Class passengers have been accommodated.

Indeed, and since both the whole train and the Pullman are liable to be busy, due to the limited services available, I would not be hopeful of getting a meal with a steerage ticket.
And of course if one waited in hope in the queue, and was unsuccessful, then there would be no question of a seat in steerage, all these having been taken by those who ran fastest when the depature was announced.

OK OK...so it was a rubbish idea    ::)  ;D

Worth considering under normal conditions, but not IMHO at all advisable at present.
If hoping to dine on an up Pullman, I usually only purchase a steerage ticket and usually get a seat on the earlier of the two services. If it is full, then I await the next service, a 45 minute wait being preferable to standing in steerage or paying over ^100 extra to sit in first, still unfed.

However on the evening down services, especialy at times of disruption or at holiday periods, or on a thursday or friday, I would allways pay the first class fare so as to be almost certain of a meal.

Just wanted to follow up to this one - although some advance tickets were released, we haven't realeased a full batch (currently only up to 21st Feb)

When more dates are released I shall comment back :)

Thanks, as ever, for your helpful update, Ollie!  ;)

FGW services are currently open for reservations until Wed 14th May 2014 - EXCEPT on services that serve the West of England routed via Newbury which are currently open for their normal timetable from Maundy Thursday 17th April until Wed 14th May 2014.

The revised reservable services on the West of England route (London Paddington - Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot - Penzance) are currently only open until Fri 28th Feb.

Reservations on West of England services (routed via Newbury) are currently unavailable from Sat 1st March until Wed 16th April inclusive whilst a revised timetable is put in place to deal with the line closure at Dawlish.  An update will be provided when more details are known.   

Edit: Removed the Monday-Friday bit as it made it a bit confusing :)

Thanks again for that information, Ollie.

It saves a lot of messing about looking for non-existent fares!   ;D

Many thanks for this information Ollie. I plan on using the train a bit over the next few weeks, and especially so living in Pewsey, any this information like this is very helpful.

No problem, maybe we should do a topic with just booking horizons for FGW usually changes on a Friday :)

Great Idea. And perhaps you could do it for XC as well :-0

What a good idea - and here it is http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=13628.0 (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=13628.0)   ;)