Great Western Coffee Shop

Yesterday I tried to get the 16.17 Maidenhead to Paddington. It was running about ten minutes late so was cancelled for Twyford and Maidenhead passengers no doubt to make up time.

I totally understand this as it forms one of the first trains back out of Paddington in the peak so good to minimise delays on later trains as a result

However the reality was that there is a train that terminates at Maidenhead platform 4 (from Paddington) shortly after the 16.17 departure usually. Yesterday it came in before the 16.17 went through and then left again a few minutes later. In fact he had to be asked to go early as someone had worked out their mistake  ::)

The 16.17 then had to wait for it to go, then crawl very very slowly into Maidenhead due to the red signal, most likely to avoid having to.. erm.. stop and wait at the platform for 2 minutes with the doors firmly locked.. 2 minutes obviously being the perfect amount of time for passengers to get off and on.

It's just a pity someone in charge of these things couldn't have worked out this was going to happen and reverse the cancellation.

Communication of the change to the driver in so little time would have been the answer. Need a guarantee that the driver receives instruction 'stop order' change - likely to have to be given to him at his previous manned station stop.