Great Western Coffee Shop

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Why wouldn't it?

Perhaps a description of this service?

A load of  ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? isn't that usefull!

Sorry - it has been my regular gripe since the timetable change....

the 0545 WOS to PAD which is now a HST but is only a quarter full by the time it gets to PAD - at least on the handful of times I've managed to get it.

According to the platform staff at WOS, it is cancelled 3 of 5 days a week so far...............

I think because they have to taxi staff up from Bristol and they have to clock on at 0230 or something silly

Not sorry my shifts got changed and I no longer have to get the 6am-ish from Moreton or this train. Was always thrilled when some clown left the doors open on a Turbo while the 6am was standing at Moreton on a winter's morning, letting out all the warmth that had built up on the ecs run from Oxford.

At least if that train was cancelled what was then the 05.34 from Malvern usually turned up 30 minutes later, but then it was stabled overnight at Worcester and crewed from there too.

I don't know whether progress (or lack of) on staff retraining at Worcester to work 125s may be an issue here, as taxi-ing over from Worcester to Hereford has got to make more sense than travelling from Bristol. But there I am using sense in the context of FGW...

Well the 0545 from WOS - what used to be the 0534 from Malvern is........

1. Driven/Managed/buffeted by Bristol Crewe
2. Stabled overnight at hereford

So they get taxied from Bristol to Hereford where they pick up the empty train and drive it empty to Malvern where it picks up pasengers

At Malvern/WOS - first class host gets on as they are WOS crewe

Seems a ludicrous piss up in  brewery to me on several fronts:

The train is too big for that service - a 180 would be perfect - a full size HST - even this morning - was half empty.  Put it this way - I could use two first class seats as a bed all the way into PAD with my bag and coat on the other two seats.  And no one batted an eyelid as there was no need for the space.  We were in reverse formation this morning so I saw the volume of passengers in standard disembarking in front of me - about half what you would normally expect on a rush hour HST.

Until they train up WOS/Malvern based TM's and Drivers to work HST it seems silly to taxi people all the way from Bristol and have them clock on at 230am!

So it did run then?

Wonder why it doesn't carry passengers from Hereford? I notice the next couple now start from Y Fenni (Abergavenny to you and me), which takes me back to the years when ECS moves often used to be used for passenger services, resulting in such delights as all stations HST's from Bristol to Cardiff.

It would also make a good tricky question about how many arrivals from Wales are there into Paddington before 1000.   

Yeah - the 0632 and 0732 used to start at hereford but no at abergavenny - I think because for people there it is not that much longer to go via hereford to london but is a LOT cheaper than it is to go down to newport.  I actually live near ludlow and by the time you add on travel to WOS - its wuicker for me to go ludlow - newport - paddington - except its nearly twice the price!

As to did it run....... see my comment

"
The train is too big for that service - a 180 would be perfect - a full size HST - even this morning - was half empty.  Put it this way - I could use two first class seats as a bed all the way into PAD with my bag and coat on the other two seats.  And no one batted an eyelid as there was no need for the space.  We were in reverse formation this morning so I saw the volume of passengers in standard disembarking in front of me - about half what you would normally expect on a rush hour HST."

i.e. I had a bed all the way this morning....... Lets see if it can make 2/2 - except I've just seen its 0014 and I know the boss is not in the office tomorrow so I may stay in bed for the 0632

Well, at least they seem to have worked out how to unplug the train from the mains at Hereford when it does run, after the first day of the timetable fiasco.

While I agree a 125 seems like overkill on this service, I suspect a good few of the empty seats are because people who might once have boarded this train at Moreton, Kingham, Charlbury and even Oxford have given up on FGW, because if the 05.45 is cancelled, the 05.42 from Hereford has such a slack timing now that, as I think you have observed elsewhere, Mookiemoo, even if it is on time at Paddington, it is no use to anyone who needs to be at a desk in London by 9am.

Driving over to Bicester North (or Haddenham & Thame in the case of Oxford), means that, even if it's a Turbo or Clubman, the train will usually turn up right time and get to Marylebone thereabouts too (six trains arrive into MYB from BCS between 07.48 and 08.50) From Oxford there is also the option of express coaches on the M40 to London roughly every five minutes, at rather lower fares than FGW.

The Services are crap !!, last night at Worcester Foregate Street to Padd, the last service that left at 1721, was the last one until 2245, but this was late by 15 mins, the reason for the gap is that services were be terminated short of destination !

I believe they were being terminated at shrub hill - I know this doesnt help Malvern bods but anyone at Foregate could spend the five minutes walking to shrub hill

And the reason for that was congestion at Oxford was causing a back log of trains up the single track - it wasnt a single track problem but an oxford one.

(I was on the 1721 off Pad which got in 15 late - we were 25 late at one point but made it up)

This mornings 0632 got in 10 late.

Will be very interested to see what tonights 1821 does - assuming I get out in time