Great Western Coffee Shop

Does anyone know what happened to this train this morning? My daughter (and a lot of other people) were on it but it only made it as far as Twyford and then got taken back to Reading and from what I think she said they didn't allow anyone off at Twyford but when she called me the train was very noisy so that bit may or may not be correct and to be honest I don't know if it made it as far as the platform there anyway.

Realtime trains said it was cancelled due to an unknown cause.

It terminated at Twyford due to emergency engineering work, road transport was provided so people could complete their journeys.

Good job it wasn't a Friday night, otherwise that could have got messy!

Wow.. Almost worth not running a train at all really then since it only managed one stop..  ::)

The original intention was to run further, but due to the Network Rail works it couldn't...tonight it is cancelled completely.

Oh dear.. It is the "post club" train heading towards London from Reading and it's not like there is an alternative anytime soon after (or before).. Just out of interest? How long after people were left at Twyford/taken back to Reading last night was road transport made available to them?

According to JOurneycheck, started from Slough this morning. Useful, not!

I'm not sure, sorry Jo.


Better than not running the train at all...

...indeed. A part cancellation is better than a full cancellation for FGWs performance statistics.  :P

I've had a chance to talk to my daughter now.. There were no emergency engineering works.. There were disruptive passengers apparently which meant that it was sent back to Reading from Twyford with no one allowed off before it returned.. Her and her friends had to pay for at taxi home.. The train had been full and standing.. Apparently there were police at Twyford...

I spoke to her at the time when she called to tell me they were heading back to Reading and I can confirm her carriage sounded calm, though with lots of people talking...So not sure why a whole trains worth of people had to be very inconvenienced and also out of pocket

Yes...there was.

This is what the Network Rail log shows:

"when the power was disconnected it has affected the Maidenhead TDM, this was not listed on the equipment affected. As a result we cannot run into the Up Rlf platform at Maidenhead and terminate 2P02 as planned. 2P02 will now terminated at Twyford and return to Reading for road transport."

As your daughter got a cab, my only guess is that either communication wasn't as good as it should be...or the information about road transport wasn't heard.

I hope FGW do the decent thing and refund her taxi fare, knowing the level of communication/information given to customers during normal working hours when the slightest thing goes wrong I can't imagine it would be any better in the early hours of the morning!

Obviously two things happened at once then. Apparently the police were waiting at Twyford and to be honest it could have been them that stopped people getting off of the train rather than railway staff.. But the whole train load of people were then taken back to Reading.

To be fair to her (getting a cab) though, I imagine organising road transport at short notice at that time of night for a train full of people wasn't going to be something that would happen very quickly, if at all (before the next train ran about 4am).

I'm surprised to read of the apparent crowding of the 02:24 service. I don't remember ever having travelled on it myself, but I have travelled on both the 01:17 and 03:34 from Reading to Paddington and these trains I'd never describe as overcrowded. In my experience most people get in to the rear carriage and the front carriage has a handful of passengers with. Even on a Friday night/Saturday morning these trains when I've been on them, I wouldn't call particularly overcrowded, there would be enough seats for all (if anyone dare move up the train)!

I know bars and clubs close at 02:00, so the 02:24 might have been busy from that, but on a Tuesday morning? Really?

Shame about the confusion over replacement transport. The staff at Reading station have had lots of experience recently from flooding disruption for directing passengers to replacement transport. It seems odd that this is reported here as not being the case.

Yeah I was surprised how crowded it appeared to be.. And can I just say I'm not criticising any staff here at all as it appears there was a lot of confusion going on with the police there too (and some people fighting) and it could just be that it was easier for them to get away from it all as soon as possible and they may have missed relevant announcements because of it too.

But as I said before, where would this road transport suddenly appear from at that time of night?  :)

At Reading FGW usually call a local cab company and the passengers are walked to the taxi pick-up point at the short stay car park by staff. From my experience the staff usually stay there until everyone is on their way.

I'm only guessing, but as it had been booked previously (for Maidenhead rather than Reading) I would assume that it was just asked to get to Reading instead...this is only my guess though. I don't know the actual answer.

Aah ok.. I didn't know that it had been booked for Maidenhead either.. That makes a bit more sense. Thanks Ollie  :)

No problem Jo, as I am in the office today I have checked what the FGW log says.

It says that the road transport was indeed the road transport previously booked, and it was sent from Maidenhead/Slough to Reading in order to get people on the move.

It also confirms that Thames Valley Police were in attendance due to the report of a fight on board.

Yep. I heard about the fight. I suspect that might be a reason they didn't let people off at Twyford but instead took them back to Reading