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Title: New Timetable Cheltenham to London - 01 Sep 14? Post by: bobm on August 31, 2014, 08:40:12 I was on a train yesterday when the train manager announced that a new timetable would be in force between Cheltenham and London Paddington from Monday. He warned some services would be leaving earlier than at present.
I notice the Central 1 timetable is currently unavailable to download from the FGW website. Short of ploughing through Realtimetrains to hunt out the changes, does anyone know anymore? Title: Re: New Timetable Cheltenham to London - 01 Sep 14? Post by: Timmer on August 31, 2014, 10:28:21 There is also the matter of WoE timetables expiring next Sunday 7th September with timetables from 8th September not yet on the website. [sigh] FGW not keeping certain parts of their website up to date again.
UPDATE: This was done yesterday (5th September) Title: Re: New Timetable Cheltenham to London - 01 Sep 14? Post by: Timmer on September 06, 2014, 07:11:56 I was on a train yesterday when the train manager announced that a new timetable would be in force between Cheltenham and London Paddington from Monday. He warned some services would be leaving earlier than at present. I notice the Central 1 timetable is currently unavailable to download from the FGW website. Here is a link to the new London-Cheltenham TT: https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/~/media/PDF/TicketsAndTrainTimes/TrainTimes/CurrentTimeTable/C02A745287801PR.ashx Central 1 is now back but it's the old original version that was replaced by a newer version that included full Sunday timetables so a bit strange that the more updated version has been removed ??? Title: Re: New Timetable Cheltenham to London - 01 Sep 14? Post by: Steve Bray on September 07, 2014, 10:59:01 Seems a bit ironic that the Mo-Fr 1742 from Paddington to Cheltenham, named train "The Cheltenham Spa Express", is in fact the slowest direct train between those two places on any day of the week!
Title: Re: New Timetable Cheltenham to London - 01 Sep 14? Post by: JayMac on September 07, 2014, 11:06:33 Equal slowest in the other direction as well!
Title: Re: New Timetable Cheltenham to London - 01 Sep 14? Post by: Chris from Nailsea on September 14, 2014, 22:51:05 From the Gloucestershire Echo (http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/Runs-trains-form-Paddington-Cheltenham-later-8-45/story-22912061-detail/story.html):
Quote 'Run trains from Paddington to Cheltenham later than 8.45pm' - Cheltenham MP Martin Horwood (http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/images/localworld/ugc-images/276334/Article/images/22912061/6888937-large.jpg) Martin Horwood at Cheltenham Spa station MP Martin Horwood is calling for train chiefs to restore a service from London to Cheltenham after 9pm. The 10.15pm First Great Western (FGW) train from Paddington to Gloucester, via Swindon, used to allow commuters to transfer at Gloucester to catch the Arriva Trains Wales service on to Cheltenham at 2.15am. However, Arriva has cancelled the service from Gloucester to Cheltenham. This means the last train from London to Cheltenham is now effectively at 8.45am. As a result Martin Horwood, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, has demanded that FGW put on a later train from Paddington to Cheltenham, after 9pm. He Tweeted FGW^s corporate account: ^Why is last train back to CNM [Cheltenham] from PAD [Paddington] now 20:45, 1.5hrs earlier than before? No wonder no fanfare for redoubled Swindon/Kemble line!^ He received the response: ^Hi Martin. It looks like @ArrivaTW withdrew their service to Cheltenham so there is no longer a connection, apologies.^ But that didn^t soothe Mr Horwood, who replied, copying in the Arriva Trains Wales account: ^But you serve Cheltenham from Swindon, Reading & London. This isn't good enough after huge investment. #franchise^ FGW responded: ^This was a last minute change by Arriva, and we planned the timetable around this. I'm afraid we aren't able to change it now.^ To which Mr Horwood wrote: ^So @ArrivaTW can make last minute changes but @FGW can't. Not sure my constituents will understand that. I'm using @nationalexpress tonight.^ Speaking to the Echo, Mr Horwood said: ^Now the Arriva train from Gloucester to Cheltenham is cancelled it means people like me, travelling back from London, either face the expense of staying overnight in London, or they have to get the coach. That^s what I did this week and it was very comfortable and much cheaper than the train. But there^s a more serious issue: if you factor in the time to get to Paddington and buy tickets, then having the last train at 8.45pm means people from Cheltenham cannot go to London for an evening event, or a show or something like that. And that might have a business impact. We^ve spent ^45 million of public money on doubling the Swindon to Kemble line, that^s just been completed and although I didn^t expect the service to improve overnight, I didn^t expect it to get worse straight away either.^ Train timetable websites list the 8.45pm departure from Paddington as getting to Cheltenham at 11.04pm, with a change at Swindon to another FGW train. The 10.15pm FGW train from Paddington used to arrive in Gloucester, after a change at Swindon, at 1.34 am, allowing passengers to catch an Arriva trains Wales service to Cheltenham 40 minutes later. With that service now cancelled, there is no service to Cheltenham until 6.10am. A spokesman for FGW said: ^The doubling of the line from Swindon to Kemble doesn^t mean we are able to put on more services with the rolling stock that we have. That^s work done by Network Rail and it will allow us to maintain services when work is done to electrify the line between London and South Wales, and whoever has the franchise in 2017 might be able to improve services when the new inter-city express trains are introduced.^ A spokesman for Arriva Trains Wales said: ^The decision to cancel the Gloucester to Cheltenham section of this service was based on low customer demand and night-time engineering work being carried out by Network Rail between Gloucester and Cheltenham.^ Title: Re: New Timetable Cheltenham to London - 01 Sep 14? Post by: paul7575 on September 14, 2014, 22:59:26 Quote This means the last train from London to Cheltenham is now effectively at 8.45am. Memo to journalist/editor. Confusing am and pm is never a good idea when ranting about timetables... Paul Title: Re: New Timetable Cheltenham to London - 01 Sep 14? Post by: Chris from Nailsea on September 14, 2014, 23:33:45 I have found, through somewhat bitter experience on this forum, that it's perhaps best that I don't question the quality of any journalism here. I merely post what I see. ;) :D ;D
Title: Re: New Timetable Cheltenham to London - 01 Sep 14? Post by: grahame on September 15, 2014, 06:48:37 I can't thinking that (with a 40 minute wait at Gloucester) it was a less than ideal service, and I note that the change was due to low passenger numbers. Perhaps someone's already taken a quick look at extending the train from Swindon - if that didn't hit the Network Rail possessions, didn't involve extra staff shifts, and brought a handful of extra long distance journey incomes each day, who knows? Good PR for First, a better-than-before service from London (pity those from Cardiff), but they are big "if"s!
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