Great Western Coffee Shop

Now online: https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Train-times-and-tickets/Train-times/from-17-may-2015

I hope there is going to be a fixing of typos etc.

1)   East2, p. 2, columns 7 & 8: (the first two M-F down trains from Cholsey) are transposed.
2)   East2, p. 6, column 9: the 0550 ex Oxford (the first semi-fast up service of the day 1P05) shown running from 7 Sept only: - i.e. Not May through August!  :o  This is full and standing ex Twyford.
3)   East2, p. 6 column 10: the 0604 ex Oxford semi-fast, shown in red with no annotation. This infers either an hour's gap between services in the early morning peak or even possibly an hour-and-a half! I hope there is a mistake in here somewhere.

I've passed these on....

Well look as though Maidenhead gets a good stuffing the morning, 06:31, 06:40, 07:08 gone from time table but just for consistency in the Marlow East 8 time table the 06:31 06:40 and 07:08 are listed.

Me thinks these are riddled with errors or Mrs May is going to get some very terse question when she out on the hustings


Although the good news for the Maidenhead / Marlow branch is the 16:42 through train to Bourne End now that is train in my 40 years of commuting I've always wanted  :) so I just hope it not an error

I have to admire the timetable planners' skills.

On Mondays-to-Fridays there are 19 trains from Worcester Shrub Hill towards Oxford and London.

None of them are at the same minutes-past-each-hour as any of the others. That takes serious skill. I make the odds on that about 24-1 against.

On Sundays there are 12 trains, all departing between xx:28 and xx:35.

That probably means that the constraint is much nearer to Paddington than Worcester or Oxford

Nothing new on the Riviera line, but also nothing lost either, so that's fine. If/when the extra stock appears in a few years, there'll be a change around  ;D

First Off Peak of the day inbound on the Severn Beach Line still just misses (for the want of 1 minute) connections to Gloucester, Worcester, Frome and stations to Weymouth.

For Ashchurch and beyond that means a two hour wait or a later start from Severn Beach Line stations. For Frome and beyond it's an hour for the next Weymouth service.

That 1 minute makes a real difference when planning a day out. It means an earlier start and either Anytime or split tickets.

Still no Sunday service for Taplow, despite new houses/flats/shopping centre :-(

Unless they have been updated these 3 trains are in the timetable East 1

Nope no error 1N42 first stop Maidenhead through to Bourne End.

Excellent, I must admit I only took a quick glance at East 1

1N42, I suspect will become a popular train with quite a few Maidenhead passages migrating from the 17:18.   Is 1N42 a 3 or 5 car?

Pass, I'm sure someone on the inside could tell us. It appears this will be using P9 rather than 13/14 so a shorter walk at Pad

I think we've said before there's very little chance of anything until Crossrail starts and the constant need for a two-track timetable at weekends subsides.  The extra time that stopping there (and Iver) would make pathing very difficult, as even now HST's end up queuing up behind stoppers quite often.

I get that but it's still very frustrating - even a two hourly service would be better than nothing, there is enormous pressure on the A4 on summer Sundays which will only get worse and this could help relieve it a bit.

Frustration understood - though looking at the timetable it'd be a replacement bus for quite a few Sunday's over this summer if a service was provided.

Longer term, I'm hoping that as well as Iver and Taplow, Acton ML, Hanwel and West Ealing will also get a Sunday service at least hourly from the commencement of the Crossrail service.

Had a little look into the future and have noticed the 08:18 Padd to Newbury service which currently is a Turbo which then runs back to Reading depot empty will be replaced by an HST. This then rather usefully forms an additional service back to Padd at 09:24 stopping at Thatcham 09:31, Theale 09:40 and Reading 09:51 helping out the ever growing numbers of people travelling early off-peak into London.

There is also another timetable error, East 4, the 09:14 service from Reading to Newbury has an 'A' above it which means it runs to Plymouth before July (I don't think so) and should be I presume be put into the following column of the 09:06 PAD to NQY

Great news, I often catch the 0903 from THA, which is a 3 car Turbo and normally very busy as it's the first off-peak service.

As reported in the Maidenhead Advertiser:

"First Great Western announces additional rail services for evening commutersFirst Great Western (FGW) has announced it is laying on additional services for evening rail commuters.

The rail provider announced today that it will be running two new evening peak services from Paddington to Maidenhead, providing an additional 350 seats for passengers.

The added services will begin on Monday, May 18 in conjunction with FGW's summer timetable release.

A new Monday to Friday 4.42pm London Paddington to Bourne End (arriving at 5.24pm) service will call at Maidenhead (arriving at 5.11pm) and plug an hour gap in services from Maidenhead between 4.47pm and 5.47pm with a 5.12pm departure. The service will also call at Furze Platt and Cookham.

This will be supplemented by a new 7.36pm London Paddington to Twyford (8.07pm) service, calling at Maidenhead at 8pm".

Of course these completely miss actual peak time, and the 50min gap in fast services from 18.18 to 19.05 resulting in stupid overcrowding of both services, but every little helps.

.....are these genuinely new/additional or are they being resourced by other services being cut?

1642 use to be a 5-car service from Paddington to Reading, so I assume that's been cut in favour of running it to Bourne End.

16:42 RDG is running at 16:45, with the 16:45 Greenford running a further 3 later

There is a nine page summary of changes on the FGW website.

https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/-/media/pdf/ticketsandtraintimes/traintimes/may%202015%20tt/may%2015-%20summary%20of%20principle%20timetable%20changes.pdf?la=en (https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/-/media/pdf/ticketsandtraintimes/traintimes/may%202015%20tt/may%2015-%20summary%20of%20principle%20timetable%20changes.pdf?la=en)

The 16:42 Bourne End has been talked about in another thread, http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=15641.0

Maybe this topic could be merged with that?

Many thanks for that constructive suggestion, Adelante_CCT: I've now done exactly that!  CfN.  :)

ATW often spin by saying xxx will be strengthened with additional seats (in PR language) but don't mention the service that is going to reduced to cater for it.

I would like to congratulate the New Government (sic)  ;D :P :P on being so responsive to introduce these addition evening seat to Maidenhead .................... well I assume that will be the spin that will be used :D

I welcome to 16:42 to Bourne End this service suites me just fine

Semi Fast Peak Services Formations > From Next Week

16:42 Bourne End 2 Car
17:12 Henley 4 Car
17:42 Bourne End 3 Car
18:12 Henley 6 Car FX 3 Car FO
18:42 Bourne End 4 Car
19:05 Henley 3 Car
20:18 Reading 6 Car FX 3 Car FO

Any Specific trains (LTV services only) anyone wants to know just ask...I have copies of all diagrams, and will answer any queries asap.

Just tried using FGW^s own East 2 timetable for train times from Pangbourne tomorrow morning, and within seconds 3 errors stood out:

0635 and 0652 from Pangbourne are shown dated ^ they shoudn^t be (got a bit carried away with their M and N Notes).
0733 from Pangbourne doesn^t show the Maidenhead stop.

I think someone else offered FGW a timetable proof reading service ^ I hope they take it up.

Would have been a few extra seats and services if Chiltern had agreed to sub-lease one of their Turbo's for the Summer

They are all in scheduled use across both peaks - there wasn't a chance

Autumn timetables and weekend supplements now available:
https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/train-times-and-tickets/train-times/from-17-may-2015

If anyone purchased the FGW Network Timetable earlier this summer, you should be able to pick up a new Autumn edition FREE of charge as the current one expires 6th September.

I've found a discrepancy already! ;) On page 9 of East 1, the 1707 (in the current timetable) PAD-BRI (via BOA) with first stop TWY is shown as departing PAD at 1708. However in the East 9 (Henley Branch) timetable it's shown as departing PAD at 1706 and RealTimeTrains appears to agree with that time.

Having bought the FGW book at Swindon, I went back there today to get the supplement as it starts today.  They were not aware of one and needless to say had none in stock.

I'll try at Paddington tomorrow.

That's a bit concerning as I too was planning to do the same thing and pick up the supplement next weekend.

Anyone able to shed any light regards the availability of this supplement? I paid my ^5 back in May based on the strength of this being available in September. I wasn't going to pay for something that was only valid for just over 3 months.

Hi folks, the 'Guide to Services' (The all in one timetable) will be slightly delayed as we unfortunately had some complications whilst producing it. This will be our first publication in the new GWR branding and as with all new rebrands, there were a couple of teething problems. That coupled with the complexity of the September to Decembert timetable made this a very time consuming and tricky thing to put together. I will let you know in due course when they are at stations but they are not currently available.

I can also confirm that the book will be 100% free. You will not need to produce your old book to receive it and that it will be available at the regular stations that normally stock this book.

Apologies for the delay but I hope it will be worth the wait. :)

Thanks for the update Rob, look forward to seeing the results. As Barry Doe of RAIL magazine says the GW 'Guide to Services' along with the SWT version are both excellent publications with so much information along with all timetables all in one book.

Yes thanks Rob.

I remember attending a talk given by Ian Mundy, then in the publications department -  now in charge of stations along the seawall, and he explained what a technically complicated procedure it is to produce the timetables.  Especially as they include other operators running over a common route where appropriate.

Indeed, the Central area timetables proved very difficult this time round due to the Severn Tunnel block. For example it took an hour or two just to sort out how we are going to show Pilning in the timetable! (It's back in the timetable, rather than a footnote).

I am Ian's direct replacement and I believe he presented a couple of talks. I'd be open to continuing his 'legacy' if anyone wanted me!

Does anyone know whether the recent change of the 17.49 padd --> Worcester from hst to 5 carriages is temporary or permanent. 5 carriages are rammed solid and we left plenty on the platform this evening.

The seat reservation list indicates it should be a HST.

I thought it was meant to be an HST but having looked at FGW Twitter just now they seem to be saying that the 17:49 will be a 180 from now until at least December. Certainly not a good choice of train to downgrade the number of coaches on

After posing my question on here during last night's journey I took the opportunity to ask the driver (who popped his head out to supervise the drop at Maidenhead) about the missing HST.
He replied that he had turned up expecting an HST and that the revised format was a surprise.  Curiously last tuesday, which was the previous time I got the 17.49 and was in 180 format again, the TM announced that the HST he had expected was broken and 'this is what they've given us'.
December seems an awfully long time to wait for an HST to return.  It was dangerously crowded last night and it will just push more people on to the following 18.18 to Maidenhead which is again already dangerously overcrowded.

It is, and always has been, the logical train to replace from HST to 180 if there's some shortage in the evening as it's driven by a Paddington LTV driver all the way to Worcester and back.  Point taken about it being a very busy train though, so far from ideal.

Hi Rob or anyone else that can answer.

I'm passing through Paddington tomorrow morning. Is it worth asking at the information desk or ticket office for the GWR Guide to services, is it available yet?

Thx

Finally got round to picking the new GWR 'Guide to Services' this morning. Once again an excellence publication. Well done to Rob and everyone at GWR publications.

Hmmm - either Swindon have run out or they are not sure what I meant.  Never mind December one will be along soon!  ;D

Hi Bob, I can send one to you direct if you'd like. PM me your address

Timmer: Thanks for your feedback, very much appreciated!

Very kind - PM sent.