Great Western Coffee Shop

Christmas - Latest posting dates
Today - Monday 28 September is the latest recommended posting date for International Economy (Surface) mail to: All non-European destinations (except Canada, Far East, Middle East, South Africa and the USA).
Tomorrow - Tuesday 29 September is the latest recommend posting date for International Economy (Surface) mail to: Far and Middle East (except Hong Kong and Singapore).

The plan for the 27th Dec has appeared on Realtimetrains today

Paddington to Slough will be closed 27th and 28th December. Diversions into Waterloo and Marylebone with buses replacing other bits.

Info here: www.gwr.com/christmas2015

At the moment it is a lot of text, the web team are working on making the presentation better so it's easier to read :)

Train times for the 27th and 28th of December are now available to view on Realtimetrains.

Presumbaly an HST wont fit into the usual bay GWR uses at Basingstoke for the locals to Reading and will run into one of the main platforms?

I wonder how that will fit in with SWT services.

Presumbaly an HST wont fit into the usual bay GWR uses at Basingstoke for the locals to Reading and will run into one of the main platforms?

The hourly stopping service between Salisbury and Waterloo on Monday 28th will terminate at Basingstoke thus creating a path for one of the two GWR services every hour

The usual annual stories in the tabloids have started:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3299030/Holidaymakers-UK-face-Christmas-misery-major-engineering-works-FOUR-railway-lines-threatens-bring-overcrowding-closures-delays.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3299030/Holidaymakers-UK-face-Christmas-misery-major-engineering-works-FOUR-railway-lines-threatens-bring-overcrowding-closures-delays.html)

Helps fill the gap between the 'Coldest Winter in 50 years' and 'BBQ Summer' articles...  ::)

Yes, the radar will certainly be on Network Rail as it was at Easter following the shambles last Christmas.  I very much hope they can get all the big projects finished on time this year, like they did at Easter.

To be fair to The Mail (can't quite believe I've just typed that!) ...

they may already have adapted their plans to allow for the works.

PASSENGERS travelling into London by rail after Christmas will be faced with a red signal after Network Rail announced Paddington Station will close for four days.

Trains will still run between Swindon and the capital to an amended timetable, but will instead take passengers to either Marylebone or Waterloo ^ making journey times longer.

The closure comes as Network Rail carries out a four day programme of work at the station, taking advantage of the two-day shut down of the railway on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, with work running into December 27 and 28.

GWR will be running a revised timetable throughout the festive period right up until Sunday, January 3, and there will be no services on Christmas Day or Boxing Day.

Graham Ellis, administrator of the Great Western Passengers^ Forum, said: ^These things have to be done, and it is probably the better time of year to be done ^ travel around this time of year tends to be a little bit quieter.

^The key thing is to ensure people are well informed and they do get it back on track at the right time, which was an abject failure last year.^

But he added that rail operators were missing out on a trick by not running trains on Boxing Day every year.

He said: ^It is one of the busiest times of the year for sales or sporting fixtures, but the rail industry shoots a major own goal by showing them they don^t need the trains to get there.^

A Network Rail spokesman said that the work being carried out over Christmas mainly consisted of work to prepare for the arrival of Crossrail.

He said: ^While 95 per cent of services will still be running this Christmas, major work such as this can only take place when trains aren^t running. We therefore advise anyone planning to travel over this period to check before they travel through National Rail Enquiries or Great Western Railway^s website.

^We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause but ask the public to please bear with us through this temporary period when crucial improvements will be made to ultimately provide passengers with a better travelling experience.^

Roger Newman, chairman of West Wiltshire Rail Users Group,  said there would be a real long-term benefit from the engineering work for passengers from Wiltshire heading east.

He said: ^In terms of this Christmas, the effect for passengers from this area is not very much other than a slightly longer journey, in that they will arrive at Marylebone or Waterloo. But passengers joining the railway system between Reading and Paddington will be affected.^

He add that, in the longer term, Crossrail would have real benefits for passengers from the West who wanted to get across London, as they could leave mainline services at Reading and join a Crossrail service to the East End.

He said: ^It will save the scramble at Paddington to get onto the Underground, you will bypass Paddington and go under the West End and come out at the East End of London, which will make travel easier.^

The final GWR trains will depart on Christmas Eve before 9.30pm, with no trains then running until Sunday, December 27.

GWR is advising passengers to check all journey times at www.gwr.com before leaving to ensure they don^t miss the last train home.

Great spin.Just make sure it's up and running again as promised for the first day back after Boxing day, instead of the spectacular balls ups of recent years.

07:26 Bristol Temple Meads to Penzance due 12:24
This train is being delayed between Plymouth and Truro and is now expected to be 11 minutes late.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

09:01 Truro to Falmouth Docks due 09:25
This train will be cancelled.
This is due to engineering works not being finished on time.

08:15 Bristol Temple Meads to London Waterloo due 10:54
This train will be terminated at Reading.
This train will no longer call at Basingstoke and London Waterloo.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

09:08 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central due 12:42
This train has been delayed at Salisbury and is now 5 minutes late.
This is due to overcrowding.

08:26 Weston-Super-Mare to London Waterloo due 11:54
This train will be started from Bristol Temple Meads.
This train will no longer call at Weston-super-Mare, Worle, Yatton and Nailsea & Backwell.
This is due to this train being late from the depot.

09:48 Penzance to London Waterloo due 16:19
This train will call additionally at Castle Cary and Pewsey.
This is due to engineering works not being finished on time.

Good to see that the service start up this morning was pretty good - I can find few alterations/delays of any significance.  The Marylebone/Waterloo diversion plan seems to be working well, save for one cancellation each way between Reading and Waterloo due to a crew shortage, but some delays on services currently heading towards London from Cornwall might impact on that later in the day.

Another test comes on Tuesday morning when the lines reopen into Paddington and a fair percentage of the daily commuters return, but so far, so good.

Does anyone know if Paddington car park is open tomorrow? I am planning a trip into London tomorrow with the car due to the closures and am looking for a cheap place to park. Paddington seems to be ^10 on public holidays, just not sure if its open with all the work going on.