Great Western Coffee Shop

From the FGW website :

13:03 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 15:00

This train will run short formed with 5 carriages.This is due to an earlier train fault.

Economy Klaus won't be happy! ;D

Maybe he doesn't commute on Sunday.

Another example today (23/04/2008) :

20:30 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 22:15
This train will run short formed with 5 carriages.This is due to an earlier train fault.

See also latest Economy Klaus blog post link.
http://firstlatewestern.blogspot.com/2008/04/gotta-getta-double-seat.html

They Adelanted the 1800 Padd to BTM yesterday.  To their credit they made it pick up only at Reading.  The Reading commuters caught the 1803 to Cornwall and the 1800 was full but not horrendously crowded.  We left Reading 8 minutes late but arrived in Bath 3 minutes early thanks to the turbo acceleartionof the 180.

How can you make a train pick up only?

Surely once the doors open you cant physically STOP people getting off

You remove Reading from the destination board at Paddington and make anouncements telling people to catch the 1803 if they want to go to Reading.  You are right you can't physically stop people getting off (and if they had checked tickets - which they didn't - it is a moot point as to whether or not a ticket to Reading is valid) and the woman sitting next to me did get off at Reading on my advice - she was foreign, was trying to get to Langley and had got on the wrong train after misheading the annocuments). But all in all it did work surprisingly well

Except the people that know know this and ignore it anyway

e.g. my uncle was trying to go to watford from liverpool a couple of mondays ago.  Virgin swore blind that the train did not stop at Watford and that he had to go into london and out again.  I told him to ignore that since I knew darn well the train did stop at watford (set down only) and just get off - why on earth he had to pay extra was beyond me

What the?

The only trains that pick up on Virgin at Watford go north, the only trains that set down go south... I'd suggest you get your uncle to complain to VT! ;)

Yes that is a mistake. Virgin do not let you travel from Watford to London and vice versa.

They only stop off here to pick up North London passengers who are travelling to/from the WCML (not London).

Hmm, just realised, it could have been that the train didn't call at Watford full stop? Although I get the impression it did - could have been a special stop order?!

ALL the london boun liverpool trains stop at watford - it just varies what they do there.  I can see how you may not be able to get on at London to go to Watford - but even if a train was pick up only liverpool - london I dont see how they could stop you getting off!

I'm afraid they don't! I've been on the 1015 which definately doesn't - and sped through at 110mph!!

0544 calls Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Nuneaton, Watford Jnc and London Euston
0627 calls Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Nuneaton and London Euston
0707 calls Runcorn for pick up only and London Euston
0815 calls Runcorn, Nuneaton and London Euston
0915 calls Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Nuneaton, Watford Junction and London Euston
1015 calls Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Nuneaton, Milton Keynes Central and London Euston
1019 London Midland calls most stations all the way, but not Watford.
1115 calls Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Nuneaton, Watford Junction and London Euston
1215 calls Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Nuneaton, Milton Keynes Central and London Euston
1315 calls Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Nuneaton, Watford Junction and London Euston
1415 calls Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Nuneaton, Milton Keynes Central and London Euston
1515 calls Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Nuneaton, Watford Junction and London Euston
1615 calls Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Nuneaton, Rugby, Milton Keynes Central and London Euston
1715 calls Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Nuneaton, Watford Junction and London Euston
1815 calls Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Nuneaton, Milton Keynes Central and London Euston
1949 calls Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Nuneaton, Rugby, Milton Keynes Central, Watford Junction and London Euston

I stand corrected - they used to the last time I made the journey regularly

And they can stop you getting off a pick up only service with a penalty fare if your caught on or off the train as it is not a valid ticket.

That's true for a scheduled "pick up" stop only, but would that be valid under the circumstances described at the start of the thread?

Yes, it was clearly advertised.

Of course, from December - Liverpool services will call at Stafford and Runcorn only (some only at Runcorn- the Primos)!

They cannot stop you getting off - however they can charge you up to the next station that the service calls at. So for instance, if you have a London to Watford ticket, and the first stop is Watford for pick up, then Nuneaton, they can charge you the SOS, sorry, Anytime Single to Nuneaton.

Btline - you what? The majority will also call at Stafford!

I think the penalty fare condition as stated above is true although I don't know of any being issued in practice.  Sometimes you get set down only services late evening.  It is my understanding that they are setdown only to make it easier to replace them with a bus when their is engineering works, but that in practice when teh train is running noone will stop you boarding it.

In practice that is correct Tim, however - it is at the guards discretion whether he charges you up to the appropriate fare for the journey you are making.

For example, on SWT land we have the 0005 London Waterloo to Bournemouth, which calls at Clapham Jnc (PU), Wimbledon (PU), Woking, Basingstoke, Winchester, Eastleigh, Southampton Airport Parkway, Southampton Central, Totton (SD), Brockenhurst (SD), New Milton (SD), Christchurch (SD), Pokesdown (SD) and Bournemouth. If I was for instance to board at Christchurch, it is up to the guard whether he would charge me up to the appropriate fare for the journey I would be making, which in this case the appropriate ticket would be Southampton Central to Pokesdown or Bournemouth.

I edited my post - I meant Stafford! ;)