Great Western Coffee Shop

You’ll want to know this, if you travel by train

A new summer timetable on the Great Western Railway network will deliver more trains where they are needed most, starting this Sunday.

The new timetable sees the return of weekday, SuperFast services between London Paddington and South Wales for the first time since March 2020; the doubling of midday capacity from London Paddington and Plymouth; and additional services on the corridor between London Paddington and Bristol Parkway, as well as additional services to summer holiday destinations.

GWR Managing Director Mark Hopwood said:

“We are continuing to work closely with our industry partners to improve performance and capacity so that we can deliver the services our customers expect.

“Services that help to support the local and regional economy and connect people to work, to schools and colleges, to friends and family and to some of the best leisure destinations in the UK.”

Two new early evening weekday services between London Paddington and Bristol Parkway allow for the introduction of two SuperFast trains to Swansea, with journey-time savings of up to 30 minutes.

The trains run fast from London Paddington to Bristol Parkway (not stopping at Reading and Swindon) before continuing to south Wales, meaning huge time savings.

Reflecting the demand for services towards Devon and Cornwall, especially at midday, a new service has been created at 1204 and will serve intermediate stations (Reading; Taunton; Exeter; Newton Abbot). The previous 1204 is being retimed to run at 1202, and will run direct to Exeter and onto Plymouth, before heading to stations in Cornwall.

This focuses resources on this really important leisure flow, doubling the number of trains at that time of day.

Direct services between Bristol Temple Meads and Oxford are also planned to be restored for the first time in more than 20 years. In response to growth in demand for leisure travel, GWR will run two return Saturday services between the cities from September. A direct service last ran in 2003. The services will run from 14 September through to 14 December as a pilot to assess demand, including on Saturdays of the Bath Christmas Market.

Helping people to make more sustainable transport choices, the half-hourly services introduced last December between Reading and Gatwick airport are being retimed to make a better clock-face timetable. Services are being retimed to depart Reading at xx20 and xx50; and from Gatwick at xx26 and xx56.

Starting this weekend, there will also be seasonal changes to trains to reflect summer demand. These include additional services between Bristol and Weymouth; extra services between Paddington and Newquay; trains extended to serve the popular Pembroke Dock (starting from London Paddington), as well as many other alterations.

Early-morning services from Exeter to Plymouth have also been amended to allow for an earlier arrival to support travel to work at Devonport Dockyard.  This follows a request from Babcock International to support modal switch from private car to public transport. This will mean some earlier starts and arrivals in both Devon and Cornwall.

Detailed service changes are available in online journey planners and through GWR’s Journey Check service https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates/check-your-journey and those used to catching a specific train should check their journey in advance.

GREAT BRITAIN

Cross Country has removed some of its station calls at Basingstoke, Chesterfield and Wakefield Westgate on Saturdays until September 9, while Winchester is restricted to pick up only (northbound) or set down only (southbound) on the same dates (Tables 107 and 119). This is to discourage local journeys on busy summer Saturday services.

The Southern service between Brighton and Southampton has increased to half hourly (Table 102).

Great Western Railway has doubled the Sunday service between Reading and Gatwick Airport (Table 108). Table 110, which covers services between London and stations in Devon and Cornwall, has been updated for the summer period until September 8. On Mondays to Fridays the 1618 and 1918 services from London Paddington to Swansea now run non-stop between London and Bristol Parkway (in just under 70 minutes) with the overall journey time to South Wales reduced by around 20 minutes as a result (Table 133). A new direct service between Bristol and Oxford will be trialled from September 14 with two trains operating in each direction on Saturdays (Table 137).

Avanti West Coast has made some changes to its service between London and Birmingham, including the provision of a couple of additional trains on weekdays (Table 151). However, the direct service between London and Shrewsbury has been withdrawn. Note that there are now more variations than before between the service provided on Mondays to Fridays and that running on Saturdays.

TransPennine Express has reinstated a regular hourly service between Manchester Airport and Scottish destinations via Carlisle (Table 154). TransPennine Express services in Table 188 are affected by ongoing route upgrade work taking place at certain times in June, July, October and November. Details of amended timings during these periods will be found in separate versions of the table on pages 602 and 603.

Northern has introduced a new Saturday service between Rochdale and Ribblehead via Manchester and Clitheroe. Marketed as the Yorkshire Dales Explorer, two services will be provided in each direction and timings will be found in Table 159.

Greater Anglia has introduced a revamped timetable on its London to Norwich route, the main change being revised station calling patterns (Table 200). One service in each direction on Mondays to Saturdays has been accelerated with a journey time of under 100 minutes (the Saturday service will complete the journey in just 93 minutes). However, this does not quite match the previous 90 minute journey time that was launched in 2019, but subsequently withdrawn during the pandemic.