Great Western Coffee Shop

OK the pondry I have is that I am flying on Holiday to Gatwick this summer, (on a Tuesday) and getting the train from the South-West to Gatwick.

If I catch the fast HST to Reading I arrive at 08:33, however thanks to our wonderful scheduling the service to Gatwick departs at 08:34, and the following train is 09:34.  (I am on FGW only as I am using staff travel pass).

Do I have any chance at catching the 08:34?... (assuming I even arrive on time at 08:33 - although only stopping at the likes of EXD/TAU beforehand, I should be in OT heh heh :D)

09:34 is not the end of the World though and I can enjoy the delights of Reading Station (also - out of interest... what would they be...?  ;))

You have no chance in hell of making that 1 minute connection. ;)

Ok - on the main area

M&S food to go
Upper crust
burger king
Subway
West cornwall pastie companie
Boots
Some off licence/mini store - Davinas I think never been in there
Some other random sandwich shop - not a known one
A juice/bagel bar in the way
WH Smith
The ticket office
The toilets

On the bridge:
Subway (again - WHY!)
AMT coffee

On platform 4/4a/2/3

Upper crust
random sandwich shop
waiting room with AMT coffee

Less sure of these but... platform 5/6/7/8
WH Smith
upper crust

platform 9
Sweet bugger all

NOTE: you are yards from reading centre - if you dont mind trundling your (I assume) wheelie luggage - you have the delights of any big town centre within five minutes of you

Depends on how much padding is in the timetable

Well, if it's a train from the South West, and it arrives Reading at 0833 ... then it's the train with the least slack on the network...

First Great Western
From: Plymouth
To:   London Paddington

Plymouth                       ---   06:00 
Newton Abbot                   06:34 06:35 
Exeter St Davids               06:54 06:55 
Taunton                        07:18 07:19 
Reading                        08:33 08:34 
London Paddington              09:00 ---   


Notes

Operator: First Great Western


HF - Hot food service available
MC - First and standard class accommodation
RP - Seat reservations available

Could be this one though:

First Great Western
From: Swansea
To:   London Paddington

Swansea                        ---   05:59 
Neath                          06:10 06:10 
Port Talbot Parkway            06:17 06:18 
Bridgend                       06:29 06:29 
Cardiff Central                06:52 06:55 
Newport (South Wales)          07:08 07:09 
Bristol Parkway                07:30 07:32 
Swindon                        07:57 07:59 
Didcot Parkway                 08:16 08:17 
Reading                        08:33 08:36 
London Paddington              09:06 ---   


Notes

Operator: First Great Western


HF - Hot food service available
MC - First and standard class accommodation
RP - Seat reservations available

The chances of getting to Reading on time with 1A82 are fairly poor as it is often late due to little slack. Reading panel are quite simply hopeless too. Its perfectly possible that it could get to Reading at 0830 or whatever, but Reading will no doubt hold it due to the amount of trains using platform 4 (?) at that time of morning.

Thanks Mookiemoo for the outlet listings :)

Sorry swlines, should have been more specific, it is 1A82 PLY-PAD.

According to TRUST, the Gatwick train is 4A/B.  I'm on earlies next week, so i'll do some Delay Reports on TRUST to see how 'well' Reading operates...  :o

As I said, it's not the end of the World, the Mrs. can be shipped off to M&S so that's all good  ;D

Actually 5/8   4 is down main.

Reading is not known as snooker junction for nothing, you only get a colour after a red.

Reading panel is notorious they were even bad in the 80s when I used to travel through the station. The trouble is there aren't enough through platforms and few crossovers and the home signals (alright I know they are colour lights but they fill that role) are often 1/2 mile out so that's probably 3 minutes at least from one train leaving and the next arrivng.

SDA, I would suggest you could quite easily fill your enforced stay counting the number of trains held outside before being platformed. You could post the number on the board. In the form of a sweepstake perhaps?