Great Western Coffee Shop

Only posting a few of the mad changes:

Cheltenham trains are retimed to xx18 from Paddington and 2 are extended to Worcester.
Additional early morning HSTs from Bristol - Frome and Cheltenham
Bedminster, Worle and Weston Milton will get HST services
Relief service to follow 1506 limited stop HST which is now fast from Reading - Taunton
Seven Tunnel Jn will receive peak HST services
Golden Hind leaves Penzance 10 minutes earlier and calls additionally at a few Cornish stations
Ivybridge gets additional stops from HSTs
Late night HST from Paignton - Newton A is extended to Plymouth
Additional morning Oxford - Paddington
1708 WSM-PAD calls KYN,OLF does not call DID
1833 Pad - OXford does not call maidenhead

Lots more!!

Out of interest, is there somewhere we can view the rest of the changes from December Liam?

How much more slack is there on the Cotswold line?

I have purposefully been vague as the info is not really in the public domain yet and was obtained from NR.

Worle and Milton currently get HSTs, but Bedminster is new. Which service(s) will they be?
 
I'm sure I suggested stopping a HST service at STJ in the peak a few months ago to provide a London service for the Forest of Dean/Chepstow catchment, but can't find any reference to it, so maybe I was dreaming.

I thought the HST fleet was pretty fully utilised in the peak, so I'm fairly surprised that an extra 3 workings are possible.

Nooo!!! Dearie me.. Will we all have to jump off as it speeds thru Maidenhead?

Just when FGW seemed to be improving the timetable to nearly as good as it used to be, they start removing fast Maidenhead trains again..

If the Cheltenham trains are retimed to xx18 from Paddington what'll be going into the xx48 slots?

Bedwyn presumably

Though it's not that long since there were a couple of services that used to run on to Worcester. Up until a couple of years ago?

Presumably this move helps with the provision of hourly-Gloucester-Worcester trains, but perhaps more interesting is whether, with SDO now available, they will stop at Ashchurch, giving it a direct London link.

With both ATW and LM extending their trains to Cheltenham, aren't things going to get a little crowded? :o

I doubt the HSTs will call at Ashchurch - the priority flow is B'ham. However, they should - the extra journey time won't matter as Worcester - London via Oxford is much faster anyway. There is also the forgotten commuter market between Worcester and Ashchurch.

I hope the damage has not been too severe - the commuters who turned up at Ashchurch a few years back, only to see that their trains to work and school had been scrapped overnight* might still prefer the M5. Especially if the alternative is an overcrowded and dirty 170 queueing outside New Street in a tunnel for half an hour.

*they obviously did not keep up to date with the changes

HSTs *will* call Ashchurch

Good.

bedminster is interesting..hopefully the derelict bits of the platform will be made useable again

They lengthened an extra 20m or so of the down platform about a year ago. Always wondered why they did it given the usable length previously was emough for 4 coach DMUs.

I agree, John - I, too, had wondered why that extra section of the platform at Bedminster was given new tarmac, some time ago!

I've also noticed recently that new boards for 'HST 7 car' and 'HST 8 car' stopping points have been added at Bedminster - rather bizarrely, to the subway railings facing onto the track, rather than facing up the track, where the drivers of oncoming trains would be better able to see them??

Until they can find an excuse not to. Me? Cynic? Yes.

Am still wondering why Keyham has HST stop boards??

Keyham stop boards. Presumably in case an HST has to call if making a substitute stop after a preceding local service has been cancelled.


Good. Hopefully with a London link and the joint hourly Gloucester-Cheltenham-Worcester service from December, FGW and LM will mount some sort of high-profile publicity effort to tell people in and around Tewkesbury that they have got a decent rail service back and that it is here to stay this time.

I believe Keyham has a peak HST service to Bristol.

Thanks for that suggestion, willc!

Interestingly, as both Bedminster and Parson Street have luxuriously long platforms (compared with Nailsea & Backwell!), the same situation could apply if, for example, the 1753 from BTM to Taunton was cancelled and the 1822 picked up the pieces, so to speak?

It has happened, by the way: I remember being on an HST that actually stopped at Parson Street to pick up passengers abandoned by an earlier service.  It was such a unique situation (then) that everyone was absolutely amazed, and impressed, that it had happened!

Note keyham and keyNSham are different stations!!

FGW have read this topic, and have issued a denial, stating that the package described has no substance other than the entry about selected HST calls at Ivybridge for Dec '08, which they have confirmed as correct.

Then why did Network Rail send out false info......................

I think I know where this has come from ... I'll have to check a certain log from a certain forum though.

Edit: Got it. It's a known bullshitter and fraudster.

Bullshitting department? ;)