Great Western Coffee Shop

1206 ex Pad got held up by a bridge strike.

At Plymouth nearly 50 minutes late so it went forward only stopping at Truro and Penzance. Arrangements made for all Newquay passengers to get off at Truro where coaches would be waiting. The only trouble was that a lot of disgruntled passengers had to change onto the 1555 Plymouth to Penzance. I do not know if they all got on but it was heaving with all the luggage. I do not know why they did not get all passengers for stations west of Truro to stay on the 1206 train and get off at Truro as well as those for Newquay as it would certainly have reduced the crush load at Plymouth on the 1555.

I got the impression that all First wanted to do was get the train to Penzance as fast as possible so it could make its return trip presumably as the 1737 return to Paddington without much thought to the passengers involved.

The train left Plymouth at 1556 and got checked slightly at Largin presumably by the 1504 from Newquay and it arrived in Truro at 1700. Lots of people were left at Truro waiting for intermediate stations to Penzance and the 1555 from Plymouth was already showing 10 minutes late.

There were lots of  people left standing at intermediate stations as no train since the 1401 from Plymouth.

Not a good day.

this is where public address systems like the ones on the exeter-waterloo via yeovil would come in handy

I have been at Plymouth where this service has been over an hour late, and the 1555 has gone before this train. In this situation they make the 1555 arrive in Par on platform three and allow the hst to overtake at Par, if they arrive close together. The 1555 is usually very full in these situations, and it does not happen very often, it is even worse when schools are open, as this service is a major school service.

The station staff have also been known to provide coaches to major destinations that the train doesn't stop at like Liskeard and Bodmin Parkway with one coach and another coach for St. Austell.

The company has also been persuaded to reinstate stops in these situations if enough passengers have complained, like I did once, so it stopped additionally at St. Austell and Redruth.

Can some one tell me.... if a train manages to get within 10 minutes of schedule on arrival at its destination, does it statistically count as on time even if it has missed out most of its scheduled stops?

Because missing out stops (which to my knowledge used to be unheard of) seems to be a really popular option these days, even with trains that are only 15-20 minutes late.

With this particular service, I guess that once it has no chance of reaching Penzance on time, the next priority is doing everything to enable the return journey to Paddington to get into the "on time" category, regardless of the inconvenience to passengers throughout Cornwall.

Bloody statistics. >:(

I would hope that the train is not classified as being on time, if some scheduled stops are missed. It would of probably still struggled to be on time for the return journey with that large a delay at Plymouth.

If I remember correctly even if the service makes up time the appropriate company would still get the fine for any minutes lost in a particular section.

So if a Paddington - Penzance train was delayed at Taunton due to a fault on the train and left 10minutes late, yet got to Penzance on time, if I remember correctly FGW would still have to pay for those 10 minutes.

It's quite important that the 1737 from Penzance runs ontime as it is the last up train of the day from Cornwall to many places and connects with quite a few "last trains" which is probably why they took the decision to run non stop on the down, at least for the down passengers there was anothe rtrain to get them home, which would not be the case for people travelling up on a delayed 1737 from Pnz-Pad so thought was actually given to passengers.

I think you are right.  skipping stops will cost FGW something finacially, but it the traisn arrives within 10 minutes at its final stop. it will be recorded as "on time" in the headline statistics