Great Western Coffee Shop

"17:31 Oxford to Worcester Foregate Street due 19:16

This train has been revised.It will no longer call at: Combe, Finstock and Ascott-Under-Wychwood.This is due to a train fault. "

I expect they stopped the next train.

Yes ... just spotted this.

20081113   17:21   London Paddington   20:37   Hereford - extra stop(s), rolling stock issues, knock-on effect

Full report: "This train has been revised.It will additionally call at: Ascott-Under-Wychwood.This is due to an earlier train fault. "

Sorry - very used to Melksham trains that don't run the full route - if the 19:11 misses, the next one in the same direction is at 06:40 ... and if the 06:40 misses, the next one is at 19:11.   It's called "symmetry"!

What would have happened to Combe and Finstock?  I couldn't spot any extra stops for them, nor any "road transport" notes.

Taxis almost certainly, due to the small numbers of people involved. Oxford station staff will just have got on with organising them. and I don't suppose the passengers were too upset, since it will have saved them the trip between the stations and the villages.

Thanks for that local information, willc!

As a matter of interest, are the replacement taxi services flexible enough to actually take stranded passengers to their home village, rather than to the railway station, if required?

I ask because, on just the couple of occasions when we've had a taxi replacement service at Nailsea, we've just been brought to the station here - without the option!

If the taxi service provided by FGW is a bit more flexible at Combe or Finstock - fair play to them, I say!  Unless a passenger has parked their car at the station, for example, the option of being dropped off by the taxi in the village itself must be welcome?

Most of the larger stations negotiate a discounted rate to their most common stations with the local taxi association, which is COLTA (City of Oxford Licenced Taxicab Association) in the case of Oxford. These rates are based on journeys from station to station, but sometimes cabs are asked to go to a home address if it is late at night, or the station is very rural - the drivers can refuse but most are happy to oblige if any extra distance is either paid by FGW or the passenger.

The 1816 from oxford made extra stops, with Taxis going to Finstock and Combe, this is fairly standard procedure at Oxford,  but does have its downside, at 1730ish the taxi will take over 30min to get out of oxford due to the traffic, certainly the journey to Finstock/Charlbury is approx 45-60minutes which is why the trains (15-20min) are so popular.

Secondly last winter during the new timetable chaos and trains were being cancelled everywhere, taxis to stops to Charlbury and beyond were far too common. It takes a lot of taxis to get 100+ people home and once the taxi drivers realise what is happening the taxi queue seems to magically vanish as they can make better fares staying local to oxford.

As the route to the station in Charlbury goes through the town (from Oxford) the drivers are usually happy to drop people off in town but not usually go off route to drop people off.