Great Western Coffee Shop

As part of those pesky engineering works between Bristol - W-S-M - Taunton, XC Voyagers will be diverted via Bath & Westbury.

From what I have gathered XC Voyagers will be calling at Bath Spa. But don't quote me on that ;)

I wonder how the Voyager CIS will cope with this... ::)

Fast Taunton - Bristol.

Yep, there are a couple of Voyagers calling at Bath Spa on a Sunday over the next few weeks.

It would make sense to have more XC services call at Bath Spa when services are diverted as quite a number of passengers travelling XC would be travelling to/from Bath and one year quite a few actually did when services were diverted away from the Bristol-Taunton line due to a two week blockade a few years back. It made the Bath Spa departure board have destinations rarely seen on it...Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh etc. They have to slow right down anyway to pass through the station because of the curving nature of the station.

Some good photo oportunities to catch a XC HST passing through the Limpey Stoke Valley too.

How about extending a few XC BRI terminators to Bath?

A good idea in theory, But too much could go wrong. I'd say that FGW would frown at XC for terminating at Bath because pf the risk of delaying London Paddington, Portsmouth, Weymouth, Cardiff and Bristol Temple Meads services.

As it stands, FGW and XC can't even negociate who should update the CIS as to whether Catering is available or the location of FC... ::)

Also, by the time they went to Bath, laid over (but not for too long as explained below) , reversed and returned to Bristol, they wouldn't have a sensible recovery margin before heading back North.

Are there generally lots of problems with the CIS system then at stations for XC services? 

Yes there are unfortunately. It's all to common to read the CIS and stand where First Class is going to be platformed, only to discover when the train arrives it's at the other end... ::) Also they advertise catering on services where there is no catering...!

However as I did mention, what essentially is a political issue between various railway parties, means confusion/misleading information for the passenger... ::)

This is worse at B'ham New street, where you don't know which direction the train is coming from or going to. (a train can leave in any direction out of the station and use a large network of lines to get round) As well as this, on trains that switch direction at New Street - which side is front?

And they often get it wrong.

FGW CIS control should update within FGW land...  ???

It is up to Stations to contact them to correct whatever tosh XC have told FGW.  Unfortunately how reliable it is, can be wholly down to who is working at the time.

Now as to why XC cannot get the information correct in the first place (last minute set swaps excused) is another matter altogether  ::)

I can't see FGW agreeing to this as they would lose revenue.

Better still extend a few Xc Terminators to Severn Beach.....biggest load of rubbish i have read for ages

Haha indeed, besides, it would clash with the xx22 departure to Portsmouth.

Ok, sorry, it was only a light and unresearched suggestion to enhance the local rail network! I can see the problems, (not to mention the fact that the trains would have to reverse) but I wouldn't go as far as suggesting an idea is rubbish.

Remember the VT Princess Network?

They have in the pass stopped at Bath, I have seen on the screens showing trains to:
Manchester
Edinburgh
Yes I have been on one from Bristol TM to Bath Spa when the FGW trains were late.