Great Western Coffee Shop

Ok, so this is probably my own fault for travelling on the first off-peak train in the evening of a Bank Holiday weekend but, with timings and wonderful evening peaks, I had very little choice.

Is there any redress for having to stand for two and a half hours? I would have asked the TM, but no idea where he was - and I physically could not move down the train to look.

First Great Westerns Passenger Charter:

5.2 Getting a seat
Whilst the purchase of a ticket does not guarantee a seat, we plan services so that customers boarding trains should be able to obtain a seat in normal circumstances. You should not have to stand on our trains during off peak times, and during peak times you should not normally have to stand for more than 20 minutes (or more than one station stop if this is longer).

If you hold a First Class ticket for a high speed service and have to stand for more than 20 minutes (or more than one stop where this is longer than 20 minutes), we will refund you in National Rail vouchers the difference between the cost of your First Class ticket for the affected leg of your journey and the corresponding Standard Class ticket. To claim your refund, you must contact a member of the on-board staff at the time of travel for verification, then make your claim by contacting our Customer Services Team.

So probably no joy unless you were a 1st class ticket holder. I suspect that the 1803 on the Friday of a BH weekend is not 'normal circumstances'! No harm in sending FGW a comment form though,
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/ContactUs.aspx

They will only tell you to get a reservation! That train is normally full till Newton Abbot anyway, let alone bank holiday! If you did want a seat, you could have had some food in the restaurant however I suspect first class was rather busy too.

I am seriously thinking about investing in a Fisherman's backpack seat. Getting a little older I am less prepared to stand for long journeys and not keen on sitting on the floor.

As a singleton traveler most of the time to find one seat seems possible  on busy services but there are the exceptions (Glastonbury Festival, Bank Holidays, Christmas etc) where this is not the case. And HST's don't seem to come equipped with many ledges to park one's bum on.

Only other suggestion is being quicker to board at Paddington, i.e. getting there with half and hour to spare and standing as near to the gatelines as possible. (at least at Marylebone you can go through the barriers and look at the screens!)

I tried that but alas it was fully booked :( Buffet ran out of food before Taunton as well or very soon after as well.

Yes - normally I would, but a lack of Bakerloo line service and severe delays on the circle line, along with everyman and his dog apparantly in the passageway that links the Circle/District lines to the mainline station meant that I had ten minutes to get to the train. That said, the platform only came up as I was going up the steps to the concourse.

Out of interest, does anyone know what percentage of seats/carriages can be sold as advanced? Carriages A-D were fully reserved. Just curious as to how many of those would have been Advance and how many Off-peak/anytime with reservation.

probably less than a normal Friday as FGW would know they can sell loads of walk up tickets (and another 50% on Devon/ Cornwall services at Bank Hol. times !)

It wouldn't work if everybody did it, but on the overbridge next to the screen above platform 7 is the best place to wait if you're getting a HSS service. No matter what platform a train is advertised at (even platforms 1 or 10), you can get there far quicker than those waiting in the concourse.

If you have an I-Phone, get the National Rail Enquiries application (about ^5). Apart from covering everything the NRE website does, it also give you platform allocations long before they are shown on the screens at any station. I have been known to be standing right against the barrier on Platform 5 at Paddington hoping to be off down the platform a few vital seconds ahead of the mob!

Great service until there are alterations..and people go to wrong platforms.

I hadn't thought of that - there will be one more on the overbridge from now on. Thanks for the idea.

If to many people crowd onto the bridge, they'll remove CIS screens! At Marylebone, they got rid of a convenient screen just past the barrier... but you can still see the main board ::) !