Great Western Coffee Shop

One to amuse members.

See the link ;-

http://www.therailwaycentre.com/UK%20News%20August%2007/180807_FGW.html

A good one, Martyjon.

Less amusing, I regret:

"One of the latest tricks that FGW have done to try and 'reduce delays' is to cut out intermediate stops if trains are running late, turning people out of services who require these intermediate stops to catch later trains, sometimes with a wait of over an hour ..." to quote the article.

Yeah ... I had a train do a "no show" on me at Melksham a few weeks back.  I managed to get up to Chippenham station (a lift, I think, but I've forgotten the details) just to see the 153 whizzing through there non-stop on its way up to Swindon.   Wait of over an hour?  There's a wait of half a day between trains at Melksham!

Yes this along with advance cancellations as well. Wonder if the government and rail users groups such as Passenger Focus are aware of this practice?
My understanding was that it does get reported if a train is cancelled, even in advance or if stops are left out. Anyone in the industry able to answer this?

A letter appears on the forum pages of September's MR taking up this very point of cutting out stops when running late so it seems to be happening quite a bit.

And on today's updates we see:

13:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 14:47
This train has been revised. It will no longer call at: Reading, Didcot Parkway, Swindon, Chippenham and Bath Spa.

From the point of view of most passengers, this is just a cancellation.

No its not its a subtle way of saying today this service will operate non-stop from London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads and SOD OFF TO PASSENGERS WAITING AT OR WANTING THESE STOPS WE ARE OMITTING TODAY, TWO FINGERS (in the shape of a letter V) TO THOSE PASSENGERS SO INCONVENIENCED.

That is ridiculous, FGW shouldnt be allowed to get away with this practice and should be fined everytime they do it. They are doing this purely for their own operational convenience. Office of Rail Regulator should do something about this. Another breach of franchise to add to my list. (see previous post for others but you can probably guess what they are! ;) )