Great Western Coffee Shop

FGW: http://firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=4505

SWT: http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/pockettimetables.aspx (scroll to the bottom of the page)

I like the fact that enhanced catering services are highlighted and glad to see that the popular Travelling Chef Select has been expanded.

What is the difference between Travelling Chef and Travelling Chef Select?

Takes two minutes to look up on the website: http://firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=3988 (http://firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=3988)

... and then you need to look at http://firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=1124 in another window if you want to make a comparison to find out what the difference is  ;)

Now you see - if the two slices of toast with Jam were available on the normal chef menu - I take back every criticism of the TC menu and you'd have a dedicated customer five days a week!

What are the chances of the travelling chef select being available on Christmas Eve? I'm booked on the 0945 Swansea after an overnight flight and am likely to be hungry...

Journey Planners showing hot food as available on that service on Xmas Eve. But they not always a reliable source of info. Very least should get a Breakfast Bap if you can stomach one of them - only marginally better than a nuked burger.

Whilst on the surface the Cotswold Line doesn't appear to altered, with the extra mid-morning train from Moreton that has been discussed on here, it's noticable that the weekend service continues to be eroded HST wise with no less than five Saturday return trips and one Sunday return trip reverting back to Turbos. The only people pleased about that will be the complainers at Malvern Wells!

To be honest a few of the Saturday services will be OK capacity wise as a Turbo - save except for the usual crush between Slough and Paddington, but the three afternoon ones and the Sunday evening one will be wedged from Oxford unless a nice empty Turbo is attached at Oxford!

But that does not take into account............."Would you want to sit on a 165 for 2.5 hours?"

the SWT Exeter - Waterloo timetable changes are very pleasing  ;D

also, at the back of the Exeter - Waterloo there is something about 'Yeovil 150' ?

No, it doesn't, and I'm sure a small amount of custom will be lost as a result. However, I think the general consensus is that, although not ideal, Turbos are acceptable to most people as long as there is plenty of space on board. In some of these cases I don't think there will be and that's what concerns me!

I wonder if the CLPG or the press will pick up on it? Though even they don't seem to get in such a froth when it's only the poor weekend passengers who are affected and not the long-suffering commuters.

I find 165s perfectly acceptable, its the 166s with their shoddy air circulation that are the problem.

It will be the regulars and the semi regulars that will be lost

Auntie Peggie who travels once or twice a year to see family will grumble as will the students returning home a few times a year - but hey, they'll forget by the next time.

It will be the weekday travellers who may travel extra at weekend (surprisingly few have season tickets - I see people on there 3+ days a week sometimes buying daily returns - insanity) who will see a turbo service and go - no way.. And those who do it one twice a month ......... they will look at the 40 minute journey to BHM and then the London advance tickets on Virgin in favour if they live worcester side or if they live evesham side, then chiltern.  

For the weekend services - surely its the semi regulars you want to keep?

See - if I had a 166 I'd at least be happy with a table to work on for the 2.5 hours I have to endure it

I had a quick look at the SWT version, (their online TTs appeared shortly after the FGW and Network Rail national ones today as well) and I think they might have missed a trick removing their Bristol services to the last few pages, on their own. Makes them look like a bit of an afterthought, but it's a minor point.

Paul

Perhaps the up coming Turbo refurb will include the fairly simple and cheap addition of tables in the 1st Class section of a class 165? After all, it's virtually the same as the compartment in a Class 166 - albeit at only one end.

Which begs the question - why were the 165s never fitted with tables anyway - in a first class section?

A good question indeed!

How did we get on to 165s - these Cotswold services will be booked for 166s - no doubt at the expense of the Reading-Gatwick line, which will get 165s back, without anywhere for airline passengers to put all that luggage.

Presumably no tables because the 165s were intended for stoppers, with short average journey times, while the 166s were built for the Oxford/Cotswold and Newbury routes, where people probably would expect to be able to work during the much longer journeys.

As for losing regulars, it's a very different crowd of passengers at weekends - I think most people who do the commute all the way into London have seen enough of the inside of a train the rest of the week - and if they really are spending yet more time going to London at the weekends, why on earth do they live so far away?

As Insider says, a quiet Turbo is okay for most purposes - though it would be lot better once they finally get round to refreshing them - but it does rather be the question of how many of the HSTs brought in to replace Adelantes are now just going to be sitting on their backsides in depots all weekend - the unreliable 180s certainly didn't get the weekend off and passenger comfort all day long was rather better as a result - apart from when someone thought it would be a good idea to put one on the 18.22 on Saturdays...

A couple of points about the cotswold timetable.

First, who came up with note h, on the 09.29 from Moreton, which, rather than saying you can arrive in London earlier by changing at Didcot, says instead, you can arrive in London earlier (than the stopper the 9.29 becomes past Oxford) by catching a later departure? Admittedly, you only have five minutes for the Didcot change, but it's in the journey planners as a connection and should be okay for the hale and hearty - I think most grannies would prefer to catch the through train anyway.

Second, does anyone know what  work will be going on north of Oxford on Sundays in February and March that requires a bus link out to Hanborough for all that period? The only thing I can think of that might come into play at some stage would be the A34 viaduct replacement work at Wolvercote, but they normally seem to only need a weekend or two for each stage of deck lifting work above the railway.

Or are they going to drop the trains entirely some weekends at short notice for some redoubling work - I note that there are through Worcester and Hereford workings laid on via Stroud. There is a vague general note about rail improvement work but surely Network Rail have a pretty good idea of what they are doing when next year by this stage? The late-night weekday replacement buses that were in the current timetable are also not shown here, with another general note about improvement work may affect these trains.

One sensible tweak I have just noticed is that on Saturdays, the 7.10 from Hereford is going to call at Shipton at 9.02, giving a rather more shopping and day trip-friendly pair of Shipton departures to Oxford and London, at 8.00 and 9.02, rather than the current 7.00 and 8.00.