Great Western Coffee Shop

Hey everyone..

Im planning a trip to Oxford.. and was going to take the First-great western train from London Paddington to Oxford.

I was going to buy a first class ticket... I was just wondering what services they provide for their first class passenger? Will they have refreshments on the train for free etc??

Thanks a million....I have never travelled on First great western.. so i would love to hear your insights..
Cheers :)

Entirely depends, if you travel on a service going further than Oxford, eg. Worcester or Hereford then there should be a Catering Trolley in First Class serving an assortment of goodies and drinks.

If the train terminates at Oxford then the buffet is closed and I can't imagine there is a FC trolley

None of the Oxford Turbo's seem to have catering from my experience... I would stick to HST's if I were you... First Class on a Turbo isn't really any different to standard class on a 158 ;)

If complimentary refreshments are that important - and remember this is a journey which takes under an hour - then your best bet is to look for High Speed Train services that are travelling beyond Oxford to and from the Cotswold Line to Worcester, Great Malvern or Hereford, because these all have buffet services on board. HSTs are marked on the timetable with an H in a blob  above the trains in the timetable.

But no H blob means a Turbo diesel train, so it's trolley catering at best, which is also the case for the fast trains which only run between London and Oxford, including those using HSTs. And a number of these trains have no catering at all.

The timetabled Mon- Fri services that are operated by High Speed Trains (Inter City 125, in old money!) that should* have at seat service in 1st class are:

From PAD. 0822, 1022, 1122, 1551, 1722, 1750, 1822, 1922, 2020, 2148.

From OXF. 0627, 0656, 0733, 0751, 0805, 0851, 1531, 1631, 1736, 2031.

Complimentary items include hot drinks, fruit juices, pastries, fruit, nuts and crisps.

There are other services operated by HST's that may have a catering trolley service for the whole train but I'm not sure whether these have dedicated 1st class Customer Hosts.

At weekends on HST services with an open buffet you can present your 1st class ticket at the buffet for complimentary items.

* I say should because, as you may discover from this forum, the services I have listed are to and from Worcester and beyond and they are occasionally subject to replacement by Class 165/166 Turbos which have very poor 1st class accomodation compared to the HSTs.

Oh, and welcome to the forum drairways!  :D

That will come as a surprise to the catering trolley staff who ply up and down on many of the Turbo-operated off-peak Oxford fast services, as well the Turbo-worked London-Cotswold Line trains.

And I would ignore the comment about 'should' be HSTs. The trains bignosemac lists are pretty safe bets for an HST. About the only one that is at much risk of a Turbo turning up these days, and only in emergency, such as last week's bad weather, is the 17.50 from London. Assuming you're planning a day trip to Oxford from London, you're unlikely to be using that one anyway.

Hi, drairways, and welcome to the Coffee Shop forum!  :)

I'm always reluctant to step in to modify any member's posts - particularly a new member.  However, just to avoid some duplication which was developing, I've merged your similar topic under 'Fare's fair' with this one.

Hope you don't mind - and thanks for posing an interesting question!

Chris.  ;)

The alternative: turn up at Paddington an hour early and go to the lounge !

In which case I apologise and I don't doubt you... but from my experience of taking Oxford Terminating Turbo's, I have never seen a catering trolley! But i'm not exactly a frequent traveller on that line ;)

I too have never seen a trolley on a Turbo into or out of Oxford, just unlucky I guess!

I find the WOS turbos either have a WOS-OXF trolley or a PAD-OXF Trolley - aint ever seen one going all the way.  And if the trolley gets off at OXF (in either direction) one never gets on again

Years ago (probably at least 15), there used to be a trolley service quite regularly on the turbos from Paddington to Maidenhead (both ways).. I'm not sure where the trains with this service were going exactly as a final destination.. but it would be nice to have them back on more local services as well as the long distance ones.. I always saw people buying from the trolley as it passed through the train.. hhmm.. maybe the fact it could pass through the train is something that has changed?  ;D :D

The Oxford - Paddington and return fasts don't normally have a trolley, the stoppers sometimes do though.

Thank you so so much for the information above, I am going to book the 1122 train, just for this reason alone.

Plus; I just wanted to say "Thank you" to everyone who so kindly took the time to write me a reply, This is a fantastic little community.

Once again thanks for all your help :) And thank you for the warm welcome!

Fridays only, the 2148 is likely to become a turbo in May.....I've pointed out that Friday is *the* day that train needds more than a turbo, what with the extra luggage being carried....any other day would be better. The number of passengers currently carried doesn't warrant an HST.

And to think a few years ago it would have been one of these!

(http://hondawanderer.com/50023_Oxford_1987.htm Not my photo)

Now that is travelling in style behind a hoover  :)