Great Western Coffee Shop

Glad I am not on the trains today (car being serviced):

15:51 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill due 18:07
This train will be formed of 3 coaches instead of 8.This is due to an earlier train fault.
Last Updated: 28/01/2010 13:13

I use this train 2-3 times a week and often standing in the vestibules from Oxford.

FGW are at least 4 HSTs down at the moment.

Yes, that'll be a hideous crush all the way to Moreton-In-Marsh at least!

Are the many turbos that spend their days "grazing" in Oxford sidings used during peak hours?

Yup. Oxford sidings are actually pretty much empty most of the day between peaks on weekdays - save for a few layovers of an hour or so. Reading depot isn't much busier. The busiest stabling point during the daytime is Old Oak Common where the sets are in position ready for the evening peak.

There's a couple of CrossCountry HSTs sitting idle at Neville Hill at the moment, couldn't FGW borrow them?  ;D

I'd rather FGW spent their money sorting out the HSTs they already own, rather than hiring someone else's. Does anyone know whether the problems are power cars or coaches? And if it's Clas 43s, there must be a lot out of action, given there are 117(?) on FGW's books, with 53 sets of HST trailers.

They could but FGW would have to pay for them as Dft won't, like they do for the loco hauled sets operating Cardiff-Taunton-Paignton services. Pay XC for an HST or run a Turbo at no extra cost? If FGW are looking to keep costs down on printing timetables I can't see them giving Arriva money for one of the HSTs to operate on Cotswold services sadly.

snow damage / brake controllers apparently.

Looks like they're getting on top of things now, with the 17.50 back to an HST tonight.

... and back to a Turbo today (Mon Feb 1)

Along with the 1551 Pad - Wos

Sorry DM - that was the one I meant.

Confirmed, couldnt avoid this one today.

17.50 was most definitely an HST.

According to FGWs website, tonight (10th Feb) the 1750 Paddington to the cotswold line will be shortformed by a 3 car turbo rather than a 8 car HST, also  to note the service alterations that no catering available.

And the 1822 Paddington to Hereford terminated at Oxford due to staff unavailability

I am not looking forward to Monday - been working from home for 2.5 weeks

:-(


Back to the grindstone.

And to finish off the evening the 2252 from Oxford (starting at Paddington) to Worcester was almost 40min late due to a train fault at Reading, (yes it was an HST).