Great Western Coffee Shop

I had reason to travel to Worcester on Monday and I thought I would share a few reflections with the forum.  These are a bit delayed because I managed to spill a large quantity of water onto my lap top cable on the way home... :(  I'm going to concentrate on the Paddington to Worcester and return sections of the journey.  Although there were some issues with overrunning engineering works at Hitchin in the morning, these did not materially affect my journey.

Outward Journey - 09.21 Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street

• Was a turbo
• There were no announcements between Paddington and Oxford
• Was delayed by congestion between Paddington and Ealing Broadway and by overrunning engineering works at Oxford North Junction but managed to catch up all but 3 minutes by Foregate Street
• A trolley came round at Oxford and I was served courteously
• • A man came round with a bin bag shortly afterwards but the toilets were very grubby and it might be worthwhile having the toilets cleaned en route or at least before the start of each journey
  • Was fairly sparsely populated beyond Oxford - it would be hard to justify an HST for this journey.  It started me wondering about fitting a couple of cabs in the middle of rakes of Mk3s so the train could split at Oxford and the half-set continue towards Worcester.  A similar operation could be used at Swindon for Paddington to Cheltenham and so on.
  
  Return journey
  
  I arrived at Foregate Street at about 19.15 intending to catch the 19.27 to Oxford, then connecting for Paddington.  The screens showed that this train had been cancelled :o.  The ticket office was closed so I made my way up to the platform for the Shrub Hill line and sought out the staff, who were esconced in their office.  The member of staff whom I told I was trying to get back to Paddington immediately replied "Good luck!" - not great customer service.  However, I had noticed that the 18.51 Great Malvern to Weymouth had been delayed and I could pick this up to change at Cheltenham or even Bristol Parkway and thus get back to Paddington.  The man invited me into the office, interrogated the computer and advised me to travel via Cheltenham, Stroud and Swindon.  When I read the print-out carefully I realised I would be getting back to Paddington half-an-hour earlier than I had expected!
  
  After this the return journey was uneventful (apart from the water spillage).  My main remaining problem was how to get something to eat, there being no trolley or buffet car until at least Swindon and the cafes at Cheltenham and Gloucester were both closed.  Happily there is a Co-op store next to the back entrance to Cheltenham station where I was able to pick up some provisions for the journey.
  
  So it all worked all right in the end but I wonder what sort of return journey I might have had if I had not known the network well and been able to speak up for myself with the station staff at Worcester Foregate Street?
  
  

Strictly speaking, was your PAD-WOF journey valid the way you came back?

If Deltic was advised to travel this route / train by a member of staff from whom he had sought assistance, then it was valid (strictly speaking) on this occasion at least.  ;D

I did query this with the platform staff at Worcester and was told that, in the circumstances my ticket (route: Evesham) would be valid.  I believe they spoke to the guard of the Great Malvern to Weymouth.  My ticket was also checked on both the other trains but was not queried.

You answered my question - I wanted to know whether it was routinely valid. The answer was 'no'. Thanks.

For example,  an off-peak single Paddington to Worcester is ^31 via Evesham or ^35.50 via Evesham or Stroud

 ::) ::)

Not sure I think the idea of splitting HST's is anything more than pie in the sky. Far, far to many obstacles to overcome, conversion costs alone would be huge. Remote control cabling, auto-couplers, impact protection, lick of yellow paint, duplication of facilities in each half set (disabled, catering, TM office) etc etc etc.

The 19:27 from Foregate St to Oxford is the return working of the 'halts train', the 17:31 from Oxford. This pair of trains was cancelled on Monday. The Charlbury Commuters' Blog at http://www.charlbury.info/cgi-bin/dtrains.cgi (http://www.charlbury.info/cgi-bin/dtrains.cgi) reports that this was due to staff being unavailable. But there were big problems with unfinished weekend engineering works as well.

Had it run, Deltic would have been able to eat well on this train - it stops at Evesham for 28 minutes. Probably long enough to get to several retail outlets (but normally worth avoiding)!

I'm sure you're right, Mac, but we seem to be running relatively long heavy trains to parts of the network that are fairly rural often at off-peak times, mainly carting around fresh air.  To me, this is a waste of money and bad for the environment.  Looking at things simplistically, some of those carriages might be serving other parts of the network (such as the Trans Wilts) rather than running virtually empty to Hereford.  What is the splitability of the proposed new Super Express trains / IEP?

We had a perfectly suitable fleet of 5 car Adelantes for just such services. Unfortunately FGW got rid of them just as they started working properly!!

Off topic but Wikipedia says the name 'Adelante' was devised by FGW. However it is also the name of a Cuban and an Argentinian newspaper, a song by Sash! and and album and single tie-in from a Spanish 'Pop Idol' type reality show.

I recall from reading one of the stickers in the vestibules of a 180 that Adelante is an actual Spanish word (something to do with progress or moving forward, I think) which would explain why there are other things named the same. Presumably this is because they were (I think...) at least partially built by Alst(h)om in Spain.

What? Likely moving more hot air around a different part of the network?.....yes, more coaches needed, but 7/8 per train is at least 3 too many.....try again, Sir!

a^de^lan^te (adv.): forward, ahead.

Idiom: ^adelante!: come in!*, come on ahead!

*but come in quickly before the automatic door shuts on your trailing leg!

If I remember rightly, splitting HSTs was Great Western Holdings' (MBO with backing from FirstBus and 3i) original plan for the half-hourly Cardiff service on privatisation.

Then GWH got the North Western Trains franchise and ordered the 175s and 180s - the latter for new services such as Blackpool and Rochdale to Euston.

These WCML services were nobbled by Virgin with Railtrack's connivance, and I think were only ever operated by 158s with vast amounts of padding time. Unsurprisingly they failed.

Consequently the 180s were diverted to GW as it had become clear that the plan to split HSTs was fraught with difficulties. I think this was around the time that FirstGroup took over GWH.

All this is from memory and it was a long time ago, so I may be wrong. I do miss the 180s though. The size of a Turbo with the comfort of an HST - just right for 3hr+ journeys on the Cotswold Line.

And don't forget the brushes and hot water when the trains won't couple, due to snow, rainwater, etc. Sorry but had enough of that sort of nonsense with coupling and uncoupling Turbos at Oxford over the years, thanks very much.

If they were available, I'd get some Adelantes back - once modified to deal with their bad habits - as they were just the job for all but the busiest Cotswold Line and Oxford-London trains, but to suggest that they were working properly when FGW got shot of them is a bit rich. Their myriad problems wrecked Hull Trains' hard-won reputation with a series of failures in a matter of weeks last year and cost the md his job. I believe HT and Grand Central are now trying to get to grips with the 180s' worst failings but with a small fleet now split among three operators, who knows whether they will all get sorted out properly.

As I said, FGW were getting to grips with the Class 180 fleet's peccadillos just as they went hither and thither. Splitting the small fleet to the four winds no doubt compounded the remaining problems.

Perhaps I was just lucky, but I don't think in many, many journeys I was ever delayed due to a problem with an Adelante.

Arriva Trains Wales seems to have got to grips with the 175 fleet as well - fraught with teething problems but after 10 years they finally seem to have settled down and are giving pretty good service.

The Adelantes were also 3 times more expensive to run than a turbo, and dearer than an HST.

Boy, you *were* lucky!

Same here, except for one journey when I was stranded at Foregate because FGW had forgotten to fill it up with diesel - which could equally happen to an HST or Turbo!

No, what you said was - not that they were getting to grips with them. Bit of a difference. And even if they were "getting to grips" with them, I would hardly regard that as a triumph after eight years of working with 180s. And the evidence of Hull Trains' experiences suggests that FGW were not getting to grips with them, just glad to be shot of them. HT should have reaped the benefit of trains that were "working properly".

ATW's experience with the 175s is hardly any more encouraging. Compare the 175/180s with any Turbostar, or the 220/221 fleet, in terms of mechanical reliability and it's clear that the Alstom products left a lot to be desired.

And when they broke down, it wasn't even always clear what was wrong with them. My breakdown experience came one evening just after leaving Charlbury, when we came to a halt with the fire alarm going. There was much stuff drifting up from underneath coach B which could have been smoke, so we were all moved to the rear of the train while firefighters were called. Eventually they and the driver decided it was steam from a broken hose, due to a cooling system fault, and we scuttled off to Moreton on the remaining engines, then the train was terminated.

I suspect that a large part of the inflated operating costs was down to the sheer amount of time being spent trying to keep them working. At least the 180s did deliver on the words of an FGW press release in December 2004 "delivering InterCity quality and comfort to the route throughout the day".

No danger of anyone accusing FGW of doing that now, with the steady march back to the pre-December 2004 situation, with the 166s back in force, also to the detriment of the Reading-Gatwick service, where the extra luggage space meant they were far more suitable than 165s. Quite how FGW has run short of HSTs at times recently when several sets presumably acquired to cover Cotswold workings in place of 180s are no longer being used baffles me.

FGW are very glad to be shot of them.

The HSTs suffered in the snow - although availability is getting back to 'normal' now.

I know they suffered in the snow, but when FGW already has 118 or so power cars with only 53 sets of HST coaches and several of those sets are no longer needed in service on a daily basis due to Turbo-isation on the Cotswold Line, never mind those sets routinely allocated for maintenance and as stand-bys, it suggests an alarmingly high casualty rate if they still couldn't get enough sets fit for duty each day.

I'm not so sure about the 'no longer needed' - they're all still in uise on a daily basis....

Where? I haven't noticed anyone else getting extra HST services and I thought the whole point of Turbo-isation on the Cotswold Line was to cut operating costs, which presumably would mean not using those more expensive-to-run HSTs, full stop.

If you're saying FGW is still paying to keep them working somewhere, day in, day out, then maybe we could have them back on the Cotswold Line, to give us that "InterCity quality and comfort throughout the day" that we were promised, at the very least on trains where the capacity would come in handy, like the 08.58 from Malvern, which continues to have an extra Turbo added at Oxford, even after the introduction of the 09.29 from Moreton.

There's a noticeable lack of 2+8 sets around at the moment.  Hopefully the fleet will be back to full strength in time for the summer crush...

I agree with ChrisB - you must have been very lucky.

Nice interiors (much much better than the revamped HSTs), but it would've been nicer if they'd worked.

When they went wrong, it was so wonderfully difficult to access the bits that had failed. Attached are a couple of photos of one that's broken down at Moreton. First picture shows FGW staff having a discussion outside. Eventually they managed to move it to outside the platform so that the driver could open the panels so as to get inside. That's him in the second picture. I didn't manage to get him while he was on his mobile to the Adelante breakdown centre, but that's obviously the 'trouble-shooting' section of the driver's manual alongside him, presumably kept in a glove compartment in the cab.

And there was the one that was disabled by a head-on collision with a pigeon.

And the one I was on whose doors flew open in a carriage whilst going through airport junction

However aparrt from that and some issues with air con and noise - I'd take them over a turbo!