Great Western Coffee Shop

On this weekend there are to be no services atall between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads in either direction!  Anyone know why this is?  Something to do with engineering works between Reading and Chippenham, but why are there no direct services running via the Trowbridge & Newbury route?

Put in a morning departure between Bristol TM and London Paddington on the Saturday for instance.  And the suggested route is to take the 0949 DMU service to Westbury, and then change there for a service to London Paddington. 


_{Edited to change title of this thread, reflecting the fact that there will be London-Bristol services on this weekend, but seing as it's aeons away they're not in the journey planner yet. Calm down everyone!}

There probably will be via the B&H.

A temporary timetable probably hasn't been draft up yet!

I would check again a little nearer the time.

National Rail Enquiries says no engineering work on those dates. I suspect it's just that OJPs aren't updated for those dates yet. If you try Bristol Parkway to Paddington on those dates you get 'no tickets available'. And if you use WebTIS (East Coast) it says date is too far ahead. WebTIS only allowing searches up to 5th November at present.

Not unusual for Padd-Bristol weekend services not to be available on the OJP this far out.

Was beginning to panic there as i HAVE to be in london that weekend

No cause for alarm, all a bit of a flap about nothing! With that in mind I'm going to amend the title of this thread to avoid undue panic and concern, by removing the word "NO"...

The times are now loaded into the booking database.   And services that weekend are indeed scheduled to run via the Trowbridge & Newbury route.   And also on the Sunay the route from Bristol Parkway-Wooton Basset has engineering works too.

I Was going to give a summary of services between London, Bristol, and South Wales that weekend.  But naah.  If you want to find out more info do some searching on a train booking website and you'll soon work it out.

Good stuff. Been waiting for this for a while now. I'm going to get my tickets booked for this just as soon as the cheap advance tickets are available to book.

Just to add to that. Upon further experimentation, the line from Bristol Parkway-Wooton Bassett won't be closed down for engineering work on the Saturday.  However on the Saturday there will be only a very limited number of direct services from South Wales/Bristol Parkway-London Paddington.  These services will be running via Swindon, then reversing and running non-stop via Melksham and the Trowbridge and Newbury route through to Reading.   Meaning some good non-stop runs lasting from 1 hour 20 minutes-1 hour 35 minutes.

Good stuff indeed.

Also to add, no direct services from Cheltenham/Gloucester to Paddington on those dates.

Right, so the the times are loaded into the booking system, they point to engineering work on the GWML, so why does NRE say there are no engineering works on FGW on those dates?

There was a 1512 and an earlier one and a couple of later ones - and this week there are non (just booked my advance tickets and the 1508 requires a change at bristol)

As is often the case, a quick check of the FGW website provides the answers  :-\   It's the same each Sunday for the remainder of November at least.


Sunday 7 November    LONDON PADDINGTON TO BRISTOL, PLYMOUTH, SWANSEA & CHELTENHAM SPA

On Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 November 2010 a revised timetable will be in operation on the following routes due to track improvement work between Didcot Parkway and Swindon:

    * London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads, Weston-super-Mare, Exeter St Davids and Plymouth.
    * London Paddington to Cardiff Central, Swansea and Carmarthen.
    * London Paddington and Cheltenham Spa

Train times will be changed and journey times will be extended due to trains being diverted via alternative routes.

Replacement buses will also be in operation between Reading and Swindon and between Didcot Parkway and Swindon.

Some services on the London Paddington to Oxford routes will call additionally at Didcot Parkway.

Customers travelling on any part of these routes are advised to check journey times before travelling as your journey times may have changed.

I didnt think to check the website

 :'(

There has also been a large poster displayed on Platform 2 at Nailsea & Backwell, announcing these arrangements, for a couple of weeks now ...  ;)  :D

A good little day out using these diverted services today.

Caught the 0740 Bristol Temple Meads-London Paddington service.   Departed on time but was held up just a few minutes into the journey in the St. Annes area, when the train ground to a halt for a few minutes. Then some slower than usual running through to Bath Spa.  Must have been a freight train in front causing the delay perhaps.  Arrived in Bath Spa 11 minutes late.   Then down via the more interesting and scenic route via Trowbridge & Newbury through to Reading, an enjoyable 1 hour and 10 minute journey time.  Made up time and arrived on time in Reading at 0910 and London Paddington 0940.

Homeward bound I caught the 1535 London-Swansea service, where I would disembark the train at Bristol Parkway.  Departed on time from London Paddington.  When I noticed straight away that the train sounded different to the MTU's I've been used to travelling on the last few years.   The engine sounded a little different and a little louder too for some reason.  Don't know what it was, but it made the ride more enjoyable than usual!  When the conductor announced on the PA system that the train would be calling Reading, Chippenham, Swindon.... etc, I heard a few passengers talking to whoever they were with and were baffled that the train would be stopping at Chippenham BEFORE Swindon!  Anyway moving on a little further into the journey, after an on time departure from Reading just several minutes later the train started slowing down.  Most likely it was because the train caught up with the 1518 London-Bedwyn service operated by a Class 165.  All the way down through to the junctions for Westbury & Trowbridge(whatever that junction is called) the train was running at a mix of fast, medium speeds,very slow speeds,and even a brief stop or two which added some more interest to this journey.   By now the daylight was fading fast, and just a little while before the train took the junction for Trowbridge there was a fantastic sight of an atmospheric orange sky and cloud formations from my window on the left side of the train - such a fantastic sight that I wish I'd have taken a photo of it.  Just a minute or so after passing Trowbridge the train stopped again.  This time to wait for signal clearance to enter the Melksham line.   By this time it was pitch black and with the ULTRA light white HST carriage lighting as it is now, I could hardly see a thing of the Melksham line out of the window.  The last time I travelled along this branch would have been about 1998 when a HST took an unscheduled diversion due to some problem.   After the Melksham line, back onto the GWML again in the direction of London to call at Chippenham and Swindon.   Train was about 7 minutes down from Chippenham, and after the reversal at Swindon the train was 3 minutes down.   The usual direct route to Bristol Parkway, where we lost a little more time again for some reason and arrived there 7 minutes late, arriving at 1813.    A normal journey from London-Bristol Parkway would usually take 1 hour 19 mins to 1 hour 30 mins.   This journey today took 2 hour 38 minutes!   But I wasn't complaining. I really enjoyed this journey, as well as the outbound journey too.  For me, very much a nice refreshing change from the "same old same old" normal services when there are no engineering works.   A change of scenery, and really enjoyed the relaxing 1 hour 10 minutes or so non-stop parts of the journeys between Reading and Bath Spa/Chippenham - it makes the journey so much more relaxing in comparison to when people are coming and going every 15 minutes or so when the train stops so frequently.

Also noticed something else of interest today too.  The Cardiff-London Paddington services and vice versa, were running via Bristol Temple Meads and were also running non-stop between Cardiff and Bristol - no stopping at Newport.  Noticed this today when looking at the departures board at London Paddington.  The 1512 service calling Reading, Bath Spa, Bristol Temple Meads, and Cardiff Central.

Brilliant stuff!  These same services are scheduled to run for the next four weekends up untill Sunday December 5th.  Note though that the Saturday services are more interesting than the Sunday services(none of the South Wales-London Padd service will be running via Swindon, Chippenham & Melksham).

Certainly put me in the mood for the even more interesting diverted services at the end of December!