Great Western Coffee Shop

Yesterday I took the 1832 Reading to Taunton (1803 ex PAD, down Golden Hind) and it appears that having this service advertised as 'pick-up only' is a waste of time.

I counted 17 pax disembarking from the door I was waiting at. I'd estimate that well over 100 passengers disembarked in total.

There's quite a bit of revenue to be had if the 'pick-up only' was enforced. An excess to an Anytime Single Paddington - Taunton would soon stop folks boarding this train at PAD!  ;) I can just imagine the negative press stories though!

Is there any practical way the 'pick up only' at Reading on the far west HSTs can be enforced?

Well, you could have the occasional purge by RPIs between Paddington and Reading - like you say, I don't think people would have to be caught too many times before they decided not to try it on again. Perhaps an announcement by the TM before leaving Paddington saying that the train doesn't call at Reading (although not strictly true) might be enough to make some people sufficiently concerned to try another service. Or perhaps simply stating the fact that tickets to Reading are not available for travel on that train and explaining the consequences should you be asked for a ticket.

One other possibility though - maybe they're not actually trying it on. It seems entirely possible that many of those 100 or so people simply assumed that everything stops at Reading (which it does, of course) and just bumbled onto the first HST to leave without checking the listed calling points.

It's only pick up only on Fridays

Im hearing rumours that as of the new timetable an extra relief train will be put in place calling at RDG and DID. The 1903 & 1915 will cease to have any advance tickets available on them and will not be calling at RDG. Further more these will become fully peak trains.

This came from a Director of FGW as well. Id love to know how they will become peak services as the new restrictions have already come out and nothings changed.

That cant be right. 

Ah, silly me for assuming a printed timetable was accurate! The online .pdf says exactly the opposite with nearly all far west HSTs shown as pick up only.

Journey Planners don't list most xx06/xx03 departures on a Friday at all. So it would appear that Friday is the only day when 'pick up only' applies.

I stand corrected.

Thats what they said.
Maybe something that's coming with the Jan restriction updates.

Typical of the people sitting upstairs behind a desk, spouting rubbish that they dont even know about!
I would say who it was, but that would make them liable!

I reckon all they'll do is make the 1903/1915 FO have no advance purchase, and not be reservable at all.

I've said before that the Pick up only is ignored.

What is needed is the odd relief service to start from Reading then the main train doesn't need to stop at reading, be a shock for anyone carried to Taunton, not back in reading till 10PM

Heh brilliant idea that, but as we all know the MP's will start bleating, the suits will start moaning. Thats the only reason HSTs stop at twyford and other small stations is because the MP's there moaned.

I'm not sure I buy the bumbling on board theory. I'm sure most of us have stood in the huddles around the screens on the Lawn at Paddington waiting for the platform for our train to go up - and the stops listed for these services do not include Reading. I'm afraid it's the old one of knowing that the odds of getting away with it, like riding in first class unchallenged on many Thames Valley services, are pretty good.

But I'm sure flooding the platform at Paddington with RPIs to do a manual ticket check at the doors or going mob-handed on the train out to Reading would soon get the message across.

When I was working in Wolverhampton in the 1990s a number of the Birmingham-Shrewsbury-Aberystwyth trains were made pick-up only at Wolverhampton to keep West Midlands commuters off them. Soon after the change, the RPIs had a crackdown and among those they netted was one of the directors of the paper I worked for. A message duly arrived in the newsroom saying that we should write a story about the restrictions. We already had, just that he hadn't read it.

The restrictions are there for what I am sure most of us can see are good reasons, so FGW really ought to be doing something about enforcing them. If 100 people got off at Reading, it begs the question of how many travelling to the West Country had to stand for the first 25 minutes of their journey - and got a poor impression of FGW as a result.

Revenue arnt welcome at PAD according to an RPI I spoke with, something to do with a Manager not liking their way about doing things.

This is nothing new. Back in the early 80s, before I was priced off them, the evening peak services to Bristol were all listed as pick up only at Reading in the timetable, but there were always plenty of commuters in the know getting off there.

Interesting point which I believe is relevant to this thread

The stopping service from to Poole from Waterloo calls to PICK UP at Clapham Junction.  However, Clapham Junction is NOT listed on any of the departure notices at Waterloo and nor does it display the stop on the VDU in the carriages.  As you pass Vauxhall the guard will often announce, "The next train stop will be Clapham Junction but this is to pick up passengers only."

Forgive my confusion, but how can any manager stop RP being carried out at Paddington  ???

Very easily, if you knew who the manager was.