Great Western Coffee Shop

There was the following letter in this weeks Maidenhead advertiser

http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/local/article-18505--best-train-firm-must-focus-on-its-passengers/

I have to say I tend to agree.. I know the 8.34 has got very unreliable.. Looks like it's not the only train..

I'm tempted to forward the letter to FGW customer services but I'm sure the powers that be at FGW towers will be made aware of it.. And I'm also sure the service will stay as bad as it is now.. >:(

Yes, things probably have got marginally worse for Maidenhead commuters - the punctuality of Jo's train in the morning is a concern and will not have gone unnoticed at FGW.  However, to balance out the arguments, it's only a short few years ago that all services from Maidenhead were Turbo operated and of course regular users of the 17:33 will now be delighted it's a HST, and it's only been fairly recently that a stop at Maidenhead was inserted into the 17:50 departure as well.

'The summer timetable also saw the withdrawal of the 6.33pm from London Paddington, which, hitherto, had been listed as one of the most popular (crowded) services in the country.'

In an otherwise well-written letter, that comment is a little strange to say the least.  The 18:33 certainly wasn't anywhere near the most crowded service in the country and was one of the lightest loading HST's of the evening peak - though by definition that means it was still pretty full!  I wonder what his source for that information was?

The addition of HSTs instead of turbos does not detract from the fact that there are several fast trains which have gradually been removed from the timetable.. The 18.33 being the third in the evening peak that has gone.. No wonder the remaining few are overcrowded.. I'm not sure why FGW can't work that out though (I suspect in reality they don't want to)

And hhmm... maybe the letter writer used to get the 18.33 train and is using his experience.. I used to get it.. I can confirm it was generally very very packed..Maybe whoever says it was more lightly loaded than other HSTs counted the number of passengers after it had passed Maidenhead. I'm sure it was quite lightly loaded after that most days  ::)

Sorry to disagree, Jo, but I caught/saw it a few times myself from Paddington - it was nearly always from Platform 5 if I remember correctly?  In my experience it was always the same, full with a fair few people standing at the back end, but at the front maybe two or three standing in each vestibule and the odd seat still available if you were brave enough to ask someone to move over or move their case/bag/paper/coffee/coat that they'd placed deliberately there.  Now, you compare that to any of the Swansea's that leave at that time of the evening, or for that matter some of the Turbo's such as the 18:45 stopper, and the argument that it was one of the most crowded services in the country becomes absurd!

I think we'll have to agree to disagree  ;D I used to get the 18.33 train every day. The amount of people that got off at Maidenhead was pretty vast in my opinion..

I will agree that the letter writer might have got the bit about it being one of the most crowded in the country a litt bit wrong.. But his sentiment is correct.. we need that train back..The remaining few are packed to overflowing a lot of the time now..

Now one of the trains that WAS on "The Times" top ten most overcrowded trains list was the 18.06 fast service to Maidenhead.. Shortly after it appeared on there it was removed from the timetable  ??? ::) Funnily enough it didn't appear on that list again

It certainly was, probably at least 2/3rds of the train, so that's a good 150-200 people, and perhaps FGW should look again at bridging the gap in fast trains - perhaps a stop on the 18:50 to Oxford which also has a little spare capacity, although pathing would be an issue due to it already stopping at Slough. 

What really needs to happen (as I've said many times before) is for those silly 2-car Greenford trains to be removed from the main line and put in a much new discussed bay platform at West Ealing running a 20-minute frequency service during the peak.  That, combined with a healthy amount of stock to work with, would solve most of the problems.  It looks like we'll have to wait until Crossrail for that to happen though.

To be replaced with silly 5 car Heathrow Connect trains stopping at all stations to Hayes that is the official option for the bay at West Ealing.  I think a lot of the problems may be solved when Reading is complete as that would allow for some semi fasts terminating at Reading with stops only at and or Slough Maidenhead Twyford but of course FGW don't have that many train sets to play with and of course Crossrail will have a huge impact taking out the relief lines for anything other than Crossrail

I'd have thought a 5-car train leaving Paddington in the peaks would be rather better received than a 2-car train?  A complete re-cast of the timetable could take place without the Greenford's in the way.  You could for example run the Heathrow Connects every 20 minutes calling additionally at Acton Main Line and connecting in with the Greenford shuttle at West Ealing.  That would mean an extra train per hour at Acton Main Line and Hanwell (which would be very desirable indeed in the latters case), though it would mean one less train per hour stopping at West Ealing unless a Turbo also called.

The extra seats would allow for West Drayton to return to a 15-minute or thereabouts frequency during the peak hours.  The path freed up could possibly be used for another fast train for Slough and Maidenhead, or just to provide the inner stations with a service capacity that doesn't need platform staff at Ealing Broadway to physically push Turbo doors closed every evening peak!  Either way, to have a 2-car train leaving Paddington throughout the evening peak (with no possibility of lengthening it due to platform lengths) really does throttle capacity.

Not sure what you mean by if the "Greenfords weren't in the way" and the "Greenford shuttle".

Where would it shuttle to and from? The original turnback siding at Ealing Broqdway has long gone and i don't think the track layout at West Ealing allows it to turnback from the Up Relief. In any case it you don't want trains occupying the Up Relief platform at West Ealing any longer than necessary. It would be a bit like when the Off Peak Henleys ran to and from Reading.

During Ladbroke Grove it ran between Hayes Bay Platform and Greenford, this would give a cross platform interchnage at Hanwell. Had a semi foot plate ride round one day (cab door open). No passengers though.

As it stands there will be a bay platform reinstated at West Ealing for the Crossrail service introduction.  I personally think this should be built NOW due to the Greenford issue I mentioned and the effect it has on capacity (though I'm well aware that it's rolling stock as well as track capacity that's an issue).

With the bay in place, the two 2-car Turbos that currently run the half-hourly Paddington to Greenford service throughout the day could operate a shuttle service every 20-minutes between West Ealing and Greenford (or with minor linespeed improvements between Castle Bar Park and Greenford, every 15 minutes).  Off peak, the through service to Paddington could continue until the arrival of Crossrail.

The 08:00 from Maidenhead into London in the morning has become hopelessly unreliable- normally a 10 minute delay at Maidenhead, the excuse normally given is that the set was late out of the sidings at Oxford. So really the excuse should be "it's late because it is".

There's no point trying to get on the 08:04- it's a 3 car 166 (so double the first class of a 165) and is full and standing by Twyford.

The 08:04 is normally sent out of platform 2 before the 08:00 from platform 4, which uses the crossover onto the fast line. As a result, the HST then crawls along behind the turbo right to Paddington. There is also a Heathrow Express that joins the line at about the time the 08:00 is due past, so there's an additional delay possible if the HST is at all delayed arriving at Airport Junction.

Can I add a correction - the Paddington-Greenford service is half hourly, not hourly as mentioned by II

:)

Thanks, Ollie.

Well since the 8.34 is also very very unreliable as is the 9.03 the few times I've caught it.. Maybe it would be easier to find which train from Maidenhead to Paddington IS reliable these days? Performance seems to be slipping backwards at the moment..

generally the 07:03 and 07:08 both non stop to Padd run to time


Edit note: Quote marks amended, for clarity. CfN.

"The rot" seems to be heading earlier and earlier.. Fingers crossed it doesn't reach those early trains  :)

Interesting comments re lateness getting to hit earlier and earlier trains.

It seems to be drifting back to 5 years ago when I retired. After having spent just under 30 or so years travelling on a train from Taplow ataround 07:23  arriving Padd around 07:56 in my last  last year of travel due to additonal stops added "to my train" and it not arrivng at Padd until 8:10 or later I was travelling on the 06:45!

Times I did travel later we were inevatably late. The problem being the Slough fasts  on the Relief line, if the first flight of trains were late the next flight started catching them up before Padd. I graphed the timetable out of interest and the main problem seemed to be the Greenford appeared to be booked at Wet Ealing at the same time the Slough fast was crossing the junction. So if any of the previous trains were late these two trains would be late and hence the next flight would suffer a knock on delay.

 

Do you think we should start a thread to log the lateness of certain trains and reasons given. Perhaps we could then see if there are any trends?

BTW there is a "meet the manager" at Twyford sometime next week. Would go myself, but I'm on night shifts. It'd be interesting to see what they have to say for themselves this time.

I think logging the lateness of trains could work.. I started doing that with the 8.34 which is late most days but it seemed to be very onesided.. just me entering delays but no feedback...so I kind of lost interest a bit.. :)

Maybe people here could suggest likely candidates for trains that are late more often than not to log? I can certainly think of a few.. ::)

Well today I got the 8am train from Maidenhead to Paddington.. It all went really  well.. We arrived about 8.25 so all good.. for once.. well done FGW..

The only slight concern I have is that when I got to the station and the 8am departure was already on the platform 4 board... And I vaguely heard an annoucement that the next train on that platform would be the 7.55 (I think)... So anyway eventually a train turned up.. It  was a turbo.. The 8am non-stop departure was still advertised.. People got on.. people then got off.. Then a man had to run all the way to the front of the train to find out actually where it was going.. His son needed to get to Burnham.. The train doors had just been shut and locked.. Apparently the train was going to Burnham so the doors were unlocked again so the child could get on.. The father then told someone that he'd "asked downstairs" which at Maidenhead means in the main ticket office, and no-one knew where that train was going to...!!! oh dearie me...when will FGW learn???

The new CIS system, to be installed shortly, will go a long way to resolving problems with working out what train is at the platform at any time.  Along with most other stations running the 'old' Thames Trains system, information has been patchy at best lately.

For some reason, the CIS no longer recognises the 07:54 stopper to Paddington, and skips immediately to the 08:00 once the 07:46 has left. This is a recent thing over the last couple of weeks.

marvellous!  :)