Great Western Coffee Shop

I'm just investigating train times for later this evening from Paddington to Maidenhead.. There is a perfectly timed train at 11pm getting into Maidenhead at 11.30.. But it is giving me 3 minutes changeover time at Slough which seems quite tight assuming it'll involve crossing from one platform to another..

Minimum connection time: 3 mins (source: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/slo/details.html)

It's relatively easy if fast is on-time  but there is not much margin, you need to be near the steps when you arrive on Platform 2.

However, 23:00 tonight does come up on Nationalrail journey planner as disrupted with a note that you might miss the connection. Which probably means the 23:00 will run Relief part of the way from Padd to Slough and lose time. In the worst case it might follow the Maidenhead train into Platform 4. If you do miss it you've got a 20 minute wait at Slough!

Probably better to wait at Padd for the 23:13 and pottering down the Relief. It will also give you a bit more time to get to Padd.

Thanks for that..

I also got the "disrupted note" on the NR journey planner (with no reason why) but it didn't appear on the First Great Western site itself when I tried the journey on there...And I agree.. as long as you're on the part of the train that stops near the steps 3 minutes should be ok..

However, for various reasons, the evening out isn't happening at the last minute so I now don't need to worry about it as I'm at home.. (I should stop trying to go out Saturday evening.. this time last week my car was in the process of breaking down on the M4 en route to Brixton  ;D ::))

The reason I wanted to get that train was that the next one arrived at Maidenhead 35 minutes later and the children would have been at home on their own (they are old enough but still)..

But as I said.. I'm here.. not going anywhere.. but still interested enough to see what happens tonight to check the NR departures board for Slough (very sad I know  ::))..

Very sad!  However, I went one step further and watched the train describer screens for Slough.  ;)  You would have been fine.  The stopper ran on the main line due to a possession on the relief's, the fast caught up with it at Langley.  The stopper crossed over to platform 4 and was waiting there when the fast arrived on time into platform 2.

Actually it was 1 minute late.

WTT time or public time?  :P

Public - I got that from LDB :)

Scheduled arrival 23:18
Actual arrival 23:19

:P

Thanks for that.. So I imagine I would have made the connection ok.. I fell asleep so managed not to watch the NR departure board  ;D

Ilustrates why this particular connection is dodgy if there is engineering work between Padd and Slough.

If the work on the Relief had been around or after Dolphin and the stopper had to use Platform 2 at Slough  you would probably have missed it unless the stopper was held on the Relief, but it would have to be at Southall East (last left crossover before Dolphin) for the fast to pass.

A similar situation can a rise if the work is on the Main and all trains are using platform 4 at Slough.

It all depends on where the work is in relation to the various Main to Relief, left and right crossovers.