Great Western Coffee Shop

Acccording to the latest "rail" magazine FGW high speed(HSS) services are now almost at the bottom of the performance table according to latest Office of Rail Regulation figures just 0.1 points between FGW and East coast(83.0% punctually).It says both EC and FGW HSS have been consistently declining since late 2009 although better performance on FGWs Thames Valley and regional services has masked the effects of HSS delays to give the operator better overall figures than EC.FGW Operations director Kevin Gale said FGWs problems had come from two areas:the Westcountry(surprise surprise!) and on the North Cotswold route.
    To underline Great Westerns growing problems on its HSS(High speed services) there was a 3 hour gap yesterday afternoon between the 1255 Plymouth to Paddington and the next HST departure to Paddington from Plymouth at 1600.There is no 1400 departure anyway,you have to get the packed 1341 150 unit to Newton Abbot to connect into the 1415 Paignton/Paddington.To make matters worse the 1106 Paddington/Plymouth was terminated short at Newton Abbot(XCs favourite trick) due to late running so there was no 1500 Paddington service either from Plymouth,passenger were again wedged(and I mean really wedged) onto a 2 car 150 from Plymouth to Newton Abbot.On my way back from Exeter to Plymouth a bit later on the 1406 ex Paddington which ran into Exeter about 15 minutes late we incurred further delays as were checked at Dawlish caught behind a Paignton stopper which we followed slowly to Newton Abbot a not uncommon occurence these days.On arrival at Plymouth(now 26 minutes late) we were greeted by literally hundeds of passenger who could not all get on the HST which eventually left full and standing for Cornwall with the overflow being directed to board the next Plymouth/Penzance 150 which resulted in a further delay.Something is going very wrong in Devon and Cornwall west of Exeter as we seem to be slowly sliding back to the bad old FGW days down here and all this some 17 years now after we were all promised that rail privatisation would improve things (NOT).

In my view, official figures on the performance of TOCs give undue weight to relatively minor delays, and not enough importance is attached to substantial delays and gross overcrowding.

I would prefer the train to be on time, but dont regard an 11 minute delay as important in most cases.

Obtaining a seat, preferably in the restaurant is of greater importance to me than minor delays.

Some trains, as reffered to above, are so grossly overcrowded that passengers are unable to board. From the point of view of those unable to board, the train was effectively cancelled, yet according to official figures, all was well.
The cancellation of a train is of course reflected in reliability figures, but if as a result the following services are so crowded as to be unusable, then this is not recorded.
Likewise, AFAIK, no account is taken of the consequences of a cancellation. If the next train is only a few minutes after the canceled one, and has room to board, who cares much ? If on the other hand the next train is 2 hours later, involves standing for 2 hours, and is much slower, then that is a serious matter.

Over the last two weeks not one HST train that I've taken leaving Paddington with first stop Reading has got in and left Reading on time.

I generally catch one of the following leaving Paddington 19.00, 19.03 or 19.15.  Most have padding added already to take into account the queuing at Reading.  Even so I think I've just been unlucky that all have ended up leaving Reading between 5 and 10 mins late (i.e. taken between 35 & 40 minutes to reach Reading).

There were two exceptions to this:

I ended up taking the 19.45 from Paddington yesterday and got caught in the hold-ups due to the incident at Reading West.  And I can't remember which day it was but the 19.15 failed at Paddington so had to catch a late leaving 19.30 instead.

The two incidents above I can accept as happening now and again no probs.  It's the now constant late arrival at Reading which seems to have got worse which must be having a knock on effect to punctuality timings further down.  I am guessing that both overcrowding due to half-term and the difficulty with unloading passengers on a restricted Platform 4 at Reading have contributed to this.

If this carries on it then is it possible for FGW to retime the trains for a more realistic departure time from Reading?

Cheers,

Boppy.

A 11 minute delay isn't "minor" if you have a connection to make!

It's not just the HST services - my local stopping service has been on time maybe twice in the last couple of weeks, and that's the morning AND the evening services. The morning one keeps being delayed for that oh-so-important freight train that just HAS to run at peak time in the morning, just so it can sit outside Reading. No idea what the issue is with the evening service, but its constantly 2-3 minutes late these days (or as FGW likes to call it, "On Time").

I don't give a toss if its late by 1 minute or 1 hour, late is late. If they can't achieve the times they set, then set times that they can achieve.

Well, id be interested to know the figures, but when ever I get the newbury racecourse to Reading service (depart NC at 5.15) its never been on time- always 2-3 mins late and always 5 mins late at Reading. the time aloud forthe service isnt enough, so why not leave Newbury a few mins earlier? all very mr R perrin this- I remeber him saying somthing like:  ' dear BR traffic manager as mt train always arrives 5 mins late why not adjust the timetable by said 5 mins so therefore the train will be on time'...

That's exactly what SWT did back in about 2004. Analysis had shown that the previous timetable's running and dwell times couldn't ever be achieved.

They've been under fire about it from a certain user group ever since...

Paul

I've just come down from Totnes on 14:06 PAD PNZ - it was about 20 mins down due to problems at Reading - Live Updates was showing it would probably make up the time by PNZ.
How optimistic !!
Arrived St Erth about 45 mins down and delayed the following 17:55 PLY PNZ 150 by 35 mins.
The train was full & standing with luggage in the aisles.

The problem is loading/unloading & door closing.

Would be better to terminate HSTs at Plymouth and run 3 x 150  to Penzance as the wide doors and power controls are more suited to frequent stopping ????