On Wednesday, 20th June I tried to renew a monthly season ticket that would need to start on Monday, 25th June.

I was told that I could not get a new season ticket to start on Monday, 25th June until midday on Friday, 22nd June at the earliest. 

I was only trying to get the ticket in advance to save time as I was going to be away on the intervening dates and I didn't want to leave it until Monday morning (as I am already pushed enough for time in the morning).

I'm sure in the past I have bought season tickets in advance with no problems.

Is this a new "rule" and if so does anybody know the reasoning behind it?

For those (monthly or longer) season ticket holders that want to subject themselves to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) at the weekend as well as Monday to Friday this seems a reasonable offer.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=786

It's obviously been around for a couple of weeks but I hadn't seen it advertised and it might be of interest to some.

The 16:22 was supposed to be 4 carriages from December 11th (this was confirmed to me in an e-mail by FGW^▸ (First Great Western)) but I have never seen 4 carriages on this service yet.  Admittedly I have stopped using this service due to the risk of not being able to get on a 2 carriage train at Southampton Central.  However colleagues of mine who do still catch this sevice at Southampton have confirmed that they have not seen 4 carriages yet.

The 15:22 and the 17:22 have been 4 carriages on a few occassions though and they are only meant to be 2 carriages (also confirmed by FGW).