Has anyone else been squashed in the new gates yet? Was going into the station the other evening and a member of staff had opened the gate and was telling people just to go through, but it closed on me when I was halfway through (it was quite painful to be honest).

Now I'm getting married in a few weeks, and bruised arms isn't the look I'm going for with a strapless wedding dress... I will not be happy if that happens again!

Seem to be a few teething problems with the new gates at the Shoppenhangers entrance if the harrassed-looking members of staff manning them are anything to go by...

Got my letter yesterday - I wish I had a week's holiday to take off work so we could go down to Cornwall for ^10 each and travel back the following weekend (not really worth going for a day). Might manage a day trip to Oxford though.

The screens have been wonky at West Drayton most of this week, either not displaying anything or showing the wrong info (e.g. info about afternoon trains at 8am). The station staff have been doing a pretty good job with annoucements though.

OK, maybe not tourists - let's call them 'people on their way to the airport who have not used public transport in a long time'. Last week I got stuck behind 3 of them who had been directed into the tunnel and had no idea how to get to the platforms, so just blocked the way with their luggage instead...


Strangely enough, I got to the station at 6pm yesterday and the entrance was open - even better, the 17:58 was delayed by 5 minutes, so I managed to catch it. There aren't any builders around in the evening (at least, not in that part of the station), so I don't think that has anything to do with it. Fingers crossed the gate will be open this evening as well.

Does anyone know why they close the Shoppenhangars Road entrance in the evening? I get off the bus there at around 17.30 most evenings aiming to catch the 17.33 - currently I have to walk around to the front entrance of the station and go through 'the maze' (and if you get stuck behind a tourist with a suitcase or someone pushing a pram, there's no way you're getting the train). The majority of the time, the ticket inspector doesn't even look at tickets of people entering the station, so why not just have the other entrance open?

I was catching a train from Maidenhead to West Drayton last week when the screens were out and trains weren't running on time. There was an announcement, but it was totally drowned out by a train pulling away from the opposite platform. I decided to take a gamble and got on the train - it stopped at Taplow, Burnham and Slough, so I assumed it would stop at West Drayton as well. Unfortunately it didn't so I ended up in Hayes where the screens informed me that the 16:17 to Banbury was on time - great, but this was about 18:30. When a train eventually arrived (after 25 minutes or so) there was no announcement to say what train it was or where it was going - luckily it did stop at West Drayton, but I could have quite easily ended up in Slough again...

She sounds slightly disgusted when she says 'West Drayton' - makes me wonder if she's ever been up the stairs to platform 1 

Agreed - those ticket barriers are always breaking down. Is it true that they're talking about closing the Shoppenhangars Road access (see comment on the Advertiser's site)?

That's the first time I've ever seen a cleaner on the train, and I've been travelling the same route since September 2005...

Not only was there someone checking tickets on the train, there was a cleaner picking up discarded newspapers and coffee cups!  What's going on?!

I have been close to passing out on the train a few times and once spent about 20 mins in the toilet as it was the only place to get some 'fresh' air.

On the way home the other evening, the driver was actually making announcements saying "If you want to get off at the next station, start making your way towards the door now" because it was so crowded. It was quiet when I got on it and found a seat, but the previous train had been cancelled, so about half the population of Slough decided thay 'had' to get on.

Not sure, but a standard day return from West Drayton to Maidenhead costs ^1.40 more than the same ticket from Maidenhead to West Drayton.

I tend to buy my season ticket at West Drayton, so don't really have many dealings with the Maidenhead staff. The one time I decided to renew a ticket at Maidenhead (the next 2 trains home were cancelled, so at least it was something to do), the guy at the ticket desk messed it up. I didn't realise until 4 days later when I was trying to get through the gate and the ticket inspector pointed out that it had expired - didn't know they had a special offer of 3 days for the price of 7, but there you go...

According to FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s website, my train was not calling at West Drayton, Iver or Langley this morning due to signalling problems. It stopped at all of them, albeit about 7 minutes late (the screens at West Drayton said it was cancelled, causing a bit of confusion when it showed up - no announcements whatsoever). Not sure if that means the problems have been fixed...