As a longtime Maidenhead-Paddington commuter who's been lurking here for a few months I thought I'd join in on this week's fun.
The 0733 actually arrived at
MAI▸ on time this morning (1st time this week). It was packed as expected - looked like a dozen free seats per car. I got onto car 7 and stood for the trip. We arrived ~7 mins late. The previous version of this service was about 50% full (people stood when it was a 4 car 387). Prior to that it was a 6 car turbo (Henley train) that was always packed by the time it arrived at MAI. So after £millions spent we're back to where we started. Air con probably trumps comfy seats/1st class in the summer.
Evenings I get the 1819. This was only 8 cars this evening but as others have commented the rear 4 are largely a waste of time if they're not going to be platformed at MAI or
TWY▸ . I don't know how many people would use this train to go from
PAD» to Reading but I wouldn't have thought many. Either they need to extend the platforms or move the signal so that cars 3-10 are platformed instead of 1-8. That would allow the rear set to be useful and so spread people out. Never going to happen I know. Space wise it's the same crush as the 1818 this replaces.
What does look to be an improvement
is that the abysmal 1842 PAD-MAI (ne Bourne End) has finally been killed off and replaced with a proper fast service. It's almost like having the long lamented 1833/1836 re-instated. Not sure about the 18:48 replacing the 1906.