Standing loads on HSTs

[whole diary]

[Worcester_Passenger]

From JourneyCheck this evening

16:35 Hereford to London Paddington due 20:10
This train will be terminated at Oxford.
Service full and standing from Worcester Shrub Hill.
This train will no longer call at Didcot Parkway, Reading, Slough and London Paddington.
This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.

The 16:35 is an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) (it's certainly not reported as anything else in the 'formations' part of JourneyCheck).

Impressive to see such loads on the Cotswold Line on Sundays...

[Southern Stag]

It was booked for a Turbo today because the inbound working started at Oxford because of engineering work this morning.

[johoare]

Journeycheck wrong then?

[Southern Stag]

No, it was always planned to be Turbo today.

[johoare]

Oh ok.. so Worcester_Passenger is wrong then? I was just assuming he knew... sorry 

[Worcester_Passenger]

I may be missing something here.

How, as a passenger, can I tell that it was "booked for a Turbo today"?

Other than by looking at JourneyCheck, that is.

[johoare]

Which was also my point..

[bobm]

This point was brought up at the Travelwatch South meeting at the weekend.

In days gone by FGW^▸ (First Great Western) brought out timetable booklets which provided the full, revised, timetables when services were disrupted.  Now too much reliance is placed on Journey planners which show the times of trains but not always the type of train being used.

There are exceptions - the Easter blockade around Reading has prompted the issue of timetable booklets.

Mark Hopwood, FGW MD, did say they would look at the provision of information after it was suggested that printed booklets might not be possible but PDFs on the website would be an alternative.

This would then, I assume, show which trains were Turbos and which HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train).

[johoare]

But meanwhile.. We have journeycheck... If the train is usually an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and that it isn't hasn't been communicated in another way (from what I've read here).. no harm putting it on Journeycheck surely?

And in general...if a train is turbotised for just one day..would that not have to appear on journeycheck then (that has happened lots of times...to be honest)..  Sounds like maybe not from this thread?

[IndustryInsider]

I quite agree with Jo and Worcester Passenger - how would anyone not in the know, know?

I had the dubious honour of being at Oxford as the first through train to London departed at 16:00 today.  Usually a HST^▸ (High Speed Train) from Hereford, today it arrived as a 3-Car Turbo full and standing and left as a 5-Car Turbo totally choc-full.  Must've been at least 500 on board and that was before it picked up at Didcot, Reading and Slough.  Perhaps a 6-Car might have been slightly better, but even then people would have been faced with no option but to stand for well over an hour?

[Southern Stag]

The problem is it never would have been flagged up as a short formation to be put on JourneyCheck. There should have been some information about printed in the alterations information. A simple note under the alterations that certain services would be Turbos instead of HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) would have solved the problem.

[grahame]

I quite agree with Jo and Worcester Passenger - how would anyone not in the know, know?

I had the dubious honour of being at Oxford as the first through train to London departed at 16:00 today.  Usually a HST^▸ (High Speed Train) from Hereford, today it arrived as a 3-Car Turbo full and standing and left as a 5-Car Turbo totally choc-full ...

From Journey Check this morning

09:21 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street due 11:41
This train will now be formed of the usual number of coaches.
This is due to a train fault.

Yeah ...

[Worcester_Passenger]

Earlier this morning it was shown as being 2 cars instead of 5.

[Worcester_Passenger]

Sounds like this one could be quite cosy today:

05:28 Hereford to London Paddington due 08:51
This train will be started from Oxford.
Will be formed of 2 coaches instead of 8.
This train will no longer call at Hereford, Ledbury, Colwall, Great Malvern, Malvern Link, Worcester Foregate Street, Worcester Shrub Hill, Pershore, Evesham, Honeybourne, Moreton-In-Marsh, Kingham, Charlbury and Hanborough.
This is due to a train fault.

[grahame]

Sounds like this one could be quite cosy today:

But then that's 14 pickups cancelled and just 2 left ... 4:1 ratio on train length, 7:1 ratio on places served. And, ironically, there are more alternatives from Oxford and Reading that from any of places where it's cancelled.