Saturday HST to Weymouth

[whole diary]

[Southern Stag]

Interesting that it will pick up at Frome on the way to Weymouth, but not on the return trip, can I take it that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have made the assumption that after escaping Frome we shall not want to come back!

It looks like it calls at Frome both ways to me, certainly shows that in the timetable. The only difference between the two runs is that the only the return run stops at Bruton.

This is only running on Saturdays, when there are plenty of spare HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) available to operate the service. There are more services in Cornwall which will be operated by HSTs on Summer Saturdays this year too.

FGW says that it does not have any spare HSTs over the summer because they are all needed for the high summer holiday supplementary services. ...

Sounds like all the HSTs that are usually on Monday to Friday diagrams may be running in place of / addition to 15x turns on Saturdays - that would explain both statements above.  And perhaps the released 15x units will strengthen other 15x services?

There must be a greater use of HSTs this year, but I'm not sure if it is still up to the levels of the Monday-Friday usage. But then more maintenance work will probably be carried out at Weekends too. All the extra HST worked services on Summer Saturdays have been achieved without removing HSTs from anywhere else though. Last year an HST was often used on Summer Saturdays on a Taunton-Cardiff diagram to free up 15x units. I think the freeing up of 15x units this year allows strengthening of other services but also accounts for units that will be away on overhauls and heavy maintenance.

[Alan Pettitt]

You had me all confused there, I was sure that I had seen a timetable where the return journey didn't stop at Frome, but I was mistaken, it was the Realtime Trains schedule mentioned earlier in this thread for the Spring Bank Holiday weekend.

[Busboy W1]

Sampled the Weymouth Wizard yesterday and was more than impressed with the service. However one thing I thought may attract more punters is for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to offer this type of service from other origins such as Newbury,Didcot,Reading maybe London obviously Path/Crewe/Stock and anything else that might attribute to this type of service.Depending on what happens to the franchise etc as well. Personally I'm more than happy but the fast amount of people absolutely hate changing trains and platforms.

[LiskeardRich]

Fair play to the Dorset Echo for the highly appropriate picture chosen to illustrate the story - such accuracy will never catch on....

Is it the angle of the picture or has it lost it's coaches?

I like the way the article describes it as a prestigious train!

[stebbo]

Reference IanL's comment a month ago, are we still lucky enough to have an Adelante on the 1552 ex Paddington on any day? Not travelled by train in the last few weeks but if the comment is still valid, I too would be p***** off.

[Richard Fairhurst]

Yes - an Adelante if we're lucky, a Turbo if we're not!

[stebbo]

I ask because my last three trips on the 1552 ex Paddington have been on Turbos - black holes of Calcutta for that service. And one of the outward journeys was on the 0815 from Kingham with a 6 car HST^▸ (High Speed Train).................

[grahame]

Not where I expected to see it ...

[bobm]

Interesting they used a set with two full first class coaches.  Did it have a full kitchen along with another half coach of first class as well?

[sprinterguard]

The sets just come of the depot "as is" with a rake of sets suitable for 3rd rail area, it would be too much work to split them or rearrange the coaches into standard only just for this service. Combined with the short platforms where they would be in use, the 1st class coaches are just declassified.

[bobm]

I did wonder if they would be declassified.  Makes sense.  There is a ^5 weekend first upgrade fare available - perhaps they could keep one just for that!

[grahame]

Interesting they used a set with two full first class coaches.  Did it have a full kitchen along with another half coach of first class as well?

Not sure ... and I've just looked at my other pictures ... does this tell you

[John R]

It does, and the answer is no, it's just 2 first class.

[Dark Star]

Personally I think it's a good idea from FGW^▸ (First Great Western), however I feel it would have been better to Start this train and finish the return at Pad
Reckon there are plenty of folks travel to Weymouth for Holiday from London, (Reading, Swindon and Bath).

[bobm]

Serving Bath Spa on the way to Weymouth from Paddington would involve a reversal which is probably impractical in terms of the congestion it would cause.

I suspect the choice of Bristol as the starting point is to utilise an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) set which would otherwise be sitting idle at the nearby St Philips Marsh depot.