Wilderness Festival, Cornbury Park, 7 to 10 August 2014 - Travel Advice

[whole diary]

[CLPGMS]

Have to admit, it wasn't a pretty sight on some of the trains leaving Charlbury last night.  I don't know wether the company was caught out by the number of people travelling back late in the evening or wether it was just a lack of crews and/or available trains but some were seriously overcrowded.

I think that two other factors could have contributed to this.  The single line seriously restricts the number of additional trains which could be accommodated.  Also, Sunday's weather may have persuaded some to return home earlier than originally intended.  There was rain all morning, followed by heavy blustery showers.

[ChrisB]

I too think the tropical rain all morning persuaded more to return on Sunday afternoon than would normally be the case.

[a-driver]

You're probably right that the weather didn't help.  Trains arriving into Paddington gone 22:00 were still full & standing, there couldn't have been many onward connections out of London at that time of night on a Sunday!!
It doesn't help as well that they need to start getting trains back to the depot for servicing reading for the morning.
Still, it doesn't create a very good impression. 

[IndustryInsider]

A much better day today though, by all accounts.  All the specials ran (and were well patronised), only very minor delays in single figures.  Good call the provide two additional HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train), as a 10:46 special (the set which normally forms the 11:01 ex OXF^» (Oxford - next trains) to PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains), and the 11:50 MIM-PAD was upgraded from a Turbo to a HST). Good job these extra trains and lengthened trains were provided as the regular service trains were all pretty much full as they usually are - I saw many people standing on the 09:40 and 11:09 departures from Charlbury after they'd left Oxford.

So, after less than brilliant work on Friday and Sunday, today went very well and the vast majority would have found a seat.  Just shows how many trains can be slotted in to the existing timetable - albeit with very little recovery allowances.