HSTs bad for Cotswold Line?

[whole diary]

[Conner]

Think the first thing the line needs is Advance Purchase fares - can't believe it doesnt have them!"!!

Generally speaking, if CDR^▸ (Off Peak Day Return [ticket type] (formerly 'Cheap Day'))'s are available, AP isn't.

Not true in Cornwall, you can buy Penzance-Plymouth AP or CDR.

[vacman]

Think the first thing the line needs is Advance Purchase fares - can't believe it doesnt have them!"!!

Generally speaking, if CDR^▸ (Off Peak Day Return [ticket type] (formerly 'Cheap Day'))'s are available, AP isn't.

Not true in Cornwall, you can buy Penzance-Plymouth AP or CDR.

Best AP I've seen lately is Penzance to Penryn Leisure advance!! 30 miles, ^2.50!! thing is, a CDR is ^5.50!

[Shazz]

Cardiff > bristol is ^2.50 for an AP as well

[willc]

One solution would be- all trains terminate at Shrub Hill and Oxford, then more trains could pass in the middle of the double track loop (it would also be a better use for stock).

We've already had this discussion in another thread. Shuttle equals two/three-car DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit), as it always did up to 1993. If FGW^▸ (First Great Western) was keeping the Adelantes, they wouldn't be pottering up and down the Cotswold Line all day.

The only remaining working starting at Oxford, the 17.31 halts train, has suffered a series of delays recently due to late arrival of the connecting service from London. And when an off-peak working was due to terminate at Oxford at noon (until December 2006?), the 12.05pm to London was often dispatched on the dot, even as passengers off a slightly delayed Cotswold Line train were walking down platform 1 towards it. I recall that the CLPG^» (Cotswold Line Promotion Group - about) intervened after a series of such incidents and got a pledge that this would not happen again.

Yes, punctuality is dismal at times, but breaking the journey at Oxford won't fix it. I'd rather be on a late-running through train than get stuck there for an hour or more and I suspect the bulk of off-peak tickets sold on the line are for journeys going beyond Oxford, so making everyone change trains would do even more damage to passenger numbers.