Reservations Enquiry

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

A bit of competition, even if indirect, can only be a good thing and should make GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) raise their game.

They're raising it for the May timetable change by utilising more HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s on some of the off-peak services that are currently Turbo operated.

I wonder from where these HSTs have been found, and which other services will suffer as a result?

[grahame]

They're raising it for the May timetable change by utilising more HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s on some of the off-peak services that are currently Turbo operated.

I wonder from where these HSTs have been found, and which other services will suffer as a result?

I suspect the key words are off-peak.  If you take a look at real time trains for next week, you'll see a stream of HSTs empty from Paddington to Old Oak from 08:00.   Looking for the following week, there's still a stream of them - but with slightly varied times which makes it quite difficult to compare.  But the 08:12 (5L08) doesn't seem to have a direct replacement, so there's one of your trains.  It's the 04:58 ex Swansea, arriving at 08:02.   That particular train now goes out as the 08:30 to Bristol - previously that was a return working of the 06:05 from Frome, arriving at 08:09, which now does go -  but later - onto Old Oak.  It gets complicated, but somewhere in there is a train to run a couple of round trips to Oxford.

[IndustryInsider]

Yes, as Graham said it's utilising sets that currently sit idle in Old Oak for most of the time between the peaks.

[TaplowGreen]

Yes, as Graham said it's utilising sets that currently sit idle in Old Oak for most of the time between the peaks.

.......so will the Turbos that are being freed up also be forming additional services? I find this quite puzzling as the standard mantra from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is that all stock is fully utilised.

[grahame]

Yes, as Graham said it's utilising sets that currently sit idle in Old Oak for most of the time between the peaks.

.......so will the Turbos that are being freed up also be forming additional services? I find this quite puzzling as the standard mantra from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is that all stock is fully utilised.

All stock is fully utilised in the peak, I suspect you'll find.

Now a very old diagram ... but if you could find a way to even out the peaks ... you would have a lot more efficient system.



(The '*' indicators on the diagram are the time that the only TransWilts trains ran prior to December 2013, showing how that service was provided without the need to have any stock on hire for the line).

[NickB]

Surely what that diagram is showing (which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, and to some degree returning to the original point) is that most passenger journeys are 'commuter style' at peak times and not leisure trips up from Cornwall.

[NickB]

So, returning to the OP^▸ (Original Poster / topic starter), gwr twitterers have been helpful in uncovering what is happening behind the scenes.
Apparently someone at gwr who is to remain nameless has decided to cap the number of reservations available specifically for Maidenhead customers. That means no reservations available until 8th June.

My head hurts so much from smacking my head against the wall.

[ChrisB]

I wonder what the number of Maidenhead reservations are/could be?

There are 60? seats in a 1.5 coach set, I think....it does make sense to restrict the bookings if that is likely to be most of them....the alternative might be to remove the 1st class eastbound (which may happen come electrification

[NickB]

I asked for the number and for a person with whom I could discuss the issue. Neither was available.

If gwr want to remove all reservations in the TV I would support that. What is absurd is discrimination against one station's passengers, who have been following the instructions of gwr.

What will happen now? When faced with a rationed commodity consumers cease to purchase it rationally (see queues during petrol shortages as example). They won't think about days or weeks that they won't need a reservation and instead will block book for the maximum period of time. This will compound the problem.

I've given up on gwr to provide sensible solutions or even to engage with its passengers without lying. My first stop is my MP^▸ (Member of Parliament).

[IndustryInsider]

Yes, as Graham said it's utilising sets that currently sit idle in Old Oak for most of the time between the peaks.

.......so will the Turbos that are being freed up also be forming additional services? I find this quite puzzling as the standard mantra from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is that all stock is fully utilised.

There's many free Turbos available between the peaks on weekdays - there's very little in the way of maintenance that can take place during that short window, and the commuting bias near to London means far more sets are required during the peaks than, for example, in Devon/Cornwall.

The Turbos being upgraded to HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s are from Paddington at 09:50, 10:50, 11:50, 12:50 and 13:50.  The return workings are 12:01, 13:01, 14:01, 15:01 and 15:31.  None of those are desperately overcrowded at the moment, but a much higher quality journey will now be provided.  Good news.

[ellendune]

If gwr want to remove all reservations in the TV I would support that. What is absurd is discrimination against one station's passengers, who have been following the instructions of gwr.

What will happen now? When faced with a rationed commodity consumers cease to purchase it rationally (see queues during petrol shortages as example). They won't think about days or weeks that they won't need a reservation and instead will block book for the maximum period of time. This will compound the problem.

Where do these trains start?  If they start in say Oxford is it reasonable that all the 1st class seats are booked from Maidenhead leaving them unavailable for passengers travelling for much longer. 

[NickB]

The train in question starts from Worcester and is the first train of the day. If passengers from Worcester, Kingham or anywhere else wish to make reservations then they can and there is no shortage of seating for them.
What i am highlighting is that anyone who wishes to make a reservation should be entitled to make one as opposed to gwr arbitrarily deciding that they've got enough passengers from Maidenhead and we're causing too much inconvenience.
What is at the heart of my annoyance is that I only started making reservations because gwr told me to. To me it has always been abundantly clear that telling everyone to make a reservation creates further problems rather than solving them. As I've stated earlier I would be happy if all reservations from the TV or even beyond were removed and it was first-come first-served.

[IndustryInsider]

Here's the situation today.  Total of 33 reserved first class seats from a total on the train of around 65 (of which around 10 are never reservable).  Of those 33, 30 were reserved from Maidenhead, with the other three all being Oxford or Reading - so no seats reserved from further down the Cotswold Line. 

Perhaps there's a cap of 50% of the total that's been put on?

[ellendune]

It would be interesting to know how many o the seats were occupied before the train stopped at Maidenhead. 

[ChrisB]

NickB...they can't if Maidenhead pax have already nabbed 'em! Well, they can, as far as Maidenhead! Seems as though 50% is your max.

Which strikes me as reasonable, leaving the rest (bar 10 unreservable) - so less than Maidenhead pax can get - for those west thereof. Of course, if they're not reserved, then they're first come, first served like you recommend!