1915 from London Paddington to Swansea

[whole diary]

[ellendune]

The pick up rule could be enforced by using selective door operation and only allowing boarding into only two or three carriages (depending on how many actually board at reading.  That would make it on platform enforcement possible.

What else doesn`t help is that the first super off peak to the west country(1903) also is pickup only at reading, and leaves from the adjacent platform!!!!

With my suggestion that could be an advantage not a disadvantage. 

[simonw]

A summary of my journey.

I was fortunate to be near the gates when the service was announced as was amongst the first few hundred to board the train .

As most of the train was reserved, I wen to to carriage D, planning to occupy any vacant seat when we started.

As the minutes ticked, the train got fuller and fuller until the guards came along and shut the doors, Carriage D was full with dozens of people on the aisle, and at least 12 in the vestibule areas as the end. Carriage C looked equally fully with a similar number in the vestibule area. So 20+ between the two. People where still milling around outside trying to board, and being told be the conductors the trains where full.

At Reading none appeared to leave or board the train. At Swindon a fair number left, still no seats free, and people left in the aisle and vestibule, but at least there was space. At BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) hundreds left, including me..

A crowded local train is never a major issue, but an InterCity train, never agin.

[IndustryInsider]

At Reading none appeared to leave or board the train. At Swindon a fair number left, still no seats free, and people left in the aisle and vestibule, but at least there was space. At BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) hundreds left, including me..

Ok.  I'm a bit confused why we've started talking about not stopping at Reading as being the answer then!

[ChrisB]

Which makes it easier barrier-wise to reject Reading tickets by those closest to those platforms. Where there's a will, there's a way

[ellendune]

At Reading none appeared to leave or board the train. At Swindon a fair number left, still no seats free, and people left in the aisle and vestibule, but at least there was space. At BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) hundreds left, including me..

Ok.  I'm a bit confused why we've started talking about not stopping at Reading as being the answer then!

Depends whether that was a one off (I am told that there has been some sort of popular sporting event going on in Cardiff today) or whether in other times Reading commuters are the source of the overcrowding. 

[Adelante_CCT]

Or go back to the good old days and have the guard/train manager and RPO/ticket inspector (delete as appropriate) doing a check between Paddington and Reading which never seems to happen anymore as both have barriers. Yes they may only get to a handful of Reading tickets within the 25 minutes available, but do it every week and it will slowly ween out the offenders and I'm sure word will get around when a few penalty fares are handed out.

On a separate note having never caught that train on a Friday is there any mention of it not stopping at Reading, a small handful of people who regularly catch the 19:15 Monday to Thursday may not realise. (Not saying this is an excuse but may help deter the odd person)

[TRAINMAN57]

Or go back to the good old days and have the guard/train manager and RPO/ticket inspector (delete as appropriate) doing a check between Paddington and Reading which never seems to happen anymore as both have barriers. Yes they may only get to a handful of Reading tickets within the 25 minutes available, but do it every week and it will slowly ween out the offenders and I'm sure word will get around when a few penalty fares are handed out.

On a separate note having never caught that train on a Friday is there any mention of it not stopping at Reading, a small handful of people who regularly catch the 19:15 Monday to Thursday may not realise. (Not saying this is an excuse but may help deter the odd person)

Both trains are not advertised on the departure boards as not stopping at reading, but regulars know it does!!!!!

[TaplowGreen]

I'm conscious that the majority of this thread seems to be concentrating on keeping people off a particular train, rather than providing sufficient capacity to make something approaching a reasonably tolerable experience. Some might say that's a rather bizarre way of doing business.

The answer is of course blindingly simple - make it a reservations only train, check all tickets before boarding and only sell tickets to destinations beyond Reading, but GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) won't do that of course as it will cost them ticket revenues.

I'm equally conscious (particularly but by no means solely via the Twitter feed) that whenever anyone contacts GWR regarding overcrowding, they are told to be patient because new trains are coming.

Expectations are in this way being massively raised - if we end up swapping old, decrepit overcrowded trains for shiny, new but equally overcrowded trains, people are going to be severely unhappy....I am sure that there is someone far more expert than me on this forum who can allay people's fears on this subject, and that in future the days of being treated like human cattle will be but a distant memory?

[IndustryInsider]

I'm conscious that the majority of this thread seems to be concentrating on keeping people off a particular train, rather than providing sufficient capacity to make something approaching a reasonably tolerable experience. Some might say that's a rather bizarre way of doing business.

The answer is of course blindingly simple - make it a reservations only train, check all tickets before boarding and only sell tickets to destinations beyond Reading, but GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) won't do that of course as it will cost them ticket revenues.

I'm equally conscious (particularly but by no means solely via the Twitter feed) that whenever anyone contacts GWR regarding overcrowding, they are told to be patient because new trains are coming.

Expectations are in this way being massively raised - if we end up swapping old, decrepit overcrowded trains for shiny, new but equally overcrowded trains, people are going to be severely unhappy....I am sure that there is someone far more expert than me on this forum who can allay people's fears on this subject, and that in future the days of being treated like human cattle will be but a distant memory?

I think most of us realise that, in the short term, balancing out the numbers as best they can is the only answer for GWR.  They've done pretty much all they can to provide the maximum number of seats on the trains they have available, by taking steps such as changing the first/standard class seating ratios that you criticised at the time, but have proven to be a very wise move.  If, in five years time, overcrowding is still chronic with all the new trains in place then GWR will have nowhere to hide and no excuses and I think that criticism from myself and others will be much more warranted.

Personally I'm confident that the situation will be hugely improved, especially on the suburban routes.  However, anybody who thinks that there will never be anybody standing on a train again come 2019, or that there will be no delays, needs to take a reality pill.

[Rhydgaled]

I'm conscious that the majority of this thread seems to be concentrating on keeping people off a particular train, rather than providing sufficient capacity to make something approaching a reasonably tolerable experience. Some might say that's a rather bizarre way of doing business.

Some might say that, but this is presumably a 2+8 IC125 set we're talking about. The platforms might be able to take a 2+9 set (I really have no idea), if you could find enough spare mark 3s to lengthen the sets, but it's not like FirstGWR are putting a short train like a 180 on the service, so increasing capacity isn't an easy option.

I'm equally conscious (particularly but by no means solely via the Twitter feed) that whenever anyone contacts GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) regarding overcrowding, they are told to be patient because new trains are coming.

Expectations are in this way being massively raised - if we end up swapping old, decrepit overcrowded trains for shiny, new but equally overcrowded trains, people are going to be severely unhappy....I am sure that there is someone far more expert than me on this forum who can allay people's fears on this subject, and that in future the days of being treated like human cattle will be but a distant memory?

Personally, I think all the new trains will achieve is moving the capacity problem around. There's an awful lot of short 5-car sets, running more frequently alongside some 9-car sets. From analysis by another member in another topic it looks like this will increase capacity quite substantially on PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-Bristol Temple Meads services (which I think will see most of the 9-car sets and probably the biggest frequency uplift as well) but some other routes will see reduced capacity because they'll be getting the shorter trains but no frequency improvement to compensate. So you might get a seat out of PAD, but you'll be standing between Cardiff and Bridgend and/or Newport instead.

[chrisr_75]

In the past I've found that the start of half term makes quite a significant difference to these Friday afternoon services. Also don't forget that Scotland played against Wales in Cardiff in the 6 nations the day after OP^▸ (Original Poster / topic starter)'s journey - I've noticed that a significant number of Scotland supporters either travel from or via London the day before this fixture.

OP may just have been a bit unlucky in the timing of his journey - this train is normally pretty busy, but, in my most recent experience of it, rarely approaching crush loadings.

[John R]

By 18/19 there is likely to be lots of Class 91s/Mk 4 stock lying idle. If there is still overcrowding then government will have no excuse for not redeploying some of it in the west. (Note that I say government, rather than whoever is running the services as ultimately they are the ones who have to agree with the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) to spend the additional money that it would need.)

[simonw]

Throwing a wild idea into this, why not run alternate trains

• Stopping service to BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains)/BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)), running every 30 minutes
• South West with first stop at BTM, running every hour
• South Wales with first stop at BPW, running every hour

This will provide more capacity, and quicker service to South Wales/South West. The other alternative is to add an upper platform deck at Paddington to add another 8 platforms, or add capacity at Royal Oak and let trains go there instead.

[IndustryInsider]

Because there aren't enough trains to do that currently.  The plan is to reduce the number of calls at Reading/Swindon when the new trains are in use, at least off-peak, so the future service might not be too far off of what you suggest.  It's not so much the capacity at Paddington, but the capacity on the main lines that is the problem.

[paul7575]

Both trains are not advertised on the departure boards as not stopping at reading, but regulars know it does!!!!!

Confusing double negative there, no wonder confusion reigns...   

Paul