Timetable and other upcoming changes - overview (from GWR) last Monday

[whole diary]

[patch38]

Let’s hope this is the 16:42 that was planned for May 2016!

I spy at the end of May there seems to be a new 16:37 service which takes significantly longer than any other day time train making the journey..1hr45 from Paddington to Stroud vs 1hr27 for the 17:42. Hmm. It gets you in 2 minutes earlier than the current situation changing at Swindon, and the National Rail journeyplanner still recommends 16:45 to Swansea and changing at Swindon. Not quite the exciting new service I was hoping for!

Just looking at this a bit more carefully:

The 16:36 (time as confirmed in other posts) gets to Kemble at 18:05. The 16:45 also gets to KEM at 18:05 so you would clearly be changing onto the earlier train at Swindon, which presumably has been having a pleasant nap on P1.

The only benefit of catching the 16:36 is that it's off-peak allowing you to spend the difference on a coffee and a bun in the Swindon Costa!

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

I think (hope!) that perhaps there are still some gaps to be filled around 0830 between Oxford and Reading.  Apart from the Pangbourne gap, RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) also currently shows no fast trains from Oxford to Paddington between 0807 and 0854 after the timetable change, which is difficult to believe.   

The presently shown up service from Pangbourne between 0730 and 0930 (ie mainly for Reading commuters, but also gentlemen commuters to London) is

0736   
0749    Interval 13 mins
0759    10 mins
0804    5 min
0850    46 minutes
0912    22 minutes
0923    11 minutes

Hardly a masterclass in train planning, but I accept that this may be a sticking plaster job until December.

Later - I've just noticed that there is no fast train now from Oxford - Padd between 0807 and 0854, which is a surprise! So less hopeful now for the Pangbourne gap

[grahame]

I think (hope!) that perhaps there are still some gaps to be filled around 0830 between Oxford and Reading.  Apart from the Pangbourne gap, RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) also currently shows no fast trains from Oxford to Paddington between 0807 and 0854 after the timetable change, which is difficult to believe.   

The presently shown up service from Pangbourne between 0730 and 0930 (ie mainly for Reading commuters, but also gentlemen commuters to London) is

0736   
0749    Interval 13 mins
0759    10 mins
0804    5 min
0850    46 minutes
0912    22 minutes
0923    11 minutes

Hardly a masterclass in train planning, but I accept that this may be a sticking plaster job until December

I've taken a look at the whole topic of loss of services in "shoulder peak" times - it's far from unique to this service - posted to "Transport Scholars" as it gets technical and may be of little interest to many ... please "like" this post if you can't follow the link / want to be added it.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=21379.msg262560#msg262560

[eightonedee]

This really is unsatisfactory. The gap is at exactly the time a prospective commuter who works in Reading and who starts work at 9am would be expecting to catch a train from any of the stations between Cholsey and Tilehurst.

By contrast, there are three North Downs line departures from Reading between 8-04 and 8-34!

Is there any indication whether this will be addressed in  the December timetable?

[stuving]

This really is unsatisfactory. The gap is at exactly the time a prospective commuter who works in Reading and who starts work at 9am would be expecting to catch a train from any of the stations between Cholsey and Tilehurst.

By contrast, there are three North Downs line departures from Reading between 8-04 and 8-34!

Is there any indication whether this will be addressed in  the December timetable?

I suspect something may happen, and before December. The 8:08 from Didcot is formed from the 7:52 arrival, moving over from P3 to P4 as 5N23. All of that still happens from May onwards, only rather than setting off towards Reading that train now dematerialises in P4.

It does look as if GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) agree that having that train lurk at Reading for 20 minutes is a bad idea. But while they have removed its pre-lurk and lurk phases, it still runs post-lurk to Paddington semi-fast, just as now. Obviously the law of conservation of rolling stock requires some adjustment to all of that "planning".

[ChrisB]

I have had a response from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) timetable guru saying that RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) is totally wrong. I will paste his response in the morning but rest assured, little has changed. Don't rely on RTT.

[stuving]

I have had a response from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) timetable guru saying that RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) is totally wrong. I will paste his response in the morning but rest assured, little has changed. Don't rely on RTT.

Is or was and how wrong about what? When I looked this afternoon, RTT was showing the same moring service from Didcot as OJP^▸ (Online Journey Planner), which is the same as today except for that missing 8:08 as far as Reading!

[Adrian]

I suspect something may happen, and before December. The 8:08 from Didcot is formed from the 7:52 arrival, moving over from P3 to P4 as 5N23. All of that still happens from May onwards, only rather than setting off towards Reading that train now dematerialises in P4.

"Passengers stand clear on platform 4 where the train is about to dematerialise."

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

I have had a response from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) timetable guru saying that RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) is totally wrong. I will paste his response in the morning but rest assured, little has changed. Don't rely on RTT.

Bit rich of GWR to blame RTT.  Exactly the same gap (ie no 0808 from Didcot) shows up if you try and book a ticket on the GWR website.

[ChrisB]

I have had a response from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) timetable guru saying that RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) is totally wrong. I will paste his response in the morning but rest assured, little has changed. Don't rely on RTT.

Here's the comment

The May timetable is near enough a roll over so service levels are unchanged, e.g. 0804, 0820 & 0850 from Pangbourne.

I have passed to our new Timetable Manager who will follow up with Network Rail to see if they have any data issues with it which is the usual reason why trains sometimes do not get published in the various Retail systems.

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

Worth noting that the decline and fall of the original 1P17, which was once a useful semifast from Didcot - Padd, appears to have been due, at least in part, by the need to find a path for some rubbish empties from Severnside to Northolt.  Just so we know where the priorities are in the morning peak commuting hours.

Perhaps more seriously, it shows how difficult it’s going to be to ensure that up GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and especially freight trains booked on the UR present reliably at Reading at the right time to fit in with clockface Crossrail trains from December, especially as you get nearer London.  I can’t see TfL^» (Transport for London - about) tolerating, for their clockface trains, the current “norms” of retiming individual passenger trains by a few minutes to fit in with long-distance freight trains, or holding passenger trains (eg as we see regularly on the RL's at Didcot, Scours Lane etc) for several minutes while some out-of-path freight train trundles through.

[ChrisB]

I very much doubt that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) would suddenly create a new path in the peak for a low-priority (group 5/6) freight train. And I'm sure GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) would resist strongly.

More likely, the freight path has always been there, but unused, & NR have allowed GWR to creep into it. Now its been reclaimed, & thus NR have to allow its use by freight traffic.

[jamestheredengine]

Worth noting that the decline and fall of the original 1P17, which was once a useful semifast from Didcot - Padd, appears to have been due, at least in part, by the need to find a path for some rubbish empties from Severnside to Northolt.  Just so we know where the priorities are in the morning peak commuting hours.

I suppose the alternative is the mess caused to the evening peak in South Wales when the 60mph 1300 Theale Murco to Robeston oil empties actually runs (thankfully it's a Q service, so it only periodically makes everything late). I suppose putting in a freight path that doesn't work like this one is the better solution, as its effects are confined to the days that moving tanks full of stale air from Berkshire to Pembrokeshire actually happens.

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) and GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are now showing that from May we have a new 1P97, 0806 from Didcot Parkway, 0820 from Pangbourne, then semifast to Paddington.  In best tabloid tradition I’ll say “it’s GTBE wot did it” (but I think we all now know that it was a data glitch at NR^» (Network Rail - home page)!).

Currently 1P97 starts up at Maidenhead at 0844 formed by ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) from London: timings from Maidenhead from May are unchanged.

So this is a gain for Cholsey – Tilehurst passengers heading beyond Reading. 

[IndustryInsider]

Just to add that from December GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are planning to run at least five Didcot-Cholsey-Goring-Pangbourne-Tilehurst-Reading-Twyford-Maidenhead-Paddington services in the peaks operated by 12-car Class 387s.  Nominally at 05:49 (12-car beyond Reading), 06:21, 06:50, 07:16 and 07:50 from Didcot and 17:21, 17:51, 18:21, 18:51 and 19:36 from Paddington.  There may well be other 8-car services with the same calling patterns before and/or after these timings, but those are the ones planned to be 12-cars.