The 13:45 from Paddington to Swansea has just left Didcot Parkway after sitting there for 90 minutes as an example.
That ended up nearly 2 hours down and was overtaken by the 1445, which was diverted via the Berks and Hants, called additionally at Bath (for Swindon), and reversed at Bristol Parkway.
Weird disparate treatment of stations there come to think of it. People from Swindon can be expected to cross over to the other side at Bath, but Bristol Parkway somehow merits a time-wasting reversal when they could be transferred to a local train from the same platform at either Stapleton Road or Filton Abbey Wood – in the latter case, probably a better station for walking or taking buses to where many of these South Gloucestershireites actually live.
But seeing as everything in Cardiff was already messed up by a bridge strike, I took the sensible decision of waiting things out in Wetherspoons until I could see that a convenient train (1615 from Pad) was leaving Newport, then going and excessing to First Class. So a reasonably pleasant Friday peak for me.
