Amended timetable from 4 January 21

[whole diary]

[plymothian]

In response to the change in Covid19 tiers, an ammended timetable will come in to operation on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) from 4 January.

Pad - Cardiff: hourly inc Saturdays

Pad - Hereford & Pad - Cheltenham: later start/early finish & some Pad - Cheltenham shortened to Swindon

Night Riviera cancelled until 10 January

Truro - Falmouth: reduced frequency Mon - Fri & 1 tph Sat

Greenford: 1 tph Mon - Sat

Windsor: 2 tph Mon - Sat

Pad - Newbury: reduced frequency Mon - Sun

Pad - Didcot semi-fast: 1 tph Mon - Sat

North Downs: 1 tph off peak Mon - Fri & 2 tph Sat

Reading - Basingstoke: 1 tph evenings Mon - Fri

Banbury - Pad: morning service cancelled Mon - Fri

Plymouth - Gunnislake: reduced frequency Sat

Pad - Bedwyn: cut to Reading - Bedwyn shuttle Sun

Pad - Oxford: 1 tph Sun

Exeter SD - Exmouth: 1 tph Sun

[TaplowGreen]

Seems sensible.

[old original]

I'm surprised Penzance - Plymouth hasn't gone back to hourly. 

[phile]

In response to the change in Covid19 tiers, an ammended timetable will come in to operation on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) from 4 January.

Pad - Cardiff: hourly inc Saturdays

Pad - Hereford & Pad - Cheltenham: later start/early finish & some Pad - Cheltenham shortened to Swindon

Night Riviera cancelled until 10 January

Truro - Falmouth: reduced frequency Mon - Fri & 1 tph Sat

Greenford: 1 tph Mon - Sat

Windsor: 2 tph Mon - Sat

Pad - Newbury: reduced frequency Mon - Sun

Pad - Didcot semi-fast: 1 tph Mon - Sat

North Downs: 1 tph off peak Mon - Fri & 2 tph Sat

Reading - Basingstoke: 1 tph evenings Mon - Fri

Banbury - Pad: morning service cancelled Mon - Fri

Plymouth - Gunnislake: reduced frequency Sat

Pad - Bedwyn: cut to Reading - Bedwyn shuttle Sun

Pad - Oxford: 1 tph Sun

Exeter SD - Exmouth: 1 tph Sun

I assume Cardiff should read Swansea

[bobm]

Paddington Swansea is already hourly.   The ones that run only as far as Cardiff (leaving London at xx.18) in between have been removed - thus making trains to Cardiff hourly (on the way to Swansea).

[phile]

Paddington Swansea is already hourly.   The ones that run only as far as Cardiff (leaving London at xx.18) in between have been removed - thus making trains to Cardiff hourly (on the way to Swansea).

A matter of how you interpret it.

[grahame]

From RailNews

TRAIN operators have started to react to the new national lockdown announced by the Prime Minister last night by reviewing their services again.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) had already introduced an amended timetable in late December to respond to higher than usual levels of staff absent or self-isolating, and lower demand from changes to the tier system. The operator said it would continue with its present reduced timetables this week, but there will be some more alterations from 11 January. Around four out of five trains are expected to keep running.

GWR managing director Mark Hopwood said: 'We have taken some sensible measures to make sure that we are able to run a service that can be relied upon at this time, and that means reducing our timetable a little to shore up the large number of services we continue to operate.

'This is vital to helping key workers to get to work so they can continue to provide services critical to the day-to-day running of the country.'

GWR said it will continue to monitor demand in line with the latest travel advice issued by the government, ensuring capacity where it is needed and the ability to respond quickly when lockdown is eased.

Passengers who have already purchased tickets but who are now not able to travel because of the latest changes in government travel advice are able to claim a refund.

[grahame]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55549456

Train services are expected to be reduced during the national lockdown in England.

The extent of the cuts has not yet been confirmed, but some in the industry are anticipating reductions of between 50-60% of normal service.

As responsibility for railways is a devolved matter, these cuts will apply to services in England only.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said it will work with operators to assess the right level of services.

They added: "While we cannot predict the long-term effect of Covid-19 on travel patterns, it is critical that we ensure the railway can respond quickly to changes in passenger demand whilst supporting economic recovery."

Since the start of the pandemic, the government has spent billions of pounds covering the fall in ticket revenues owing to low passenger numbers.

In the first national lockdown in England, services were dramatically reduced to almost half.

Some in the industry anticipate a similar "Sunday-plus" service will run for the next few months, not least because the supply of trains will outstrip demand.

[grahame]

Bristol Live - https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/first-bus-bristol-great-western-4858160

Great Western Railway and First Bus Bristol have issued an update to passengers on how lockdown will affect public transport in and around Bristol.

Following the announcement of a third lockdown in England last night, people are only allowed to travel for essential purposes such as going to work if you can?t work from home. These rules will stay in place until at least mid February.

Great Western Rail, which is responsible for some of the busiest routes across the South West, says it will continue to operate a reduced timetable, which it introduced in late December.

The train operator reduced its services in response to higher than usual levels of staff absent or self-isolating due to COVID, and lower demand from changes to the previous tier system.

[broadgage]

Significant reductions in services are a reasonable response to the present emergency.

My concern is that such cuts, or a significant percentage thereof may become long term and remain in place long after the need has passed, and long after the non-railway world has returned to normal.

I can hear the weasel words already.

"Increasing services is far more complex than people reailise"
"We hope to achieve a phased return to normal over the next few timetables"
"We do not have enough rolling stock for a significant increase"
"It will take several years to recruit and train staff"

A short term reduction in services is a splendid oportunity to scrap older rolling stock, and thereby prevent a return to full services.
Likewise, no need to recruit or train new staff, simply allow natural wastage to reduce numbers to a little beow those numbers required to operate the REDUCED service reliably.

[IndustryInsider]

My concern is that such cuts, or a significant percentage thereof may become long term and remain in place long after the need has passed, and long after the non-railway world has returned to normal.

I share your concerns.  Though it should be pointed out that during the first proper national lockdown, which on anecdotal observations was adhered to far more than this one has been so far, it wasn't long before services were largely reinstated to where they were before on most routes.  GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) were operating 94% of services until the December timetable trains when some more were added - probably bumping that percentage up to 95-96%, though I don't have an exact figure.

This national lockdown, all being well, is not likely to last longer than the first one, indeed hopefully it will be shorter, with the added reassurance of a largely vaccinated population to help people make the decision to return to rail travel again.

We will lose some peak time 'commuter' trains, as they won't be needed, and I foresee plenty of trains going to the scrap heap prematurely - some newer trains as well as old.  Not necessarily a bad thing in terms of the environment and efficient utilisation of stock, crew and train paths, but with a vaccinated population and a little time to get their house into order training and recruitment wise, the train operators will need to cater for plenty of demand still.

[old original]

In response to the change in Covid19 tiers, an ammended timetable will come in to operation on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) from 4 January.

Pad - Cardiff: hourly inc Saturdays

Pad - Hereford & Pad - Cheltenham: later start/early finish & some Pad - Cheltenham shortened to Swindon

Night Riviera cancelled until 10 January

Truro - Falmouth: reduced frequency Mon - Fri & 1 tph Sat

Greenford: 1 tph Mon - Sat

Windsor: 2 tph Mon - Sat

Pad - Newbury: reduced frequency Mon - Sun

Pad - Didcot semi-fast: 1 tph Mon - Sat

North Downs: 1 tph off peak Mon - Fri & 2 tph Sat

Reading - Basingstoke: 1 tph evenings Mon - Fri

Banbury - Pad: morning service cancelled Mon - Fri

Plymouth - Gunnislake: reduced frequency Sat

Pad - Bedwyn: cut to Reading - Bedwyn shuttle Sun

Pad - Oxford: 1 tph Sun

Exeter SD - Exmouth: 1 tph Sun

For the record, Truro to Falmouth has only reduced to hourly between 0915 - 1515. Normal timetable applies otherwise.

Rumoured to be another timetable amendment starting in a week or so...

[REVUpminster]

I would expect the London - Paignton's will disappear again.

[grahame]

From GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)

Dear []
 
I wrote to you last week to let you know that we are continuing to experience higher levels of Covid-19 cases and self-isolation than expected and that this would mean our temporary timetable would be continuing.
 
From Monday (11 January) in addition to the changes already in operation we will be reducing the frequency of off peak services between Bristol Temple Meads and London Paddington.
 
The changes will help protect services vital for key workers and essential travel and will mean we continue to operate approximately 80% of our planned timetable.
 
We will be directly contacting customers who have booked online with us to offer advice and help to switch to other services, or to claim refunds.    We are also reminding customers who need to travel to check timetables on https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/check-your-journey before they set out.
 
We will be keeping the timetable under review, particularly given the new national lockdown in England and will work with the Department for Transport on any further changes.
 
I will continue to keep you updated and I am really grateful to you for your support and your help.   We are determined to maintain a reliable, effective service for key workers and essential travel and our operations team are working very hard to make sure everything is in place to do so.
 
Best wishes

[Timmer]

Makes a lot of sense. I really don?t think Bristol to London needs a service every half hour at the moment.