Maidenhead station - services, facilities, car parking and incidents (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[jamestheredengine]

In the case of IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) and 387s all seats are spacious

Except the ones with a door recess instead of a window. The wall seat on those seems very rarely to get taken, and for good reason.

[Western Pathfinder]

A little light relief,or main line fun from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) .
That nice young man with his beard,Mr Tim Dunn has been looking at the Maidenhead Bridge and its history On behalf Of GWR, do watch it to the end .

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=338647363723880&id=345127331805&refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FMllir4GATV&_rdr.

[Sixty3Closure]

Absolutely rammed again although kudos to the driver (or train manager?) who declassified first class. I think this one of the first times I've seen this done outside of an incident or delays on a regular service. I think they did it yesterday as well but I had my headphones on by then.

If it becomes a regular thing I might go stand further up the platform but I'm guessing its dependent on the crew.

[IndustryInsider]

There’s a train manager on it as it makes calls at unstaffed stations en-route so they would make that decision.  It regularly loads to around 450 people, with 150-200 of those joining at Maidenhead, so one of the busiest GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) trains that are booked for a 5-car.

The planned 12-car 387 from December will be warmly welcomed!

[sanfrandragon]

De-classified 1st class yesterday, but refused to today.

Instead the train manager shooed everyone out, after announcing there were seats towards the front, quickly ammended to there being standing room at the front.  Well thanks very much for providing standing room!

It's also a lottery if 1st class is at the back or front of the train.

And this is during the relatively quiet summer.  It's going to be carnage once everyone gets back from their hols and I predict lost tempers all round.  What GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) were thinking with the change of train or how this is providing an acceptable service is beyond me.

[Oxonhutch]

I have successfully argued with the TM^‡(resolve) on two occasions that this train is automatically declassified as it it advertised in the Public Timetables as a standard class-only train. There is no mention of First Class on any of the journey feeds, nor on the platform information screens.   I did this in first class with a first class season ticket but being accompanied on both occasions by an offspring travelling with me to London with a standard plus 16-25 rail card.

If the service is not advertised as carrying first class it effectively doesn't carry it. That is why I don't use this train except in the company of my adult children as it carries no services and the pseudo-first class is full by Twyford and rammed by Maidenhead. By rights the 'First Class' seats should all be occupied after Goring and Streatley!

[Sixty3Closure]

There's no seat reservations either although I haven't looked at Trainline to see if I can reserve them on a standard ticket as opposed to my season ticket. Not sure I fancy my chances of getting people to move though if I did have a reservation.

Even with first class available its still pretty cosy and options at that time are limited as the train before it from Twyford is also an 5 car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) and just as packed as its the only non stop train to Paddington.

[IndustryInsider]

With details now much clearer, though still not 100% confirmed I thought I'd see what Maidenhead to London commuters can look forward to in the morning peak from December, against today.

Times covered are 06:30-08:45 departures which involve no more than two stops en-route, and journey times of no more than 35 minutes.

A train by train breakdown is listed below, but the headline estimated figure is an increase in carriages of 21 from 97, to 118.  Crucially in terms of the current crowding on the 07:01 5-car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train), the equivalent at 07:02 now becomes a 12-car 387, and the 07:08 equivalent at 07:07 remains a 9-car IET.  Six trains are formed of 12-car 387s against two currently.

As and when unconfirmed train lengths become certain I will update the list.

Today: (total of 97 carriages)
1P01 - 06:32 dep/06:54 arr - 8 car 387
1P02 - 06:42 dep/07:06 arr - 5 car IET
1P03 - 07:01 dep/07:24 arr - 5 car IET
1P04 - 07:08 dep/07:29 arr - 9 car IET
1P05 - 07:10 dep/07:36 arr - 8 car 387
1P06 - 07:18 dep/07:38 arr - 8 car 387
1P08 - 07:33 dep/07:55 arr - 12 car 387
1P09 - 07:44 dep/08:16 arr - 6 car Turbo
1P11 - 08:02 dep/08:24 arr - 12 car 387
1P81 - 08:06 dep/08:30 arr - 8 car 387
1K07 - 08:11 dep/08:41 arr - 5 car IET
1P15 - 08:32 dep/08:54 arr - 8 car 387

December: (total of 118 carriages)
1P92 - 06:33 dep/06:52 arr - 12 car 387
1P10 - 06:45 dep/07:05 arr - IET (assume 5-car as from Oxford)
1P75 - 07:02 dep/07:22 arr - 12 car 387
1P11 - 07:07 dep/07:24 arr - IET (assume 9-car as from Worcester)
1P76 - 07:15 dep/07:40 arr - 8 car 387 (length not confirmed)
1P77 - 07:32 dep/07:52 arr - 12 car 387
1K05 - 07:35 dep/07:54 arr - 8 car 387 (length not confirmed)
1P78 - 07:44 dep/08:19 arr - 8 car 387 (length not confirmed)
1P79 - 08:02 dep/08:22 arr - 12 car 387
1P80 - 08:14 dep/08:49 arr - 12 car 387 (hoped to be a 12-car - powers that be are working on it still)
1P81 - 08:31 dep/08:53 arr - 12 car 387
1P82 - 08:44 dep/09:09 arr - 8 car 387 (length not confirmed)

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

We will see an improvement at Pangbourne (and thus at Cholsey, Goring and Tilehurst also).  There are more and longer peak hour trains from December.  I agree with II that RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) info is changing frequently: when timings first went up last week some of our “semi-fasts” – ie non-stop from Maidenhead – were showing as running RL to Padd. These are now all showing ML.

I’m a bit surprised that there are no significant accelerations: journey times Pangbourne – Padd on a semi fast will be very similar to the timings now.

Finally, as has been said, it looks like some trains aren’t in RTT yet – eg I assume there will be a 1649 Padd – Didcot semi-fast.

[janes]

No it's not, it's a complete disaster! (for me anyway, as I commute from Tilehurst to Ealing Broadway) - NO local stopping services at all whatsoever in either the morning or evening peak apart from Crossrail trains (and to make it even worse that what I had expected, I can't even see their promised semifasts only calling at Reading/Twyford/Maidenhead/Slough/WD/EB/Pad, they all look like slower stoppers!)

So basically I'll either have to change at Reading or Maidenhead and endure a long, uncomfortable journey in a rattling cattle truck with no toilets or tables, or have go via Paddington in both the morning AND the evening, which is even worse than now, when I just have to do it in the evening. That option also will be much worse when the new Crossrail platforms come in as it will make changing at Paddington a lot more complicated on top of everything else.

Just don't understand why they are doing something that will unnecessarily INCREASE the number of people who need to change at Paddington, when the whole point of Crossrail was to do the opposite.... Grrrrr!!!

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

Finally, as has been said, it looks like some trains aren’t in RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) yet – eg I assume there will be a 1649 Padd – Didcot semi-fast.

I think I assumed wrong.  Looks like this train isn't going to run from December: its path Padd-Rdg has got a better offer, and its path Rdg - Didcot is being filled by a new stopper from Padd leaving Rdg at the same time as the 1649 ex Padd does now ie 1725. I don't know what time Janes finishes but this train calls at Ealing Broadway at 1634.

[IndustryInsider]

12-car evening services are planned to be the 17:20, 17:50, 18:20 and 18:49 Paddington to Didcot services (17:20 and 18:20 detach a portion at Reading).

[janes]

"I don't know what time Janes finishes but this train calls at Ealing Broadway at 1634"

That would be an incredibly early finish for me - I tend to leave the office between 17:00 and 18:30 depending on the day of the week - and it's then a 10-15 minute walk to EB station (I can get so much more work done in that last hour or so once everyone else has gone home! ) However to look on the marginally brighter side, it is still half an hour later than the last stopping service now, so may find myself using it on the odd occasion.

Still doesn't explain what has happened to the semifasts though...

And to bring the topic back to the actual thread (mods, I think some of these posts actually belong on the new timetable thread - but I was just replying to one that was there already, your honour!) - the situation is likely to result in the fast Twy-Mai-Pad trains being even more full of those of us from the local stations between Didcot and Reading who are turning back at Paddington to EB than they are now, because we are losing our two stopping options that we have now in the mornings which a lot of us use.

[TaplowGreen]

There's no seat reservations either although I haven't looked at Trainline to see if I can reserve them on a standard ticket as opposed to my season ticket. Not sure I fancy my chances of getting people to move though if I did have a reservation.

Even with first class available its still pretty cosy and options at that time are limited as the train before it from Twyford is also an 5 car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) and just as packed as its the only non stop train to Paddington.

No seats at all today.....

05:50 Oxford to London Paddington due 07:24
05:50 Oxford to London Paddington due 07:24 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[Sixty3Closure]

I did think this is one way of dealing with over crowding as I stood waiting on the platform.