All rather depressing. I did tweet FGW^▸ (First Great Western) about this to see if it really was true. Their response there was "@charles_uk I have looked on our systems for the forseeable future and it looks like even into November it is scheduled to be HST's. Heather". Something tells me that is going to be a communication thing at their end and not good news.

Today's 15:51 was the first time I have ever seen a service being described as "full & standing" on the information screens at Oxford station. I'd managed to avoid this service for the last two Fridays but it was more than just a little cosy today. I appreciate that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) do want to provide an additional service to the west country on Fridays but surely there has to be a better option than taking the HST from the busy Friday PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-WOS^» (Worcester Shrub Hill - next trains) service?

There were 3 180s at Oxford yesterday evening - no idea which sets though. The 1648 service to Didcot and two sets in the sidings. Never seen so many together before.

The "halts" train this morning was indeed very cosy. Problem was made worse as bicycles were allowed on further down the line so when it pulled into Hanborough we had to negociate a barrier of these before we were able to squash our way down the carriage.

Passengers for the 1649 from Oxford to stations to Evesham were told replacement road transport would be arranged. After being directed to and from the front of the station  a couple of times, we gathered behind platform 2 where there were about eight taxis waiting! I can't really say what happened much after that as five of us for Hanborough managed to get one of the available taxis. In the event I got to Hanborough station at about 1740, roughly when the halts train would have arrived.

There were a couple of passengers at Hanborough who were getting no help at all from the information point. The taxi provided by FGW^▸ (First Great Western) that got us to Hanborough refused to take those two passengers back to Oxford - presumably because FGW had not made any arrangements to accommodate passengers wanting to get to Oxford.

According to Ollie from @FGW^▸ (First Great Western) on Twitter the "reason for today is to provide additional capacity on S.Wales route due to games at Cardiff".

It's just frustrating that this service does seem to be an easy picking every time FGW needs an HST elsewhere, especially when FGW boasted that the 180s were being re-introduced to increase capacity on the Cotswold Line. But there you go... ho hum.

Thank you. Thought it was about time I opened my mouth.

I have been a long-time lurker and find this site a constant source of helpful and interesting information.

And actually, I didn't find today's Turbo experience any worse than the 180s on the last three Fridays; Turbos do seem to be able to cope with over-crowding better than the Adelantes. That's not to say it wasn't horrid and the sooner we get our Friday HST^▸ (High Speed Train) back the better.

Oh goody.

The 180s have been a snug fit over the last few Fridays...

Does that mean it'll be a turbo for the 15:51???