At the moment I would regard myself as customer of the services between Newbury/Didcot and Paddington about twice a week but I do feel with the introduction of the class 800s and the Elektra units that service has increased significantly. Obviously the services on the Kennet branch are still the old HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) and 16x

So - am I the only one who thinks the quality of the service has improved?

When I read of reports of people ending their lives in this way I do wonder how bad life has to be for them to take this final step. I have often heard people say something like "who in their right mind.." but that in my opinion is the crux of the matter...they often aren't.

When I read of such incidents I am reminded of one Saturday evening in November 2004 when I was sitting in our conservatory  at the house in Thatcham, Berkshire. Whilst it's not unusual to  hear the sound of emergency vehicles travelling at speed along the A4 near where we live what was noticeable on that occasion was the sheer numbers of sirens. We knew that something major had kicked off.

I would suggest that in most train related suicides the number of fatalities is normally very small often limited to the person commuting suicide themselves. I am not suggesting for one moment that others are not affected by the events as those who are killed often leave behind family members and of course it will have an impact on those who have to deal with the aftermath of the event.

On that November evening 6 people lost their lives and another 150 were injured as a result of a high speed train hitting a car parked on the level crossing at Ufton Nervet near us. My Ex actually knew two of the train passengers who lost their lives (from memory a mother and her young daughter). That level crossing has since been replaced by a  bridge but when I travel on that line and see the memorial to those who lost their lives I am conscious of the fact that those passengers on the train affected by the accident were simply int he wrong place at the wrong time.

As others have eloquently said we will never be able to eliminate suicide attempts on the railways and sadly at this time of year incidents seem to be more common post Christmas.

Whilst I know this thread is not referring to specific incidents (with the exception of the one I referred to above) when ever I read of such events my thoughts go out to those directly and indirectly affected by the attempt.

On SUnday I was trying to plan a rail journey at short notice between Newbury and points west of Reading on the South Wales line. No matter which app or web site I tried to use I got a "something went wrong " error but there was nothing wrong with my internet connection.

As a test I tried looking at station departures and that worked reliably. I am wondering if the journey planner was having issues because the journey planner was trying to use the pricing engine but the departure boards were not.

Did anyone else have any issues with rail planning apps yesterday?

Just curious.

Yes I'm familiar with the CD and RA signs that are at major stations like Reading. I concur the lights were only green when the barriers were down - thankfully !

I think I may be about to show my ignorance of the hows and whys of signalling at stations work - especially in the case of intermediate stations such as Thatcham.

If you look at the west bound Thatcham platform - from memory - there is a signal at the western end of the platform but I thought this was a standard signal (struggling for terminology here) rather that for dispatch control.

So as an example if a west bound service pulls into that station the signal may already be green if the crossing barriers are up and the line sections ahead are clear. I didn't think the signal was used to dispatch services.

I've tried to consult Google maps to confirm the existence of that signal but as it shows the original footbridge I'm not sure how reliable that would be.

I would say that is probably a good reason to take them out of service.

I'm sure it is purely coincidence but on the first day the new IETs aren't running all other services out of Reading seemed to be running to schedule.

If there are general issues with the 80x services I guess it's best they sort them out now.

Ironically enough - in this week of new IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) being launched - the only high speed service to be found when I went through Paddington (to get  through to Reading) this afternoon featured a power car sporting what I think was the original HST^▸ (High Speed Train) livery

It looks like signalling problems between Hayes and Harlington are to blame. Not the first time of the last time I suspect.

I find it sad that in launch week there have been a significant number of delays to my journey both inbound and outbound.

To be fair due to the loading on the service I didn't get to explore much but I was going on the basis of the "painted out windows" which on the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) stock normally implied the buffet car.

I stand corrected.

Thanks to Chris for his earlier reply to my question about seat reservations.

Another question about the IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) is - apart from the bloke up front - how many crew are needed to run the services ?There seemed to be quite a few disembarking at Paddington this morning. Is this complicated by the fact that, for example, each individual diagram (correct term?) of 5 coaches has it's own first class and buffet facilities so this means a double up?

I travelled in from Reading to Paddington on one of the IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) this morning.

Very impressed with the smoothness of the ride. As did other posters I did notice some passengers hitting their heads on the luggage racks when they stood to get off.

I also notice that despite the coaches having seat reservation displays they were still using the old "card in top of seat" system. Is that because GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) haven't got the processes in place to deal with this alternative method?

Like a lot of services this morning it was delayed and there were quite a few passengers standing in my coach. I'm guessing travellers haven't yet adjusted their optimal platform position to match the IETs formation

So I told my girlfriend I had a job in a bowling alley. She said "Tenpin?" I said, "No, it's a permanent job."

As I mentioned earlier I was on an HST^▸ (High Speed Train)  service that was switched to relief line after leaving Reading and then switched back prior to Slough. I was surprised how fast we were travelling on the relief line. I know it's slightly off topic but what is the maximum speed allowed on that section of relief track?

The scene when I arrived at Paddington about 830 this morning

Geeetings from a HST^▸ (High Speed Train) based service which I boarded at Reading for Paddington . Sadly it don't know the origin of the service I was too busy trying to board and get a seat

We have been switched onto the "slow" up line - does anyone know if this is connected with the introduction of the IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) today ?

Update: we were routed back on to the Up Main (?) line just west on Slough station