Great Western Coffee Shop

The finished December 2007 timetable can be found in the link below.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=1930

Links don't work on them though :D

It does say its under construction-same thing happened for drafts took a few hours for links to work.

They work now.

I see the 0817 Exeter St Davids to Exmouth (0700 from Barnstaple) will run late every weekday morning, since they've only allowed one minute to climb the hill to Exeter Central...

Yeh, the equivalent today, the 0704 X Barnstaple arrives EXD at 0813 whilst the 0700 X Barnstaple is shown as arriving EXD at 0815, 6 minutes longer for the same journey. This service is also allowed five minutes to climb the bank into Central, not unexpected for the weight of commuters from the Tarka Line it would be carrying in the 150 now operating the service.

But then have you factored into your post the fact that these will be operated by the 142's which have a FANTASTIC rate of acceleration especially uphill and if you're on one you would wonder if it would be taking off at the top of the bank rather like the Sea Harriers did from the ski ramps on the flight decks of the Aircraft Carriers Illustrious, Invincible and Ark Royal. One nod and its OFF.

Perhaps the timetabling people are expecting the services to be empty after all the adverse comment regarding the return of the 142's and nobody wanting them back on the line so have timetabled them to romp up the bank in a minute.

Interesting to note that the previous service from Paignton is allowed 5 minutes for the same journey and other services are allowed 3 or 4 minutes.

In the opposite direction services are also allocated 3, 4 or 5 minutes to descend the bank.

Is it about time someone in the timetabling department needs a boot up their derrier and sort out the problem of such variations between the two adjacent stations.

Oh I forgot, If they did that then this time next year the timetablers wouldn't have a job because the timetable would be PERFECT. 

Some initial observations :

The morning Cross Country service from Cardiff - Bristol does not show in the FGW book , but continues to run according to National Rail Enquiries.

Malvern Link ends up as "billy no mates" with some FGW stops removed.

Still no real effort on the part of FGW to offer a proper commuter service in the mornings from local stations on the Oxford - Banbury line.

Notably the Brighton-Malvern misses out Malvern Link!

I like the notes back at the bottom of the page.

1000 padd - paignton gets a Chef service to Bristol, whatever that is!!

Also of note is the changed pattern to Didcot from London.

May 2007: xx00 xx15

December 2007: xx15 xx30

Strange or what  ???

Get ready for another rant from me about no timetables showing weekend engineering work, just a generic Sunday timetable with a note at the bottom of each page to check the website for details of engineering work. Hopefully by not including revised timetables in the main booklets, they will improve the information of revised services on the website. If they do then fair enough and it does cut down on the size of the booklets.

Soooo here's the challenge - how many Sundays will the actual published timetables operate with NO alterations. Lets see.

The short platform makers make interesting reading, imagine the mess if the SDO failed on a HST from Penzance to Pad. It could call at Penzance, Plymouth, Newton Abbott, Exeter St Davids, Tiverton, Taunton, Westbury, Newbury, Reading and London Padd. LOL. Some of the platforms they say are short aren't though, like Camborne which can fit a HST on all Penzance bound and all execpt Guards door Padd bound and Truro as well. Anybody know why this is?

Same applies to Dawlish, Never been sure why its classed as a short platform myself. Same applies to Teignmouth.

If SDO did fail most stations in Cornwall have 'grandfather' rights and could stop anyway.

FGW December Pocket timetables are now available online:

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=1943

As soon as SDO is active then "Grandfather rights" no longer exist.