Great Western Coffee Shop

Wonder if anyone has any direct experience of, or if any of the forums insiders can tell me what typical loadings are like on the 18.23 or 19.19 departures from Bridgend to Paddington on Sunday evenings?

I can make a guess that they're not heaving as there are quite low priced advanced fares available (I looked at 23rd October after the Severn Tunnel is re-opened).  Applying that same logic, the earlier trains (16:01 especially and 17:24) look like they would be expected to be rather busier - makes sense as people don't want to be too lat into Paddington if they have onward journeys or work the next day.

I can't find departures at those times, at least not over the next few weeks.   If your's thinking of tomorrow, departures are at 1758, 1858 and 2028 and diverted via the Vale of Glamorgan.

Thanks both.

Graham - coincidentally I was also looking at the 23rd once things are back to normal with the tunnel re-opened (interestingly the re-open day is a Friday so I wonder if that was deliberate to give a couple of weekend days of leeway if things overrun a little?). Had also applied the same logic that the availability of those cheap advances being an indicator of relatively light loadings. They are cheap enough to bring rail back to being close to the cost of driving, so I'll perhaps mix it up a bit from here on in instead of solely driving (weekly commute s.wales to west London).

Phile - I was looking at dates from 23rd October onwards, I assume the times I quoted are the 'normal' Sunday departure times - it was just an initial screening for ticket costs, so I have not yet investigated further into the timetable than that.

The normal times are 1823, 1923, and 2028.     There are so many variations that it is quite a jungle to find the correct times.   Suggest you try Real Time Trains when you are sure of a date.