Great Western Coffee Shop

Since at least September there has only been one GWR DMU-operated service per week booked to call at Hanwell, the Fridays-only 2R93 2349 London Paddington to Reading (which also happens to be literally all stations to Reading, something I really want to do on a 165 ;D). The other GWR service that calls at Hanwell (0847 to Maidenhead Mon-Fri) has been booked for a 387 EMU for a few months now.

However, on Saturday 25 November there is no Heathrow Connect service* . As a result, Hanwell instead has the hourly stopping services to/from Oxford calling all day (http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/advanced/HAN/2017/11/25/0200-0159?stp=WVS&show=pax-calls&order=actual), giving what may be the last chance to photograph or travel on a DMU at Hanwell in daylight, before the new timetable in January 2018 brings in the mass EMU conversion of stopping services east of Didcot Parkway.

While I will really miss the DMUs from an enthusiast point of view :'(, when wearing my "normal passenger hat" there is no doubt that the 387s are an improvement in every single way.

( * Ok, there is the 2T08 0442 London Paddington to Heathrow Airport Terminal 4, but that doesn't call at Hanwell)

I wonder if Hanwell's service will increase from 2tph to 4tph when TfL Rail services start next May?

Crossrail website says it will be 4 trains an hour: http://www.crossrail.co.uk/route/western-section/hanwell-station

Crossrail don't take over until 2019, so in May 2018 it's the TfL plans that matter. Their September update said:

That doesn't say whether the stopping pattern will include Hanwell on all of those - and they may not have decided yet. Also the May 2018 date is the start of a phased introduction of the new trains, but it does look as if the replacement of Heathrow Connext is planned to happen all at once and on that date.

Crossrail is building the line and TfL are the client who will then get the London Overground operator to run it.

Better than my shorthand, but still not quite right.

The new trains are all operated by MTR Crossrail, currently out of Liverpool Street as TfL Rail.
The Paddington services, progressively from May 2018, will also be operated by MTR Crossrail as TfL Rail.
The Elizabeth Line name comes in when the tunnel opens, initially in December 2018 only to Abbey Wood.

...thats all dependent on getting the new on-board signalling systems and its trackside interfaces installed and approved in time.... ::) :P

.........surely you're not suggesting a rail project might overrun? 😂

Well, it's not just digging holes, you know. It's largely - er - software.

Yeah it's not particularly clear, would like to think this stage of the service introduction would fit in with the ultimate plan for 4 trains an hour, but not found anything to confirm either way whether that would indeed be the case.

The quicker a 4tph service can be introduced the better as there is a clear need for it.

Hanwell station is in dire need of TLC. A significant amount of the lights on the platform don't work, even some of the temporary fluorescent tubes don't work. Really don't know how the drivers cope with the lack of lighting, especially in the down direction where at best there is a mirror. Actually, DOO equipment in the down direction is crap pretty much everywhere, at least Hanwell actually has a mirror, as the much busier Southall + Hayes & Harlington don't have anything these days ::) . And the another thing that Hanwell needs is a repaint, ok that also applies to many stations but I think Hanwell is the worst.

If TfL/Crossrail are taking the station over come Crossrail, they'll be doing it up

It's a GWR managed station isn't it?, with only one daily GWR train and approx 75 Heathrow Connects. I doubt GWR will be in any hurry to get their paintbrushes out.

It is until the end of the year, after which it (and the rest of the inner Thames Valley stations) transfer over to TfL Rail.

I thought Heathrow Connect was a joint service with GWR

I do seem to get the impression that GWR gave up with station TLC as soon as Crossrail was announced, because why repaint things and install new signs when a few years later TfL will do it again?! The new buildings and footbridges can't come quickly enough either at places like Southall, as the old ones really don't work well with the amount of passengers travelling.

Having said the above, they somehow actually repainted lampposts and fences at Acton Main Line over the last 2 weeks! :o

Heathrow Connect is listed as a TOC in its own right. I don't think it's a real TOC, more of a man and a phone in an office (dog optional). And it will of course disappear in a puff of spare rolling stock next year.

Whatever is done to the station is down to Crossrail/TfL. They are promising stuff like
and some of it has happened (at least, opening the subway to the now-less-misnamed Station Approach).

There'll be plenty of chances to see DMUs at Hanwell etc. for years and years.

Yesterday ALL Connects were cancelled - due to 'lineside equipment failure.' Par for the course - seems like a daily occurrence. But its a nice little earner for the foreign owners of Heathrow Airport in that hapless airline pax. then have to pay (again?) for the exorbitantly expensive Express. Of course there are never any visible Heathrow management staff at Paddington during such times of disruption.

In the evening a GWR Paddington to Reading made an UNANNOUNCED stop at Hanwell. The driver failed to announce the extra stop when we departed Paddington, and failed to make any announcements when we got to Hanwell. Again par for the course from a disinterested driver.

All signs of the brave new world called Great Western Railway, and with CrossRail that we will be inflicted with whenever that project finally reaches west of Paddington.

I can’t see many DMU services operating from Paddington after January.  A few Turbos working peak services perhaps, but they should become 387s or IET’s within a few months - 12-car Class 387 workings are planned to start in January between Paddington and Reading on limited stop peak trains, though how that’ll work with the SDO remains to be seen.

Crossrail is currently on time to commence through working west of Paddington from Dec ‘19, and from next May the existing Heathrow Connect and Hayes shuttles will combine to be operated by 9-car Crossrail trains under the TfL Rail banner as a 4tph Paddington to Heathrow Service.  Platform extensions will be completed by then, even if the stations themselves won’t have been rebuilt.