Great Western Coffee Shop

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 and 16x

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

Still a long way to go in my opinion, but there are signs the new timetable is settling down a little now.  Some routes (mainly obviously the North Cotswold Line) are still nowhere near up-to-scratch, but last week saw the best PPM charter results over the week for the franchise since last August IIRC.

Indeed they are, but I heard on BBC Berks this morning that the first of the "souped-up" Class 800's (the extra ones that GWR ordered themselves for W of England services) is due out of the factory in Italy today. As far as the 387's, I think there are only a couple left to be delivered (and those in service seem to regularly run into stations a few minutes early as they are quicker than the diesels to whose timetable they are currently running).

There also seems to have been a lot of progress on the B&H OHLE in recent weeks, and I expect with the forthcoming (week-long) blockades we will see wires going up and the OHLE through the stations.

I read elsewhere that the wires to Newbury are due to be energised in September, with a view to electric/hybrid services from January.

802002 & 802003 were handed over in Italy yesterday - Richard Clinnick has posted photos on Twitter

They are not actually the first 802s - 80200 and 80201 were assembled in Japan and delivered for testing last year (see Rail Magazine (https://www.railmagazine.com/news/fleet/first-gwr-at300-class-802-arrives-in-uk-from-japan)) from June 2017:

I'm not sure whether they've been around GW land testing; you'd need to look hard to tell.

I asked that question earlier this week & I think the answer was that they haven't - just been tested elsewhere (Dalby test track?)

802001 in Paddington here:

https://farm5.static.flickr.com/4332/36175034940_d3d2a43386_b.jpg

Here the pair are reported at Grove, back in November:

http://www.hondawanderer.com/802001_802002_Grove_2017.htm

Paul

The 802s are supposed to begin to enter passenger service in July, so still some testing period to go.

Yes, I confirmed this earlier in the week directly with GWR management.

Wondering if the Bedwyn's will move to IET's in advance of the juice switch-on to Newbury, as they could obviously operate west of Reading in diesel mode?

I also understand that the turn-back siding at Bedwyn needs to be extended, and am not sure what the timeframe is for that?