Great Western Coffee Shop

'Demand' made by the England’s Economic Heartland (EEH) - an umbrella body of various local authorities from Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Milton Keynes, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire and Swindon in their reply to the Great Western Rail Franchise.

Newspaper article here (http://www.heraldseries.co.uk/news/hsdidcotnews/16088760.Demand_for_GWR_to_improve_Oxford_to_Didcot_line__as_a_priority_/)

Copy of response here (http://www.englandseconomicheartland.com/Documents/EEH%20Great%20Western%20Consultation%20response%20(PDF).pdf).

Well, they should be aware of the required funding requirements from their LEPs....

They could make a simple start by restoring all services to 3 carriages; since the start of the year most services (80%?) have been formed of 2 carriage units.
I am not sure where all the 3 carriage turbo's have gone but there are a lot of disgruntled commuters between those 2 locations; particularly as a lot of us received letters from GWR publicising lots of extra seats from January. It is particularly galling seeing all the almost empty 8 carriage trains on the stopping service to Reading and Paddington; Didcot to Oxford has more commuters than on the stopping service to Reading.

As well as the reduction in seats, the reliability and performance has also taken a dive. I thought that having a simple Oxford - Didcot shuttle  and disconnecting the service from the rest of the Thames Valley would improve performance but how wrong I was.

But not Reading to Paddington which is where those actually terminate But otherwise, I sympathise wholeheartedly

I went to Reading yesterday in the early evening and with the train I had intended to catch from Didcot being late caught up in the Bristol Parkway problems the next was the 17:29, which is an OXF-RDG stopper. The 2 carriage 165 arrived completely packed and took ages to disgorge all its passengers. Not many were left in there, but there was quite a stink of stale sweat remaining. Hate to think what this will be like in the summer. A 387 does DID-PAD only 6 minutes later.

I note that in the newspaper article one person indicates he will switch to the bus when his season runs out; I have heard someone else say the same.

Any way to better use the stock? 15 to 17 minute run time leads to a very inefficient use of stock for Didcot - Oxford shuttles. I'm sure this was carefully considered before electrification was cut back to Didcot. 30 minutes run time Oxford to Banbury local also a bit of a downer on efficiency. Other local problems include Swindon to Oxford journeys with appalling connections at Didcot, and problems of an hourly TransWilts into Swindon giving mahooosive turn around times / stock wastage there in order to avoid trains timetabled to pass each other on the single line between Chippenham and  Trowbridge. With some joining up, trains can have less lay-over time and be running longer, carrying more passengers.  So some of the three cars now based at St Phillip Marsh run to Oxford, and the 1 x 2 car second train per hour becomes 1 x 2+2 car. Elephant in the room?   The Swindon to Oxford service will build up such traffic that all the extra capacity you want back from that third carriage will already be full as the train comes into Didcot from Swindon!

NR won't currently allow any additional traffic between Didcot & Swindon owing to lack of paths. And I think EWR have first dibs if any work is done to alleviate that.

Isn't moving ECS from St Phillips Marsh to Didcot a waste of resources though?

EWR being East - West Rail?  We'll need to look at the onward timing to Milton Keynes or Bedford them.

Yes, "moving ECS from St Phillips Marsh to Didcot" would be a waste of resources and it's not part of the suggestion. I probably need to clarify the idea with a diagram of hourly patterns.

GWR has undertaken to see whether there is any possibility of stopping one or more peak hour PAD-OXF fasts additionally at DID for capacity. In principle this is not unreasonable as some other of these services do have one. However, with all the shuttling and turning round now at Didcot there may be practical reasons this can't be done at the required time, notwithstanding consideration of the slowing down of services for others etc.

If the 0651 from Goring (0641 starting at Didcot) was the 8-carriage EMU that is supposed to be, rather than the 4-carriage turbo that it has been since January, then there would be another 4 carriages that could be added to the OXF-DID shuttles....

As we already are aware, turbos are substituting in several places for their intended stock - hopefully once all the IETs are in place, they'll all return to their allocated services - including these

Going back to my original comment I am not asking for extra services I would just like the existing trains to be formed of 3 carriages as there were before September last year.
GWR hasn't lost any 165/166 so I would like them to explain why they have decided to downgrade these services, somebody at GWR must have taken that decision. I would also like to know when this will be rectified.

I appreciate that they have lost other trains and I assume that some of those services are now worked by 3 carriage 165/166, but presumably some of those could have been replaced by a 2 carriage 165 without being a downgrade.

Maybe we will get an increase when the next set of class 800 and 802 arrive and 165/166 can be removed from the Cotswold line, but like software, all the stuff you want is always in the next release :)

I think you are correct that GWR hasn't lost any 165/166 unit, but unfortunately it has lost some 15x units which have been sent elsewhere and the 165/166 are having to cover these services as well. 

And those units cover a distance well in excess of Oxford-Didcot (even Oxford-Reading), so understandable why they've gone....

Indeed. GWR has lost virtually all (all within a very short time) of the 150/1 units - I think there might have been a dozen of them or so, and the 5 remaining 180s, and a number of HSTs.  In very rough terms around 100 passenger carriages which can run off the electric.   Gained so far are (?) how many 800s, and the ability to grab trains off the Paddington to Didcot route.

Edit to add ... 15 x 150/1 at the start of December 2017 now (March) down to just 4 ... and they head out soon / may have done so already if my data feed is a bit laggy

In the past GWR (in their previous guise of FGW) hired in T & T Locos and Coaches to operate between Cardiff and Taunton, and for the Weymouth Wizard on Saturdays.

Whilst the current rolling stock situation persists why can't they do the same now, two sets of 5 ex-virgin Mk 2d's or Mk3's with a EWS or should I say a DB 67 at each end. A DRS 37 at each end would be preferable and a lot of extra revenue would be generated from all over GWR territory and elsewhere from all the enthusiasts not wanting to miss out on the bash behind the growlers.

But my question would be why can't GWR come and explain this to there customers? Even if we didn't like the message at least we would know why. As it is passengers just think GWR couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery.

If GWR can send me a letter telling me that there are 1000's of extra seats, surely they can also send me a letter explaining why the seats on our services have been cut by 33% and that they have plan to rectify it.

I assume that GWR just don't care they are just trying to make a profit and the passengers come last; and they wonder why there are calls for renationalisation.

And people think that will improve the communication, for instance?

But otherwise, I agree with you, they could (& ought to be doing so)

It was something that got a considerable airing at the last Customer Panel meeting held in Didcot back in January, where a few there were affected directly.

Don't know why though the record of that meeting is taking so long to appear on the GWR website for everyone to see not just those who were there.

 If and when EWR comes to fruition the line between Didcot and Swindon should be four track. How difficult would this be to do now or in the future?

The GWR (the original one) had a programme to do this in the 1930's.  The sections from Didcot to Milton, Wantage to Challow and from Shrivenham to Bourton were quadrified (to borrow a term from FTN) then.

Land was purchased for much of the rest in the 1930's (all the way to Wootton Bassett Jn).

The pinch points will be the A34 underbridge at Milton, Steventon (where the line goes through the village); A420 overbridge (Acorn Bridge) nr Bourton, and the A419 underbridge at Stratton.

There are some significant embankments between Steventon and Wantage that will need widening and quite a deep cutting at Uffington.  The cutting at Grange Drive in Swindon is quite deep, but the proximity to the houses might be an issue here.

There are also a few listed bridges on the route. 

This is all from memory so other please correct if my memory is not correct

That's interesting, thanks. I was unaware of the (original) GWR widening programme. They did get as far as quadrupling Wantage Road to Challow (which was removed in the 1960s MAS resignalling scheme, then reinstated in 1990!) as well as adding/lengthening other loops on the section. I wonder if NR still own the land that was purchased?

As you say the pinch points to widening the line will be Steventon (it's already four-track under the A34 bridge) and NR is making no provision for more than two tracks with its replacement design for the Steventon High St overbridge. From Causeway crossing to Wantage Road should be fairly strightforward.

Further west, in addition to the cutting you mention, there are houses in close proximity to the line at Baulking and Uffington. Also widening the track on the approach to Swindon would be very expensive. Don't see it happening anytime soon unfortunately.

And unless third-party funding comes forward, it won't happen in time for EWR start either. No funding in CP6 for this without it.

What's the deal on the Turbos being phased out?  Early morning Did to Padd fastish seem to be more Turbos than Electrostars

Good morning ... and welcome to the forum, Thames Valley Commuter - a very early (in the morning) initial post from you - early train to catch?

With electrification not yet completed (and no longer going to Oxford) and with a need to (re)plan timetables to take full account of where the new trains can go, there may not been enough electric trains to go around, and some of the work patterns of a train ("diagrams") may take a train on to an unelectrified line at some point in the day, even if it spends most of its time on Didcot - Paddington.

When the Elizabeth line opens, more (electric) trains will be running from London via Slough and Maidenhead as far as Reading, which will ease the shortage - if there is one - of the current electric units for services to Didcot and Newbury, and when timetables are redrawn to take advantage of those new trains and the changing performance pattern / shorter journey times allowed by the new long distance expresses,  any diagrams that are 99% electric will probably be tweaked to make them 100% electric.

Thames Valley not really my territory - others please follow up with specifics!

Would it not be easier to fit the 387s with batteries that can be recharged once under electrics, or if not small diesel engines which can provide power when not under wires? It seems crazy that GWR ordered all these 387s to boost capacity and now there having to scramble other trains to sort out a DFT mess.   The original GWR was ambitious, its a shame the modern era one is less so.

They are doing this with 19 312s (converted class 769) to provide for RDG-IXF trains. So a mixture of 769s and IETs for OXF-PAD

312s??

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/312718_and_312721_at_Kirby_Cross.JPG/320px-312718_and_312721_at_Kirby_Cross.JPG)

Do well to resurrect them and convert to tri-mode.  :P

We had the last 2 cars (both trailers) at the Coventry ERM. They're now at Colne Valley with the 308 and 307 cars.

All the rest were cut up over a decade ago. They were comfortable, mid-70's, high performance units with sensible slam-doors that generations had coped with.

Waste,

OTC

indeed, another typo....319s of course

Before lawyers assemble outside my tent, I will say that I originally borrowed the term, May probably be from bignosemac or Red Squirrel. But whoever called it whatever, I am all in favour of four-tracking.