Great Western Coffee Shop

We all know what's happened to GWR's weekend service lately (cough.... years) with mass cancellations, delays and missed stations. With the Royal Wedding this weekend and the eyes of the world on the service... what do you think will happen? Previous promises of increased services, such as for the rugby and boxing, have been cancelled followed by the cancellation of actual timetables services as well. It would be good to know your thoughts? Have GWR suspended driver training this week to ensure that there are enough crew?

I would have expected dire warnings before now, so I think the extra services/longer trains will run.

I still think there'll be too many people and expect horrendous queues though

Looking at the barriers set up in the east side car park at Slough they are expecting lots of people.  A 4 car 165 does not quite have the same capacity as an 8 car 387 of which at least 2 (1 UP and 1DN) will arrive while said 4 car 165 is between Slough and Windsor.


Its going to be bedlam.   ;D

I'm nearby and things are already "warming up" so to speak...……….the lovely Meghan is spending the night in Taplow - what a lucky girl!

Car parks in Windsor are opening at 0400 - are the trains starting earlier/finishing later than usual?

Worth remembering with all your dire/gleeful warnings of chaos that Slough-Windsor is not the only option, there are those nice, long trains out of Waterloo to Windsor too, and we're pretty used to "too many people/horrendous queues" in the LTV area, especially recently, so I am sure all will cope in a good humoured and patient manner as befits the occasion.

Other events may make it lively however - FA Cup Final, Rock the Moor etc........so if there is the usual weekend meltdown, Hopwood may be waiting a little longer than he hoped for his knighthood.

Out of idle curiosity I looked on Booking.com yesterday at hotel prices in Windsor for tonight and there were a few available in the town centre from prices between £330 and £540 for one room.   Looking tonight they have gone, so either someone paid those prices or they were withdrawn.

Next week those same rooms range from £120 to £180 - that's supply and demand for you!

First service is 05:44 from Slough and then every 20 minutes rather than the usual 06:17 and every 30 mins

I expect that the Windsor services will run reasonably well, with the "eyes of the world upon them" GWR will no doubt provide extra resources, even if that makes the usual weekend chaos elsewhere even worse. I think that fine weather is expected, ideal for barbecues :)

I do not THINK that incompetent railway directors can be beheaded at the Tower of London, but there might be some ancient statute that permits it.

Any bad c0ck ups would likely prevent the granting of a knighthood to any senior figure who might otherwise have been so honoured.

I don't think crewing will be a problem - just the one additional driver need to be found per shift to double crew the train and summer holidays have yet to take effect and I'm sure this will be given priority.  And if they can't find another driver it's not absolutely essential to double crew it.

I did see press reports that GWR was planning on giving away free water and cakes to those queuing at the station.

I'm possibly being unfair but its a pity the positive PR doesn't extend to passengers when they're stranded at Paddington or wherever.


bah humbug  ;D

They'd have no problem in getting crew to man the special days timetable with a much enhanced hourly rate offer to staff to work their rest day for those whose rest day is this special day.

What was the enhanced rate on offer?  I don’t recall seeing the details of any such special offer.

From my SWR Alerts email

Seemed to be going ok at Slough this morning. Long queues but 400 or so people being shifted on each 4-car train so nowhere near horrendous.  Plenty of staff and BTP and free water and most people with smiles on their faces.  Not sure how the Riverside route was coping, but with a combined 52 carriages of people arriving at Windsor per hour it looked a pretty well organised plan to me.

Slough Borough council have laid on a load of free buses too which has helped.

Good to see it all working out, any sign of Hopwood or other senior managers?

Water, tick, knew that would happen.   Was the suggestion I got of GWR confetti being handed out a joke?  ;D.   I really wonder at how Windsor will cope with all those people ... or are they all being shunted into the Great Park?

According to GWR website - water, confetti and “bunting”!!

Rumour has it that the confetti is made up out of all the documents GWR have to shred before the receivers move in !

GWR saying on Twitter that they have moved over 8000 people to the wedding no real hitches waiting time in line to go back is about 30 mins as of 14:45.

Queue time now up to 2 hours ...

Encouragement to people either to go via Riverside to London, or enjoy Windsor a bit longer.

Gave up at Hayes - too hot for sardines. Went to Feltham. SWT had room to stand - but was full of young people. NONE offered a seat to elderly folk even for priority seats. Par for the course now-a-days. There's a petition going round to ban live transport of animals. [Google live sheep dying of thirst etc. whilst being sent to the Middle East from Australia / New Zealand.] It could include humans too on our God's Wonderful Railways.

There are few better places to be stuck (if you happen to be!) than Windsor on a balmy evening with loads of happy people (………...with the possible exception of Plymouth, naturally!)  :)

Nice to see everybody is on the same page as usual. Police apparently said yesterday that they didn't want confetti as it made a mess, was environmentally unfriendly and a security risk. Hate to think what they would have said if the event was on April 1st.