Great Western Coffee Shop

I've just checked the cost of a First Class ticket from Exeter St Davids to London Paddington after January 2nd 2019 and it appears to have been significantly reduced..................

Today...
First Anytime Single     £204.50
First Anytime Return    £409.00
First Off-Peak Return    £264.60

January...
First Anytime Single     £174.50
First Anytime Return    £349.00
First Off-Peak Return   £225.50

Is this perchance to do with the falling number of First Class passengers since the introduction of the IET (i.e the percieved reduction in the quality of the First Class offering)?

Still too much.

Or is it due to the larger number of 1st class seats available?

Undoubtedly !  First Class on an IET just is not worth the money - almost any extra money. The seats are poor, the tables (amazingly) are too large, making it difficult to get in and out. The whole ambiance of First Class is missing. When you walk into 1st on a 125 - it looks like first class; an IET looks just like Standard with slightly different seats. As I have said elsewhere they haven't even bothered to to put 1st Class stickers on the windows.   
My wife and I have been to St Ives several times in the last couple of years - 1st Class in a 125. A very pleasant experience. I would think long and hard (pun intended) about spending the extra on IET 1st Class - actually, the thought of nearly 5 hrs on an IET Standard seat is even worse. Goodbye St Ives !

……...could also be an effect of competition from the (excellent) Flybe flights now available from Exeter to London City Airport, which 1st class passengers are perhaps more likely to take?

A return ticket in early January gives you change from £110, journey time 70 minutes......no brainer really?

I just got off an IET at Reading and switched to an HST because:

The customer host (at least there was one this time) on the IET had so little stock for 1st he was embarrassed.
The trolley is the size of a postage stamp compared to the one on Friday night on the HST.
There was no hot chocolate, no crisps, fruit etc.
The time penalty was minimal as the HST was on the opposite platform.
I prefer the more subdued lighting and the seats on the HST.

I've no idea if it's because of more seats or a lack customers due to the downgraded 1st class that they've cut the prices. Interesting to see it's happened though given the rises elsewhere.

Make the most of the HSTs while you can, they won't be around for much longer! There are now more IETs than HSTs in service now.

I wholeheartedly agree: I had my first journey in IET First the other day and found it to be almost indistinguishable from Standard. And you are right about the tables. It certainly isn't worth the extra money just for a 'free' coffee and snacks. Very disappointing.

I Travelled first class to Reading, some years back and loved the H.S.T. 1st class. Out of this world.

When the penultimate Cotswold train on a Friday night becomes an IET then that'll be a very dark day. Well actually it'll be a very bright day indeed because of the insanely bright lighting on the IET in 1st. I think you know what I mean though.

Possibly a no brainer for some, though (as ever) when you're looking at flight tickets you need to compare apples with apples and compare advance booked flight tickets with advanced booked rail tickets, rather than ridiculously (albeit now to be slightly less ridiculously) priced walk-on tickets.

The daily flight from Exeter is at 07:00 arriving London City at 08:10.  In the week commencing 7th January single fares range from £34.99 to £57.99.

The comparable daily train from Exeter (though loads of others are of course available) is the 05:52 arriving Paddington at 08:37.  Probably not a dissimilar overall journey time when allowing for transfers depending on where you live.  In the same week Standard Class advances are available from between £29.50 and £39 (the lower fare available on all but one day) and First Class advances are available all week for £62.

A quick glance at the situation for the return journey prices seems to favour the rail journey more than the flight which is as high as £86.20 on the Thursday of that week.

So, overall the flight is pitched somewhere between first and standard rail fares, though of course it could swing one way or the other depending on the day and how far in advance you book.

………...all of which is great but if you read what I said again you will note that I was referring specifically to the likely habits of business/1st class travellers in the context of the point of the original post, which was the slight reduction in the ludicrously high price of 1st class Anytime/Off peak returns, and putting forward one of the likely drivers of that reduction which is the availability of quicker and cheaper flights which would appeal to Business travellers as an alternative. You've also helpfully highlighted the earlier arrival time in London by air too.

I know that the concept of competition is a totally alien one to those who work on the railways, but it does exist :)

I wonder how far the reductions spread?

Taking a random (  ;D ) station a couple of counties over - Melksham - First Class returns to London Paddington remain at £269.00 in the peak and £159.00 off peak ... and there isn't a super off peak (is that right?)

Anyone else checked any other stations?

I have found a number of stations where off-peak tickets (first and standard) are being sold on gwr.com for peak services in 2019. Somehow I don't think this is intentional or long-lasting ;D

Use this info at own risk ...

I've removed some of the quotes, but absolutely, you may well be right in that that is a part of the reason for the reduction.  But if you read again what I wrote, you'll see all I am doing is making a comparison between the price of advance booked 1st class rail and advance flight prices, rather than walk-on rail prices versus advance flight prices which is the comparison, even if indirectly, that you were making.  I know which I think is the fairer comparison.  The standard class prices were also quoted to give a meaningful comparison as not everyone travelling on business insists on 1st class, just as not everyone travelling by rail on business waits until the last minute to buy their ticket at those (still) eye-watering prices.

The slightly earlier flight arrival at London City Airport is indeed helpful if you are headed for Canary Wharf, but that time will soon be swallowed up if you are heading for anywhere in central London.  There is a greater choice of options if you choose to go by rail, and other benefits such as railcard discounts and the ability to pay the difference between your advance rail ticket and the walk on fare if you miss the train you're booked on (what happens if you miss your one-a-day flight?) but no doubt the flight option will be clearly the better option for some.

It would be interesting, and probably more relevant, to gauge the impact of competition from Flybe, to see whether advance rail tickets around the times of their flight are either reducing in price or increasing in number as a result. 

Regarding your last point, I've stated before I am personally all for competition from other modes of transport and a genuine choice for travellers, but I will sometimes choose to take the time to point out the benefits of rail that might be overlooked by some for whatever reason.  ;)

Wow. Is 1st class available throughout that journey or would it only be from Swindon-London?

You'll need to us the local (standard class only) train to Chippenham ... change there for London if you like.   We normally recommend a Swindon change on the way up, as there are up to 5 trains an hour from there to London rather than the 2 from Chippenham

Sadly the 19:22 is now an IET with no functioning reservations and the usual insanely bright lighting which apparently cannot be turned down.

Is there not a switch somewhere, There is on the HST'S.

It has to remain on at all times by legal requirements.

The last Train Manager I spoke to said that the lighting wasn't alterable. It may just have been unalterable by GWR staff but possible if you're Hitachi. I might have a look through the DaFT specifications and see if it was a requirement or not.

When I had to travel on a HST, the lighting was usually already dimmed. I.E. Some lights off. Noticing the switch was in dim position, putting it to bright, put them all on.

The IEP specification does not itself dictate general cabin lighting, but calls up BS EN 13272:2001 ‘Railway applications – Electrical lighting for rolling stock in public transport systems’ (superseded as :2012) as it applies to main line rolling stock. You'll do well do find a copy of this, as BSI (and I suspect other standards institutions) have taken to using DMCA complaints to Google to suppress on-line texts.

There is a little about emergency lighting, including the only number (20 lux - not at all bright), and one mention of light levels at seats:

Reads oddly, doesn't it?

The internal fittings and features lists do include reading lights and table lamps, but neither is ever required even in first class.

Thanks for the detailled reply and yes finding a copy of the BS standard that doesn't cost the earth is as  hard as diamond.