Great Western Coffee Shop

Useful through service (when it runs through) - though not at a particularly useful time of day!

And with that start time before 04:30, it is always a 'yesterday' train as yesterday's ticket is valid for travel from Oxford. Being cancelled - it probably means travelling on a replacement today, i.e. after 04:30. I take it that in this case, yesterday's ticket is still valid for your amended journey today.

Not always a 'yesterday' train. The start of a day for a new ticket is 00:01. Therefore if travelling from Oxford towards Gatwick on a day return ticket using this service, it would be valid for a further 24 and a bit hours.

If however this service was being used as part of a return journey having made a journey to Oxford the previous day, then yes the following train after the 04:00 would have you travelling on a train the day after your ticket is valid, but as you say would be allowed in such circumstances.   

Here's a thought-

When (if?) the class 769s arrive, the train could start on diesel from Oxford, switch to OHL at Didcot until Reading, a short diesel run over to the North Downs line, then third rail to Wokingham, diesel to Ash junction, third rail to Shalford junction, diesel to Reigate and third rail to Gatwick. It will keep the driver busy!

Indeed, these trains hopefully arriving open up a potential world of opportunity for the North Downs line. Journeys along this line could start from Oxford and finish at Brighton perhaps. They could also open up through opportunities for the Thames Branches and the Reading to Basingstoke route.

There used to be through trains from Reading to Brighton - I remember going on one in the 1990s. But they didn't go via Gatwick, and (which I didn't remember) were run by SWT.

I remember being on a SWT service to Portsmouth Harbour via Guildford in the 90's, I also remember via Basingstoke to Portsmouth and being on a service to Brighton via Basingstoke around 1999. Virgin Crosscountry ran to Brighton and Portsmouth via Guildford, and Brighton via Kensington Olympia from Reading I recall too. I always wondered whether there was much demand from the South Coast to the Midlands and the North avoiding London, perhaps a service from Brighton to Oxford stopping at busiest points between would create a link with the rest of the Crosscountry network again.

Have you seen the marvellous http://www.1s76.com web site?   I remember Lisa flying into Gatwick a couple of decades ago, destination Hatton.   A story we'll tell you about over a beer sometime.

I remember the early Virgin Cross Country service to Portsmouth, in the pre-Voyager days (why are people so rude about them? - see below!).

There was one that left Reading for Guildford and Portsmouth at about 8-05 to 8-12 in the morning, originating in Preston (presumably at some unearthly early hour), and it fitted a slot between the 8-04 to Redhill and 8-19 for Shalford. As it didn't fit well with any incoming stopper from Goring I seldom caught it.

It was usually formed of a 2 car class 158 in the drab Regional Railways livery, manned incongruously by Virgin staff then attired in their brand new airline style red outfits. It didn't seem well patronised. One perhaps for the current thread about longer trains on longer distance trains?

At that stage the main south coast Cross Country trains were still using air-conditioned Inter City liveried locomotive hauled mark 2 stock which usually looked unloved, often with most of their lavatories locked out of use and the air-con not working properly. The arrival of the Voyagers transformed the service, even if we slowly lost some of the destinations as the years went on (Portsmouth, Brighton, Gatwick and Liverpool). Even now, in their middle age, I think that Voyagers are far better than the trains they replaced in the early noughties.

The SWT train for Brighton I think left Platforms 1 - 3 in Reading to go via Basingstoke and Portsmouth, but I never used the service, so have no clear recollection. Having recently looked at travelling from Reading to Portsmouth via Guildford for a possible day out, it does take quite a while, so I can see why travelers from the Midlands and the North to Stations east of Southampton don't use this route whereas the faster Cross Country services via Basingstoke and Winchester are well patronised.

Quote:
At that stage the main south coast Cross Country trains were still using air-conditioned Inter City liveried locomotive hauled mark 2 stock which usually looked unloved, often with most of their lavatories locked out of use and the air-con not working properly. The arrival of the Voyagers transformed the service, even if we slowly lost some of the destinations as the years went on (Portsmouth, Brighton, Gatwick and Liverpool). Even now, in their middle age, I think that Voyagers are far better than the trains they replaced in the early noughties.

Hmm many visits to the Evening Star in Brighton, and I seem to recall a Deltic was somehow working the Ramsgate service once?

I regularly go from Reading to Portsmouth, but tend to go via Basingstoke and catch the Waterloo - Portsmouth train that goes via Fareham. There is one train an hour, which doesn't match the timings of the GWR Reading - Basingstoke service, but can get a better connection on some Cross Country services.

The ticket allows travel either via Southampton (or the Botley, Hedge End line) or via Guildford.

Great. It seems there were a lot more than I remember in the BR days.

I go to Portsmouth now and again for leisure purposes and ,because of the validity of the ticket, I will travel there one direction and back via the other. Normally the Basingstoke route on the way back. If you join the via Basingstoke train at Portsmouth Harbour in the afternoon it is often 12 coaches long, so many stations en route can't platform the whole train. Which means you often have a carriage to yourself for most of the journey back, something which I miss from weekdays in the BR era. It's great that more people are using trains, but sometimes I just want a bit of peace and quiet to enjoy a journey without the annoyances of modern life.

I think Voyagers have got to be the worst long-distance trains currently running on the UK rail network. They are cramped, noisy, have smelly toilets and don't have enough carriages.

It would be far better to replace them with refurbished ex-GWR HSTs.

I think memories of the SWT “Reading Brighton service” possibly exaggerate its usefulness.  The DMUs ex-Reading ran nominally every 3 hours, with EMUs running more services between times between Basingstoke and Brighton. But in the peak flow directions the same paths were used by Basingstoke to Portsmouth Harbour services that fitted in between the hourly Waterloo via Eastleigh trains - the latter were still running until quite recently but are now mostly through services to/from Waterloo.  Also, back when SWT ran to Brighton they did not run east of Fareham in the hours FGW ran along the coast. 

From the Brighton end the service to Reading was quite sparse over the course of a whole day, with departures to Reading at 0957, 1257, 1557, 1857.  Reading’s departures to Brighton were at 0656, 1004, 1301, 1604, 1901.

A quick check suggests the three present obvious routes between Reading and Portsmouth (via Guildford, or Basingstoke/Southampton or Basingstoke/Botley) all take approximately 2 hours. 

Paul