Great Western Coffee Shop

This morning a friend of mine nearly got caught out at Paddington when she boarded a non-stop Bristol train to get to Reading, having become used to getting on any "fast" train. (I had warned her about the new timetable.) Luckily she heard the on-board announcement, gathered together several bags (including my Christmas presents  ;D), got off just in time and caught the next train for Bristol (and Reading).

She's a delightful European but given to "blondeness". She once fell asleep and missed the Reading stop, ending up in Taunton. And on another occasion a couple of station staff were very patient indeed when she wouldn't accept that there wasn't a station at Takeley, to where she'd recently moved. (There used to be one there, but it closed in 1952 ...) They even took her down a list of station names beginning with "T" - she was lucky that they didn't sell her a ticket to Tackley. A few months later, we were together at Reading Station, when a Banbury service was announced, stopping at Tackley, which caused her to smile.

Marlburian

Friday afternoon Westcountry services are all 'Pick up only' at Reading, so the Reading stop is not shown on the CIS at Paddington. Sadly, many Reading-bound pax know this and still board the trains, so maybe she is one of these pax.

It was Thursday morning when she travelled. No, she wouldn't have worked out that some trains only pick up at Reading. I myself had been vaguely aware of "stops to pick up/set down", but their existence had faded in my memory. (In the early 2000s I used to spend long weekends in Torquay, so was then familiar with Paddington trains going there from Reading.)

Several of my friends have English as a second language. I try to explain the intricacies of rail travel to them, but I don't always grasp them completely myself.

(Today my "blonde" friend thanked me for my advice this year, which included urging her to seek "Settled Status" and to get a Network Railcard, something she initially thought was not worth her while. And for three years she didn't realise that a ticket from Stansted to Reading included Tube travel, so she was buying a Tube ticket at Liverpool Street. But now when she's travelling early, as she did today, she's sussed out split-ticketing, so she's learning.)

Marlburian

I'm sure people will soon get the hang of the new timetable and the new fast services. I'm equally sure that a few people will slip up, especially those who have headphones on and won't hear any onboard announcements. It's a small price to pay for actually getting some fast services back to Bristol and South Wales.

On the plus side, it's probably a mistake you'll only make once.

She'd better hurry up with the Settled Status. And not try to use it as a train ticket.

On topic, I haven't yet used one of the new ultrasuperhyper-fast straight through services and I'm not entirely convinced by them. I mean, skipping Swindon is eminently sensible, but Reading is a place people actually go to... < ;)>

If skipping Reading meant fewer services there then I would agree with you. But the whole point is that these are new services, so both markets are now served - those that want to go to Reading, and those that don't. It also helps the problem that long distance rush hour trains out of Paddington get too full of passengers only going as far as Reading to the detriment of those going further afield.  Think of it as "pick up only" but without the pick up, the lack of enforcement, and the bonus of a faster journey too! 

From my data feed ...


... early days yet, of course ... but I do sense there's a significant element of developing new markets as well as looking to relieve congestion on old ones.

Of course the 1800 is a peak train, and so unless you have a season ticket, have to stump up the eye-watering cost for a single ticket from Paddington to at least Chippenham. Can't even split at Didcot anymore to reduce the pain.

I guess more traffic could be encouraged by releasing some more competitively priced advance tickets on the service.

Can't you switch from / to a season ticket without stopping?  So - please confirm, someone, I think this is valid at a lower price than the £89.00 anytime single:

£25.20 Paddington to Cholsey anytime single
+ £18.00 Cholsey to Didcot Parkway 1 week season
+ £14.40 Didcot Parkway to Chippenham Super-off-peak single
Total £57.60

Railcards make it more complex / less advantageous as there's no railcard discount on the season element

Ha, I've even been to Cholsey! It didn't strike me as a very busy station, in fact I think I was the only person waiting there on the return, though it was a Sunday so...

Anyway, I see the trains stopping at Bath, ..., Didcot, Reading are half-hourly. For some reason (not paying enough attention) I'd though they were only one an hour now.

Steady on now.  The traffic figures for Swindon Station would suggest that Swindon is a place people actually go to.  Now when did I last go the Reading umm...

I need to re-check ... but my understanding is that Bath and Chippenham to London, 2 trains per hour stop at Didcot now (in effect extra stops in the services).   However, they are not half hourly in the peaks - they are irregular such that there's a train from Chippenham about every 20 minutes, with one of the three in the hour none-stop to Paddington.  So more split ticket opportunities without needing to change at Swindon or wait for up to an hour.

On the obverse, trains that used to come in from South Wales via Bristol Parkway and called at Didcot don't do so (as much?) now.  So splitting from South Wales, and travelling South Wales to Oxford, are degraded.

Edit to add - some National Rail Timetable pages reflecting the above (from {{our mirror}} (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/nrtt20/Table%20125.pdf) - full mirror {{here}} (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/nrtt20/) - index by station {{here}} (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/smr/index.html) )

That shows a problem (perhaps?) with going clockface. I looked on nationalrail.co.uk, saw trains every hh00 and hh30 from Bristol TM to Paddington, checked a couple and saw them stopping at all the usual places on the way. Because of the regular pattern, I assumed this would apply to every train in this 'series'. My assumption was false. Obviously, if I actually wanted to visit Didcot, say, (and no, I've never actually visited the town though I've certainly used the station, both for changes and as an exit/entry point; so maybe I'll have a look at it one day... ) I would check first, but I'm sure there will be people jumping on a (particularly return) train from wherever and getting caught out. My point is, if the services didn't (appearing to) follow a regular pattern, there wouldn't be assumptions of sharing the regular features.

That said, clockface does have several advantages for passengers.

In point of fact, I've been to Swindon more recently than Reading.  :)

I’m planning to go when it’s finished

Oh, I think it'll be finished in 2021 when they turn out the lights at Honda.

To go off track for a moment, I'm trying to persuade her that it's not a good idea to travel by train from Stansted to Earley for an unimportant meeting at 1600 on Christmas Eve - and then get back to Stansted.

Usually Paddington-Reading-Earley would be her best option, but there are no trains from Paddington. The amended SWR timetable shows a half-hourly service back to Waterloo, but on previous Christmas Eves I've experienced rather more cancelled trains than usual. And would an attractive woman on her own really want to hang around an unstaffed Earley Station at 1730 on a dark night?

Marlburian