Great Western Coffee Shop

In response to the change in Covid19 tiers, an ammended timetable will come in to operation on GWR from 4 January.

Pad - Cardiff: hourly inc Saturdays

Pad - Hereford & Pad - Cheltenham: later start/early finish & some Pad - Cheltenham shortened to Swindon

Night Riviera cancelled until 10 January

Truro - Falmouth: reduced frequency Mon - Fri & 1 tph Sat

Greenford: 1 tph Mon - Sat

Windsor: 2 tph Mon - Sat

Pad - Newbury: reduced frequency Mon - Sun

Pad - Didcot semi-fast: 1 tph Mon - Sat

North Downs: 1 tph off peak Mon - Fri & 2 tph Sat

Reading - Basingstoke: 1 tph evenings Mon - Fri

Banbury - Pad: morning service cancelled Mon - Fri

Plymouth - Gunnislake: reduced frequency Sat

Pad - Bedwyn: cut to Reading - Bedwyn shuttle Sun

Pad - Oxford: 1 tph Sun

Exeter SD - Exmouth: 1 tph Sun

Paddington Swansea is already hourly.   The ones that run only as far as Cardiff (leaving London at xx.18) in between have been removed - thus making trains to Cardiff hourly (on the way to Swansea).

TRAIN operators have started to react to the new national lockdown announced by the Prime Minister last night by reviewing their services again.

GWR had already introduced an amended timetable in late December to respond to higher than usual levels of staff absent or self-isolating, and lower demand from changes to the tier system. The operator said it would continue with its present reduced timetables this week, but there will be some more alterations from 11 January. Around four out of five trains are expected to keep running.

GWR managing director Mark Hopwood said: 'We have taken some sensible measures to make sure that we are able to run a service that can be relied upon at this time, and that means reducing our timetable a little to shore up the large number of services we continue to operate.

'This is vital to helping key workers to get to work so they can continue to provide services critical to the day-to-day running of the country.'

GWR said it will continue to monitor demand in line with the latest travel advice issued by the government, ensuring capacity where it is needed and the ability to respond quickly when lockdown is eased.

Passengers who have already purchased tickets but who are now not able to travel because of the latest changes in government travel advice are able to claim a refund.

Train services are expected to be reduced during the national lockdown in England.

The extent of the cuts has not yet been confirmed, but some in the industry are anticipating reductions of between 50-60% of normal service.

As responsibility for railways is a devolved matter, these cuts will apply to services in England only.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said it will work with operators to assess the right level of services.

They added: "While we cannot predict the long-term effect of Covid-19 on travel patterns, it is critical that we ensure the railway can respond quickly to changes in passenger demand whilst supporting economic recovery."

Since the start of the pandemic, the government has spent billions of pounds covering the fall in ticket revenues owing to low passenger numbers.

In the first national lockdown in England, services were dramatically reduced to almost half.

Some in the industry anticipate a similar "Sunday-plus" service will run for the next few months, not least because the supply of trains will outstrip demand.

Great Western Railway and First Bus Bristol have issued an update to passengers on how lockdown will affect public transport in and around Bristol.

Following the announcement of a third lockdown in England last night, people are only allowed to travel for essential purposes such as going to work if you can?t work from home. These rules will stay in place until at least mid February.

Great Western Rail, which is responsible for some of the busiest routes across the South West, says it will continue to operate a reduced timetable, which it introduced in late December.

The train operator reduced its services in response to higher than usual levels of staff absent or self-isolating due to COVID, and lower demand from changes to the previous tier system.

My concern is that such cuts, or a significant percentage thereof may become long term and remain in place long after the need has passed, and long after the non-railway world has returned to normal.

In response to the change in Covid19 tiers, an ammended timetable will come in to operation on GWR from 4 January.

Pad - Cardiff: hourly inc Saturdays

Pad - Hereford & Pad - Cheltenham: later start/early finish & some Pad - Cheltenham shortened to Swindon

Night Riviera cancelled until 10 January

Truro - Falmouth: reduced frequency Mon - Fri & 1 tph Sat

Greenford: 1 tph Mon - Sat

Windsor: 2 tph Mon - Sat

Pad - Newbury: reduced frequency Mon - Sun

Pad - Didcot semi-fast: 1 tph Mon - Sat

North Downs: 1 tph off peak Mon - Fri & 2 tph Sat

Reading - Basingstoke: 1 tph evenings Mon - Fri

Banbury - Pad: morning service cancelled Mon - Fri

Plymouth - Gunnislake: reduced frequency Sat

Pad - Bedwyn: cut to Reading - Bedwyn shuttle Sun

Pad - Oxford: 1 tph Sun

Exeter SD - Exmouth: 1 tph Sun

Dear []
 
I wrote to you last week to let you know that we are continuing to experience higher levels of Covid-19 cases and self-isolation than expected and that this would mean our temporary timetable would be continuing.
 
From Monday (11 January) in addition to the changes already in operation we will be reducing the frequency of off peak services between Bristol Temple Meads and London Paddington.
 
The changes will help protect services vital for key workers and essential travel and will mean we continue to operate approximately 80% of our planned timetable.
 
We will be directly contacting customers who have booked online with us to offer advice and help to switch to other services, or to claim refunds.    We are also reminding customers who need to travel to check timetables on https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/check-your-journey before they set out.
 
We will be keeping the timetable under review, particularly given the new national lockdown in England and will work with the Department for Transport on any further changes.
 
I will continue to keep you updated and I am really grateful to you for your support and your help.   We are determined to maintain a reliable, effective service for key workers and essential travel and our operations team are working very hard to make sure everything is in place to do so.
 
Best wishes

Makes a lot of sense. I really don?t think Bristol to London needs a service every half hour at the moment.

Indeed not.  None of the long distance routes needs anything more than an hourly service IMHO.  Shorter distance services are probably best of staying as they are now for the time being.  Based on watching the numbers for a week, I would say that so far this lockdown is not being followed anywhere near as much as the first one.  That's probably to be expected. 

At a guess I would say that double the number of people are travelling on the longer distance services, and more, maybe double again, on the more local services. 

It is, as ever, a fast paced situation though, so could well be very different in a week or two.

I should point out that we are still talking low numbers.  Instead of 5-15 people on long distance services, I am seeing 10-30.  But from my observations, more than the slight uplift you would expect given only a few more places are open for business than last time.

I?d be interested to see the numbers using the Underground at the moment.

The roads seem equally busier - not sure if that?s what others are experiencing too?

The roads seem equally busier - not sure if that?s what others are experiencing too?

During the first lockdown the M5 at Weston was practically empty; now I would describe it as reasonably busy.  The A38 is similar.

During the first lockdown the M5 at Weston was practically empty; now I would describe it as reasonably busy.  The A38 is similar.

Covid-19: Passengers told to check train times as routes cut

People needing to travel by rail during lockdown are being urged to double-check train times, as services are being reduced.
Services in England are being cut from 87% of normal levels to 72%, industry body the Rail Delivery Group said.

It said the number of trains would reflect the drop in passengers, and provide better value for money for taxpayers who are subsidising services.

Peak services will be prioritised to help key workers, it added.

While some timetables have already changed, others will be altered in the next few weeks.

Since the early days of the pandemic, the government has spent billions of pounds covering the fall in ticket revenues for rail companies, owing to low passenger numbers.

Cutting some services will save public money, the government said.

Rail minister Chris Heaton-Harris said: "It is critical that our railways continue to deliver reliable services for key workers and people who cannot reasonably work from home, and that they respond quickly to changes in demand."

Rail usage has slumped, with passenger journeys falling more than 90% to 35 million journeys for the three-month period to June, according to the Office of Rail and Road.

The figures recovered a little to 134 million for the three months to September - the latest published.

"Train timetables must still meet the needs of those who have to travel, said Transport Focus chief executive Anthony Smith.

"Many key workers rely on the first and last services of the day so it's important that these are maintained. Providing enough capacity for those who are travelling to properly social distance remains vital."

Although timetables were restored when restrictions were eased over the summer, rail franchising has since been scrapped and replaced with a model which means the taxpayer is currently liable for the losses on the railways.

In September, the bill had run to more than GBP-3.5bn - and the Department for Transport has said "significant" support is still needed.