Great Western Coffee Shop

How come on the Reading to Basingstoke we only get two carrages, and people standing, and on the Newbury - Reading train hardly anyone is on it, but they get three carrages?

Also how come not all guards check our tickets? Sometimes becuase of bikes being a saftey concern I sit and wish a guard to come along and they don't. I always think that if there was an accedent half of us would be injured by bikes in the walkway.

Also why do some people (usually not regulars) think that their rucksack/ laptop qualifies for a seat when some people have to stand?

just some gripes from a fare paying passenger!

You also get your nice 5 carriage voyager.
Newbury and Bedwyn doesn't.

If someone has a bag on the seat you can just ask them to move it.

In terms of carriages it's mostly down to demand at other times, and the carriages follow a diagram for that particular day.

5 carriage Voyager? You mean 4 coach Voyager Ollie?

5 is just luck!

Bear in mind the Voyagers don't (or at least aren't scheduled to) stop at Reading West, Bramley or Mortimer.

All the same I have to confess, travelling from Melksham to Basingstoke via Reading (as I regularly do) I think I'd much rather have the admittedly crowded two coach half-hourly service I get at the end of the journey than the no trains at all between dawn and dusk service I get at the start. Maybe that's just me being unreasonable though.

5 COACH VOYAGERS? Do you mean by this the cross country services that are going on to such places as manchester, or Bournemouth? If so, these are even more packed that the tatty 2 coaches! and the only one that I ever see / occasionaly get on is the one that leaves Basingstoke to manchester at 1749. Or is there other trains I do not know about? Prey tell & share!  :-[

Trains from READING to BASINGSTOKE on 19/05/08 after 0700. CrossCountry only.

All trains take 23 minutes from Reading to Basingstoke. All trains go to Bournemouth except 2145 and 2245 from Reading.

0745 arr 0808
0845 arr 0908
0945 arr 1008
1045 arr 1108
1145 arr 1208
1245 arr 1308
1345 arr 1408
1445 arr 1508
1545 arr 1608
1645 arr 1708
1745 arr 1808
1845 arr 1908
1945 arr 2008
2045 arr 2108
2145 arr 2208
2245 arr 2308

Trains from BASINGSTOKE to READING on 19/05/08 after 0700. CrossCountry only.

All trains take 17 minutes from Basingstoke to Reading. All trains run from Bournemouth except 0547 and 0647 which run from Southampton.

0547 arr 0604 dest MANCHESTER PICCADILLY
0647 arr 0704 dest EDINBURGH via the EAST COAST
0747 arr 0804 dest MANCHESTER PICCADILLY
0847 arr 0904 dest ABERDEEN via the EAST COAST
0947 arr 1004 dest MANCHESTER PICCADILLY
1047 arr 1104 dest EDINBURGH via the EAST COAST
1147 arr 1204 dest MANCHESTER PICCADILLY
1247 arr 1304 dest GLASGOW CENTRAL via the EAST COAST and CARSTAIRS
1347 arr 1404 dest MANCHESTER PICCADILLY
1447 arr 1504 dest EDINBURGH via the EAST COAST
1547 arr 1604 dest MANCHESTER PICCADILLY
1647 arr 1704 dest NEWCASTLE via LEEDS
1747 arr 1804 dest MANCHESTER PICCADILLY
1847 arr 1904 dest LEEDS via SHEFFIELD
1947 arr 2004 dest MANCHESTER PICCADILLY
2047 arr 2104 dest BIRMINGHAM NEW STREET

Oh yes Voyagers..........pretty good if you like being sick on trains

From the stench of ****? Sorry mods ;)

Rumour is that some 142s were to be heading to Reading to cover for the turdo refurb!

Whats a 142? Whens the referb? What will this give us? How much more will our season tickets cost? Guys, you have to remember not all of us understand your jargon!  :o

142: http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l50/liamy_2006/swr/wtp1.jpg
Interior: http://units.fotopic.net/p9518935.html

142's are buses on rails.
Very poor ride and bus seats.
Rumour is they will be used on Greenford run when the Turbo's are being refreshed.
The Turbo's are being refurbished as part of the Remedial Plan Notice, not sure what it will include though.

As mentioned by Conner, the improved turbo refurb proposal forms part of the Remedial Plan imposed by/agreed with (depending on your point of view) the DfT. A total of ^6.1m will be invested in the London and Thames Valley fleet, including ^1.1m already committed.

Background contained in the link below.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=1862.msg13465#msg13465

Apologies, obviously meant 4 coach =]

And I personally when travelling to Basingstoke use CrossCountry, but that's just me.

What's wrong with SWT Ollie? ;)

My local station is Reading.
For some reason whenever I get a train from Reading it's always around quarter to the hour. :D

Did you use SWT when it ran into Reading? I think they should start running into Reading again really.

Three letter acronyms (or 3 digit ones) and other jargon are always a bit of a debatable point.  Avoid them and you end up with very long posts, use them and you render the whole thing hard to follow.

We have a page of acronyms at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/acronyms.html which at least tells you what some of the train types and other abbreviations are. And please ask about any others or for clarification - if you are wondering, then so are others!

Yes, I sometimes get that jealous feeling too when I hear of a train service that runs 36 times as often as our, Phil (3 and hour v 2 a day!).   Miss the 07:17 at Melksham (my home town too), and your next train in the same direction is at 19:47.

What we need to focus on, though, is the right improvements for everyone, and as rarely as possible do so based on having winners in one area provoking major loosers in another. And what is "right" will differ.   

On the TransWilts (that's your line through Melksham), a truely appropriate service would be one train each way every hour, according to a report I received under FOI. That's not going to happen any time soon, but major steps towards it might, and it would not be done by using stock from the same pool as Reading - Basingstoke uses.

On Reading - Basingstoke, frankly, I don't know what would be appropriate and I will defer to others to tell us.  Longer trains?   More of them?  More authoritative Train Managers to tell people to get their bags off seats?

I have referred elsewhere to a standard that I made up for train loading and I called in "Nesting" - that's "Nearly Every Seat Taken" and it's a loading limit that would be nearly reached as often as possible without being exceeded apart from as rarely as possible - a tipping point if you like.   How does Reading - Basingstoke match up to NESTing?


P.S. By "taken", I mean with a human traveller and not someone's luggage  ;)

In my carraige this morning, there was 4 seats empty, however 5 people standing. The reason no one sat on the seats, was it would of been rather squashed and since we are not London commuters, not used to squashing.

So in essence, a third carriage would be a waste??

No, becuase tonight more will be standing, and since we all pay for a seat, and also if people could get on the train knowing they could get a seat then that surely would releve presure from the x country services?

As a matter of fact, a ticket does not entitle you to a seat!

Over to swlines...

Yup - slightly busy at the moment, but a ticket only entitles you to travel - a seat is just an added benefit.

Will add more in 30 minutes.

EDIT: From NRCoC:

When you buy a ticket to travel on the National Rail Network you enter into an
agreement with the Train Companies whose trains you have the right to use. That
agreement gives you the right to make the journey or journeys between the
stations or within the zones shown on the ticket you have bought.

7. Train Company^s responsibilities
The Train Company whose trains you have the right to use, or who has agreed to
provide you with any other goods or services, is responsible for providing the
goods or services it has agreed to provide. However, the Train Company or its
agent(s) are not responsible for:
(a) another Train Company not running any trains;
(b) another person not providing goods or services;
(c) any losses that occur while you are travelling on any other Train Company^s
trains;
(d) any losses that occur while you are using those other goods or services.
However, each Train Company or its agent(s) will help you if you have a claim
(see Condition 63) or a complaint about your journey, either by dealing with the
matter itself or by passing it on to the Train Company(s) or other person(s)
providing the goods or services in question.

From my experience I'd say cancelling the little-used late morning (circa. 11am) and early afternoon (circa. 2pm) trains - especially a FGW unit which runs just behind a Cross Country one on the same route - and using the stock to double the length of equivalent rush-hour trains would probably go a long way towards restoring the goodwill of the regular commuters on that route.

Phil, That sounds like a really good idea!

How many services would Mortimer and Bramley lose under this proposal? Are you proposing service gaps (vigorously opposed by stakeholders and passengers when tried at stations in the Greater Bristol area) or something along the lines of the Jacobs recommendation (again likely to be seen as a service cut, and strongly opposed) ?


My personal opinion is that the DfT and FGW wouldnt risk it, given the opposition they encountered when proposing service cuts elsewhere in the franchise.

Speaking as a resident of Melksham, my personal opinion of the DFT and FGW's likely reaction to public opposition to service cuts is probably unprintable here.

On Melksham/TransWilts, as you know, I strongly agree with you.

There is a different mindset in certain other parts of the franchise area, though, and the key to understanding why that is probably lies in continued study of the plans put forward (past, present and future) by the DfT, FGW, Network Rail and others, along with the relevant political aspects.

I'm probably missing something here folks, but I don't see how cutting out a train in the middle of the day (which is something i would not suggest in all but the most exceptional of circumstances!) would make it more available in the peak hour.  Wasn't that what was being suggested - perhaps it was tongue in cheek?

If someone could invent a way for a train being in two places at the same time between 7 and 10 a.m. and then again between 4 and 7 p.m., at the "expense" of it being nowhere at all in the six hours in between, then that person would transform the whole economics of commuter services at a stroke.

Just to throw into the mix, I went home early yesterday as had the theatre, so I cought the 1307 from Basingstoke to Reading and it was heaving. Now I suspect looking at the amount of suitcases, this was due to the bank holiday this weekend, but if the service was reduced through the middle of the day, I can see a mini riot happening.  :-\

Graham, having a train out of service between say 10am and 4pm releases it for maintenance. Increased maintenance on a fleet can lead to 100% availability through the peak allowing more diagrams and hence lengthened trains. (yes, I know 100% is impossible, but Hull Trains did very well and managed it for quite some time).

I, like Graham, do not understand the logic of this!