Great Western Coffee Shop

The service has been slammed as 'ridiculously slow'. (https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/calls-trains-reading-london-waterloo-24525519)

Having travelled the full distance a number of times over the years, I have some sympathy for Cllr Margetts' motion, though I wonder how feasible a timetable would be for trains to not stop at stations between Twickenham and Waterloo?

I suspect that I may be mis-remembering, or getting confused with the North Downs trains, but didn't some trains not stop between Wokingham and Reading?

The National Rail timetable suggests some journeys from Winnersh, Winnersh Triangle and Wokingham to Waterloo be made via Reading and Paddington, such a trip from Wokingham taking 91 minutes, compared with 71 direct. From Earley one can save three or four minutes.  (I do realise that there are idiosyncrasies in the timetable, which suggests some journeys from Tilehurst to Reading be made via Didcot.)

The main limitation in reducing journey times is that, as far as the Reading services are concerned, it is essentially a two track railway all the way to Waterloo. Track occupation from Staines eastwards is very high and combinations of the various service groups stop at all the stations.

The only way to speed up services from the outer areas is to

Four Track, Now!

I have browsed through some old timetables ...   Journey times for a typical middle of the day service, Reading to Waterloo:
July 1922 (100 years ago today): 1 hour 35 minutes
1946: 1 hour 15 minutes
1968: 1 hour 13 minutes
1988: 1 hour 7 minutes
2012: 1 hour 22 minutes
Today: 1 hour 22 minutes

Since the 70s the character of the service has changed a bit, from more outer suburban to more of a metro. So stations have been added (Winnesh Triangle, Martins Heron) and stopping patterns become more regular. Plus driving style has got more sedate.

But, if we had ever got the 4 tph service promised for the SWR contract, half of those would run non-stop Reading-Wokingham and divert via the Hounslow loop (with only one stop, I think). That didn't happen, due to a combination of Covid and coy 701s. But when I restarted using these trains on 15th June - a Saturday - there were 3 SWR train per hour. There aren't now, and I can't work out what was changed and why (I wasn't taking much notice while in hiding).

There is not enough track capacity to run fast Twickenham to Waterloo, in fact I believe the current plans of SWR will have every Windsor side service calling additionally at Vauxhall, to standardise timings, as said on what is effectively a two track railway, even through the Waterloo approaches.

I doubt any Windsor side service will ever miss out Richmond or Clapham Junction, because of the interchange opportunities.

Paul

They did manage 59 minutes before NSE, in a comfortable Fratton based 4CIG.

There could be a passing place at Twickenham if Platform 2 (now reinstated) were made a through  platform and the main lines moved to the centre platforms. There are also loops just East of Staines. Also the centre (slow) roads at Clapham Jn are not restricted in speed whereas the "fast" outer lines are! This carries on to Barnes Jn but pathing is a problem with the Loop trains coming in here. Ascot is also not the capacious station that it once was.

The lenghthening of the units was probably more pressing (it went over to horrid VEP's previously) as the service is very busy.

OTC

Back in the early seventies one train an hour to Reading was first stop Staines, I think in 25ish minutes. They were BIL or HAL units and gave you an "exciting" ride.

I cannot help feeling there is Councillor bidding for higher office

There certainly was a long period in the 2000s where alternate services would be non-stop between Reading to Wokingham but had more stops closer into London at places like Putney so the end to end journey time was broadly the same. Putney now has a regular stop on the Windsor trains instead.

The 1938 Bradshaw service (before electrification) was 1:27 to Reading.
The new electric service that started on 1939 January 1 took 1:15 to reach Reading.
Both of these ran fast to Staines.
Whoever restored the 1939 timings immediately post-war was doing a good job - most timetables were slowed down considerably.

Here's another, similar, report from "wokingham.co.uk" (https://www.wokingham.co.uk/wokingham-train-service/) (whoever that may be; I've never worked that out). It includes this editorial comment:

I don't see how NR would have been looking at demand for timetable changes then, just after the new franchise competition. A little earlier, during the setting of the service requirement, I would expect NR to assess the feasibility of timetable changes, and leave it to DfT to decide what the voting public would go for. Isn't that how it works?