Great Western Coffee Shop

(please feel free to move this post to a more appropriate heading)........seems as if this service seems still popular from Reading and as Cross Country are binning it soon what alternatives exist??

Really?

That will affect two of the people who work for me (and me on occasion!)

They're binning it?  :o

News to me. *goes to do some digging around*

Are you sure you don't mean Brighton....?

Are you going to spell cross country correctly

Um, this is not going to happen. If so, all XC services will stop at Reading (or Guilford)!

Then again, is this part of the new Beeching Axe?

Just for you Chris2 i have modified the heading....i really do hope it makes you happy and you are possibly right swlines about it being Brighton .....just something someone told me last week

Brighton has been known as ending for over 2 years at least... ;)

Can't see Bournemouth ending (if it does, it'll be curtailed to Southampton Central).

It is Brighton Depot. The staff are being made redundant. A few were offered jobs in Euston (as it was still run by Virgin when the changes were announced), and a few will go to Southern. Bournemouth is currently safe, although at one point there was talk of SWT taking over the service and splitting it, but that hasn't come to anything.

For those in the South East of England, the Cross Country network is becoming more and more restricted. There used to be services from Dover and Ramsgate to the north, then they were axed. Portsmouth actually had direct HSTs to Liverpool and Blackpool at one point, and a 158 service as well, and that was next to go, and now its Brighton. Some of the Bournemouths used to go to Poole and there were extensions to Weymouth on summer Saturdays. Equally the old Connex Brighton to Rugby service has been cut back to Watford, in many cases forcing people to go via London. Personally I see it all as a backwards step, and yet Voyagers despite their faults arguably have actually made it more flexible to run these sort of services (no need to run locomotives round, and they can fit in bays).

Worth noting that it's not just Brighton that has lost the service, Gatwick Airport and East Croydon (both very important stops) have also been removed from the network. Quite how all this is supposed to benefit the average passenger I don't know. I suppose the argument is that it frees up paths for the commuter services into London.

Indeed changes to the Cross Country network have also seen the removal of Liverpool, relegating it from Intercity status to a regional station with a token Euston service. Anyone remember the daily Plymouth - Liverpool and Bristol - Liverpool services?

Over the years, many stations have disappeared from the InterCity network. These are the ones if I remeber from various maps I have seen:

Fort William, Inverness, Barrow, Windermere, Morecambe, Blackpool, Kensington Olympia...

Falmouth, Newquay, Kingswear, Weymouth (?), Barnstaple (?) ..... arguably St. Ives!

Newquay is still on Intercity maps. FGW and Cross Country.
I don't remeber Falmouth getting an Intercity service or Barnstaple.
And it is a long time since St.Ives had an Intercity service.

Falmouth had a fridays only Padd service until 1979, I believe Barnstaple used to have a couple of Waterloo services? the "Cornish Riviera" used to go to St Ives on summer saturdays until about 1961, Newquay still gets Summer HST services 7 days per week in peak summer, Fort William still has an intercity service, the 1950 sleeper to Euston and 2115 Euston to Fort william.

Hmmm, I don't really class the sleeper as InterCity.....

Some of the above are since the days of steam.

Fort William has only ever been on the Intercity route map as a result of sleeper services, it is always interesting to look at how Fort William is connected on the route map to the West Coast Mainline sometimes via Glasgow Central and at other times via Glasgow Queen Street.
Sadly the sleeper route map has shrunk far more than the intercity map over many years.
I seem to recall Sleepers were marketed as "Intercity" after the name dissappeared from most day stock.

Sleepers are well and truely intercity! what else are they, commuter trains???????????

Well, they are ...... um....... sleeper trains of course! :P

Meanwhile our friends at Great Western have added such places as Maidenhead, Tilehurst, Pangbourne, Goring, Cholsey, Filton Abbey Wood, Frome, Theale, Thatcham, Ivybridge, Radley, Worle and St Germans to the Intercity network...

And Keysham!

To be honest I think Maidenhead deserves it's fast peak trains :)

Sorry to rake up an old topic, but while at Oxford yesturday annoyed at the fact that My train was yet again being held up by a late XC service, i remembered that it had been mentioned that the Gatwick/brighton services are to be cut.  I Assumed it would be by the May timetable, but the train that held up the 2 FGW paddington bound services was going to Gatwick! And just now, i've looked on live departure boards to see if my train is on time, i notice that there is a service to B'ham new street... that originated in Brighton... I was under the impression it was axed by the May timetable.. i'm guessing i'm very wrong  ::)

Brighton lose the service in December, as do East Croydon, Gatwick Airport, Kensington Olympia, Redhill.

One very strange fact, during BR Days sleeper train fares where the same as Day Trains with the Cost of a Berth on TOP.

Today FSR Sleepers are the Cheapest London-Scotland fares, and with a sleeping Berth!!!

I think Guildford are keeping a XC service.... Is this right? ???

But for how long? ::)

What will happen to the axed Brighton services, will they switch them to the Bournmouth run?

Or perhaps "rediagram" and put the excess units into double formation. ;D

Displaced Brighton diagram units are being racked up to 221 diagrams so a few more can go to West Coast.

That's not good for XC, loosing 5 cars trains....

Perhaps West Coast can start double formations.

The plan is for double formation Voyager on every Holyhead service - and single 221 on the Birmingham to Scotland.

I didnt think that XC were losing any 5 car trains now?

They've already lost about 12 of the fleet!

See www.thejunction.org.uk for the current allocation of the class 221 fleet.