Great Western Coffee Shop

I was wondering if anyone had found information on GWR running additonal trains to London (or Windsor) during the mourning period for Queen Elizabeth ?
Its reported in the press (see BBC website) that rail operators were looking at additonal trains inclusing night services.
The Windsor branch from Slough presents its own challenges - with no passing loop to faciliate a higher frequency service - but will longer trains than the normal 2 car Turbos be available ?

It's a 3-car unit today and it'd be fairly simple to swap one of the diagrams so that continues to be the case.  A 4-car unit is the maximum that can be accommodated, at that is what was provided for a rather different royal event when Harry and Meghan got married.  Perhaps that will be arranged for Monday?

Paul Gentleman has been on our local radio saying there will be additional trains from the far West, but they will be very busy.
He also said an extra train would run with the overnight sleeper.
I wonder where these extra trains will come from - or are all 10 coaches going to made 5 units only, thus doubling the number available.

Edit - not applicable to the Windsor line, but associated with the first part of the topic header  10:38

No sign of extra trains from Cornwall and certainly none overnight beyond the sleeper.

Extra trains outlined above by GBM (and more) are indeed planned to run.  Details soon…

An electronic sign outside of Reading today suggests using the Elizabeth line to London for the best chance of getting a seat.

GWR is also asking anyone travelling to Windsor from London to use the SWR Waterloo service and that there will be a queuing arrangement put in place at Slough and Windsor & Eton Central if required from today.

SWR have put out the following information:

Looking on RTT, there are some - a dozen or so - trains into and out of Waterloo from tonight in what is usually the overnight gap (around 00:30-05:00). There may be other additions just outside that period. For Paddington, of course there are a few Reading services during that period; from tonight there seem to be a few extras.

With the confirmation of a nornal weekday service on Monday, further confirmation woukd be useful that only off-peak fares will be charged all day, with no peaks at all

Here you go Chris:

https://www.gwr.com/royalfuneral

I didn't check Crossrail service to Reading, but they too have a few extras from tomorrow morning (i.e. tonight). Not quite a train an hour, and to my surprise that pattern is shown every day until the 20th.

Paul Clifton was just on South Today talking up how massive the transport challenge is. He said GWR would run two trains an hour from Reading, which is a bit more than I could see and of course half of those run usually.

However, 31 GWR electric services out of Paddington today are reduced from 8 to 4 carriages, for example

This morning Realtime Trains is showing overnight trains from Bristol and Plymouth in the early hours of the 19th. There are also trains back to Bristol in the early hours of the 20th.

That’s now back to an 8-car.  Good old journeycheck.

On journey planners the 04.54 from Plymouth is starting at Penzance at 03.00 Monday morning & 20.03 from Paddington is extended to Penzance that evening but that seems to be it.
I suspect staffing could be an issue

I'm trying to do the arithmetic here ... if people pass through Westminster Hall at a rate of 1 per second, that's 3600 per hour - but call it 3,000 because they're stopping every 20 minutes to change the guard.  If a train carries 500 people, that's 6 trainload of people per hour.  Spread between Waterloo, Victoria, London Bridge, Liverpool Street, Kings Cross, Euston and Paddington that's just one trainload per hour into each terminus.  And that's ignoring the tiny stations such as Charing Cross, Canon Street, Fenchurch Street, St Pancras, Moorgate, Black Fryers and Maryleone and the fact that many people will come in on the underground or crossrail, or by bus (on the road or river).    Now - 1 trainload per hour into stations that have a train arriving every few minutes does not look massive ...

I’m sure the DfT will be paying the TOC’s for these additional trains on the basis that it’s better to be safe than sorry and of course it gives out a positive message…even though it might be overkill.

I expect Monday will be very busy though.

I suspect that numbers will be significantly greater than suggested above, for two main reasons.
Firstly many may visit London with the intention of paying respects at Westminster Hall, but give up when they see the queue. They still need transport to and from London.
Others may travel with the intention of "simply being there" and leaving flowers, No limit on numbers, unlike  paying respects at Westminster Hall.

And of course the State Funeral  is only days away, and there is no limit on the numbers attending to watch the funeral procession.

Perhaps also on the basis that this is (one hopes) a one-off expenditure which does not set a precedent, so there's a lot of good publicity to be bought without repeat / run-on costs.

The state funeral is a time for solemn remembering and not an occasion for feasting and celebrating.

However in about a years time the new King will be crowned and that WILL be the time for feasting and celebrating. Hopefully the railways will be prepared for the crowds attending the festivities.
A good show was put on for the last Coronation, despite rationing and shortages.

WE WANT AN OX ROAST ! there were some some ox roasts for the last Coronation, but numbers were restricted due to rationing. No excuse for not having ox roasts this time.

This is how it should be done ! In colour, still rare at the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix1OLZ_l0_U (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix1OLZ_l0_U) Sorry about the long intro, the actual ox roasting starts about 6 minutes in.

Washed down with a couple of barrels of Port!

Strong nourishing ale to be quaffed with the ox roast would be more suitable, perhaps a morsel of port afterwards with which to drink a toast to the new King.

The loyal toast may be drunk in beer or wine at less formal events, but port is the proper drink at a more formal event.

It is not proper to drink the toast in strong spirits, nor in mixed drinks that contain strong spirits.

Profligate waste of money.

If we're talking about the trains, I suspect that the extra spend is small and these will be an awful lot more tickets being sold. I do not see the passengers travelling being of a typical metric to look to dodge paying.   If we're talking about the whole lot o events going on, we're off topic and perhaps best to move that discussion elsewhere, fascinating thought the topic is.

You're right. Not about the trains. A response to a coronation featuring ox roasts, barrels of ale and port.

Perhaps a roast herring instead ?

A 4-car train is indeed being provided for the day, though events have somewhat rendered those arrangements as unnecessary.

Thank goodness for the route to Windsor from Waterloo (and from Reading via Staines).

Mind you, there are delays of over an hour on that route after the police requested a line block due to an incident near Datchet.

One of those days, sadly.

Just as well they didn't book to use the Royal Train then....

George VI's funeral train travelled from Paddington to Windsor. No overhead cables then, and less need for security measures.

… and more than one short platform at Windsor & Eton Central.

Would that incident be the Queens funeral convoy?
From the BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-62952485)

No: the cortege went along the A308. I suspect that route was used for cars and coaches carrying those involved in the proceedings in both Westminster and Windsor.

But Queen Victoria Royal funeral train was delayed in 1901 on the GWR.

The delay did lead to the tradition of Royal Navy pulling the gun carriage, on 2 February 1901 the weather was extremely cold and the hawsers for the gun carriage to be used for the procession from Windsor railway station to the Castle had frozen. The horses intended to pull the gun carriage were also affected by the intense cold and had become restive and possibly dangerous during the wait for the delayed funeral train to arrive.

History (up to and including yesterday), teaches us that whilst you can't rely on the railways, the Royal Navy generally steps up to the mark.