Great Western Coffee Shop

Today I had an important appointment in Reading for 1000. Being neurotic/prudent, I aimed to catch the 0837 from Tilehurst and arrived at the station to find that the next train was the delayed 0738, due at 0830 - which I caught. It had 12 coaches, a couple of which extended beyond the end of the platform. Even allowing for the extra coaches, there didn't seem many passengers on board.

Dunno what happened to the 0804.There were only five other passengers waiting on the platform. I suppose that others who'd been affected by the delays had flocked down to the bus stop (unhappy memories of my doing this in my commuting days). As for those at Pangbourne, Goring and Cholsey, I guess they went home.

There was a fatality between Didcot & Swindon this morning

https://www.wiltshirelive.co.uk/news/wiltshire-news/live-police-incident-delays-trains-8383541 (https://www.wiltshirelive.co.uk/news/wiltshire-news/live-police-incident-delays-trains-8383541)

The incident was at Stocks Lane level crossing at Steventon.  At least initially it has not been reported as a fatality as the newspaper link says.

The 8:04 ran as usual. It's formed at Didcot from a train arriving from Paddington. The delayed 07:38 was 12 cars because it's one of the semifast "peakbusters", due in at Paddington before 8:00. It was late out of the sidings at Paddington, which might be coincidental or maybe its crew were on a delayed train into Swindon. But really, in this case, there is no obvious reason for the Didcot-London services to be affected.