Great Western Coffee Shop

As next week is schools half term holidays and we have strikes taking place on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday (also ASLEF no overtime etc on Thursday) will services on Tuesday and Thursday be swamped or will travellers stay away / travel over Bank holiday weekend instead ?

.............this should go some way to answering your question!

That's a long, long way to be standing up...............

12:03 London Paddington to Penzance due 17:08

12:03 London Paddington to Penzance due 17:08 has been delayed at Reading and is now 11 minutes late.
This is due to overcrowding.

Service full and standing from Reading.

The return could be even worse if they all stay until next Sunday....

Judging by reports it was by no means the only Westcountry service full and standing from Paddington/Reading - several short forms too didn't help...........and yes, strikes midweek and next weekend are going to make it pretty unpleasant coming back.

Sadly I can’t recommend train travel at the moment.  Lots of differing reasons, but the same shoddy outcome in a lot of cases.

Add to this both the UK Border Force and the French equivalent have both had major IT failure causing delays at Dover (caused by the French IT system) and all the major airports (the UK Home Office system)

Sadly I agree. I am generally pro-rail, mainly due to the environmental costs of flying and driving. However the present round of strikes are a strong disincentive to rail use.
The new shorter trains are another reason.

Unsurprisingly some services from Paddington on Thursday showing as fully reserved

09:18 Penzance to London Paddington due 14:24
Facilities on the 09:18 Penzance to London Paddington due 14:24.
Service full and standing from Truro. (That early!)
Additional Facilities Information
No bike spaces available

Nice day to stand up on a packed train for 4+ hours.....

5 car to Plymouth then 10

I did the 12.03 Paddington to Penzance throughout on Mon June 19th, It was a packed 9 car IET which had no reservations showing (this seems to be a recurring problem?) so many people were unsure of where they could/couldn't sit, this wasn't helped by a total lack of announcements until after the train had left Paddington. The catering trolley gave up trying to get through due to bags & crowding etc and there were people standing as far as Totnes, eventually a static trolley (minus hot drinks) was provided after Plymouth, I ventured down around Bodmin Parkway and after climbing over bags etc I eventually reached the trolley, I would have probably eaten almost anything by then as I was so hungry. 

Wasn't too good today either - must have been a real pleasure in this weather......... :P

12:03 London Paddington to Penzance due 17:08

Facilities on the 12:03 London Paddington to Penzance due 17:08.

Service full and standing from London Paddington. First class is declassified.

Mods - please move as required - not the correct post to put this but..

Cancellations to services between Plymouth and Penzance
Due to a points failure between Plymouth and Penzance the line towards Penzance is blocked.
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 13:15 24/06.
And
Cancellations to services between Gunnislake and Bere Alston
Due to a points failure between Gunnislake and Bere Alston the line towards Gunnislake is blocked.
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled. Disruption is expected until 14:30 24/06.

Two excursions are Penzance bound today, having lost considerable time between Newton Abbot and Plymouth.
Also delays on service trains.
If the line is blocked between Plymouth and Penzance, why is delaying services from Newton?

I think Newton Abbot became "full".  A number of services were held there to prevent them being stranded between stations further west.

I have heard one report that an empty Castle set was shunted out to the start of the Heathfield branch.

OpenTrains showing a HST up the Heathfield branch at 11.45. I was waiting for some visitors at Paignton.
RealTime trains has 2C67 (43156/43155) Exeter Penzance terminating in platform 3 which it would need to, to go up the branch and just disappearing.

It later ran ECS to Plymouth, leaving at 13:00.   It then sat on platform 8 at Plymouth until taking up its return working which should have left Penzance at 13:50.

Heaven help us............

17:16 Newquay to London Paddington due 22:28

17:16 Newquay to London Paddington due 22:28 will be terminated at Plymouth.

It will no longer call at Ivybridge, Totnes, Newton Abbot, Teignmouth, Dawlish, Exeter St Davids, Tiverton Parkway, Taunton, Reading and London Paddington.

This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

Will be formed of 2 coaches instead of 9 between Newquay and Plymouth. First class not available. Catering is not available.

I saw the 09.11 Penzance to Paddington leave Truro on Sat 24th June completely full, a 5 car IET instead of the booked 9 car, all reservations cancelled. Felt quite sorry for the passengers. Fortunately for me, I was going the other way, had a pair of 5 car IETs on the 08.40 Plymouth to Penzance, it was quite full on arrival at Penzance due to people travelling down for Mazey Day.

A pretty terrible evening for Paddington-Penzance service. 1803 was running two hours late, with later services all backed up behind it. Looks as if there was a major delay between Castle Cary and Taunton. Possibly a Glastonbury effect?

A concert??

If RTT is to be believed today's 0540 from PNZ to CDF (1121) was cancelled throughout (no specific reason given but the rostered Castle HST apparently never left Long Rock). The subsequent 2C75 CDF 1200>TAU 1354 was also binned as far as BRI with 800033 taking up the reins for the run down to TAU, 2U22 back to CDF and part of 2C87 as far as BRI where 150239 took over to complete the journey back to PNZ (On time at Nailsea as I type). 800033 was taken for the 1908 service to Gloucester. Being a GWR scheduler must be quite good fun at the moment! 

This forum title ought to renamed to something else now, as half term has long passed.
However, delays to crew, shortages of crews, line and equipment failure, concerts (sorry, festivals), shortages of trains all appear in other forum branches, so no one section totally applicable!

Concert/Festival…Boat/Ship…  ;)

Just please don't call it "The" concert!  ;)

Indeed ... the whole thing is a network of railway lines and of issues over a whole series of dates.  I am leaving alone at the moment ... expecting some other brave soul or a news trigger to start a thread for summer holidays.