Great Western Coffee Shop

Was on the 9.48 Padd to Cheltenham Spa today which was held up at Swindon awaiting a relief driver.  As a result the train was terminated at Gloucester.  I thought it might be a possibility as we were 18 minutes late and looked at the FGW website where, at 11.30, it duly announced that indeed it would terminate at Gloucester.   However there were no on-board announcements so as we left Stonehouse I mentioned it to the first class host who knew nothing about it.  He went off to find the TM who got confirmation just as we pulled into Gloucester - leading to a bit of a scramble for some people as they finished their coffees and grabbed their belongings.  In the event there was no danger of anyone being left on the train as it sat in the platform before returning to Paddington 45 mins later but still the cause of some anxiety for those not in the know.

As an aside, there's a 30 minute turn round at Cheltenham Spa on that service so with us being 18 minutes late I wonder how borderline the decision was to terminate at Gloucester.

Whilst the turnaround could've been done at Cheltenham Spa with the time available, you also have to factor in pathing issues. It may not have been possible to find slots to get to Cheltenham and then perform the reversing manoeuvre without further delays or delaying other services.

That's the hidden side of it.  Things are pretty tight at Cheltenham at the best of times.  I assume the layout means the train has to cross over and come back on the other platform and cannot just change ends on the incoming platform and depart back to London.

Not sure if there is a crossover to the south of Cheltenham Spa that could be utilised or even if it's possible to be signalled to dispatch wrong line. The usual manoeuvre is to cross over to the north of the station into the Alstone Carriage Sidings thus freeing up the running lines.

The only movement permitted at Cheltenham is to crossover into Alstone Carriage sidings as the lines through the Station are not signalled for Bidirectional working and as an absolute minimum this manouvre takes 20 min and that is without being held for anything comming from the North.
if you are held on the platform for a voyager or something to enter Cheltenham, you then are blocking the platform causing delays behind you.
Much better to terminate Gloucester where there is more room and frequent ATW and XC connecting services onward to Chelternham.
Also the Stroud valley is terrible for any phone reception, only getting it back in the Standish Junction area so its quite possible the T/M was un aware

You forget the driver's break too.....