Great Western Coffee Shop

Friday, 2nd November

17:55 from Chippenham to Paddington - left 8 late, arrived 17 late.
20:15 King's Cross to Ely - Clean, efficient, on time.

Sunday, 4th November

10:56 from Ely to King's Cross - Clean, efficient, on time.
13:03 Paddington to Chippenham. Left on time without any hint of problems, but bustituted from Swindon.  Arrived 30 after schedule in Chippenham.

"Why is is that travelling by train always seem to be such an EVENT" asks my wife Lisa - we've been up to Ely for the weekend, and I'm not surprised that the section in and out of Paddington was where we had the issues!

Four samples isn't statistically significant, I know ... but it was good to get the impression that another part of the First empire (First Capital Connect) can run trains routinely to the clock, and hopefully we'll see it improve in that direction around here.

"No Melksham" I hear you cry?  CORRECT - That would have had us arrive in Ely just before midnighht on Friday, and with a conference presentation to do the next day it wasn't on.  Oh - and I would still be on the road today, and not home for over 3 hours yet.

Ely, our destination, has a smaller population that Melksham according to the census.  It also has about six trains an hour at a bustling station ...

Of course you were bustituted from Swindon because of overunning engineering work, second time this week on the Western region and I doubt it will be the last.