I'm sure it's not their fault, after all, remember what the chief operating officer told the Bristol Evening Post:

"Mr Haines said the reasons for the cramped trains were because of cancellations resulting from infrastructure problems with the track and signals."

When my train home from Oxford on Thursday evening was cancelled due to a lack of staff I obviously blamed Network Rail - not that they aren't the guilty party much of the time, but their score this morning appears to be one out of six...

Seems that perhaps some of the drivers are now confused about what they should do.

According to a post on the Charlbury commuter blog, the 06.43 off Hereford stopped with first class on the platform again yesterday morning. If it was doing this all the way from Hereford probably accounts for it running 13 minutes late by Charlbury and more delays outside Oxford made it 22 late on arrival there. By contrast, the 05.42 from Hereford called with standard on the platform and was running on time at Charlbury and a minute early into Oxford, to general astonishment. Pity both HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) either side of it were late, though the 05.50 from Moreton-in-Marsh, which is still 180 operated, was right time throughout to Paddington.

According to John Stanley of the CLPG^» (Cotswold Line Promotion Group - about), the change of heart on which coaches are on the platform followed a trip on the Cotswold Line on Wednesday morning by the 'general manager' - I'm guessing Richard Rowland, who is responsible for the Thames Valley area - after reports from the line's service delivery manager of the chaos she witnessed on the Monday and Tuesday mornings.

May be too little too late though. Anecdotal evidence on the commuter blog and personal observation suggests that passenger numbers, which fell at several Cotswold Line stations last year, have taken another hit. Would be interesting to know what Chiltern's takings at Bicester North were looking like this week...

See following news item on the Cotswold Line Promotion Group site for detailed of workings on the route that are still meant to be Adelantes for the time being. Ceratinly the 5.52 Paddington-Worcester and return have been Adelantes all week, also the 17.51 off London has been so far. Can't comment on other services, though I believe one also appeared on the 15.51 on Tuesday, causing serious overcrowding.

http://www.clpg.co.uk/newsDec%202007.htm

See the post I have placed in the all across the west area's thread on SDO^▸ (Selective Door Opening) at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=1182.0

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) seem to have surrendered on SDO^▸ (Selective Door Opening)!

Today both the Hereford-London trains stopped with standard class on the platforms at Cotswold Line stations. According to postings on the charlbury.info website's commuter blog, a train manager said on the PA^▸ (Public Address) that this was a "trial" for the next few days. FGW's top brass finally seem to have noticed their SDO can open the doors behind the panel being used as well as in front!

Has anything similar happened elsewhere today? Eg the West Country.

Got to say that dual track is actually the only thing that will fix it once and for all. The new timetable has extra minutes built in here and there (eg compare the old 17.52 off Paddington with the new 17.51), and trains standing at Oxford, Evesham and Moreton for 10-15 minutes at various points in the day to try to massage away the single-line problems, but it isn't working.

All the problems this morning, which lasted well past the peak services, were down to the knock-on effects from one train going down the single track late (the first of the Hereford-London trains I believe). It just wouldn't have happened on a dual-track route.

Loops to split the single-track sections might help a bit, but this really isn't on Network Rail's agenda from what I know of their study into options for the future. It's more double track, the issue is whether it's all the route, or, if not, which extra section(s) of double track will do most to minimise conflicts between trains and minimise delays. Options are now due to be revealed next February.

After two mornings of problems boarding HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train),commuters from Charllbury have started a petition calling for a return to the previous practice of stopping the standard class coaches on the short platforms at Cotswold Line stations, see http://www.PetitionOnline.com/cotswold/

In all honesty, running through to and from London has never been a big issue on that service, or not for those who regularly use the halts, who are all heading into Oxford. The franchise requirement is simply that a train calling at the halts arrives in Oxford some time after 8am and a return working leaves Oxford after 5pm. It says nothing about through running.

When the afternoon working started at Paddington, it was often an unpleasant scrum for the large numbers boarding at Oxford and trying to find seats in an already busy two-car Turbo, along with those who had ridden from London in the back unit, which was taken off at Oxford. This was why it was decided to start it at Oxford and to put a 125 on the 15.51 off London, to encourage Worcestershire passengers wanting a speedier journey to avoid the stopper.

William,

You're right. Finstock's platform was moved when the track was slewed for 100mph running and sits on the trackbed.

As for the all-stations train, the idea the halts are request stops is a bit of a fiction, certainly on weekdays. I cannot recall a single journey where one has been skipped. There's always someone waiting to go into Oxford in the mornings, nor have I ever known halts passengers on the return service being asked to make themselves known to the train's crew. They just stop anyway. Again, someone always seems to get off. The only trains I have ever used that did skip halts were Saturday services (now only offered from Shipton anyway), which would slow on the approach to the halts to see if there was any custom, then accelerate away if no-one showed themselves. All the Shipton trains seem to stop whatever the time of day.

As for custom at these stations, Combe and Finstock are both about a mile from the villages and Finstock is at the bottom of a steepish hill as well, so not great scope for extra numbers, I'd say, even with more trains.

Shipton, as I said in a previous post, is a potential Honeybourne Mk2^▸ (Mark 2 coach), if it gets the right balance of services. The population of Shipton and adjacent Milton-under-Wychwood is greater than Honeybourne. Also Burford is much closer to Shipton than Charlbury, so would attract custom from that area too if more trains called. The problem here is access and parking. The westbound platform is currently reached through Matthews' flour mill yard and the best site for a car park, where the goods shed and yard used to be just north of the Oxford-bound platform, is occupied by a garage business.

Ascott's problem is that while it is convenient for the village itself, it is so close to Shipton it would be hard to justify lots of trains calling at both points, so maybe an extra peak stop or two here. I don't think people here would be too aggrieved if they only had a short drive to Shipton for more frequent services the rest of the day.

Not quite sure how we got from double track to Adelante unreliability, but do you really imagine FGW^▸ (First Great Western) has been doing anything but the bare minimum maintenance on them since the summer, or even longer? Certainly nothing resembling reliability modifications has been attempted.

Fingers crossed the expanded HST^▸ (High Speed Train) fleet, despite the awful new interiors, will at least be reliable, even if the track and signals are less so - Network Rail is on notice from the Rail Regulator over possible enforcement action for its dismal performance on routes from Paddington, so it's not all FGW's fault.

And while the idea of limited-stop expresses may seem seductive to those travelling from Worcester, Malvern  and Hereford, however much you increase capacity on the Cotswold Line, all trains will still have to fit into the regular interval timetable beyond Oxford and, most importantly, Didcot, even the far more lucrative peak trains to and from Bristol and Cardiff. Rebuilding of Reading station will constrain capacity there for some years to come.

As generators of traffic and revenue for FGW, tiny little Moreton-in-Marsh, Kingham and Charlbury are FAR more important than Worcester.

As for passengers from Hanborough going elsewhere to catch trains, Charlbury's car park is near-full most weekdays already and have you ever tried to reach Oxford station by car during the morning rush-hour? I suspect not. If there were more capacity on the Cotswold Line, FGW would want all trains to call at Hanborough. Only timing constraints on the single track prevent this at the moment.

One of the key reasons for stopping the Hereford peak services at Honeybourne was to ease pressure at Evesham, where the station car park is minute.

Hanborough, Honeybourne and Pershore act as railheads for much wider areas (eg Hanborough should perhaps be renamed Witney Parkway), that is why FGW and Thames Trains before them have steadily increased the number of trains calling. And these stations are popular with passengers because they avoid the need to battle ever-increasing congestion to get into Worcester, Evesham or Oxford to join trains there.

Of the Oxfordshire halts, only Shipton and perhaps Ascott would justify much of an increase in services, so the idea of extra Turbo services shuttling up and down just isn't going to happen, not that most of us would want to see them back in any numbers anyway, having got used to having decent trains on the days that the Adelantes do get out of the depot.

Sorry, but that's the way it is. The days of prestige, limited-stop expresses are over, even the Flying Scotsman now makes four stops between London and Edinburgh. What people want are reliable, regular-interval trains, along the lines of Switzerland, where you can turn up at the station at the same time every hour and the train rolls in. And you won't get the reliability you all say you want until the extra capacity offered by double track is in place, along with a solution to the problems at Reading and the signals and track in the Thames Valley are renewed.

William,

While I have signed your petition, I do have reservations about your reference to "village stations", which might cover just about everywhere on the line apart from Evesham and Pershore. The reason the trains make as many calls as they do is because people want to use them.

In the 1970s, Pershore and Hanborough (PS Lee, the second platform survives here too) were down to a single daily train each way, now passenger journeys are in the 60,000-70,000 per year range at both. Honeybourne is somewhere near 30,000, despite having been closed from 1969-1981. If it had a decent train service, Shipton (and the Wychwoods generally) could well match that figure. Charlbury (232,000) generates almost as much traffic as Evesham (239,000), despite a far smaller population. Figures given are all for 2006.

If and when more double track is laid, the need to meet this demand will not change. Indeed a much enhanced service at Shipton would be justified and possible if the current timetabling constraints are removed.

By all means deal with slack scheduling on the Cotswold Line itself and the padding built into timings between Reading and London, but the days of the Cathedrals Express sweeping imperiously past everywhere except Moreton and Evesham are long gone. We may be a long way from London, but this route and much of the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) network as far out as Bath and Bristol is now outer-suburban, not InterCity, which means current stopping patterns are here to stay.