The opening of new bay platforms at Hayes & Harlington station means that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are able to run more frequent services with brand new electric trains. The eight carriage Electrostar trains have 262 more seats per service than the two carriage trains they are replacing; providing 6,550 more seats a day in each direction.

Yes, that's right - as long as they're on the relief line.

It'll mean it won't be possible to have a Bourne End train waiting to depart Maidenhead whilst one arrives off of the branch as sometimes happens in the peaks now, so there will need to be a couple of tweaks to the timetable for a few months.  Then from May, the through trains cease to be anyway with the arrival of peak time 8-Car Class 387 services between Maidenhead and Paddington, with the branch just operating as a shuttle service to/from Platform 5 as it does now during the off-peak hours.

Another large raft of signalling and infrastructure improvements going in over this Christmas/New Year period as Crossrail comes ever closer to being a reality.  Here's a summary for those that are interested:

Both track and signalling alterations will apply at Maidenhead:

• The current platform 5 which leads to and from the Bourne End branch will have a new connection at the west end and become the bi-directional 'Maidenhead Loop' line.
• The link with the Bourne End branch and Platform 4 on the Up Relief will be removed.