It has changed to 2 minutes for HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) services.  Is the 19.06 formed with an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) or turbo.  If it is a turbo then it should still be a minute otherwise 2

Yes but it will take a long time.

It all started way back, a long, long time back etc

Historically short journeys of up to about 20 minutes had a day return ticket - longer journeys had an open tyoe ticket. So for example Chippenham to Bath Spa only has day return but Swindon to Reading has the Off Peak (Open) Return.

But wait a minute you say what about Oxford to London that is about an hour but has Peak and Off Peak day return tickets.  Well back in the 1980's the railways around London were all run under one brand Network Southeast by a nice bloke by the name of Chris Green.  He wanted to encourage off peak travel  so off peak day returns were introduced across the area.  However Swindon was not in the Network Southeast area so no day return was introduced.

It was about this time that Peak tickets from Oxford became Day tickets not Open tickets because he abolished all barrier checks.  Whilst this was nice for the passenger it was not very good for revenue control as on the busy trains in the peak it was not physically possible to check tickets on the train and open tickets could thus be reused the next day !  thus the only more than one day return from Oxford to Paddington is off peak when in theory it should be possible to check the ticket on the train. Of course barriers have now been reintroduced  but that is another story !

So really it is a historically reason that you cant get an Off Peak day return from Swindon to Reading.  Hope that helps but probably raises more questions that it answers. 

Yes I must admit I had a little chuckle when  Arriva Trains Wales repainted Cardiff Central in the historically correct colours of green and ivory as senn in the original Greater Western franchise !

Ah but at Paddington you dont need bowsers anymore.  A few years ago water pipes were installed at platforms 1 - 5 and platform 8. They are under the metal platform edges which you can see breaking up the concrete edgeing stones.

The problem with the refurb is that you have increased the number of passengers which can be carried whilst at the same time reducing your toilet capacity by 15% as two of the toilets have been converted to trolley storage rooms.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have recognised this and all HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s are now watered at Paddington.  However sometimes when the train is late into the station they do not have time to do this and so you get the problems you mention.

It is the tickets that are restricted.  As FCC^▸ (First Capital Connect) set the fares north of the river they set the restrictions so there will be no change.  The resaon that there are not many restrictions going south is that south eastern set the fares and they do not have evening restrictions.


There used to be a joint Wessex South west trains service that ran from Waterloo to Penzance.  IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly) there was one train running at the weekend.

No all of the Exeter Drivers and Guards (HSS^▸ (High Speed Services)) sign Loco & Coaches as well as about 40 drivers at Padd.  This is because the sleepers have coaching stock as well.

Most of the Guards at Plymouth and Penzance also sign and would only take a few weeks to re train HSS guards at Paddington as the difference between the knowledge required for HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and loco and coaches is not great.

Sounds like an ORCATS^▸ (Operational Research Computerised Allocation of Tickets to Services) raid to me.  Chiltern will get a chunk of FGW^▸ (First Great Western) revenue between Oxford and London which will help to pay for this proposal.

Along a similar line strong rumours that FGW want to run HST^▸ (High Speed Train) to Banbury.  Quite a few already sit at Oxford for over an hour before going back to Paddington.  More that enough time to go to Banbury and back.  Cost would be very low as drivers already go there so only fuel to consider and training a few guards.

AIUI^▸ (as I understand it) the major problem is that the signalling does not allow to turn around in the platform at Banbury so a shunt would still be required which makes the timing quite tight.  Solve that and HST will be going to Banbury.

Cath Millman, of First Great Western said: "If you have trouble obtaining your ticket it is at the train manager's discretion and the worst-case scenario would be buying another ticket which could later be refunded

Yes she seems to be blaming the TM^‡(resolve).  However the TM did use his discretion and allowed the lady to travel to her destination.  It was the barrier staff who asked her to pay the full amount for the journey.

Also if I might add there is a bit more to the story that shows on this site.  When you book tickets on the internet you must show your card at the station to pick them up or you can collect them from the fast ticket machine.  However the card used by the lady in question does not belong to her so really she should not have been able to collect the tickets either from the booking office or the fast ticket machine. 

She must have been relying on the good will of the ticket office staff to give her the tickets even though they should not have done so when the ticket office was closed she could not get them!

I should imagine when she got to the excess fare window at Paddington she was told to show the credit card, when she said she did not have it they probably asked her to buy a new ticket.  That is how the system works I am afraid.  Why cant her company give her a charge card to use ?  That is how all the other company travellers get their tickets.

The system seems quite reasonable to me.  It is just to confirm that you have paid for the tickets and you have not borrowed someone elses card for the transaction.

There is this ticket you can buy

Gatwick Flyaway up to 4 people can travel together for ^85.00 return from Bath.  Dont know how many of you there are travelling but if 3 or 4 then the benefit is that there are no time restrictions.  Check this link

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/promotions/pr7a943fc35ce74101db9503cebaecbe/details.html