I did see this mentioned on a FGW^▸ (First Great Western) poster which highlighted all the main changes taking place at the May TT change.

End of an era in a way when back in the seventies Cardiff-Portsmouth services (most of which started at Bristol) used to serve most of the shacks between Salisbury-Portsmouth making it quite a long journey of 3 hours if you were travelling to Portsmouth from Bristol compared with a journey time of around 2 1/2 hours today.

1 Bath

Not been the best of weekend for it to happen being a bank holiday/half term week.

Could do with an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) heading to Weymouth again this afternoon as it could be a bit of a sqeeze this evening as the scheduled 5 carriages for the 1730 Weymouth to Bristol will be just a single 2 carriage unit. To FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s credit, road transport is being provided fast to Westbury:

17:30 Weymouth to Bristol Temple Meads due 20:05
This train has been revised.This train will be formed of 2 coaches instead of 5.This is due to an earlier train fault.

Additional road transport will be in operation running non-stop from Weymouth to Westbury at 17:30.

Could be a bit of squeeze on the 0915 BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI))-Weymouth today:

09:15 Bristol Temple Meads to Weymouth due 11:27
This train will be formed of 3 coaches instead of 5.This is due to an earlier train fault.

This may affect the 1800 return journey this evening as the same stock that forms 0915 down service forms this train unless some re-gigging can be done to strengthen this train before this evening.

UPDATE: the 1800 managed to find an extra carriage!

18:00 Weymouth to Bristol Temple Meads due 20:20
This train will be formed of 4 coaches instead of 5.This is due to an earlier train fault.

Very likely when short run services are classed as a cancellation. Is it classed as a cancellation if a train misses stops during the journey?

So they are. Until now I hadn't really looked at the new London-West of England timetable. Good move by FGW^▸ (First Great Western).

I think that most West of England services should be pick up only at Reading whatever day or time of the week/season it is.

That makes sense as you can almost guarantee there will be rail enthusiasts bashing the service every weekend with nice weather being a bonus.

I do too Chris!  Just goes to show how wrong he was to believe what he read in a certain Rail magazine back at the start of the year which said the loco service wouldn't be happening this summer. I won't be using them as a source for posting on this forum again thats for sure. Whoops  I just admitted it was me who started this post!!!!

Hehe, yes I just couldn't help myself on this occasion Chris, because it just goes to show that often the media don't always do their homework before publishing an article. Its not British Rail anymore where you could stick any train picture to highlight your article...the railways are now run by different companies 

The title of this post really does need changing to show the fact that there will be a loco service this summer for which FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are to be congratulated!

I hope its well used helping towards the costs of running it. Though that will mainly depend on what sort of summer we have this year.

Service departs Bristol Temple Meads at 0909, Bath Spa 0928, Trowbridge 0949, Westbury 1002, Frome 1010 and Yeovil Pen Mill 1049 Arriving Weymouth at 1142.
Also calls at Keynsham, Oldfield Park, Bradford-on-Avon, Bruton, Castle Cary, Maiden Newton and Dorchester West. See timetable 27 for times: http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Documents/Custom/May%2009%20TTs/FGW09M_TT27.pdf

Return service departs Weymouth at 1655.

I'm sure SWT^▸ (South West Trains) will be pleased that The Times used a picture of one of their trains for this article...not!

Just a quick note to bring a bit of balance to this article. On the East Coast line, National Express have been charging ^25 for quite sometimes for journeys from London to York and north thereof and XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) have been charging up to ^20 to upgrade to First since they took over the franchise from Virgin which isn't really that good value if you are travelling on a Voyager!

In FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s defence they have kept the cost of ^10 for quite sometime; though the jump from ^10 to ^25 for those travelling from London to Cornwall is quite a steep rise I must admit.

It is indeed.

Well done Mojo you got it.