I happened to be buying tickets from Maidenhead to Marlow today and they were still firmly ‘paper only’.

As a related point I was quite surprised to find that with a decent sized festival taking place at Marlow today (Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park) and with the organisers advising attendees not to drive and to take GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), that a 2-car turbo once per hour was expected to convey everyone back to the mainline. Is there no capacity to enhance that service for events, be that length or frequency?

Same deal today. Large numbers of cancellations in thames valley services.

Tfl services are now suspended. No way in or out from the Thames Valley.

Slow clap.

This is indeed becoming quite tedious. Time for another letter to Theresa about how her commuter towns have become ‘uncommutable’.

Useless

… and that marked the end of my planned first trip to London in 2022. All rather annoying.

Please indulge me whilst I relay my recent experiences.  I write this as a seasoned commuter having held my maidenhead season ticket for 10 years until the pandemic.

I had my first day back in the office last Monday and whilst pleased that the trains were pleasantly empty I was stunned by the absence of masks by both passengers and GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) staff. Same for TfL^» (Transport for London - about) for that matter. I didn’t see one staff member with a mask, not one.  I returned home on a TfL service, surrounded by the maskless and even when having tickets checked no one flinched. No passengers were challenged.

Today, the first day of my daughter’s half term holiday, we decided to go to London for a museum trip. Without my season ticket that would be £64 for my wife and I, peak. Off peak, slightly cheaper, but ALL off peak trains are Neanderthal slow (47mins to paddington?!?!? No thanks).  And that’s after I deal with the lottery of can I park at the station (better odds on euromillons) after GWR closed 2 of the 3 carparks at Maidenhead. Even if there was a space it’s £7.

So I drove.

Prebooked a parking space for £30. Bargain compared to £72 minimum to take a family of 3 to London. And yes, I arrived faster too. And with less stress about germs and viruses and anything else really.

I feel quite sad that this is the situation that GWR presents to potential travellers.

Amazing! And there was me thinking that they’d sit on it until Autumn and come and cut it back when it’s dead. Perhaps my cynicism needs reappraising. 

Interesting reading and interesting to see what drives the decision making.
It remains a crying shame that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) can’t support their actual passengers who increasingly can’t actually park at the station.
With the loss of Silco Drive and the forecourt and the additional disabled spaces I think the total capacity has been halved in the past few years, at a time when it already could have benefitted from being doubled.

That would be most unfortunate if that is the chosen solution to Maidenhead’s lack of parking because they are park of a one way system that would massively compound the majority of driver’s routes and time spent accessing parking that is not actually near the station. For me that would add 15mins at least to my commute.

What has happened to Silco Drive?  Closed for refurbishment for a couple of months, never to be heard of again?  That was another 100+ spaces.

Should I take it that the answer to my question about the disabled spaces is that they are there to stay (and never to be used)?

A first trip to Maidenhead Shoppenhangars car park for quite some time revealed that approximately 20 bays (10%) have been removed and replaced by c10 disabled bays.

As one might have expected all of the regular bays were in use (ie car park full) but not one disabled bay was in use.

Does anyone know whether the reassignment of valuable parking spaces is a temporary phenomena whilst the forecourt is re-done or whether this work of face-palm genius is permanent?

Thanks

Well it’s now been over a year since I had the pleasure of using any form of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) service and my blood pressure is much the better for it

Just wondering if anyone else if contemplating returning their annual season ticket for a refund?  There doesn’t seem to be much point in my keeping it for the use it will get over the coming months, but is there anything I’m missing?

Different but related... the 18.20 from Paddington tonight is appallingly overcrowded but I can’t see any previous cancellations. Is there a reason for this or is it always like this these days?  This timetable just keeps getting worse.

As was reported to rather cold customers at Maidenhead this morning:
MAI^▸ (Maidenhead station) to PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) on your route: 07:02 - cancelled - a problem currently under investigation.

The 06.37(?) and 06.45 ran with delays today. The 06.37 was held back to allow other HS^▸ (High Speed (short for HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) High Speed Services)) services to pass it.

No 3 - the commuter trains from Twyford and Maidenhead that have had atrocious rates of cancellations and delays in the morning peak. That’s the self-centred priority for me please.

The evening peak from Paddington to thames valley is also much thinner than it was, but I can deal with that.