Perils of ignoring Pick Up only at Reading

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

When told that it was a late decision to pull the call at Reading, one of the posters on twitter complained why it hadn't been taken off the board at Paddington. But I suspect this was a presumption on his/hers part that it was on there in the first place.

It would never have been on the board at PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) - the Reading stop, I mean. First station shown would be Swindon. Just goes to show that pax don't read the board before boarding, and just assume that all HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) stop at Reading.

Other than the operator doing a tad more to educate pax (put an 'A' board with suitable poster at both entrances to requisite platform probably the easiest?) - and then let those Reading pax suffer. Sorry, but it does need both carrot & stick for the benefit of the majority on the train going further.

They'll only get caught once....

[ellendune]

If you look at the board at Paddington that list all the trains, every HST^▸ (High Speed Train) that stops at reading has a * at the start of the line.  So the ones that don't do not stop at Reading don't.  Would it be clearer if they reversed it? As I said before whenever I have been on a non-stop train the train manager has always made a special point of announcing it on the train. 

[sprinterguard]

People don't read the posters though. The best way would be a triage of annoucements.. but then again people don't listen to them much either. 

[tom m]

Surely if it just an overcrowding issue for those two trains ONLY then is the answer to remove the stop on a permanent basis?  There must be plenty of options on other services for the limited number of people wanting to join the trains at Reading.

I am guessing by the time of day though the overcrowding is common on all services leaving padd at that time and without increasing capacity it's not really going to help and I think we all know that increasing capacity is not a simple matter of adding additional trains.

[John R]

Surely if it just an overcrowding issue for those two trains ONLY then is the answer to remove the stop on a permanent basis?  There must be plenty of options on other services for the limited number of people wanting to join the trains at Reading.

For South Wales, they could catch a train 15 mins earlier and change at Swindon, so hardly a great imposition. And whilst that might put more seat pressure on the earlier service west of Reading, given it will have just let the Reading hordes off, I can't imagine that would be too big a problem. It would be more of an issue on any pick up only services going to the South West though.

Post electrification I still think one answer would be to run a few peak hour 10 or 12 coach 115 mph emus from Paddington to Swindon calling only at Reading and Didcot. Offer a reasonable discount for season ticket holders if they were restricted to using these services at times when they were running (ie they could use the longer distance services at other times of day) and I bet you would go a long way to solving the problem of capacity east of Reading and could configure IEPs^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) more appropriately for longer distance travellers.  Could be possible if the HEx paths become free in the early 20s?

[ChrisB]

yep - that's been my solution for some time - check back up this/other threads

[BerkshireBugsy]

If you look at the board at Paddington that list all the trains, every HST^▸ (High Speed Train) that stops at reading has a * at the start of the line.  So the ones that don't do not stop at Reading don't.  Would it be clearer if they reversed it? As I said before whenever I have been on a non-stop train the train manager has always made a special point of announcing it on the train. 

I'm fairly certain that in the evening peak at Paddington there was a service for Wales that didn't stop at Reading and the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) boards had a line stating this clearly. In addition the PA^▸ (Public Address) announcements backed this up (I can't be sure but it may have been a Carmarthen service). Because I've never travelled on that service IDONT know if that is intended to be a pick at Reading only service.

Two things I'm not sure of with respect to Reading pickup only services

1) what the window labels say
2) what does real time trains report

[John R]

Friday's service showed it stopping at Reading and gave no indication that it was pick up only. However, that's a problem for RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) to solve (if it so wishes) - don't think you can expect the railway to take account of unofficial web services that may give inaccurate information. National Rail's site is a different matter, as it is the official source of information, but I'm not sure it's possible to look back to Friday on that.

[ellendune]

Well if you ask National Rail for a Train from Paddington to Reading next Friday, it does not list the 19:15.  If you then ask for a train to Swindon it is listed, but if you ask for calling points it lists Reading as depart only.

[Ollie]

Friday's service showed it stopping at Reading and gave no indication that it was pick up only. However, that's a problem for RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) to solve (if it so wishes) - don't think you can expect the railway to take account of unofficial web services that may give inaccurate information. National Rail's site is a different matter, as it is the official source of information, but I'm not sure it's possible to look back to Friday on that.

RTT is actually correct from what I can see. If you look at the public timetable on RTT rather than the working timetable, it will not give you an arrival time for Reading.

[Hafren]

What happened to people travelling from Reading? If this were the normal arrangement then they would just plan to catch an earlier train, but in this case it would have been a cancellation as far as they were concerned, although if advised early enough and on the platform early enough, some could have made it to Swindon. So implication for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) would be compensating an hour's delay, plus dealing with missed last connection to Milford Haven (should there be anyone requiring it from Reading). Of course, if it were that busy, they wouldn't have been able to get on anyway.

[Super Guard]

On a regular basis on the 1803 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-PNZ I would invariably have passengers on at Reading for the Frome stopper (1805 ex-PAD), and despite 2-3 announcements before departing there would normally be a handful of passengers travelling to Newbury or Thatcham via Taunton.

On the same train when it is pick-up only Friday nights at Reading, I would stand on the platform and tell passengers this is not for Reading.  I've been called a liar (and worse) because "this always stops at Reading". 

[bobm]

In the days when the mail was still carried by train there was a night when a postie loading bags on the Travelling Post Office at Reading somehow got shut in one of the baggage vans and endured a rather cold journey to Bristol Temple Meads.  He then travelled, in somewhat more comfort, on the Up TPO^▸ (Travelling Post Office) and arrived back at Reading some five hours after he left.  His colleagues, realising what had happened, covered for his absence and no more was said.

[chrisr_75]

I'm fairly certain that in the evening peak at Paddington there was a service for Wales that didn't stop at Reading and the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) boards had a line stating this clearly. In addition the PA^▸ (Public Address) announcements backed this up (I can't be sure but it may have been a Carmarthen service). Because I've never travelled on that service IDONT know if that is intended to be a pick at Reading only service.

There was at one point a 19.12 departure to Swansea which was first stop Bristol Parkway and the normal stopping pattern thereafter. It appeared in timetables for a while and possibly ran once or twice, but according to a FGW^▸ (First Great Western) train manager I spoke to one time, it was canned by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about), even though FGW had available trains, staff, paths etc. It would've provided a very welcome relief to the overcrowding on the Paddington to S.Wales services at that time of day and I'm sure would have been a popular service.

[bobm]

It certainly ran once - last August - http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=12791.0