21 October 2016 - 19:03 Paddington to Penzance terminated at Reading

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

What you do is treat the cause rather than the symptoms - you enforce pick up only at Reading, where there is a service which is known, week on week, month on month, year on year to be hideously and dangerously overcrowded, even more so at holiday times, you restrict ticket sales and manage boarding, and you make sure you have sufficient staff in place to ensure that this is managed effectively.

You publicise that all this is going to happen in advance so that no-one has any excuse to say they weren't warned - sure you will still get a few clowns who will try it on but that's a great deal easier to deal with than the alternative.

What you do not do is sit on your hands, count the additional shekels and hope for the best.

This has been discussed at length in this Forum in respect of this service and others.......and before the usual suspects pipe up with "Ooooooos gonna pay for it then?/it's their own fault if they get on a busy train", GWRs^▸ (Great Western Railway) first responsibility, before anything else, is to take all practical measures to ensure the safety of their customers and staff.

[chrisr_75]

Something that could be implemented quite quickly would be to drop the Reading stop completely on certain peak time long distance services imho. During some stages of the remodelling of Reading station the 19.15 to Swansea (another infamously overcrowded service) was non-stopping, ie no pickup, which resulted in a busy, not not horribly overcrowded service.

[Adelante_CCT]

As TG has said, we have discussed this at length on this forum about enforcing pick-up only at Reading and yes, something should be done about it,,,,,, remove the Reading stop completely? How about those wishing to travel west from Reading which is a large number, and not just from Reading itself but don't forget Reading is the 2nd largest interchange station in Britain outside London, therefore those wishing to head to the South West from other areas as well.

How about removing or better still at least enforcing pick-up at Newbury as well?

As for those heading to Newbury, those from Reading have the 19:21 stopping option, or those from Paddington could be instructed to catch the 19:12 from Paddington arriving Reading 19:37 and then re-time the 19:42 stopper adding on a couple of minutes, to then take them on to Newbury. Delaying the 19:42 slightly does not affect any pathing issues and this service waits at Newbury for 22 minutes before continuing to Bedwyn.

Of course what we all rather would happen is a whole additional train

[simonw]

Having raised a similar topic, six months ago, with a journey through hell (London Pad - Swansea) I feel the only solution is for the train not to stop till Bristol Parkway, or in this case Taunton.

My gripe at the time is that there must be a limit to how man passengers (seated, standing etc) a train can hold and be safe? Just saying that there is no limit and trains are always safer than other forms of travel is not the answer

Extreme overcrowding (with high prices) frays tempers of staff and passengers, and whilst no one wishes anything to happen, crossing your fingers and hoping for the best (GWRs^▸ (Great Western Railway) approach) is not tenable.

Restricting access to ticket holders and distance travellers, managing numbers to just over 100% of capacity will always help, but in the end announcing this train will not stop till a distant station and enforcing it will help!

[LiskeardRich]

?/it's their own fault if they get on a busy train", GWRs^▸ (Great Western Railway) first responsibility, before anything else, is to take all practical measures to ensure the safety of their customers and staff.

Is it their own fault with this case, as the last train to Cornwall those for Cornwall have no other option (by rail).
I've been swayed by the much cheaper megabus on trips to London. £5 each way easily achieved, guarantee seat, and perhaps an hour difference in travel time.

[bobm]

Having caught the 19:03 many times it is used by a lot of Newbury commuters and while I have not been in a position to count the number who get off there I'd suggest it must be between 100 and 150 judging by those going past towards the exit and footbridge.  I suspect many are attracted by the faster journey time even if that is at the expense of comfort.

Making it pick up only (and enforcing it) at Newbury would greatly assist in my view.

[Adelante_CCT]

What doesn't help is that there are no 'local/turbo' services between Paddington and Newbury from 16:18 until 22:21, leaving passengers with no direct alternatives other than the longer distance HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train).

[broadgage]

As I have previously remarked, restricting or preferably eliminating the sale of advance purchase discounted tickets for this service would help a bit.

And enforce the "pick up only at Reading" rule.

If that cant be done, then eliminate the Reading stop. I appreciate that this would be inconvenient for those wishing to board at Reading, but feel that this objection is more theoretical than actual.
The 19-03 from Paddington is effectively unusable on busy days for anyone hoping to board at Reading, the chance of getting a seat, even with a reservation, is almost zero and even standing room is doubtful.

[bobm]

Just looking ahead there are currently advance tickets from Paddington to Plymouth available for the 19:03 on the 22nd December at £41.50 and on the 23rd December at £51.50. Super Off peak single is £54.

[grahame]

What doesn't help is that there are no 'local/turbo' services between Paddington and Newbury from 16:18 until 22:21, leaving passengers with no direct alternatives other than the longer distance HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train).

You could argue that the 17:06 (Westbury service) and 18:05 (Frome service) off Paddington both provide a local service to Newbury, with similar journey times Paddington to Newbury as the 16:18 and 22:21.    Whilst they're also HSTs, they're not going to have the long distance traffic on them.    I will concede that the absence of a 19:0x with broadly the same stopping pattern still leaves the gap we're talking about at around 7 O'Clock

[JayMac]

Such an absence of a full set down/pick up call may not be allowed either. The 1903 might have to call at Newbury as a London-West of England Service Level Commitment.

[Adelante_CCT]

Such an absence of a full set down/pick up call may not be allowed either. The 1903 might have to call at Newbury as a London-West of England Service Level Commitment.

Good thinking

(a) Seven services departing London Paddington between 1630 and 2100 shall call at Newbury. Two further services shall also call at Newbury

There are currently seven services to the WoE in addition to the Westbury and the Frome service during that time frame.


Never understand some of the idiocies in the SLC^▸ (Service Level Commitment) but that's for a different topic.

[a-driver]

Managing levels of overcrowding is near impossible given the lack of capacity on the lines out of Paddington.  We know this because GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have previously tried to run relief services but the plug was pulled on these by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) or Network Rail.  If you enforce "pick-up only" or bring in new "pick-up only" stops you will just be transferring crowding from one train to another service.  The introduction of new trains will not solve this problem, the problem will only be eased for a few years if passenger numbers continue to increase as they are.  The only way and, cheapest way, to ease the overcrowding is to have more services for Bedwyn and Westbury commencing from Reading utilising the loop near Aldermaston which would spread the load across more services leaving Paddington.  The services leaving Paddington could then run fast Reading to Westbury.

By not enforcing the "pick-up only" at Reading station it could actually be beneficial because the 1903 isn't being swamped with Reading commuters which potentially spreads the load between two services. 

[IndustryInsider]

I will concede that the absence of a 19:0x with broadly the same stopping pattern still leaves the gap we're talking about at around 7 O'Clock

I can't think of much that can be done given the current number of paths, not inconveniencing other passengers, and, most crucially, the current number of trains available.  It's all well and good talking of managing boarding and getting people to use other trains, but in most cases you only rob Peter to pay Paul.

For the future, i.e. in a years or so when they've been introduced, perhaps the recently introduced Fridays Only service at 19:12 to Bristol TM^‡(resolve) via Parkway would be an ideal service to run as a 10-car service using 2xIET's?  The rear portion could perhaps split off at Reading and form a Bristol service via the B&H^▸ (Berks and Hants - railway line from Reading to Taunton via Westbury) calling at Newbury and Westbury and then you could remove the Newbury stop on the 19:03.  All depends how packed solid the 19:12 service is west of Didcot on a Friday evening and you'd still no doubt piss off the Newbury commuters by telling them they're getting home 15 minutes later on a Friday night, and you'd also have to run the 19:42 Reading to Bedwyn turbo a few minutes later, but I can't see many other options.

Longer term, a nice shiny 12-car Class 387 electric could run from Paddington splitting at Reading with eight continuing to Oxford and four to Newbury.  That sort of thing might end up happening when the whole timetable is recast for the new electric and bi-mode services.  A couple of years down the line yet though...

[Sleepy]

Reduce availability of Advance tickets for 1903 down to bare minimum, allow Super Off Peak tickets to be used on 1803 Fridays only by Plymouth & Cornwall ticket holders, and if the above don't cure the problem sufficiently then introduce boarding controls - say maximum of 50 standing pax from Paddington not holding seat reservation ?