Additonal Trains for London/Windsor during mourning period

[whole diary]

[lbraine]

I was wondering if anyone had found information on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) running additonal trains to London (or Windsor) during the mourning period for Queen Elizabeth ?
Its reported in the press (see BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) website) that rail operators were looking at additonal trains inclusing night services.
The Windsor branch from Slough presents its own challenges - with no passing loop to faciliate a higher frequency service - but will longer trains than the normal 2 car Turbos be available ?

[IndustryInsider]

The Windsor branch from Slough presents its own challenges - with no passing loop to faciliate a higher frequency service - but will longer trains than the normal 2 car Turbos be available ?

It's a 3-car unit today and it'd be fairly simple to swap one of the diagrams so that continues to be the case.  A 4-car unit is the maximum that can be accommodated, at that is what was provided for a rather different royal event when Harry and Meghan got married.  Perhaps that will be arranged for Monday?

[GBM]

Paul Gentleman has been on our local radio saying there will be additional trains from the far West, but they will be very busy.
He also said an extra train would run with the overnight sleeper.
I wonder where these extra trains will come from - or are all 10 coaches going to made 5 units only, thus doubling the number available.

Edit - not applicable to the Windsor line, but associated with the first part of the topic header  10:38

[Jamsdad]

No sign of extra trains from Cornwall and certainly none overnight beyond the sleeper.

[IndustryInsider]

No sign of extra trains from Cornwall and certainly none overnight beyond the sleeper.

Extra trains outlined above by GBM (and more) are indeed planned to run.  Details soon…

[didcotdean]

An electronic sign outside of Reading today suggests using the Elizabeth line to London for the best chance of getting a seat.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is also asking anyone travelling to Windsor from London to use the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) Waterloo service and that there will be a queuing arrangement put in place at Slough and Windsor & Eton Central if required from today.

[stuving]

SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) have put out the following information:

South Western Railway will be operating our usual service levels throughout the mourning period – on Monday 19 September we will run a full weekday timetable, not a bank holiday timetable.

We will run a limited number of additional services where possible.

All planned engineering works and strikes have been called off.

Customers should check journey planners for latest train times before setting off on this page.

Journey Planners will be updated as follows:

• Timetables up to and including Friday 16 September are already live in journey planners
• Timetables for Saturday 17 to Sunday 18 September will be live in journey planners on the morning of Wednesday 14 September
• Timetables for Monday 19 September will be live in journey planners on the morning of Thursday 15 September

Looking on RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website), there are some - a dozen or so - trains into and out of Waterloo from tonight in what is usually the overnight gap (around 00:30-05:00). There may be other additions just outside that period. For Paddington, of course there are a few Reading services during that period; from tonight there seem to be a few extras.

[ChrisB]

With the confirmation of a nornal weekday service on Monday, further confirmation woukd be useful that only off-peak fares will be charged all day, with no peaks at all

[Timmer]

With the confirmation of a nornal weekday service on Monday, further confirmation woukd be useful that only off-peak fares will be charged all day, with no peaks at all

Here you go Chris:

https://www.gwr.com/royalfuneral

Ticket restrictions – The funeral date for Her Majesty on 19 September has been confirmed as an official Bank Holiday, peak time ticket restrictions will therefore not apply.

[stuving]

I didn't check Crossrail service to Reading, but they too have a few extras from tomorrow morning (i.e. tonight). Not quite a train an hour, and to my surprise that pattern is shown every day until the 20th.

Paul Clifton was just on South Today talking up how massive the transport challenge is. He said GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) would run two trains an hour from Reading, which is a bit more than I could see and of course half of those run usually.

[grahame]

I didn't check Crossrail service to Reading, but they too have a few extras from tomorrow morning (i.e. tonight). Not quite a train an hour, and to my surprise that pattern is shown every day until the 20th.

However, 31 GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) electric services out of Paddington today are reduced from 8 to 4 carriages, for example

11:27 London Paddington to Didcot Parkway due 12:50

Facilities on the 11:27 London Paddington to Didcot Parkway due 12:50.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.
Will be formed of 4 coaches instead of 8.

Further Information
Due to more trains than usual requiring repairs today we regret to inform that the following services will be formed of 4 coaches instead of the booked 8 coaches. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to your journey with us today.

[bobm]

This morning Realtime Trains is showing overnight trains from Bristol and Plymouth in the early hours of the 19th. There are also trains back to Bristol in the early hours of the 20th.

[IndustryInsider]

However, 31 GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) electric services out of Paddington today are reduced from 8 to 4 carriages, for example

11:27 London Paddington to Didcot Parkway due 12:50

Facilities on the 11:27 London Paddington to Didcot Parkway due 12:50.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.
Will be formed of 4 coaches instead of 8.

That’s now back to an 8-car.  Good old journeycheck.

[old original]

This morning Realtime Trains is showing overnight trains from Bristol and Plymouth in the early hours of the 19th. There are also trains back to Bristol in the early hours of the 20th.

On journey planners the 04.54 from Plymouth is starting at Penzance at 03.00 Monday morning & 20.03 from Paddington is extended to Penzance that evening but that seems to be it.
I suspect staffing could be an issue

[grahame]

This morning Realtime Trains is showing overnight trains from Bristol and Plymouth in the early hours of the 19th. There are also trains back to Bristol in the early hours of the 20th.

On journey planners the 04.54 from Plymouth is starting at Penzance at 03.00 Monday morning & 20.03 from Paddington is extended to Penzance that evening but that seems to be it.
I suspect staffing could be an issue

I'm trying to do the arithmetic here ... if people pass through Westminster Hall at a rate of 1 per second, that's 3600 per hour - but call it 3,000 because they're stopping every 20 minutes to change the guard.  If a train carries 500 people, that's 6 trainload of people per hour.  Spread between Waterloo, Victoria, London Bridge, Liverpool Street, Kings Cross, Euston and Paddington that's just one trainload per hour into each terminus.  And that's ignoring the tiny stations such as Charing Cross, Canon Street, Fenchurch Street, St Pancras, Moorgate, Black Fryers and Maryleone and the fact that many people will come in on the underground or crossrail, or by bus (on the road or river).    Now - 1 trainload per hour into stations that have a train arriving every few minutes does not look massive ...