Oxford to Paddington via Abingdon

[whole diary]

[81F]

Fancied a day in London today (Sun 23 May 2010). In the FGW^▸ (First Great Western)
new timetable the first train from Oxford to London on a Sunday is at 0838,
arriving at Paddington at 0945. [Shame there's nothing earlier,
but . . .]
Checked the FGW website for engineering works -- nothing showing there
that should affect this journey, so arranged to meet mate in London --
sorted!

This morning, just to be on the safe side, checked again -- on journey
planner this time -- and discovered no 0838 to Paddington. Obviously
there are engineering works, though still not evident on FGW website,
and the situation now is thus:

Depart Oxford  0810 by bus FIRST GREAT WESTERN duration 0.30
Arrive Abingdon High Street  0840

Depart Abingdon High Street  0851 by bus UNKNOWN BUS duration 0.27
Arrive Didcot Parkway  0918

Depart Didcot Parkway  0946 by train FIRST GREAT WESTERN duration 0.58
London Paddington arr 1044

Total journey time 2h 34mins, including 11 minutes wait at Abingdon
and 28 minutes at Didcot, compared to the usual hour or so.

Similar situation an hour later. The first "direct" bus from Oxford to
Didcot is at 1030 and apparently operated by Cross Country.

I'm wondering whether the bus service from Oxford to Abingdon is the
Oxford Bus Co service X3, which happens to leave Oxford rail station
at 0810 and arrive at Abington at 0940 and that from Abingdon to
Didcot is the X2 service, leaving Oxford St Aldates at 0830, picking
up at Abingdon at 0851 and arriving at Didcot at 0918. So there may
not even be a rail replacement bus at all, just 2 everyday local
buses !

Does FGW really expect anyone to put their hand in their pocket and
pay good money for such a pathetic offering? I bet the coach operators
are laughing all the way to the bank !

[inspector_blakey]

Over the years I've made more than my fair share of early morning journeys from Oxford on a Sunday. I've seen the route you describe pop up once or twice on the journey planner, and yet it does involve the Oxford Bus Company X3 service. I've never taken it though, and I very much doubt that the bus driver would accept a rail ticket for the journey - have always put it down to a bug in the journey planner.

For as long as I can recall the early options on a SUnday morning have almost invariably involved a bus to Didcot, whether there was engineering work or not. From memory these would depart at 0745 or 0805 (or perhaps both). This connected at Didcot straight into a train for London. I know the line between Didcot and Oxford was shut today, but I'd be very surprised if the normally scheduled rail replacement buses (which certainly used to appear in the printed timetable and were even on odd occasions provided with a ticket examiner) didn't operate.

[Chris from Nailsea]

... and _(cough) Welcome to the Coffee Shop forum, 81F (your username is the shed code for Oxford, I believe?) 

Regards, Chris. 

[inspector_blakey]

Oh, yes, apologies 81F, welcome along! Bit remiss of me not to say that earlier...!

[Ollie]

Fancied a day in London today (Sun 23 May 2010). In the FGW^▸ (First Great Western)
new timetable the first train from Oxford to London on a Sunday is at 0838,
arriving at Paddington at 0945. [Shame there's nothing earlier,
but . . .]
Checked the FGW website for engineering works -- nothing showing there
that should affect this journey, so arranged to meet mate in London --
sorted!

Don't know when you checked, but it's definitely been shown in the timetable alterations section: http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=4940 and was definitely there at least Wednesday, when I used it to check something myself.

[willc]

Would have to concur with Ollie, details were on the alterations page well ahead of this weekend and in midweek when I was looking at it then and are still there now.

[Oxman]

I was trying to work out some journey plans on Sunday for Oxford London using Journey Planner and it threw up all sorts of interesting variations, including the route via Abingdon bus. It always shows the shortest journey time, so regularly came up with Oxford - Banbury - Marylebone.

With replacement buses, and particularly when you have two TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) running over the same route (FGW^▸ (First Great Western) and AXC^» (Arriva Cross Country - about)), you really have to know what you are doing to find the most appropriate journey. Limiting the number of changes or restricting the TOCs selected usually helps. Small wonder your average customer is confused.

[Mookiemoo]

Yes - I  was slightly amused by this weekend engineering

I got myself from LA to Kansas to NYC by train without so much as a hitch - latest AMTRAK were was about 20 minutes at Lawrence and that is good by their standards

My flight leaves on time and arrives early.  My Heathrow connect to Paddington gets me there for 08:30am

Only to find my options are:

1. Pad to Didcot then bus to oxford and train from there to hereford then a bus
2. Train to Newport then a train to Hereford then a bus

Now these were engineering works so I assumed it would be a proper rail replacement coach.  Nope. Nada. Nein.

The shrewsbury passengers got a nice air conditioned coach.

Also note - there was no mention of said works when I booked my trip in mid march - had there been I would have flown back friday night and travelled on saturday.  I actually thought the bank holiday might be this weekend and I merely forgot about it.


Thos of us poor smucks stopping at leominster, ludlow, craven arms or church stretton got a dilapidated old local bus with no aircon.

Queue stand up fight at leominster between me who got on at hereford with three 70lb suitcases (was my allowance on my flight and YES I can manage to haul them myself thank you without holding up trains/needing assistance - I might be fat but a fair amount is muscle) and put them in the disabled space on the bus.  Father with a non folding pram got on at leominster and demanded I move them.  He didnt like it when I pointed out that since the signs only referred to wheel chairs my luggage had as much right to be there as his pram and if he wanted to move them, he was more than welcome to try to lift anyone of them into the overhead racks.

I was sleep deprived, over hot and grumpy - it was ugly.

[ChrisB]

You were in the right, being on first....I'd have done the same.

[willc]

He shouldn't have been allowed to put the pram on the bus in the first place, going by what Tocs say about replacement buses these day, though should be noted they also say no heavy, bulky or large items of luggage - wording varies between Tocs - but isn't exactly clear what this encompasses.

ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) website wording is:

It is regretted that dogs (except guide dogs), cycles, prams and large items of luggage cannot be conveyed on replacement road coach services.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website says:

Please note that cycles, prams and items of bulky luggage cannot be carried on replacement bus services during engineering works.

But new printed timetables say heavy instead of bulky.

[Mookiemoo]

now you see, here is the interesting thing.

When I booked my flight there was no mention of rail replacement buses that day - I know, I specifically checked.  Had there been, I would have made sure I flew back a day early as it is well known I hate buses.

Now, when someone returns of vacation with luggage to find an unexpected bus in place, just what would happen if the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s actually upheld that clause.

Because there was no way for me to get home without a bus - either from hereford to ludlow or from shrewsbury to ludlow.