Cholsey-Padd commute

[whole diary]

[Hal]

My daughter is about to move to Cholsey. Any advice from seasoned commuters about best trains, chances of getting seat, advisability of changing at RDG^‡(resolve) etc? Thanks in advance.

[inspector_blakey]

I'm not a seasoned commuter but it might be worth checking whether it's quicker to drive to Didcot Parkway and make the journey from there - nearly all (if not all) trains from Cholsey heading towards Paddington are all stations as far as Reading, whereas in the morning/afternoon peaks there are frequent fast trains from Didcot.

[lordgoata]

I'm at Goring and don't travel to Paddington, but there is a HST^▸ (High Speed Train) service that arrives around 0730. Looking at the timetable it looks like the 0715 service from Didcot, calling at Cholsey, Goring, Pangbourne, Tilehurst, Maidenhead and Paddington - arriving 0826. Being the first stop from Didcot, seating shouldn't be a problem (there is always space at Goring), but it does tend to fill up at the following stations if the one time I used it is anything to go by!

To get there any quicker you are looking at changing at Reading I expect.

[cholsey]

Season tickets from Cholsey to Paddington are the same price as from Reading and quite a bit cheaper than from Didcot (+parking). The direct HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) are the ones to aim for, particularly in the morning.  Most journeys involve a change at Reading with a Cholsey to Reading service every 30 minutes or so.

[IndustryInsider]

To add to what 'lordgoata' and 'cholsey' have said, either the 06:40 or 07:21 are direct taking about an hour and formed of HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s - definitely no problem getting a seat there.  The other option is the 07:07 to Reading and change there.  Again no problem getting a seat to Reading, but it's a bit of a lottery from Reading to Paddington.

Coming back, if you get to Paddington in good time then there's no problem getting a seat, but you'll struggle on all the trains (with the possibe exception of the direct - but quite slow at 70 mins - HST at 17:33) if you arrive last minute. There are several 'change at Reading' options on the way home to cut the journey by a few minutes, though it's hard to take too much time off of the 17:18 and 18:18 Turbos at 58 minutes, mind you they're both packed until Maidenhead.