Great Western Coffee Shop

Can now be found in online journey planners.

It seems a lot of slack has been cut! Swansea - Paddington in 2 hours 56 mins on the 1528 from Swansea for example!

0558 Swansea - Paddington fast from Swindon - Paddington etc.

Thanks, devon_metro!  ;)

Interestingly, the new timetable is not yet available on the FGW website, at http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/BuyTickets.aspx  ::)

No slack removal on the Cotswolds I see.

Only saving grace is that none has been added!

:) Good to see. Hopefully FGW will be able to tighten up its operations to prevent delays.


Good a peak service with fewer stops. FGW are learning! ;D ;D

XC haven't caught up with the fact that Southampton Tunnel is closed weekends from 5/6 December onwards, which leads to the planners showing the ridiculous situation of changing out of an SWT service at Southampton Parkway and going forward in a XC service... ::)

Paul

I've noticed one anomaly. Whilst they seem to be cutting slack in most places, the 0600 Plymouth - Paddington is to be no longer. Soon, it will be 7 minutes slower and call at nowhere additionally. Most odd.

Note that the timetables have yet to be confirmed! TOCs are signing them off later this week, so changes could still happen.

By "journey planners" do you mean the XC site, because I can't find the December times anywhere else?

Forgive me for asking, but in what way is this cutting slack? If you care to consult the current timetable, the first train mentioned now leaves at 15.29 and gets in at 18.24, ie 2 hr 55min, so your cut in slack would be... a one-minute increase in the journey time.

And the other one may cut nine minutes, but loses a Reading stop at 8.33 - it might stop a few more commuters cramming on to get to London but is it wise to drop a call there at that time of the morning? I suspect there might be a few people from South Wales doing business in Reading who are less than impressed.

And someone else's trains will presumably be making Didcot and Reading calls to maintain the current frequency, so I don't think they will be quite as pleased as some of you seem to be.

I also raised an eyebrow at the cut of a Reading stop. Why not make it a set down only stop instead. :-\ Cutting a Swindon (or equivalent) stop would be better.

Hmm what else can call additionally at Reading? ;D ??? I hope no Cotswold commuter trains are routes via Didcot! >:(

Reading is a major commuter destination (like yourself once ;) ). It is also the biggest interchange outside London.

However, I still agree with the stop cuts! ;D ;D

Have you never heard of Birmingham New Street?

Yeah yeah - and I've just done five months in slough and as of 1st october will be doing 14 months in Wokingham so I know all about Reading .....

The point I'm making is not EVERYTHING has to stop there

No, but I expect that if a train you needed to catch to get you home skipped a Reading stop, then we would be hearing all about it.

And I can still remember, so insane was it, what was involved getting from Reading to Moreton-in-Marsh one time in the late 1990s when the evening train skipped Reading - either set out much earlier on an all-stations stopper to Oxford, or catch a Bristol service to Didcot, then get off and await the arrival of an Oxford-bound HST which called at Didcot and Oxford only, then change again at Oxford.

Not if it were in the timetable

Just as I put with, at the ideal times I needed to travel, there were more Maidenhead fast to Paddington with no slough stop than there were slough fast!

probably prudent to see if the new track actually works before cutting the slack

Yes. Your point is? ;)

Birmingham is over 100 miles from London. Hardly just outside!

You didn't say "just" outside in the original post.

He probably didn't read it...

Yes, I can see the confusion. ::) When I said outside, I meant neighbouring, apologies. :-\ :-X :-[

Nevertheless, Reading is still one of the biggest interchanges wherever!

And is TJ accusing me of not doing some Reading? ;D

Doesn't Clapham Junction have some sort of claim to this as well?

Clapham Junction is Europe's (if not the world's minus Tokyo!) busiest station. But it doesn't counts as it is in London! ;)

Does anyone know when the new timetable will be confirmed and placed on the FGW website ?

The finalised timetable info should be in all the journey planners as of today, as the decision making process has a 12 week deadline. However previous experience suggests the TOC's online pdf timetables do not go live, and printed timetables do not appear in the racks, until about 3-4 weeks before the change date...

FGW are running with about a 13 week online availability, ie up to Sun 20th Dec, National Rail and SWT only go up to Sun 13th December, which is the actual change day. I think they'll then provide an extra day's info every 24 hours...

Paul

In terms of number of trains per day, not number of passengers.

No, Waterloo is Britain's busiest station by passenger numbers. Not sure what the world's busiest is...

It so depends on how you measure it!  The passenger numbers that I suspect Btline is quoting is for people leaving / joining / changing trains.   If you look at the number of people who pass through a station (whether in and out by rail, or transferring to / from rail) you may get a different result (back to Clapham Junction), then if you add in the tube which - after all - is a railway station ... perhaps we're back to Waterloo, or on to the King's Cross / St Pancras complex?

We should get those people pushers to cram everyone in! Maybe feisty RPIs on overtime who are just waiting to vent some steam!  :o

A telephone call to FGW customer services suggests that the new timetable wont be on the website until about a week before it starts.
Can this be correct ? does give much notice of any major changes.

That doesn't reflect recent reality, where FGW have usually had the new timetable pdfs available online about 3-4 weeks before the change date. About the same time as they appeared in the racks at stations as well IIRC...

Paul

It is, however, now in the FGW website journey planner, along with times up to December 31 - which is a bit daft given that with New Year's Day falling on a Friday this time round, you would have though that putting on the following couple of days' services as well would make sense to help people plan ahead, but that's FGW logic for you...

And yes, I know some people like to have the whole service laid out in front of them on a printed page or pdf, but in the days before the internet, it usually was only about a week before the change when you could get your hands on a new pocket timetable.

It's useful to be able to look up train times.

But when it comes down to it, I like a timetable booklet. (preferably with some substance, unlike the FGW bit of card)

I do not want to have to waste time, ink and paper printing off reams of pdfs onto A4 paper!

And today's revived from the dead thread is....

The Dec' 09 timetables have now been published on the FGW website (http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=4505).

TLM

How come that it says something along the lines of : Welcome to Clapham Junction - Britain's Busiest Railway Station; on the sign then?

I think waterloo is the largest?

I think Clapham is busier in terms of train numbers

Far, far busier. Combined with the South Western lines that go to Waterloo, you also have London Overground on the West London Line and the mainline between East Croydon and London Victoria originating from the South Coast.

All you need to do is look at the departure boards, and bear in mind not everything stops there!

Waterloo has 62 million passenger entry exits per year and Clapham junction only 12.5 million.  However 2000 train pass through it each day (most stopping).  It is number 1 on the UK for number of trains stopping and number 1 in Europe for total number of trains passing though if you add in the non-stoppers.  About 200,000 per day use the station as an interchange and it is numbr 1 in the UK for NR to NR interchange also.

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_station#Largest_and_busiest_stations  for more info

Blimey, over 3.5 million punters a day using Shinjuku Station in Japan and over 200 exits? That's not the sort of place you'd want to spend any time if you were claustrophobic!