Yesterday I was very surprised to board a GWR▸ IET▸ train at Aschurch (Tewkesbury) for a stopping service to Bristol.
Stops at Cam&Dursley and then Yate required passwengers to move down to ther first three carriages.
Is GWR short of spare local train sets, or does it have spare IET's that it needs to use occasionally?
This is not a new issue. My son lived in Bristol and commuted to work in Yate by bike. When he had evening meetings he would catch the train home; except for the days when the normal train was replaced by an
HST▸ and, since he had not reserved a bike space, he was prevented from boarding. Why couldn't GWR recognise that bike reservations were not normally required and allow him plus bike on the replacement?