Welsh report calls to cut Swindon train stops - January 2010

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

What we need is a form of transport that offers every user the chance to make a non-stop journey from start to destination...... oh, hang on, that's a car isn't it?

The rail network is providing public transport accessible to all and that means it has to make compromises when it comes to calling patterns and overall journey time, both to provide a decent service and put bums on seats.

[matt473]

In the December 2009 timetable a train from Swansea was altered to cut out the Didcot and Reading stops (and leaves Swindon ONE whole minute earlier than it did in the May 2009 timetable).
This has made the next two trains from Swindon busier as those travelling to Didcot, Reading and connecting stations have to get those. (The 08:11 which is from WSM, and the 08:28 which is another Swansea). So I think it's a really bad move.

By enabling the serviceto arrive before 9am whilst also being under 3 hours in journey time from start to finish is fantastic PR^▸ (Public Relations) and was reported in some local papers in Wales as such. This little bit of positive PR is what is needed to encourage peopel onto rail. If I'm honest as well, Didcot and Reading both have many services to London so speeding up one service that serves South Wales and Bristol Parkway will encourage people to use rail. The other two trains may be busier but this service may benefit a lot more people before from stations west of Reading and Didcot so even though it's only a slight PR win, every little helps in helping to male the railway a viable alternative to the car to both business and leisure travellers

[JayMac]

Just an observation, but we currently have two services (one from BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) and one from SWA^» (Swansea - next trains)) that skip RDG^▸ (Rail Delivery Group, or Reading station, depending on context) in the morning peak, but no return services that also skip RDG.