How funny, i was just about to start a thread about this. I travelled on the FGW service to Tenby (from Neath) for the first time today as it was a nice sunny day to go to Tenby.
The FGW service was fairly busy but plenty of room, i was in carriage A and id say there was only about 8-10 others in there the entire way. The other carriages looked busier. On getting off the train at Tenby there were lots of people getting off, at least 40-50 id say.
obviously all of the platforms west of Swansea aside from Carmarthen are too long for the FGW High Speed train, at Llanelli they announced the front 6 carriages would open and at Pembray and Whitland and Saundersfoot the front 4. At Tenby it was the back 5 so we had to move to carriage D. It must be a pain the train guard having to make sure everyone does this every time. It also felt odd going on such a long train down a branch line.
The FGW services arent really timed well for day trippers - unless you want 2 hours in Tenby. I guess they have to go at those times as they cant really stable a set at Pembroke dock for long as they would need the platform space. The return journey was a pacer (1655 off Tenby) and then change at Carmarthen to get on the 1807 for Swansea and beyond. Not sure why that happens when the pacer was going to Swansea but had a wait of around 45 mins at Carmarthen? The pacer was very busy, id say all but 3 or 4 seats were taken in the carriage i was in. So if it had been a single 153 it would have been full and standing. I guess it will get even busier further into the summer, weather permitting!
With the FGW Pembroke Dock departure around 1155 from Swansea, does the ATW that would usually go about then not run? Or does it go a bit later. There was a pacer sat on Platform 3 of Swansea station when i was there.