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BR did rationalise the GC from the 1950s onwards. Look on Wikipedia under GCR for all the country stations closed in 1958 and 1963. All this romantic talk of continental loading guages is worthless if your services are not stopping anywhere to bring in passenger revenue. Closing the GCR was a...

I saw headline and thought Woodhead reopening here we come.....

Class 800 is a bit too beige for me. No opening windows in vestibules when your packed I'm and need some air. Class 387 big advance on 165/6 especially if you want to do some work with your laptop. Table, power socket, wifi. What more can you want. Far superior to the 3rd class offering you get...

You should be OK. Once you get off downward escalator, you can get a good speed up along platform 7 in the direct of platform 4. You wont have any ticket barriers to contend with either. Get on nearest coach of Richmond train. They tend to be 10 coaches nowadays and it's a long walk if there is...

I suspect for many tourists, HEX is their choice as the alternatives are not as well plugged. When I came back from Seville on Easyjet, the airline mentioned getting to centre of a London by Gatwick Express even though other cheaper services are available. I suspect other airlines do the...

Two questions/statements. Firstly, there are many commuters who travel from points from beyond Reading into Paddington. There are short distance commuters and long distance commuters. Neither of which probably have reserved a seat. Secondly, how do you practically announce a train 15 minutes...

I do hate this condescending attitude to Reading commuters who pay their money and if they get to an empty unreserved seat before a 'genuine' passenger, are perfectly within their rights to occupy a seat. If you want to sit from Paddington to Bristol, reserve a seat or make sure you at the front...

Plus would you relax this 'no picking up' rules when pressure on seats is less such during school holidays, summer etc? If you wanted to stop passengers getting onto these trains from platforms 10/11, barriers at the top of the down escalators could be a solution but your hardened London bound...

Interesting but I can see two problems at least. Trains to Didcot, Swindon etc don't travel via Theale. And what about passengers at Reading who want to travel to the west country. Would you expect them to lug their baggage onto a train at reading to Theale and then again into West Country service?

Can't see this issue being easily resolved. There are some very condescending people out there who travel silly distances each day into London and because they pay far more than Reading commuters, it seems their needs are far more important. I have previously suggested all seat reservations on...

If the problem is overcrowding, make the trains reserved seat only and prevent those without reservations from getting on the train at Paddington. This should keep the long distance traveller happy returning to Bristol or Plymouth. You would have to cordon off areas on the platform and have...

It will be interesting how quickly a 387 can do Paddington to Reading non-stop on the fast lines compared with an HST. Does anyone know ?

Interesting thought. Perhaps closing down a 20 year extension with all the job losses was too unpalatable. Or the rest of the GCR was profitable enough to subsidise the link to London.

I took a turbo from Reading to Didcot return today (no 387s were running west of Reading this afternoon) and later took a 387 from Reading to Slough and returned on same class. The 387s have better lighting, acceleration (we were on fast main line between Maidenhead and Slough), charging points...

I was at Reading station today at about 1500 and saw a London bound 387 leave under its own power for what it's worth.

I concur. Notices were displayed indicating services were disrupted today and tomorrow.

Have you ever flown especially on a low-cost airline from say Gatwick? When I have flown, it's always about 20 minutes late getting into the air. It could be late leaving the stand, or delayed waiting for a slot to get into main runway to take off. Miraculously enough, that 20 minutes is...

What about test runs?

When do we expect to see first electric train from Paddington arriving at Reading?

What are these late trains down to? Is it something within the direct control of SWR or not eg infrastructure related?