Does GWR Have Priority Boarding at Paddington?

[Envoy]

I was wondering if GWR have priority boarding at Paddington for those travelling the furthest? Four example, on Saturday at 8.48 am the one and only through service of the week from London to Pembroke Dock departs and passengers for places west of Swansea need to be in the rear 5 cars. It so happens that this Saturday (24 May 2025) that a sporting event is taking place in the stadium in Cardiff. It would be most unfortunate if passengers for Tenby etc. were forced to stand until Cardiff or were even unable to board the train in the first place - hence the reason for this query.

 

[superalbs]

I was wondering if GWR have priority boarding at Paddington for those travelling the furthest? Four example, on Saturday at 9.13am the one and only through service of the week from London to Pembroke Dock departs and passengers for places west of Swansea need to be in the rear 5 cars. It so happens that this Saturday (24 May 2025) that a sporting event is taking place in the stadium in Cardiff. It would be most unfortunate if passengers for Tenby etc. were forced to stand until Cardiff or were even unable to board the train in the first place - hence the reason for this query.

No, they do not.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 May 2025 ==

Maybe you could make a seat reservation, if you wanted to guarantee a seat?

 

[Envoy]

No, they do not.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 May 2025 ==

Maybe you could make a seat reservation, if you wanted to guarantee a seat?

I think that that is a poor show. Hopefully someone at GWR will pick up on this so that they can make an announcement such as:> “Will passengers for places west of Swansea, please make their way to Platform x , show their tickets and board the rear 5 coaches”. (The odds are that many will have luggage and it is clear to me that these people should board first - especially when it is known that such trains are going to crowded).

 

[wibble]

I was wondering if GWR have priority boarding at Paddington for those travelling the furthest? Four example, on Saturday at 9.13am the one and only through service of the week from London to Pembroke Dock departs and passengers for places west of Swansea need to be in the rear 5 cars. It so happens that this Saturday (24 May 2025) that a sporting event is taking place in the stadium in Cardiff. It would be most unfortunate if passengers for Tenby etc. were forced to stand until Cardiff or were even unable to board the train in the first place - hence the reason for this query.

You mean 08:48 from Paddington? It's 09:13 from Reading.

 

[AlterEgo]

I think that that is a poor show. Hopefully someone at GWR will pick up on this so that they can make an announcement such as:> “Will passengers for places west of Swansea, please make their way to Platform x , show their tickets and board the rear 5 coaches”. (The odds are that many will have luggage and it is clear to me that these people should board first - especially when it is known that such trains are going to crowded).

Why is it worse for Tenby passengers to stand for two hours than it is for Cardiff ones? Why should people with luggage but no seat reservations have priority? I don’t get the logic.

 

[wibble]

I think that that is a poor show. Hopefully someone at GWR will pick up on this so that they can make an announcement such as:> “Will passengers for places west of Swansea, please make their way to Platform x , show their tickets and board the rear 5 coaches”. (The odds are that many will have luggage and it is clear to me that these people should board first - especially when it is known that such trains are going to crowded).

It's not practical to do that as you'd need staff at each set of doors to check whether someone is going west of Swansea. There also looks to be a train to be an 08:52 to Great Malvern on the adjacent platform.

 

[amahy]

Why is it worse for Tenby passengers to stand for two hours than it is for Cardiff ones? Why should people with luggage but no seat reservations have priority? I don’t get the logic.

Because there is only one direct train a week from Paddington to Tenby, whereas Cardiff enjoys a half hourly service from Paddington all week.

 

[6Gman]

I think that that is a poor show. Hopefully someone at GWR will pick up on this so that they can make an announcement such as:> “Will passengers for places west of Swansea, please make their way to Platform x , show their tickets and board the rear 5 coaches”. (The odds are that many will have luggage and it is clear to me that these people should board first - especially when it is known that such trains are going to crowded).

Why is it a "poor show" to suggest making a seat reservation for a lengthy pre-planned journey on a specific train?

And why should a passenger to Llanelli get priority over a passenger to Swansea?

 

[zwk500]

I was wondering if GWR have priority boarding at Paddington for those travelling the furthest? Four example, on Saturday at 9.13am the one and only through service of the week from London to Pembroke Dock departs and passengers for places west of Swansea need to be in the rear 5 cars. It so happens that this Saturday (24 May 2025) that a sporting event is taking place in the stadium in Cardiff. It would be most unfortunate if passengers for Tenby etc. were forced to stand until Cardiff or were even unable to board the train in the first place - hence the reason for this query.

It is also possible to travel in the front 5 cars until Swansea and then change while the detachment and reversal takes place. I do recognise this is less convenient.

I think that that is a poor show. Hopefully someone at GWR will pick up on this so that they can make an announcement such as:> “Will passengers for places west of Swansea, please make their way to Platform x , show their tickets and board the rear 5 coaches”. (The odds are that many will have luggage and it is clear to me that these people should board first - especially when it is known that such trains are going to crowded).

GWR also typically run additional trains for such an event. There are six GWR trains from Paddington to Cardiff with a 'Special' headcode visible in RTT for Saturday (plus 1 Vintage Trains Charter). Passengers for the rugby will be directed to the Cardiff extras as well as the Tenby trains.

As it happens, the event in question is the European Rugby Champions Cup Final and the two teams contesting it are Northampton Saints and Bordeaux Begles, so while there will be demand from or through London, a fair amount of it will also be avoiding London by travelling via Birmingham or Bristol/Cardiff airports.

 

[Hadders]

In my experience on Cardiff event days there's usually a queueing system in place at Paddington for each train. Passengers with seat reservations go in one queue and are let on first. There's another queue for those without reservations who are allowed to board in limited numbers after those with reservations have boarded.

It's the Rugby Champions Cup Final on Saturday so trains to Cardiff will be busy!

 

[Envoy]

You mean 08:48 from Paddington? It's 09:13 from Reading.

Sorry, I did mean 8.48 from PAD - now corrected.

 

[Envoy]

Why is it worse for Tenby passengers to stand for two hours than it is for Cardiff ones? Why should people with luggage but no seat reservations have priority? I don’t get the logic.

Because Tenby is about a 4 hour 30 minute trip whilst Cardiff is about 1 hour 50 minutes. The people boarding without seat reservations would surely not take up seats which were already showing ‘reserved’?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Because Tenby is about a 4 hour 30 minute trip whilst Cardiff is about 1 hour 50 minutes. The people boarding without seat reservations would surely not take up seats which were already showing ‘reserved’?

Why would you not just reserve a seat if you want to be (near-) guaranteed one?

 

[The exile]

Because Tenby is about a 4 hour 30 minute trip whilst Cardiff is about 1 hour 50 minutes. The people boarding without seat reservations would surely not take up seats which were already showing ‘reserved’?

Given the fact that there is, as you say, only one through train to Tenby etc, anyone intending to travel by through train knows exactly when they are travelling and can reserve a seat. This sort of thing is much more problematic for people making shorter distance journeys - particularly at the end of the day when they don't know in advance when they're going to be travelling and can find train after train packed to the gunwales!

 

[amahy]

I did once experience something like this on an Arriva Trains Wales service from Birmingham International. Stupidly, only a 2 car 158 had been provided on one of the busiest evening peak trains from Birmingham to Holyhead. What’s more, Warley Model Railway Exhibition was on at the NEC.

The train was rammed full several minutes before it was due to depart from International, so the train guard begged passengers for New Street, Smethwick, and Wolverhampton to use a different service over the PA, to give priority to passengers for stations after Wolverhampton, which have a much sparser service. He repeated this announcement at both New Street and Smethwick, but many passengers for these stations continued to use the service.

Even if it wasn’t enforced, it was still a good effort by the train guard to give priority to passengers using less served stations. Maybe a similar thing could have been done for passengers beyond Cardiff on this occasion?

 

[zwk500]

Maybe a similar thing could have been done for passengers beyond Cardiff on this occasion?

The event is on this saturday, so hasn't happened yet! GWR have laid on 6 extra trains for the match, some of which depart before the Tenby service and reservations are apparently mandatory from London: https://www.visitcardiff.com/2025/05/travel-advice-northampton-bordeaux/

I'd expect the majority of the Northampton fans to be trying to avoid London, either driving and parking closer to Cardiff or going by rail via New Street. I hope XC are running the longest formations they can on the Cardiff-Birmingham services! There'll be plenty of Neutral and Bordeaux fans travelling through London though I expect, although they're likely to have pre-booked tickets so will aim for their reserved trains.

 

[Kite159]

Looks like the Pembroke Dock train is getting terminated at Swansea with customers getting put onto a 2 coach TfW special for Carmarthen for a replacement bus to Pembroke Dock.