FGW Bristol to oxford service

[anthony263]

I am currently doing an assingment on rail services in the uk .

I ahve decided to have a loo at the FGW Oxford to bristol service which FGW used to operate using class 165's a few years ago.

has anyone got a timetable or timing points for this service of tell me ruffly how long were journey times as will have to type up a proposed timetable for the service.

 

[Mojo]

Yep, have a look at page 38 of the attached document.

You may also find the rest of section 5.9, as well as 5.10 quite helpful for your report.

 

[route:oxford]

I used the service when it was operating. But only once.

It was a Summer Saturday and really quite busy with tourists travelling from Oxford to Bath. Quite hot, no air conditioning and 2+3 seating - didn't make for a comfortable journey. It felt a bit wrong to be toddling along the Great Western mainline at 70ish mph rather than the usual 125ish mph too.

On the way back...

Took an HST to Diddyland and changed onto a usual Turbo to Oxford. 15 mins on a turbo was tolerable. We deliberately avoided the direct service.

I've often wondered... Why is the return fare from Oxford to Bristol so reasonable in comparison to the return fare from Reading to Bristol? It's approximately the same mileage? At one point it was cheaper to buy a day return from Reading to Oxford and and day return to from Oxford to Bristol rather than a direct fare... Just have to make sure the train stops at Diddyland.

 

[heart-of-wessex]

70ish mph...I thought they went 90mph. I have done one from Didcot to Chippenham some years ago. Surely the times were near the same as they are now, since apparently a 165/166 can keep to HST times, with rapid acceleration/braking and a speed of 90mph...


cheers,

James.

 

[devon_metro]

An hst will reach 90mph before a turbo!

 

[route:oxford]

70ish mph...I thought they went 90mph. I have done one from Didcot to Chippenham some years ago. Surely the times were near the same as they are now, since apparently a 165/166 can keep to HST times, with rapid acceleration/braking and a speed of 90mph...

Just checked. Some of the 165s are built for 75mph operation others for 90mph.

 

[adc82140]

The 75mph 165s are all with Chiltern these days.

 

[route:oxford]

The 75mph 165s are all with Chiltern these days.

Did Thames Trains still have some back in 1999/2000?

 

[adc82140]

Yes, a handfull. But these were all 2 car variants, I think 165001-165005, but don't quote me on that. A couple were repainted into Thames Trains livery, but the rest spent their time at Thames in NSE livery.

 

[Mojo]

Yes, a handfull. But these were all 2 car variants, I think 165001-165005, but don't quote me on that. A couple were repainted into Thames Trains livery, but the rest spent their time at Thames in NSE livery.

Yep, 165001-005 arrived back from Thames at Aylesbury TMD (Chiltern) on 1 April 2004. I think that was the day it became FGW Link.

 

[fgwuser]

I used the service when it was operating. But only once.

It was a Summer Saturday and really quite busy with tourists travelling from Oxford to Bath. Quite hot, no air conditioning and 2+3 seating - didn't make for a comfortable journey. It felt a bit wrong to be toddling along the Great Western mainline at 70ish mph rather than the usual 125ish mph too.

On the way back...

Took an HST to Diddyland and changed onto a usual Turbo to Oxford. 15 mins on a turbo was tolerable. We deliberately avoided the direct service.
....

As a Diddyland resident, I seem to recall that the direct services were becoming quite popular by the time they were abolished. I know the County Council was very worried about commuters who had started to use the direct service and were then faced with some pretty poor connections at Didcot, especially with the dreadful punctuality that FGW was delivering at the time. Things have improved since then, but there are still a lot of Oxford services timetabled to leave Didcot a few minutes before a service from the Swindon direction arrives.

 

[ian13]

With an hourly HST service to diddyland (both from Bristol P'way and TM), it doesn't seem all that necessary to have a direct service, but the connection times are quite poor.

 

[heart-of-wessex]

Well mind the services from TM are every half hour now, parkway is every hour isn't it, with most actually passing Didcot (ex-Swansea IIRC) I suspect the turbos had paths to BTM back then as wasn't the HST service every hour back then? I don't actually know when it was improved to every half an hour