In B.R. days there were ticket checks at the barriers on a Friday to ensure that no passengers holding Reading tickets boarded Friday late afternoon/evening trains that were pick-up only at Reading. If any escaped on to the train they were charged a single fare to the next advertised set down point. Posters were prominently displayed everywhere. Trains were carefully platformed to ensure that no such train were - if possible - put into P1/8/9. All FGW have to do is the same. I wouldn't involve a penalty fare scheme though, that's really asking for trouble.
Without building lots of extra gates and fences the length of every platform to make each one a segregated zone (or providing a small army of staff to stand at each door checking tickets manually), you can't actually do this at Paddington as it is currently laid out.
The A and B sets of barrier line gates give access to all of platforms 2,3,4 and 5. The footbridge gives access to pairs of platforms - unless you are proposing creating logjams of passengers on a narrow bridge or at the foot of a narrow set of steps while you weed out those bound for Reading - which looks like a potential safety hazard to me.
The train is pick up only at Reading and presumably the stop isn't advertised at Paddington although it appears many Reading passengers got on anyway knowing that it would stop there.
Where does it 'appear' that was the case? I have seen nothing suggesting it.
West Country (and South Wales) trains are almost invariably packed to the doors on a Friday evening at any time of the year with passengers going to the West Country (and South Wales) - and Newbury passengers, given that West Country expresses currently provide most of the evening peak fast services from London to Newbury.
The Fridays-only 19.12 to Bristol (previously ran as a first-stop Reading fast Turbo to Oxford) is provided specifically because of the pick-up only rules at Reading for the 19.03 and 19.15 Swansea and I'm sure most Reading commuters have actually worked this out by now and understand it is a rather better bet for getting a seat, never mind any restrictions on their tickets on the other services.
I don't doubt there will always be a few people chancing it on the 19.03 and 19.15 on Fridays for the sake of getting back to Reading a few minutes earlier, but I doubt the numbers are such that they are worth the expensive/and or draconian measures that some people posting on here seem so enamoured with.
A hit squad on a few trains out of Paddington excessing Reading passengers would soon make a difference to numbers abusing the system, and no doubt pay for itself in the process. Even if not relevant in this case overcrowding does increase tension on trains.
You are joking, aren't you? Do you ever travel between Reading and Paddington in the peaks on an HST? Your hit squad might have fought its way through a couple of coaches by the time the train got to Reading if they were lucky.
Agreed; instead GWR should occasionally run non-stop through Reading (this did happen once on the 1915 to Swansea) and arrange an alternative for passengers boarding at Reading. Doesn't need to be done often for the message to get through.
And this alternative would be what exactly? The non-existent spare HST sat at Old Oak Common during the Friday peak? A bus? Or 'get on the next train, we're tackling the fearsome beasts known as Reading commuters tonight' - which will also arrive at Reading full to the doors...
How is the message supposed to get through to a Reading commuter who wasn't on the train the night it sailed through their stop?
We don't know the full circumstances, but the reason "overcrowding" has been given in rail industry systems, so it's not unreasonable to suggest that skipping Reading entirely may reduce the possibility of problems that may cause the train to be cancelled or delayed, and in my experience it is pointless trying to call at Reading on the first off peak trains to certain destinations out of Paddington on a Friday when schools break up, because there's no room for anyone extra to board anyway!
People assault other people in all sorts of circumstances for all sorts of reasons - and Friday's events were fundamentally down to the assault, not overcrowding, as that state of affairs would be a given on that train anyway, whether or not it stopped at Reading.
Or we could just hang on a couple of years - which we will have to do anyway, as the first batches of new stock arriving with GWR are basically going to be replacing existing stock - when all the new rolling stock is in place and GWR can restructure the timetable to try to better cater for the various flows. As things stand, without all the HSTs that call at Reading, GWR simply would not be able to handle the London commuter traffic there.
We will never get consensus on this matter, but some trains run non-stop from London to York, Leicester, Warrington, Ipswich etc on other main lines out of London. Some trains even skip Clapham Junction, which is an even more important interchange station than Reading.
No we probably won't - but no other main line out of London has a station just 25 minutes down the line that is both a major commuting hub, a key interchange station for the national network and where the core route effectively fans out in three directions (as most Oxford/Cotswold Line fasts bypass Didcot) - all of which poses a unique set of challenges.
As you well know, Clapham Junction is a key interchange in London, so a completely different kettle of fish from Reading.
) - if the train has just been taken out of service, there is the guarantee the TOC will get them to their destination or put them up overnight, but unfortunately until they get there, nothing is definite! I don't think they could immediately say "Yes, go to Plymouth we will run an extra train" or if they said "Go to Plymouth but it could be a bus from there" people could be angered for no reason. I'm sure they were told to keep on making their way further south west as far as they could (e.g. Plymouth) and then that gives Control some time to finalise plans by the time they get there, rather than promising things that won't happen or worrying people by saying things will happen when they won't.
