MARLOW - MAIDENHEAD PASSENGERS' ASSOCIATION

News Archive 2006 – 2010 Government Slashes £5.4M off Reading Station Access improvements The Department for Transport has reduced its funding of Reading station access improvements from £15M to £9.6M. Part of the scheme - to improve the junctions of Portman Road with Oxford Road and Caversham Road with Richfield Avenue - has been deferred. [20101217] FGW Christmas and New Year Alterations There are significant changes to services from 27th December until 3rd January owing to the Reading Blockade. Except for New Year's Eve, Reading station and the line between Reading and Didcot Parkway will be closed. High Speed Services to Bristol and South Wales will be diverted via Banbury, and those to the West of England will run to and from Waterloo. Local services will terminate at Twyford or Maidenhead with replacement bus services to Reading or Reading West. There will be an hourly service on the Marlow and Henley branches, and two trains an hour to Windsor. [20101124] LTV Electrification to Go Ahead Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has announced that the electrification of the London and Thames Valley (LTV) suburban lines to Oxford and Newbury will go ahead. This will facilitate a cascade of Class 319 electric trains from the Thameslink line which also gets the green light for the full upgrade. The Government has not yet made up its mind about the repacement of the HST fleet, and the electification of the line west of Didcot is on hold pending a further announcement. There are no plans to electrify of the branch lines. [20101125] Better Cycle facilities at Cookham and Beaconsfield We are pleased to reveal that new secure cycle storage facilities are to be provided at Cookham station, funded by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in conjunction with First Great Western (FGW). The work should be completed by Christmas. We understand that Chiltern Railways has accepted our request for better cycle storage at Beaconsfield station as part of its Passenger Fund Programme. Work should be completed this month (October). [20101013] Progress at Marlow Bucks County Council as approved the investment of £6,200 in Marlow station, including the addition of more robust cycle storage and a new shelter on the platform. Talks are also continuing with Wycombe District Council with a view to getting Marlow station linked into the town's CCTV scheme which currently covers Marlow High Street. This would be a more affordable option than Nework Rail's budget of £120k for CCTV at Marlow. MMPA is participating in a working group with Marlow Town Council and FGW to improve passenger facilities at the station. [20101013] Help Point at Furze Platt A help point has been installed at Furze Platt station and is now operational. These help points are provide train service information and not just for emergencies so don’nt be afraid to make use of them. The bottom, yellow button tells you when the next train is due and its destination. [20101021] Chiltern: Service suspension on November 5th Owing to major upgrade works there will be no service between High Wycombe and Aynho Jn on Friday 5th November. Trains from the West Midlands will be diverted to Didcot Parkway for connections to London. There will be a revised timetable between High Wycombe and Marylebone, and replacement bus services between High Wycombe, Saunderton and Princes Risborough. Trains will run between Princes Risborough and Aylesbury. There are other replacement buses and a revised timetable on the Amersham line - full details here. [20101013] Chiltern Weekend Changes There are changes to Chiltern services on Saturdays and Sundays due to engineering work for the Evergreen 3 upgrade programme. Due to an interface problem between Network Rail and the ATOC ("National Rail") enquiry systems these systems are showing incorrect information. Please check train times only with the Chiltern Railways web site. Telephone call centre operators should have the correct information. [20100716] Paddington H & C Station Closure As part of the Crossrail works and reconstruction of the Hammersmith & City (H & C) line station at Paddington, the taxi ramp over platforms 15 and 16 will be demolished. To facilitate this work the service between Hammersmith and Edgware Road will be suspended from Saturday 24th July until Sunday 15th August. H & C trains will run between Edgware Road and Whitechapel, and the Circle Line will revert to its old route. More information can be found in the Paddington Newsletter which can be downloaded from the Crossrail web site. [20100618] Bus Service Changes from 29th May Following retendering by the council, Thames Travel will be taking over some routes in the Bracknell/Wokingham area including route 53 to Maidenhead. There will new buses and some route and timetable changes. See the Thames Travel web site for details. [20100501] Arriva Agreees Takeover by Deutsche Bahn See report on BBC News. Arriva operates the 37 bus route between High Wycombe and Maidenhead as well as Cross Country, Arriva Trains Wales and other bus services. [20100422] Demolition of A404(M) Road Bridge It will be necessary for train services to be suspended whilst the demolition work is underway and when the new bridge section is installed. Following consultation between the Highways Agency and Network Rail, this work will take place over Saturday nights and Sunday, with the exception of 26th, 27th and 28th June, when the closure will extend to 0500 on Monday 28th June. This will affect weekend services west of Maidenhead. [20100421] Earlier Train on Sundays The good news announced by FGW at our AGM is that from the May timetable change the Marlow branch trains will start an hour earlier on Sundays with the 0835 from Maidenhead and 0901 return from Marlow. This service will be trialled for one year and reviewed before the May 2011 timetable change, so please use it. There will be a number of other changes affecting the morning and afternoon peak services, with some accelerations and better connections. One train has been deleted because of the turbo refresh programme. The main changes are listed here. (Obsolete link deleted) [20100326] Emergency Restriction Lifted The 20mph Emergency Restriction of Speed (EROS) between Furze Platt and Cookham has now been lifted. This was causing a 4 minute delay to trains on the branch, causing some connections at Maidenhead to be missed. [20100411] Strike Deferred The strike by Network Rail signallers scheduled for April 6th to 9th has been deferred following a High Court injunction against the unions on the grounds of polling irregularities. The unions (RMT and TSSA) are expected to reballot their members. [20100401] Permanent Way problems at Furze Platt Network Rail is working to replace sleepers at Furze Platt station following an emergency on Tuesday morning. A temporary speed restriction was in operation and some delays to services have been reported. [20100331] Great Western RUS Network Rail has published its Route Utilisation Strategy. We are pleased to note that Heathrow Western Access (via the Colnbrook branch and a new chord towards Iver) is now included in the CP5 requirements (up to 2019). Chiltern to Oxford Delayed We understand that objections have been raised to Chiltern's proposals, necessitating a public enquiry this Autumn. We hope to get more information at the AGM. Turbo Refresh Photos First Great Western has released photos of its refreshed first and standard class carriages of the Class 165/1 and 166 units. Click on the image to see a larger version in a new window. Left: Class 165/1 First; Centre: Class 166 Standard; Right: doorway.       Postscript: the new seat covers have been used on at least one other unit which is otherwise unrefreshed. Celebrate the 175th Anniversary of the Great Western Railway FGW is celebrating the 175th anniversary of the incorporation of the Great Western Railway by running a steam special non-stop from Bristol Temple Meads to Paddington on Saturday 17th April in conjunction with Vintage Trains Ltd. Tickets costing £125 standard class or £200 premier dining include return travel from London and Thames Valley FGW stations to Paddington and by a non-stop HST to Bristol. The return journey will feature GW Castle Class 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. Turbo Refurbishment Causes Overcrowding The Class 165/166 refresh programme is causing serious overcrowding in the morning peak. FGW has “destrengthened” a number of trains while units are udergoing the refresh (and also one unit is under repair following a fire at West Drayton last year). Some changes came in with the December timetable change (see below), but it would appear that the 0744 from Henley-on-Thames to Paddington is also shortened from 5 cars to 3. [20100204] Update: The overcrowding was exacerbated by a number of compressor failures on HSTs in the bad weather, which resulted in some turbo sets deputising for the failed HSTs. December 2009 Timetable The new timetable started on Sunday 13th December 2009. It is similar to the current one but has a few minor changes to reflect patronage on certain services and to encorporate some additions made in September 2009. Trains from Maidenhead to London in the morning have the following notable changes: 07:03 to Paddington (non-stop) is now a 4-car Turbo unit rather than an HST. (06:20 Didcot to Paddington) 07:08 to Paddington (non-stop) is now an HST (05:02 Worcester to Paddington). 07:18 to Paddington (non-stop) is now an HST (06:35 Didcot to Paddington) Trains from London Paddington in the evening have the following notable changes: 17:50 to Worcester (fast to Maidenhead, arr. 18:09) becomes a permanent change. 17:36 to Oxford (arr. Maidenhead 17:59) is formed of 4 carriages vice 6. 17:42 to Bourne End (arr. Maidenhead 18:18) is formed of 3 carriages vice 4. The evening changes reflect the number of passengers switching to the HST from the other two trains. The branch line services are mostly the same but some connecting times have changed. The 1746 Mon-Fri Maidenhead to Marlow now runs one minute later. Didcot News The Great Western Society has been offered a 35-year lease on its 23 acre site by Network Rail, which will enable it to start restoring the 1932 engine shed. Previously the GWS was living hand-to-mouth on a 6-month rolling lease, making it difficult to obtain grants. Also at Didcot, Network Rail is replacing two overbridges to increase the celarance for 9'6" containers. The bridge at Sands Road, South Moreton will be closed to traffic until April 2010. Stocks Farm bridge to the north of Sands Road which carries a bridle way is also expected to reopen in April. New £500M Rail Link Proposed Between Heathrow and Windsor “Proposals for a £500 million rail link between Windsor and Heathrow Airport have been published by Windsor Link Railway Company. The scheme, which is to be privately financed, would link Heathrow Terminal 5 to Windsor, via Wraysbury and Datchet, before running on to Slough via Chalvey. The proposals include a new station in Windsor, replacing both the existing ones. Another station would be built at Chalvey as part of a redevelopment project and a third at Horton.The scheme is set to reuse existing lines and would require 16km of new track.The company said it is in talks with architects and is likely to submit plans for the project within 12 months. Outlining its timetable, the company said that it aims to secure approval for the scheme from the Secretary of State for Transport next year. It intends to have train services running throughWindsor by 2013 and to complete the Heathrow Airport to Slough section by 2016. Future enhancements could include a Gatwick Airport link and a connection between High Wycombe and Bletchley, via Aylesbury to Oxford and Cambridge.A new station in Bray is also a possibility.” [Railway Herald 20091213] Free Bus Pass Age of Qualification In his prebudget statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the qualifying age for a free bus pass will rise in step with the retirement age for women, at which it was originally set. This will increase from 60 to 65 between 2010 and 2020 at a rate of one month every two months. The qualifying age for men had to be the same because of sex equality laws. Current bus pass holders will not be affected. [20091211] Body on Line Trains were delayed on Wednesday 2nd December when a body was noticed by the tracks near Highfield Lane bridge. British Transport Police are treating death as "unexplained". Enquiries are continuing to establish the person’s identity and the circumstances leading up to the death. Two tracks were closed temporarily. [20091203] Bourne End Bridge Update Although a cosmetic repaint of the bridge had been budgetted for in Control Period 3 (CP3), for various administrative and organisational reasons this was not undertaken by the end of the allowable carry-over period and was therefore cancelled. There is no budget available for the bridge in CP4 (April 2009 - March 2014). Network Rail has advised us that they believe that the bridge is structurally sound, but that when any remedial work is carried out then repainting will be done at the same time. This is unlikely before CP5 (from April 2014). The Association is concerned that there is severe corrosion on parts of the ironwork and the lack of protection will only allow the structure to deteriorate further. Car Parking Charges Increased In addition to the fare rises reported earlier, members tell us that car park charges at stations have been increased by over 40% in some cases. FGW has told us that the two rises this year were the first for three years, and they have no plans to increase charges next year. Even allowing for this the increases seem to be well above the compounded inflation rate. FGW Raises Fares in September New peak shoulder fares 20% higher First Great Western has announced fare rises of 20% on some fares from 6th September. There is a new peak shoulder fare for longer distance journeys called "off-peak" and the surviving off-peak tickets are somewhat disingenuously being labelled "super off-peak". Advance tickets purchased by phone or on web sites other than FGW’s own will be subject to an 11% surcharge. An FGW spokesman said “we want to make sure we are generating enough income”. Local fares on the Thames Valley routes are unaffected, and regulated fares are expected to fall by 0.4% on 10th January as a result of a 1.4% fall in the RPI to July 2009. The government has now removed the option for operators to vary selected fares by up to 5% as long as the overall basket of fares didn't increase by more than RPI+1%. Light Rail Proposal for Maidenhead-High Wycombe The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is reported to be considering a light rail system to link Maidenhead with High Wycombe. The line would be built on the abandoned railway between Bourne End and High Wycombe, which closed in 1970. The plans for the project are at a very early Contents Page stage, however, but also include improvements to the existing Marlow line. Councillor John Stretton from the Royal Borough, said: “This is very exciting and we are pushing as hard as we can to get it moved forward. It has so many advantages, if there was a dedicated service all the way to High Wycombe with a service every 10 minutes or so, the traffic would be taken off the road. You would have a high frequency, which would service a lot of people. It would be very simple, easy and straightforward”. It is believed that ultra light rail would be favoured, such as the Parry People Mover on the Stourbridge Town line. [Railway Herald] Government Announces GW Electrification The Department for Transport has announced the Great Western main line will be electrified from Airport Junction to Oxford, Newbury, Bristol (both ways) and Swansea in that order, over the next eight years. This could allow Crossrail to operate into Reading from the outset. The Thames Turbo Class 165/6 fleet would be cascaded onto other routes, while Thames Valley local survices would be operated by refurbished Class 319 electric units displaced from the upgraded Thameslink route. This project would dovetail with the Crossrail, Reading, GW resignalling and Intercity Express projects to minimise costs. [20090723] Cotswold Line Doubling Work has started on restoring double track to the single track sections of the Cotswold line between Oxford and Worcester. This will necesitate some blockades while the existing track is relocated and the trackbed made fit for reinstatement of the second track, during which Worcester trains will run via Swindon. There will also be some rail replacement bus services around the blockades. The work will last until September. DfT Safeguards Crossrail Route The Department for Transport (DfT) has issued Safeguarding Directions to protect a potential extension of Crossrail from Maidenhead Station to Reading West Junction. This follows a consultation on the draft Directions which closed on 25 July 2008. The aim is to ensure that developments along this rail corridor do not impact on the ability to extend Crossrail in the future. The Crossrail project currently terminates at Maidenhead. No decision or commitment to extend it further west to Reading has been made. However, the DfT believes it sensible to safeguard this corridor for a potential extension of Crossrail to Reading. Safeguarding will also facilitate alternative works, such as electrification. [20090501] FGW Scraps Timetable Booklets First Great Western will not be issuing local timetable booklets this May. Instead there will be a collection of mini-leaflets covering small areas and a network-wide timetable costing £2.50. MMPA thinks this is a retrograde move and will seriously inconvenience passengers. We can't think why someone would want to spend £2.50 on a timetable that covers the First Greater Western franchise rather than a national timetable which would be a lot more useful. The mini-timetables have severe drawbacks. Foe example if you wished to travel from Bourne End to Hethrow Airport you would need four mini-timetables: one for the branch, one showing Maidenhead to Paddington Trains (which doesn't show Hayes), one for Slough to Paddington (which does show Hayes, but you have to match up the trains with the Maidenhead timetable) and one for Heathrow which has been bundled with the Greenford branch and West Drayton. Bus Route 6 Changes Following protests from many users in the North Town area, Borough Bus 6 will be re-routed with effect from 27th April. The bus will run from Windsor to Bray, A4 (Sainsbury's), Frascati Way, High Street, Bridge Avenue, Cookham Road, Gardner Road, Courthouse Road, St. Mark's Road, Castle Hill, Frascati Way, High Street, Bridge Avenue, Bray and back to Windsor. There is no proposed service in the reverse direction from St Mark's Hospital to North Town. Bridge Work Deferred We understand that Network Rail has deferred work on refurbishing Bourne End bridge indefinitely. MMPA is continuing to press for action. However the two open level crossings near Bourne End Marina are to be converted to automatic half barrier following a number of accidents and near misses. Alison Forster to leave First Group [20090305] Alison Forster, currently FirstGroup's Safety and Performance Director for the Rail division and formerly Managing Director of First Great Western is to leave the company. FGW Announces Selected Off-Peak Fare Reductions First Great Western has announced a number of price cuts on off-peak fares (e.g. 20p off Burnham to Maidenhead). More information can be found here. Government Announces IEP Preferred Bidder The government today announced the Hitachi-John Laing-Barclays consortium as the preferred bidder for the Intercity Express Programme to replace the HST fleet. The new trains are to be introduced on the East Coast Main Line from 2013, which is curious because the IC225 and IC125 fleets are considerably newer than the former Western Region HSTs. The press release still refers to a "bi-mode" (i.e. electric and diesel) version of the trains, which commentators see as increasingly unlikely given renewed interest in electrification of the Midland and Great Western main lines. [20090212] Government Supports Heathrow Runway 3 and Terminal 6 Proposals include examining possibilities for a high speed rail link from the West Midlands to London via Heathrow linking up to High Speed 1 to the Channel Tunnel. The air share of the London-West Midlands travel market is 0%. Also under consideration is a rail hub served by the Great Western main line, and electrification of the Great Western and Midland main lines. This will not necessarily be in place by the time runway opens, if it does. [20090115] Fares Up Fare increases come into effect on Friday 2nd January. Regulated fares will rise by 6% and unregulated fares by an average of 6.6% on First Great Western and 7% on Chiltern Railways. Happy New Year! Full Speed Ahead for Crossrail A deal worth up to £350m that will help deliver Crossrail on time and on budget has been finalised with the City of London Corporation. The agreement was announced today by Andrew Adonis, Transport Minister, Boris Johnson, Mayor of London and Sir Michael Snyder of the City of London Corporation. [20081204] FGW Boss Resigns Andrew Haines has resigned as boss of First Great Western for 'personal reasons'. Mr Haines is replaced by Performance Director and former MMPA committee member Mark Hopwood, to whom we send our sincere congratulations (BBC News). [20081203] Government to Speed up Delivery of New Trains As part of a £1bn investment plan for next year, the DfT has promised “the delivery of 200 new carriages earlier than originally expected for rail passengers in the Thames Valley, around Bristol and on longer distance inter-urban services in Northern England”. It is not stated how many of these are for Thames Valley. Much of the package had already been announced (the carriages are part of the infamous 1300 which turns out not to be 1300) and it is not made clear how much earlier than originally planned they will be delivered. December Timetable Brings Slower Journeys The new timetable starting on December 14th will mean slower journeys from Maidenhead to Paddington. The number of journeys between 30 and 39 minutes drops from 33 to 9 while the number of 40 minutes and over rises from 44 to 69. The number of journeys under 30 minutes remains the same at 9. In the down direction the only change is one additional service under 30 minutes. On the positive side, connections to and from the Marlow branch have improved, apart from a couple of near misses and long waits to and from Reading at both ends of the day. The Henley branch goes to 45 minute interval off-peak, and the Windsor branch goes to a 20 minute interval (again). Maidenhead Station Official Opening Maidenhead Station was due to be offically opened for the first time in its history on Thursday 25th September at 10:00. Unfortunately the ceremony had to be abandoned because of a fatality at Taplow that morning. Crossrail Exhibition Crossrail will be holding another exhibition of its plans in the Nicholson Centre, Maidenhead on Friday 26th and Saturday 27th September. Reading Redevelopemnt Network Rail recently staged an exhibition in Reading Town Hall to show its plans for the Reading Area redevelopment. The plans have changed since originally announced. A new viaduct will be built to carry the main lines so that the two chords from the Berks & Hants and Basingstoke lines can pass underneath to join the relief lines in an easterly and westerly direction. The Cow Lane road bridges will be rebuilt to accommodate two lanes of traffic and double deck buses. During construction of the viaduct the relief lines will be diverted onto tracks to the north, and the mail lines will be diverted onto the current relief lines. To make space for the new chords the DMU depot will be relocated to the north side of the railway, where provision is also made for an IEP (HST replacement) depot. Space is also safeguarded for a Crossrail depot on the north side to the east of the station and two scissors crossings will be provided in anticipation of Crossrail requirements. The redevelopment is being planned so that overhead line equipment can be added with the minimum of disturbance when the time comes. The station itself will gain three platforms. In fact there will be five new platforms on the north side and one on the south-eastern (Waterloo) side but the three bay platforms currently numbered 6, 7 and 10 will disappear. The centre road between current platforms 4 and 5 will be removed and it is possible that the new platform 7 could be widened in the future. All the platforms will be renumbered 1 to 15, with only 1, 2 and 3 remaining unchanged. During construction the bay platofrms currently 6 and 7 will be numbered 16 and 17, but will subsequently be filled in. The underpass from the SWT lines to the north side of the station will be reinstated. It is envisaged that this will be used by Oxford-Gatwick Airport trains in order to provide more capacity on the south-east side for “Airtrack” services to Heathrow T5. The existing subway will become an open link between the north and south of the station and will not have access to the platforms, although it will serve as an emergency exit. The subway will be closed at night when the station is closed. A new footbridge with escalators on both sides as well as lifts will be built towards the centre of the station, with new entrances on the north and south sides. Royal Mail will leave its present site on the north side of the station, which will then be redeveloped. A 5m strip will be taken over by NR for the new entrance and the remainder of the site will be leased for five years as a construction site. The existing footbridge will be demolished because it is not high enough for overhead line equipment to pass underneath. The remodelling is scheduled to be completed in 2015. Airtrack Postponed The public enquiry into the Airtrack scheme to connect Heathrow Terminal 5 to Reading via Staines has been postoned again because of objections by Wokingham Borough Council relating to increased barrier down time at level crossings. Chiltern Announces Evergreen 3 Plans Chiltern Railways has formally announced its plans for the Evergreen 3 upgrade which will bring about major enhancements to the London-Birmingham route as well as the new route to Oxford via Bicester Town, Islip and Water Eaton Parkway. The latter will mean additional services from High Wycombe. We have of course known about these plans for some time because of Chiltern’s effective stakeholder consultation process. Bourne End Viaduct Repainting We understand that funding has now been approved and Network Rail plans to implement the repainting of the viaduct (including the river crossing) from February to April 2009. This photo showing the current condition of the bridge was taken on 1st August. Government starts consultation on Crossrail to Reading The DfT has started a consultation on the protection of the route for the extension Crossrail to Reading. In essence, this means that anything that would compromise the electrification of the line between Maidenhead and Reading West Junction would not be allowed. It is anticipated that the route from Airport Junction to Reading or Oxford could in fact be electrified in advance of the start of Crossrail operation. [20080725] Crossrail Given The Go-ahead by Parliament The Crossrail Bill has received Royal Assent. The main construction work could begin in 2010, with trains running between Maidenhead and Shenfield in 2017. [20080722] Graffiti Attack at Bourne End - Suspect Arrested We understand that British Transport Police have made an arrest following the recent graffiti attack at Bourne End station. FGW Appoints Route Director for Thames Valley First Great Western has appointed three new Route Directors for London and Thames Valley, High Speed Services and West, reporting to Mark Hopwood. Ian Smith is the Route director for Thames Valley. Cycle Rental Scheme at Reading A new cycle rental system has been introduced at Reading Station. Registered users pay £10 per year to obtain release and lock codes from operating partner company OYBike. The first 30 minutes are free, after which a rental charge is incurred. Better Parking at Twyford The car park markings at Taplow station have been redrawn to increase capacity. ORR Warns Network Rail on Great Western Delays The Office of Rail Regulation has warned Network Rail that there must be an improvement in punctuality and reliability on the Great Western route, or else it could face action for a breach of its licence. Trains run by First Great Western have been experiencing high levels of delays and cancellations for some time, and the company currently trails the PPM (public performance measure) figures. The ORR is overseeing a joint performance improvement plan developed by Network Rail and First Great Western (see below). FGW languishes at the bottom of the PPM table with 79.7%, in stark contrast to Chiltern Trains’ 95.6%. [20080331] Heathrow Terminal 5 Opens The inevitable débâcle occurred when BA moved a large number of short haul routes to its new terminal at Heathrow airport. Inadequate load testing and poor workforce relations, followed by the transfer of a lot of BA's routes in one go instead of building up gradually led to the failure of the baggage handling system. Earlier, staff arriving for work had been delayed by problems with the security system in the car parks. Heathrow Express is now operating into T5 after calling at T1-2-3. HEx passengers for T4 must change at T1-2-3 onto the Heathrow Connect service, and vice-versa. The Connect service is supposed to be operating a shuttle trip between T4 and T1-2-3 between its half-hourly runs to Paddington, though there was no sign of this on Thursday. Surely a shuttle to Hayes & Harlington would have been a lot more useful? Some bus services have been altered to serve the new terminal: Route 75 from Maidenhead and route 76 from Cippenham still serve the central bus station. Route 77 is diverted at Colnbrook by-pass to serve Terminal 5. New route 78 serves Terminal 5 via Axis Park and Colnbrook by-pass. New route 71 replaces routes 41/43 to Terminal 5 via Windsor. A new timetable booklet for Slough and Windsor, also covering Maidenhead, Bracknell, Staines, Uxbridge, High Wycombe and Heathrow, is available from First, Coldborough House, Market Street, Bracknell RG12 1JA. [20080327] More Pendolinos for West Coast Mail Line The Department for Transport proposes to increase capacity on the West Coast Mainline by enabling the procurement of additional Class 390 vehicles, including a replacement of the set damaged in the Grayrigg accident. The number of additional vehicles has not been given. [20080319] Adelantes not Quite Gone FGW has retained three Class 180 Adelante units pending the delivery of an additional refurbished High Speed Train which is expected in December 2008. Kelly Announces Remedial Plan for FGW Transport Secretary, Ruth Kelly, has announced measures to address unacceptably high levels of train cancellations on the First Great Western (FGW) franchise. FGW is being issued with a Remedial Plan Notice for exceeding the threshold on cancellations in the second half of last year. The Remedial Plan sets out a plan for reducing cancellations. This includes milestones which the Department for Transport will monitor and review.  It also outlines additional rolling stock and employment of more drivers, guards and technicians to secure a more reliable service and drastically reduce the number of  cancellations. The company is also being issued with a Breach Notice for misreporting its cancellations.  This stipulates the steps FGW must take to rectify the problem. In addition a £29m package of passenger benefits, fully funded by FGW, has been agreed. This will address areas of passenger concern and tackle the high level of train cancellations. These include: Passenger compensation as previously announced, between January 2008 and January 2009 FGW will double its compensation rates under the passenger charter. This will benefit any passengers who suffer disruption as well as season ticket holders who renew their tickets. These are the customers who have been most affected by the unacceptable performance. From January 2009 to January 2010 there will be a fifty per cent increase in compensation rates. Fares offers an additional 500,000 of the cheapest off-peak tickets will be made available for a selection of FGW’s most popular destinations. Fares offers will commence from 1 April of this year until 31 March 2009. Additional trains on the Cardiff-Portsmouth route from summer 2008 until summer 2011 every through train will have an additional carriage to provide extra capacity. This will increase trains from 2 carriages to 3, an aggregate increase of 40% capacity. This will mitigate the crowding on one of FGW’s most popular routes, which runs through Bristol. Upgrade of station customer information systems new and additional high quality information equipment will be installed at more stations. This will include additional modern monitors. This will finish by end of December 2010. Accelerating the refurbishment of Thames Valley commuter trains FGW will refurbish these trains earlier than contracted and will spend double the previously agreed amount. Refurbishment of Thames Valley commuter trains will commence this year and will be completed by 2011. Refurbishment will include the modernisation of carriage interiors to a far higher standard than originally planned. Lines to benefit will include London to Reading, Oxford, Newbury and Reading to Gatwick. Failure to deliver these new commitments would be a default of the franchise agreement which could lead to the Government terminating FGW’s franchise. [20080226] Adelantes Going The remaining Class 180 Adelante units are due to be phased out by the end of February 2008. They have been kept on while the HST refresh programme completes. Maidenhead Stat ion Update We understand that the work on Maidenhead station, including the subways and platforms 1 and 4/5, will commence by the end of May with "no further derogations". On platform 4/5 the coffee kiosk will be replaced by a larger structure and the waiting room will be extended backwards into the building to provide more space. Platform 1 is to be reinstated to allow HSTs to call. New Timetable Started 9th December More fast trains in the morning but longer journeys off-peak The new timetables start this Sunday, 9th December, and booklets are available from staffed stations. Timetable booklets have been delivered to all MMPA members with the Winter Newsletter. Fast trains to Paddington depart Maidenhead at 0643*, 0702, 0704, 0712*, 0719, 0731, 0742*, 0800, 0804, 0834, 0842* and 0902. Trains marked * call at Slough. Passengers returning from Paddington to the Marlow Branch on Mondays to Fridays off-peak will have to leave 15 minutes earlier. The xx.00 off-peak departure from Paddington will arrive at Maidenhead as the branch train is departing, so passengers will need to catch the xx.45 departure instead. MMPA has made representations to FGW to get the branch timetable adjusted to make the later connection. Pantomime Season at Crossrail It's going to Reading. Oh no it isn't! Oh yes it is! Whom do you believe? We think there is no committment by the Government or Crossrail to go into Reading, to tie in with the redevelopment of Reading station. The main reason seems to be the cost of resignalling between Maidenhead and Reading. Crossrail Bill completes Third Reading The Crossrail Bill completed its Report/Third Reading stage in the House of Commons on Thursday 13 December, and was introduced into the House of Lords on Friday 14 December. On introduction in the House of Lords a fresh petitioning period will be triggered, and those directly affected by the Crossrail proposals will have the opportunity to petition against them. The petitioning period set by the House of Lords will start on 8 January 2008 and end on 30 January 2008. [20071217] Member of Staff hit by train at Reading East The RAIB is investigating a fatality on the up relief line at 04:55 on 29th November. Train 5W01, a Class 165 unit running empty from Reading to Slough struck the person responsible for removing an engineering possession which ended at 04:52. Neitehr the condition or driving of the train, nor the condiotion or operation of the signalling system is suspected. Chiltern Christmas Services Chiltern Railways have announced the following service information for the Christmas period: ALL LINES Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 December (Christmas Day and Boxing Day): * No service. Monday 31 December (New Year's Eve): * An amended Saturday service will operate. * Some additional late night services will operate from Marylebone. Tuesday 01 January (New Year's Day): * A reduced Sunday service will operate. MARYLEBONE - HIGH WYCOMBE - BANBURY - BIRMINGHAM / STRATFORD UPON AVON Monday 24 December (Christmas Eve): * A near-normal Monday-Friday service will operate until approximately 16.00. * There will be some additional afternoon trains from London, and some trains will have additional stops. * After 16.00, a modified evening peak timetable will operate, with an earlier-than-usual closedown. * After 16.00, some trains are amended to depart a few minutes EARLIER than usual. * Last train from Birmingham is the 19.12 Birmingham Snow Hill-Marylebone. * Last train to Birmingham is the 20.00 Marylebone-Birmingham Snow Hill. * Last southbound train is the 19.43 Stratford Upon Avon-Marylebone. * Last northbound train is the 21.02 Marylebone-Aylesbury (via High Wycombe). Thursday 27 and Friday 28 December: * An amended Saturday service will operate - some early morning trains will not operate. * Some additional trains will operate between Aylesbury and Marylebone via High Wycombe. * Most Birmingham services are unable to call at Hatton and Lapworth - Mini-buses will be provided. Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 December: * A near-normal Saturday/Sunday service will operate. * Most Birmingham services are unable to call at Hatton and Lapworth - Mini-buses will be provided. MARYLEBONE - AMERSHAM - AYLESBURY Monday 24 December (Christmas Eve): * A near-normal Monday-Friday service will operate, with an earlier-than-usual closedown. * Some trains are amended to depart a few minutes EARLIER than usual. * Last southbound train is the 19.05 Aylesbury-Marylebone. * Last northbound train is the 20.57 Marylebone-Aylesbury. Thursday 27 and Friday 28 December: * One train per hour will operate between Aylesbury and Amersham. * Connecting buses will operate between Amersham and Beaconsfield, for connecting trains to/from Marylebone. * London Underground replacement bus/train services will operate between Amersham and Baker Street. Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 December: * A normal service will operate. Mark Hopwood to join FGW as High Speed Services Route Director Mark Hopwood is moving from c2c to First Great Western in November as Route Director for High Speed Services. MMPA Chairman, Nigel Hunt said: “Mark was once a member of MMPA (lived in Marlow) and has a good railway brain. He has sorted out a number of operational problems around the country over the past 10+ years.” We wish him luck with this new challenge. [20071016] Crossrail to Go Ahead The Prime Minister has given Crossrail the go-ahead with a £16bn funding deal to secure construction. The cost will be split between the government, farepayers and the private sector. It is expected that the parliamentary bill to provide the ecessary construction powers will receive the royal assent in Summer, 2008. Construction proper will start in 2010, with the first services running in 2017. The total length of Crossrail is 118.5km, including 41.5km in tunnels. 38 stations will be served by the line and 24 trains an hour will run through the central section in each direction at peak times. [20071005] Arriva Revamps Bus Services Arriva has completely revised it's bus services including route numbers, and the new timetables can be downloaded from our Timetables Index. Route 317 between Maidenhead and High Wycombe is now route 37. [20070903] Eton Parkway? It appears that the Royal Borough has been hatching up a plan for a park and ride station for Windsor which will entail the construction of a new station on the Slough - Windsor branch. It involves the lease of land from Eton College to provide parking for 1,800 cars. The station would also provide access to the Dorney Lake Rowing Centre, and could be ready in time for the 2012 Olympics. [20070824] National Express awarded East Coast Franchise NXEC Trains Ltd., a subsidiary of National Express, has been awarded the franchise for the East Coast route currently operated by GNER. The franchise was relet following financial troubles within GNER and its parent company, Sea Containers. The current timetable will remain broadly unchanged until 2010 when additional trains will be run. Unregulated fares are expected to increase by 2.1% above RPI. [20070814] Timetable Changes from 13th August Changes to two evening peak services from London Paddington between Monday 13 August and Friday 7 December have been notified by First Great Western: 1829 London Paddington to Oxford (Mondays to Fridays) will depart earlier at 1825 and will run as follows: London Paddington dep 1825 Ealing Broadway dep 1833 Southall dep 1838 Hayes & Harlington dep 1842 West Drayton dep 1847 Iver dep 1850 Langley dep 1853 Slough arr 1858 Slough dep 1900 Burnham dep 1904 Maidenhead dep 1909 Twyford dep 1917 Reading arr 1924 Reading dep 1928 This service will then run as previously advertised from Reading to Oxford. 1825 London Paddington to Greenford (Mondays to Fridays) will depart later at 1827 and will then run as follows: London Paddington dep 1827 Acton Main Line dep 1833 Ealing Broadway dep 1836 West Ealing dep 1839 Drayton Green dep 1841 Castle Bar Park dep 1843 South Greenford dep 1846 Greenford arr 1850 [20070809] Chiltern Railways for Sale John Laing plc has confirmed that it has appointed KPMG to be the lead advisor for the sale of its rail interests which include Chiltern Railways, M40 Trains, and the Laing Rail shares of the London Overground concession and WSMR. Laing's also said that they had reached a settlement with Tesco over compensation for the Gerrards Cross tunnel collapse, but the amount is undisclosed. [20070720] Reuters reported earlier (July 6th) that bids were expected to exceed £80M and could approach £100M. An auction could take place as soon as late August or early September. John Laing was recently acquired by fund managers, Henderson Group plc for £950M. Maidenhead Platform 1 to be Rebuilt According to FGW, platform 1 at Maidenhead will be rebuilt in time for the December 2007 timetable change, so that HSTs can call in the down direction without having to cross over to platform 3. The December timetable will see the introduction of more fast trains to and from London in the peaks, but holders of cheap day return, off-peak travelcards and railcard discounted tickets will not be able to travel on evening peak HST services from London. These tickets will still be valid on Networker Turbo (class 165/6) trains. FGW's position is still that the Adelantes will go in December. London TravelWatch calls for Review of First Group’s Franchise. Transport watchdog, London TravelWatch (LTW) has asked the Government to examine the First Great Western (FGW) operation, and to consider termination of the franchise if there have been any breaches of the franchise agreement. LTW has expressed concern about the performance and standard of service of FGW, and in particular it's London and Thames Valley network including services to reading and Oxford. For more details see here. We understand that FGW has responded robustly, stating that it is roughly meeting its performance targets whilst Network Rail has fallen significantly short of its. [20070716] Southern to Take Over Gatwick Express As previously announced the Gatwick Express franchise will be incorporated into the Southern franchise in May 2008. It will retain the same branding and frequency, but from December 2008 some trains will run through to Brighton during the busiest hours. Class 442 (5-Wes) units which are currently in store at Eastleigh will be used to provide the additional capacity. New Station for Reading The DfT has approved plans for a new station at Reading Green Park on the Basingstoke line, which could be open in time for the December, 2008 timetable. The station will link to the Green Park Park and Ride bus station, and in the longer term, possibly connect to a new mass transit system. The scheme is part of Reading Council's Reading Transport Strategy and is being developed in partnership with Prudential Property Investment. It will serve an area of existing and proposed employment and residential communities. The capital cost is put at £7 million. Services on the line could be strengthened to a 20 minute or 15 minute interval as demand increases. this requires additional trains which are included in the privately funded scheme. The station is designed so that it can be extended in future, and it is conveniently located to serve the Madejski Stadium. New Timnetables Published The new FGW timetables starting on 20th May can now be downloaded in PDF from the FGW web site. These have changed since the Provisional timetable (see below). Details to follow soon. CrossRail to Serve Reading? According to Modern Railways the Government is understood to be committed to extending the CrossRail project to Reading, in conjunction with a large scale redevelopment of Reading station and the surrounding area area which starts in 2008. There will be a new depot on the site of Scours Lane sidings on the north side of the line, which will service both CrossRail electric trains and First Great Western's Networker Turbos. This will replace Reading West Depot part of which will be demolished to make way for a new flyover to separate east-west and north-south traffic. This would be good news for Maidenhead, Twyford and the branch lines, and hopefully would mean an end to the proposal for a new platform at Maidenhead for the Marlow Line that would make changing trains highly inconvenient. Patrick Thomson of CrossRail told us: The Crossrail route is not planned to be extended to Reading. Extending Crossrail to Reading would have increased the size and cost of the project. We anticipate that there would also be a lack of demand at Reading - passengers would be more likely to use the fast non-stop services into Paddington than slower Crossrail trains. New 'Provisional' Timetable Booklet Published The new FGW timetable commences on 20th May, and provisional booklets are rumoured to be available at some stations. They have been in very short supply, are marked “Provisional” and are printed in monochrome blue. There are no structural changes to the timetable at this point but some adjustments have been made, and we'll be updating our timetables on this site shortly. Timetable Changes from 26th March The 0555 Oxford to Paddington is retimed to depart at 0551 will be formed of two Class 180 Adelantes from Monday 26th March. The train will call additionally at Pangbourne and the rear unit will be out of service until Twyford (0632) owing to short platforms. The train is fast from Maidenhead (0639) to Paddington (0700). The 0733 Oxford to Paddington will be an HST in place of the Adelante used to strengthen the earlier departure.. 0554 Reading to Henley-on-Thames will not call at Wargrave and Shipley. The 0620 Henley-on-Thames to Twyford runs 2 minutes earlier throughout. This is to give a better connection at Twyford. 1836 Paddington to Oxford departs at 1833, original timings from Slough. This is to improve timekeeping. HST Power Car Fire at Burnham Services were badly disrupted on the afternoon of Wednesday 7th March when the leading power car of a High Speed Train caught fire near Burnham. All lines were closed between Maidenhead and Slough, and we understand that one train had to be reversed from near Burnham to Slough. A replacement bus service was arranged, with a shuttle service between London and Slough. The stricken HST was reversed to Maidenhead where passengers were detrained, and it then proceeded to Old Oak Common. This is apparently the third fire on a re-engined HST power car, two previous fires having occurred on the same engine. Other MTU-engined HSTs are being kept under close surveillance. 40-Point Recovery Plan Agreed by DfT, FGW and NR 2nd March: In a meeting with Thames Valley MPs the Secretary of State for Transport confirmed that there is now a 40-point recovery plan agreed by First Great Western, Network Rail and the Department for Transport following his meetings with them. This should improve the running of the trains and mean fewer delays. There will also be a new timetable in May 2007*. Maidenhead's MP Theresa May says that she understands that services will be added and capacity will be increased across the network. "The Secretary of State also made clear that if any train operating company were to show that it could not maintain its franchise requirements he would have no hesitation in using the powers available to him to remove all of or part of their franchise." Mrs. May asks passengers to keep her informed of their journeys and experiences with FGW, and keep writing to them to let them know how you think they're doing. Please also copy your reports and complaints to MMPA for our records. * We believe that only minor adjustments will be made in the May timetable, but we are pressing for significant changes in the December 2007 timetable including a reversion to a 15 minute regular interval off-peak service between Maidenhead and Reading. FGW Called to Appear Before Borough Cabinet Representatives of First Great Western have been asked to attend the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead's (RBWM's) cabinet on Thursday 22nd February to give an account of the operator's poor performance. Inundated with complaints from frustrated commuters in the wake of the December timetable changes, lead cabinet member for travel and transport, Cllr. Antony Wood called on them to explain how they are planning to sort out the ongoing commuter problems between Maidenhead and Paddington. According to RBWM’s web site*, Cllr. Wood, who previously described the recently-announced timetable amendments as 'tinkering round the edges which would leave commuters no better off' said: "As the weeks go by the storm of complaints keeps raging as rail passengers, particularly on the Maidenhead to Paddington line, continue to suffer overcrowding on a peak-time service that is simply not capable of meeting the needs of the travelling public. Only rarely does cabinet ask outside organisations to come to our meetings to explain their services and our invitation to FGW demonstrates our very grave concerns about their poor performance." * See Cabinet Invitation. [20070213] FGW To Make Timetable Changes First Great Western is to make further changes to its new timetable following a review of the performance of train services and seating capacity in some parts of the region. The review was carried out in response to customer and stakeholder feedback received following the introduction of the new timetable on 10 December 2006. Alison Forster, Managing Director of First Great Western, explains: "We recognise that some elements of the timetable have not met all our customers' needs and we apologise to those customers who have experienced crowding and train cancellations on some key services. "As a result of the review, I'm today announcing a number of changes, including additional morning peak time services and extra seats, to alleviate the problems experienced by some of our customers." The following changes to services will be introduced on Monday 15 January: Oxford, Didcot and Thames Valley The current 05:52 Oxford to London Paddington service will be faster with fewer stops, departing later at 05:55, calling Radley at 06:02, Didcot Parkway at 06:11, Reading at 06:25 and London Paddington at 07:00. This service will no longer call at Cholsey, Goring & Streatley, Pangbourne and Tilehurst. The 06:02 from Oxford will continue to serve these stations. An additional early morning high speed service will be introduced from Oxford and Didcot Parkway to London Paddington every weekday. It leaves Oxford at 07:33, calls Didcot Parkway at 07:48, Reading at 08:04 and arrives London Paddington at 08:30. An additional Oxford to London Paddington fast train service will be introduced at 06:45. This service runs non-stop to Twyford, calling there at 07:26; Maidenhead at 07:35; and arriving London Paddington at 07:58. The current 06:45 Oxford to London Paddington stopping service will therefore depart earlier at 06:33 and run as advertised from Didcot Parkway. Didcot receives a new morning peak high speed train service with more seats - the 06:30 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington service will call at Didcot Parkway at 07:30, calling Reading at 07:46 and arriving London Paddington at 08.15. This replaces the 05:34 Great Malvern to London Paddington service which will no longer call at Didcot Parkway (07:17). More capacity will be provided for Twyford and Maidenhead customers on two morning high speed services due to changes in stopping patterns. Both the 05:55 Oxford to London Paddington (now calling Twyford at 06:32 and Maidenhead at 06:39) and the 06:51 Oxford to London Paddington will call at fewer stations prior to calling at Twyford and Maidenhead. Timings on some branch lines will change to ensure connections with main line services: The 06:19 Marlow to Bourne End service departs earlier at 06:17, arriving Bourne End at 06:24. The 06:20 Henley-on-Thames to Twyford service departs earlier at 06:19, calling Shiplake at 06:23, Wargrave at 06:26 and Twyford at 06:31. The 06:29 Bourne End to Maidenhead service departs earlier at 06:27, calls Cookham at 06:32, Furze Platt at 06:35, arriving Maidenhead at 06:38 West Country Capacity on the 06.47 Frome to Cardiff Central service will be doubled with two additional coaches providing more than 100 extra seats for customers travelling between Frome, West Wiltshire, Bath and Bristol. An additional train service will run between Exeter St. Davids and Highbridge, departing 06:52 and calling Tiverton Parkway at 07:06 and Taunton at 07:22. This service continues to London Paddington, leaving Highbridge at 07:40. Alison Forster continues: "We will have the opportunity to make changes to the timetable in December 2007. Also, our current review is continuing and we will consider making further changes, in particular for customers using Bedwyn/Newbury to Reading services, over the next few months. We will announce these changes as soon as possible. "Recent capacity problems in the Bristol and Bath commuter areas have been caused by a backlog of maintenance work required on our fleet of local trains. We are pulling out all the stops and have recruited additional staff at our Bristol maintenance depot to get this work completed as soon as possible. I'm confident that this will improve the reliability of our services and therefore seating capacity over the next couple of weeks." Early Day Motion on FGW Overcrowding Maidenhead's MP, Theresa May, Ed Vaizey whose constituency includes Didcot, and oter MPs have signed an Early Day Motion worded as follows: "That this House notes the travel chaos caused by the new timetable introduced by First Great Western on 10th December 2006; condemns the resulting overcrowding caused by the reduction in services and the use of the smaller capacity Adelante trains instead of the usual high speed trains; further notes that this reduction in service comes at a time when fare rises have again risen far above the rate of inflation; and calls upon First Great Western and the Department for Transport to take urgent steps to reintroduce sufficient capacity as soon as possible into the network to enable as many commuters as possible to travel safely on regular, reliable services." Mrs May has also asked for a debate in the House on the subject of Maidenhead's services. Government Pulls Plug on Ailing GNER 15th December: It came as no surprise to observers when the DfT announced it was inviting Expressions of Interest to operate services on the East Coast Main Line. It is expected that the operator for the new franchise will be in place in 12 to 18 months. Under the agreement, Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) will continue to deliver train services to the existing timetable and performance targets, and will help ensure a smooth transition to the holder of the new franchise. Most of the net worth of the company passes to the Government and GNER has agreed to cover the Department's costs of re-letting the franchise early. A performance bond will remain in place to ensure GNER's continued performance against the new agreement. Proposals for the new franchise include maintenance of the existing services plus a regular half-hourly service between London and Leeds. The winner will be expected to introduce a smart ticketing system across the franchise area. Cookham Level Crossing Renewed Cookham level crossing was renewed over the weekend of 25th/26th November. As well as the resiliant road surface a new section of track has been installed. Note the insulated Pandrol clips and rail joints for track circuiting purposes. The HoldFast panels are made from recycled car tyres. The photo was taken on 2nd December. January Fare Rises 28th November: First Great Western has announced details of fare changes which will take effect on 2nd January. Standard class season tickets, standard day returns and saver tickets will go up by an average of 4.3%. Unregulated fares including cheap day returns will rise by an average of 4.8%. Some fares have been pegged at 2006 levels, which means that others must rise by a lot more than the average. New Timetables Published FGW has now published its timetable for the period from December 10th. The booklets are available from main stations and will be distributed to MMPA members with the newsletter as soon as we have supplies. MMPA has received many complaints from commuters to Reading as a result of the appallingly bad connections between the branch lines and Reading in the peak hours. Some journey times will increase by as much as 20 minutes and rail passengers from Marlow and Bourne End are considering using their cars instead. The timetables can also be downloaded in PDF from the FGW web site. Eurostars to St. Pancras in a Year 14th November: Eurostar has announced that services to Paris and Brussels will run to and fron London St. Pancras from 14th November 2007, at which point Waterloo International and North Pole Depôt will be vacated. The Channel Tunnel Rail Link will be rechristened "High Speed 1". It is expected that the international platforms at Waterloo will be used for domestic services. DfT Announces Zonal Rail Fares for London 19th October: Transport Minister Tom Harris has announced a new fares structure for the Greater London area aligned to the existing zones used for bus and Underground services and travelcards. The new fares will apply from January 2007. This will pave the way for the prepay Oyster smartcard ticketing system to be extended to national rail services across London. The present 97,300 different fares within London will be replaced by just 21 interzone and intrazone fares (all the combinations 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 adjacent zones). There are two sets of fares applying to "rail only" (i.e. mainline rail franchise operators), and both "rail-tube-rail" and "rail-tube" (i.e. journeys including both mainline franchise and London Underground services). The latter can be more than double the former for similar journeys. For example, a cheap day return from East Croydon to Harrow and Wealdstone on Southern or Southern and Silverlink (zones 2345) will be £3.60. However if you hop onto a Bakerloo Line train at Willesden Junction the fare will be £6.60. Richmond to Stratford via Silverlink (234) is £3.20. Go via Waterloo (1234) and it goes up to £8.00 (cheap day return). FGW to Downgrade HSTs As part of its refurbishment programme First Great Western will downgrade half of its High Speed Train fleet by taking out the buffet car, all the tables and facing seats, and cramming even more coach-style seating into the remaining coaches. A mobile refreshment trolley service will be provided. December 2006 Timetable Changes Well you didn't think "final" meant final did you? It appears that the peak schedules are being reworked as a result of Network Rail's refusal to allow the Slough stopping services (see below) to operate. Stagecoach Keeps South West Trains 22nd September: DfT Rail has awarded the follow-on franchise for the South-Western services out of Waterloo and the Island Line on the Isle of Wight to the incumbent, Stagecoach Group plc. The new franchise runs for ten years from 7th February 2007. FGW Management Shake-up Following a mini-reorganisation the suburban lines from Reading as far as Slough, including the three branch lines, are now in the Reading Suburban area. Alison Hanscombe has replaced Simon Langley as our local manager. December 2006 Timetable Could be Pruned We understand that Network Rail wants to withdraw the Slough - Paddington peak hour stopping services proposed in the draft First Great Western (FGW) December timetable on the grounds that any disruption will have an adverse effect on performance. FGW claims that this would be covered by the emergency fallback arrangements which substitute a half hourly all stations service and is holding NR/DfT Rail to its earlier offer. The matter is now subject to the disputes procedure but FGW fears that NR will get its way. If that happens other services will have to be rescheduled to call at the intermediate stations resulting in longer journey times for passengers from Maidenhead and Twyford. Chiltern Sold to Henderson Laing has sold Chiltern Railways to Henderson Group plc. Staff have been told it's "business as usual". December 2006 Fare Clarification Concern was expressed by MMPA members that the December timetable would mean much later arrivals in London for passengers holding cheap day returns and off-peak travel cards. Following discussions with FGW we believe that the first trains on which off-peak tickets will be valid are as follows: UP: 0857 Marlow-Maidenhead connecting into 0923* to Paddington arr. 0956; 0921 Twyford, 0929 Maidenhead, 0933 Taplow, 0935 Burnham arr. Paddington 1014; 0933 Henley-Twyford connecting into 0952 to Paddington arr. 1044; DOWN: 0906 Twyford arr. Reading 0913; 0904 Maidenhead arr. Reading 0920; 0916 Burnham, 0920 Taplow arr. Reading 0938. * not available to passengers starting from Maidenhead. Chiltern Railways Invited to Tender for Snow Hill Services 19th September: DfT has announced the qualified bidders for the New Cross Country, East Midlands and West Midlands franchises. In addition it has invited Chiltern Railways to submit a separate proposal for the Snow Hill services in Birmingham. (more details) Heathrow Terminal 4 Reopens 18th September: The Piccadilly Line loop through Heathrow Terminal 4 station was reopened after a 20 month closure while the junction to Terminal 5 was built to the west of Terminals 1-2-3. Some security upgrades and other improvements have been made to T4 station during the closure. Lineside Fire at Langley 17th September: A fire at a plastics recycling factory beside the Great Western main line at Langley caused the closure of the line to all traffic. All four tracks were inside the 200m exclusion zone established because of the danger of exploding gas cylinders. Heathrow Connect and Heathrow Express conveyed passengers between Paddington and Hayes & Harlington, and there was a replacement bus service between Hayes and Slough. The Oxford service started from Slough and there was a shuttle service between Slough and Reading. Services were restored on Monday Morning. Track Maintenance on Marlow Branch 14th September: Network Rail has completed permanent way maintenance on the branch, which mainly involved replacing rotten sleepers. The photo shows the gang renewing a sleeper at Furze Platt. This operation required 14 men (one out of shot) and four road vehicles. Obviously there was a danger of the platform edge falling onto the track, hence the need for additional support. Notice the hard hats. Drain Cleared 11th September: The Waterloo and City line has now reopened. December 2006 Timetable Changes The following table summarises the changes between the December 2005 (modified February 2006) timetable and the published December 2006 timetable for the Maidenhead to London Paddington Monday-Friday service. UP is towards London.   trains <=30min 30-40min >40min Min. Max. Avg. Dec.'05 DN 88 11 66 11 21 45 36.9 Dec.'06 DN 85 4 41 40 23 45 38.1 Dec.'05 UP 88 10 55 23 20 49 38.4 Dec.'06 UP 83 5 61 17 21 56 38.4 It can be seen that the number of trains is reduced, there are fewer fast trains and in the down direction there are more slower trains leading to an increase of over one minute on the average journey time. Branch Lines   Marlow Henley   trains first last trains first last Dec.'05 DN 23 0600 2347 24 0615 2343 Dec.'06 DN 23 0549 2348 25 0603 2334 Dec.'05 UP 24 0610 0013 24 0628 2347 Dec.'06 UP 23 0620 0013 25 0620 0011 Connections The following table shows the average, minimum and maximum journey times, the average wait time for connections and the average miss time (the time by which the previous train to London/Reading or the following train from London/Reading missed the branch line service). The minimum connection time allowed is 1 minute, which may not constitute an advertised connection. All times are in minutes, and "dir." is the number of through trains. Paddington to/from Bourne End to/from Henley   avg. min. max. wait miss dir. avg. min. max. wait miss dir. Dec.'05 DN 57.5 44 154 12.0   2           3 Dec.'06 DN 56.5 42 140 11.2 15.1 2 66.6 56 154 12.3 12.4 3 Dec.'05 UP 50.3 38 57 6.3   2           2 Dec.'06 UP 56.1 44 112 8.0 14.0 2 69.6 52 94 10.1 9.4 2 Reading to/from Bourne End to/from Henley   avg. min. max. wait miss dir. avg. min. max. wait miss dir. Dec.'05 DN 35.9 29 68 10.9   2           0 Dec.'06 DN 35.6 29 46 9.5 9.7 0 25.6 20 38 7.3 10.1 3 Dec.'05 UP 35.4 27 52 10.1   0           2 Dec.'06 UP 33.3 25 45 8.3 14.9 0 28.7 22 42 9.6 14.3 1 In all cases "UP" and "DN" refer to the branch line part of journeys i.e. UP is away from Bourne End and Henley. The wait and miss times indicate how well the branch line services connect with the main line. A short wait time and a long miss time is good. The figures shown above are extremely bad because there are a lot of long waits and near misses. FGW December 2006 Timetables Published First Great Western published its "final" December 2006 weekday timetables on July 28th. They may be downloaded in PDF from here. Branch line timetables with London and Reading connections are available on this site. FGW has performed a partial volte-face and abandoned its alternate fast-slow timetable for up (towards London) services in favour of 15 minute interval departures from Reading, Twyford and Maidenhead. All trains call at Slough, Hayes and Harlington and Ealing Broadway. Trains alternately call either at Taplow, Burnham and Southall or at Langley, Iver and West Drayton. For other stations it is necessary to change at Hayes or Ealing Broadway. In the down (away from London) direction there are regular 15 minute interval departures from Paddington but with an alternating fast-slow pattern which results in intervals of alternately 4 minutes and 26 minutes between Maidenhead and Reading. Branch line connections appear to be either very tight or near misses and long waits. There are discrepancies between the Henley-on-Thames timetable and the Inner Thames Valley timetable regarding through trains between the branch and Reading, and we are awaiting clarification from FGW. [20060803] FGW Responds to Timetable Consultation "Final" December 2006 Timetable To be published More that 9,500 people contacted First Great Western in response to its December 2006 timetable consultation. According to FGW the timetable is now "in its final format" and will be available on the company's web site from 28th July 2006. The revised timetable will be reviewed on this site as soon as we see it. [20060721] FGW Announces Changes to December 2006 Draft Timetable First Great Western has issued a press release outlining a number of changes it is making to the draft timetable following the public consultation in February, to which over 9,000 responses have been received. Lesley Coleman, FGW's Customer Liaison Manager based in Swindon, said "we are still committed to responding in detail to all customers who participated in the consultation. This is a major undertaking though and could take time.". The changes affecting the Thames Valley services are as follows: An additional service with six carriages (around 500 seats) will operate from Twyford to London Paddington arriving at around 0730, calling only at Maidenhead. The journey time between Slough and London Paddington will be reduced by removing some Ealing Broadway calls, compared with the draft. The number of calls at Ealing Broadway will remain similar to the current timetable. A High Speed Train from Bristol Temple Meads will call additionally at Slough providing a fast early morning service at around 0655. Services on the Thames Valley branchlines will be retimed to call at all stations, except the 0556 Maidenhead to Marlow, which will not call at Furze Platt or Bourne End. Services on the Henley branch will be retimed, including additional calls at Wargrave and Shiplake, to better cater for schoolchildren. An earlier first train to London will be provided from Iver, Langley and West Drayton. These changes have yet to be agreed with Network Rail, and it is not expected that the revised timetable will be available before July. Maidenhead's MP, Theresa May, said "even with these changes the December 2006 timetable provides a demonstrably inferior service to that provided at the moment. The current service is significantly worse than that we received just two years ago and I therefore am determined to ensure that we receive improvements over and above the current service! "I am pleased that FGW do appear to be listening hard to local feedback and seem willing to amend their timetable where possible. Alison Forster has said that further announcements will be made over the coming couple of weeks and I intend to step up our campaign for better rail services." Mrs May's campaign web site, Save Our Trains, is still collecting signatures for her petition which will be presented to the Department for Transport next week. We wait to see how the 0556 gets to Marlow without calling at Bourne End! [20060404] Adelantes to go It has been reported in the railway press that First Great Western is expected to release its 5-car Class 180 Adelante units in December 2006 and use only HSTs on 125mph services. Additional HSTs are available following their displacement from Midland Mainline. Our contacts at FGW were unable to confirm this officially. [20060222] MP Launches Campaign Site Maidenhead MP, Theresa May, has launched a new web site, SaveOurTrains.com to campaign against the reduction in fast peak hour services in the proposed December 2006 FGW timetable (see below). [20060220] 0727 Maidenhead - Paddington Retimed It has now been agreed that 1F10 0645 Mon-Fri Oxford - Paddington will be retimed to depart Maidenhead two minutes earlier at 0725 from Monday 27th February 2006. FGW's marketing department is preparing posters, flyers, etc. to publicise the change, and announcements will be made where applicable. [20060215] Consultation on December 2006 Timetable Changes First Great Western has published it's draft timetable due to come into force in December, and is seeking feedback from customers and stakeholders. The changes affecting our area are: Reading More peak trains to/from Paddington (trains that used to run non-stop through the station all now call). Clockface pattern changed to some destinations. Revised pattern of local services to/from Oxford. Paddington/Reading local service revised throughout the day. Semi-fast (Twyford/Maidenhead/Slough/Hayes) peak trains call additionally at Ealing Broadway. Twyford and the Henley Branch Branch trains connect with faster off-peak Paddington/Reading trains. Number of peak fast trains at Twyford reduced (as specified by DfT): Morning from 6 to 5, Evening from 9 to 6. Morning through trains from Henley re-timed to 0651 and 0751. Additional evening through train to Henley (increased from 2 to 3) with trains leaving Paddington at 1713, 1813, 1913. Maidenhead and the Marlow Branch Branch trains connect with faster off-peak Paddington/Reading trains. Number of peak fast trains at Maidenhead reduced (as specified by DfT): Morning from 11 to 7, Evening from 9 to 8. Morning through trains from Bourne End re-timed to 0730 and 0830. Evening through trains to Bourne End re-timed to depart Paddington 1743 and 1843. Taplow and Burnham Taplow retains a train every half hour. Burnham retains half-hourly off-peak service, with 4 trains per hour in the peaks. Slough and the Windsor branch The DfT specified that Slough calls be withdrawn from the fast London/Oxford trains. First negotiated successfully for these calls to be retained. The DfT also specified that the Windsor branch should operate at 20-minute intervals throughout the day. This has been revised to half-hourly off-peak (as current) to connect with the re-instated fast trains. Additional half-hourly peak service between Paddington and Slough, calling all stations except Acton Main Line. Number of peak fast trains at Slough reduced: Morning from 6 to 4, Evening from 7 to 5. Heathrow Connect Service Heathrow Connect local trains between Paddington and Heathrow have been revised to improve the operation of this service. The revision also improves connections to/from stations west of Hayes & Harlington. Half-hourly all day frequency maintained. Responses should be sent to Timetable Consultation, First Great Western, Milford House, Swindon SN1 1HL, or via e-mail. [20060213] St.Pancras Thameslink Go-Ahead Transport Secretary Alastair Darling today announced that the fitting out of the new Thameslink station at St.Pancras will go ahead at a cost of £50m at 2003 prices, plus £10-15m for signalling alterations. It is envisaged that the new station will take over from the existing Kings Cross Thameslink station at the end of 2007. The station box was constructed during an eight-month blockade of the line in 2005. [20060208] Timetable Change Mooted to Improve Reliability FGWL is proposing, subject to consultation, to correct a timetabling error which affects the running of the 0727 Monday to Friday service from Maidenhead to Paddington. The current situation is that the train arrives early at Maidenhead, waits for time and then has 3½ minutes to pass Slough, which is clearly unachievable. In consequence it loses its path from Airport Junction and has to follow a Heathrow Express train into Paddington, arriving five minutes late at 0750. The proposal is to bring the Maidenhead departure back to 0725 which should then allow the present timings to be achieved from Slough to the terminus. Although this makes the journey two minutes longer in the timetable, it will in practice be three minutes shorter and arrival will be five minutes earlier (on time) at 0745. FGWL would like to hear the views of customers using this service, particularly any who might be adversely affected by the earlier departure (having to get up two minutes earlier doesn't count!). MMPA will be pleased to pass on your comments - just e-mail info@mmpa.org.uk. Notices will also be appearing at Maidenhead station and in the local press. If approved, the adjustment can be made before the next timetable update in June 2006. Marlow branch passengers will not be affected as there is no connecting service. [060125] Bus 317 Timetable and Route Revamp Arriva route 317 from Maidenhead to High Wycombe gets a new timetable from Monday 30th January. Buses will leave High Wycombe bus Station at 0615NS and 0645 to Maidenhead, 0710SD to Bourne End, then xx45 to Maidenhead and xx15 to Bourne End Station until 1815. (NS = not Saturday, SD = school days only) Buses will leave Maidenhead Bridge Avenue at 0715NS, 0745 and then xx45 until 1845. Buses will leave Bourne End Station for High Wycombe at 0630NS, 0711, 0741, then xx11 and xx41 until 1911. There is no Sunday service. After leaving Bridge Avenue the bus will run via Grenfell Road and Frascati Way. The return journey will be as previously. All One Name First Group has dropped its proposal (see below) to brand the London Surburban (Link), Main Line and Wessex services separately. Although the distinctions may be retained internally for marketing purposes, all services under the new Greater Western franchise starting on 1st April will be branded "First Great Western". It may of course be some time before the new branding percolates down to all rolling stock and signage. MPs Vote on Crossrail Terminus Maidenhead MP Theresa May has welcomed a vote by MPs urging CrossRail to consider moving the western terminus from Maidenhead to Reading. This would provide better journey opportunities and avoid adverse effects for Twyford. Did You Know ... There are no help points at Cookham and Furze Platt. However if you are in difficulty you can contact the control centre using the telephones provided at the level crossing to enable drivers of long vehicles to obtain permission to cross the railway. It is expected that more obvious information points will be provided in due course. The help points at other stations are intended to be used for general enquiries about services and are covered by CCTV. MMPA Chairman is "Passenger Champion" Our chairman, Nigel Hunt, has been appointed to First Great Western's Customer Panel which has been set up to provide customer feedback to the train operator. The panel has eighteen members representing different areas and routes across the region. The poster greets passengers arriving at Furze Platt.

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Last updated 11th January, 2020